The Unity Shaders Bible – A linear explanation of shaders from beginner to advanced (PDF)

The Unity Shaders Bible
The definitive book to learn shaders in Unity.
Introduction to the shader programming language.
Lighting, shadow, and surface.
Compute Shader, Ray Tracing, and Sphere Tracing.

Learn shaders in Unity, starting with the basics and finishing with advanced concepts.
The book includes a detailed explanation of languages like Cg, HLSL, ShaderLab, and Shader Graph.

+370 informative pages on shader programming.
From beginner to advanced linearly, starting with basic concepts (e.g. unlit shader) and ending with advanced ones (e.g. compute shader).

Clear and direct.
You will be able to find the differences and similarities between Built-in, Universal and High Definition Render Pipeline.

Real-life examples.
All the examples in this book could be applied to production-stage projects.

Chapter 1: Introduction to the shader programming language.
It covers previous knowledge (normals, vertices, tangents, and more).
Shows the structure of a shader in ShaderLab, Cg, and HLSL language.
Analogy between properties and global variables.
SubShader and commands (ColorMask, Stencil, Blending and more).
Intrinsic functions (step, smoothstep, ceil, floor and more).
Matrices and much more.
Chapter 2: Lighting, shadow and surface.
We will review a simple lighting model.
Look at the normal map and its implementation.
Ambient, diffuse, specular and environmental reflection.
Lighting and shadow analysis.
Standard Surface shader, inputs and outputs.
Shader Graph and much more.
Chapter 3: Compute Shader, Ray Tracing y Sphere Tracing.
It covers advanced concepts (threads, ray cast, GPGPU, and more).
The structure of a Compute Shader and buffer variables.
Compute Shader semantics (SV_DispatchThreadID, SV_Group, and more).
Kernel explanation.
Implicit surfaces and smooth minimum explanation.
Ray Tracing rendering configuration and more.