Dan Gant (Games & Unreal VFX)
@dgant.bsky.social
Making games, VFX, and StarCraft bots
👻 PITCH BLACK: Darkness Anywhere for Unreal Engine: https://pb.dangant.com
🏆 PurpleWave: StarCraft AI 4x champion: https://pw.dangant.com
♟️ Working on Tetrafecta: 4D first-person puzzle game
👻 PITCH BLACK: Darkness Anywhere for Unreal Engine: https://pb.dangant.com
🏆 PurpleWave: StarCraft AI 4x champion: https://pw.dangant.com
♟️ Working on Tetrafecta: 4D first-person puzzle game
September 8, 2025 at 7:03 PM
As a bonus, I'm also including Chromatic Aberrated Glass, a collection of exotic translucent materials that refract light in ways you've never seen before:
September 8, 2025 at 7:03 PM
As a bonus, I'm also including Chromatic Aberrated Glass, a collection of exotic translucent materials that refract light in ways you've never seen before:
Enhanced Chromatic Aberration handles even extreme settings, letting you use it as a special effect:
September 8, 2025 at 7:03 PM
Enhanced Chromatic Aberration handles even extreme settings, letting you use it as a special effect:
Unreal like most games does aberration by just splitting and the RGB channels. This produces hard edges and only extracts a few colors at a time.
Enhanced Chromatic Aberration is on the bottom. You can see it extracts a full prismatic color spectrum with smooth lensing:
Enhanced Chromatic Aberration is on the bottom. You can see it extracts a full prismatic color spectrum with smooth lensing:
September 8, 2025 at 7:03 PM
Unreal like most games does aberration by just splitting and the RGB channels. This produces hard edges and only extracts a few colors at a time.
Enhanced Chromatic Aberration is on the bottom. You can see it extracts a full prismatic color spectrum with smooth lensing:
Enhanced Chromatic Aberration is on the bottom. You can see it extracts a full prismatic color spectrum with smooth lensing:
Chromatic aberration is a trait of physical camera lenses. They refract light so each color hits film/sensors at a different angle, especially towards the sides of the lens.
Video games and virtual cinematography inject aberration to invoke the feeling of a lens.
Before/after:
Video games and virtual cinematography inject aberration to invoke the feeling of a lens.
Before/after:
September 8, 2025 at 7:03 PM
Chromatic aberration is a trait of physical camera lenses. They refract light so each color hits film/sensors at a different angle, especially towards the sides of the lens.
Video games and virtual cinematography inject aberration to invoke the feeling of a lens.
Before/after:
Video games and virtual cinematography inject aberration to invoke the feeling of a lens.
Before/after:
I just released Enhanced Chromatic Aberration for Unreal Engine!
Get high quality multisampling camera lens refraction inside the engine. Achieve filmic style with smooth blending and a full spectrum of colors:
Get high quality multisampling camera lens refraction inside the engine. Achieve filmic style with smooth blending and a full spectrum of colors:
September 8, 2025 at 7:03 PM
I just released Enhanced Chromatic Aberration for Unreal Engine!
Get high quality multisampling camera lens refraction inside the engine. Achieve filmic style with smooth blending and a full spectrum of colors:
Get high quality multisampling camera lens refraction inside the engine. Achieve filmic style with smooth blending and a full spectrum of colors:
Exotic color correlations:
Modulate your colors in ways you never thought possible. Give an iridescent glow to your shiniest surfaces, or make creeping polychrome shadows.
Modulate your colors in ways you never thought possible. Give an iridescent glow to your shiniest surfaces, or make creeping polychrome shadows.
May 28, 2025 at 7:37 PM
Exotic color correlations:
Modulate your colors in ways you never thought possible. Give an iridescent glow to your shiniest surfaces, or make creeping polychrome shadows.
Modulate your colors in ways you never thought possible. Give an iridescent glow to your shiniest surfaces, or make creeping polychrome shadows.
Smart Color Curves:
Make sweeping changes to your hue, saturation, and brightness, while preserving the maximum dynamic range of those values.
Make sweeping changes to your hue, saturation, and brightness, while preserving the maximum dynamic range of those values.
May 28, 2025 at 7:37 PM
Smart Color Curves:
Make sweeping changes to your hue, saturation, and brightness, while preserving the maximum dynamic range of those values.
Make sweeping changes to your hue, saturation, and brightness, while preserving the maximum dynamic range of those values.
Tricolor Palettizer:
Choose a tricolor visual identity and shape your image around it. Shift colors towards your palette, or emphasize colors that already match it.
CHROMIA uses the Oklab perceptual color space to make your color transitions silky.
Choose a tricolor visual identity and shape your image around it. Shift colors towards your palette, or emphasize colors that already match it.
CHROMIA uses the Oklab perceptual color space to make your color transitions silky.
May 28, 2025 at 7:37 PM
Tricolor Palettizer:
Choose a tricolor visual identity and shape your image around it. Shift colors towards your palette, or emphasize colors that already match it.
CHROMIA uses the Oklab perceptual color space to make your color transitions silky.
Choose a tricolor visual identity and shape your image around it. Shift colors towards your palette, or emphasize colors that already match it.
CHROMIA uses the Oklab perceptual color space to make your color transitions silky.
CHROMIA exotic color grading for Unreal Engine is now available!
I made CHROMIA to help create bold, opinionated looks for games or cinematics. Here's what it can do for you:
I made CHROMIA to help create bold, opinionated looks for games or cinematics. Here's what it can do for you:
May 28, 2025 at 7:37 PM
CHROMIA exotic color grading for Unreal Engine is now available!
I made CHROMIA to help create bold, opinionated looks for games or cinematics. Here's what it can do for you:
I made CHROMIA to help create bold, opinionated looks for games or cinematics. Here's what it can do for you:
Pleased to report that my skeleton and I are cohabitating much better now.
We're having a few boundary issues but at least he'll always have my back.
We're having a few boundary issues but at least he'll always have my back.
April 25, 2025 at 6:47 PM
Pleased to report that my skeleton and I are cohabitating much better now.
We're having a few boundary issues but at least he'll always have my back.
We're having a few boundary issues but at least he'll always have my back.
SEND HELP there is a SKELETON INSIDE MY BODY
April 25, 2025 at 4:34 AM
SEND HELP there is a SKELETON INSIDE MY BODY
Here's the much-cheaper way to fade a shadow for these raymarched materials:
Dithered shadows!
They're not especially convincing but let you skip raymarching in the shadow pass entirely.
Dithered shadows!
They're not especially convincing but let you skip raymarching in the shadow pass entirely.
April 25, 2025 at 4:33 AM
Here's the much-cheaper way to fade a shadow for these raymarched materials:
Dithered shadows!
They're not especially convincing but let you skip raymarching in the shadow pass entirely.
Dithered shadows!
They're not especially convincing but let you skip raymarching in the shadow pass entirely.
Raymarching updates:
I used Inigo Quilez's blog (link below) to rewrite the raymarched material using fractal SDF noise.
Now I'm trying to make it play nicely with Unreal's lighting.
This is using shadow maps, with automatic cache invalidation enabled:
I used Inigo Quilez's blog (link below) to rewrite the raymarched material using fractal SDF noise.
Now I'm trying to make it play nicely with Unreal's lighting.
This is using shadow maps, with automatic cache invalidation enabled:
April 24, 2025 at 4:03 PM
Raymarching updates:
I used Inigo Quilez's blog (link below) to rewrite the raymarched material using fractal SDF noise.
Now I'm trying to make it play nicely with Unreal's lighting.
This is using shadow maps, with automatic cache invalidation enabled:
I used Inigo Quilez's blog (link below) to rewrite the raymarched material using fractal SDF noise.
Now I'm trying to make it play nicely with Unreal's lighting.
This is using shadow maps, with automatic cache invalidation enabled:
I REGRET MY CHOICE OF DEBUG COLORS
i think i'm gonna hurl
very grateful the moon is not actually made of cheese
i think i'm gonna hurl
very grateful the moon is not actually made of cheese
April 18, 2025 at 6:45 PM
I REGRET MY CHOICE OF DEBUG COLORS
i think i'm gonna hurl
very grateful the moon is not actually made of cheese
i think i'm gonna hurl
very grateful the moon is not actually made of cheese
"Bubble tea will be a nice break from thinking about raymarching signed distance fields," I thought.
The bubble tea:
The bubble tea:
April 18, 2025 at 6:23 PM
"Bubble tea will be a nice break from thinking about raymarching signed distance fields," I thought.
The bubble tea:
The bubble tea:
Froze time so I could take a closer look at the raymarched material.
There's definitely a bug in my raymarching because the density changes when I pan up or down.
I also need to research if there are nice & fast distance field noise functions I can use to march in fewer steps.
There's definitely a bug in my raymarching because the density changes when I pan up or down.
I also need to research if there are nice & fast distance field noise functions I can use to march in fewer steps.
April 15, 2025 at 8:33 PM
Froze time so I could take a closer look at the raymarched material.
There's definitely a bug in my raymarching because the density changes when I pan up or down.
I also need to research if there are nice & fast distance field noise functions I can use to march in fewer steps.
There's definitely a bug in my raymarching because the density changes when I pan up or down.
I also need to research if there are nice & fast distance field noise functions I can use to march in fewer steps.
Raymarching improvements:
- Take big steps until we cross the noise threshold
- Binary search smaller steps to approach the exact threshold
- Estimate normal via finite difference
- Take big steps until we cross the noise threshold
- Binary search smaller steps to approach the exact threshold
- Estimate normal via finite difference
April 15, 2025 at 3:17 PM
Raymarching improvements:
- Take big steps until we cross the noise threshold
- Binary search smaller steps to approach the exact threshold
- Estimate normal via finite difference
- Take big steps until we cross the noise threshold
- Binary search smaller steps to approach the exact threshold
- Estimate normal via finite difference
Doing some raymarching in Unreal.
We get self-shadowed lighting by using a masked material, inferring normals, and providing a pixel depth offset.
We get self-shadowed lighting by using a masked material, inferring normals, and providing a pixel depth offset.
April 15, 2025 at 6:10 AM
Doing some raymarching in Unreal.
We get self-shadowed lighting by using a masked material, inferring normals, and providing a pixel depth offset.
We get self-shadowed lighting by using a masked material, inferring normals, and providing a pixel depth offset.
Ten styles of exotic color grading:
April 13, 2025 at 1:57 PM
Ten styles of exotic color grading:
This is "Volcano Hunter" for the TRS-80, from 1984.
200 screens of platforming. Dodge or bomb the Druts, and avoid overheating, while collecting gold and fuel.
All this for $72 inflation-adjusted dollars.
200 screens of platforming. Dodge or bomb the Druts, and avoid overheating, while collecting gold and fuel.
All this for $72 inflation-adjusted dollars.
April 8, 2025 at 6:52 PM
This is "Volcano Hunter" for the TRS-80, from 1984.
200 screens of platforming. Dodge or bomb the Druts, and avoid overheating, while collecting gold and fuel.
All this for $72 inflation-adjusted dollars.
200 screens of platforming. Dodge or bomb the Druts, and avoid overheating, while collecting gold and fuel.
All this for $72 inflation-adjusted dollars.
One more because I'm feeling it
April 1, 2025 at 10:05 PM
One more because I'm feeling it
This preset pays tribute to Cultic, whose hotttt color palette inspired me to make a color grader in the first place!
April 1, 2025 at 9:53 PM
This preset pays tribute to Cultic, whose hotttt color palette inspired me to make a color grader in the first place!