MeshLab to displace a 3D mesh using a heightmap - command-line

I'd really love to know if and how MeshLab could displace a 3D mesh from a grayscale heightmap image.
I suppose I could settle for baking texture to vertex colours and then displacing with that method?
I feel as though this is the only thing that MeshLab cannot do...
If not MeshLab, then perhaps some other commandline utility that could displace a custom mesh from a custom image?
Anything I could use to automate that process?

Related

Horizontal gradient over image in Unity?

I'm trying to have the sides of an image fade to black, but I can't find a good way to do this manually or in any way other than with a shader graph. I'm looking to apply an effect like this:
to an existing image, but the gradient in the shader graph applies the same color to the whole texture. I'm very new to shaders, so any help would be great. Thanks!
Using Shader Graph you create a gradient example then you add a Texture2D input, use a Texture 2D sampler node and finally combine them with a multiply node.

Use the sprite normal map to assimilate 3d mesh to use with Unity shaders

sorry if this is a noob question, is there a way to combine Unity shaders made using the Shader Graph with sprites? I would like to use the normal map attached to the texture to assimilate a 3d mesh, so that I can use some more advanced Shader Graph nodes (e.g. Fresnel).
It seems that the 2d shader examples online work only on the dissolve effect, character outline, tint changes, ... and I cannot find anything on using the highlights/lowlights already present in the 2d art to make it behave like 3d. I also have not found any examples of more complex shader effects that work on 2d. Any input would be greatly appreciated.
To give a more specific example, could this shader be adjusted to apply to a sprite?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cl4wkGjtGgw&list=PLkADxCB_xHGkE3iguVxNOStONQoidH4sr&index=3&t=3s&ab_channel=PabloMakes

Draw free 2d shapes dynamically in unity

I want to be able to draw any 2d shape dynamically in 2d world. My games has moving elements, looking like circle when alone, that can fuse and make complex shapes when getting close together. The elements can still move and thus separate or modify the shape.
How can I draw that with Unity? I don't think the usual sprites can do the trick.
I believe you can do that with shaders (sounds complex to me, but utilises GPU).
Or...
Modify sprite's vertices to introduce streching of the texture.

Custom skybox shader for tiled skybox

I am new to writing shaders. I want to use a texture for 6-sided skybox in unity and I want that texture to be repeated several times also called tiling.
But the default 6-sided skybox shader in unity doesn't have tiling option. Can anyone write a custom shader for 6-sided skybox in unity which has option to tile textures? I also want an option to apply a color tint on the texture if possible. Thanks in advance.
Tiling can be achieved by multiplying texcoord by the number of tiles you want. Or in Surface shader it's uv_YourTex (likely MainTex) instead of texcoord. Writing from a phone so can't post an example, but it's really just one multiplication.
I don't know your specific scenario, but I needed to get more detailed sky with not very detailed texture and instead of UV I used view direction to sample a texture. It made it look like clouds in the distance are further away + clouds can move as you move . It's in this asset.
View direction sampling will not help if you are trying to make space though, which seams to be the case.
Also IMHO tiling on the skybox might be too visible.

How to export Unity particles as static 3D Mesh or 3D Image

I have some particle system that draws their trails emissive circuits trees :
Actualy, I made a script that "pauses" their simulation, however, I would like to turn them into a mesh or 3D image (maybe an inverted cubemap shader ?).
Anyone knows how I could achieve that?
There is no built-in or Asset Store support for exporting a "frame" of particles. The Shuriken particle shader is proprietary.
There are alternative particle rendering libraries that may let you do what you want to do.