Night Vision Shader

Briefing

Developed as part of a Technical Art project, this custom Night Vision Shader was created to enhance the Cat transformation in KAVA – Tales of a Morphling. The shader combines multiple post-process effects into a fully parameterized rendering pipeline, resulting in a stylized visual identity while remaining seamlessly integrated into gameplay.

Shader Features

• Pixelation Reconstructs screen-space UVs to sample the scene on a lower-resolution grid, creating adjustable pixelation without changing the actual render resolution.
  
• Color Posterization Reduces the available color levels through color quantization, reinforcing the stylized appearance alongside the pixelation effect.
  
• Desaturation & Color Tint Converts the scene into a controllable monochromatic base before applying a customizable color tint, producing the characteristic night vision appearance.
  
• Glowing Outlines Detects depth discontinuities using a Laplacian edge filter to generate adjustable glowing outlines, improving scene readability while strengthening the visual style.
  
• Blueprint Integration The shader is fully integrated into gameplay through a dedicated Blueprint actor. A Post Process Component enables additional rendering controls such as exposure compensation, lens flare adjustments, and vignette settings while activating the effect exclusively during the Cat transformation.

What I Learned

This project significantly deepened my understanding of Unreal Engine's post-process pipeline, material architecture, and shader development workflow. Building the glowing outlines taught me how to detect edges in screen space: by applying a Laplacian edge filter to the scene depth, I could isolate depth discontinuities and turn them into adjustable outlines. Through multiple iterations and technical challenges, I learned how rendering order, Blendable Locations, and modular material design directly influence both visual quality and maintainability.