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Why do I need to write shaders in unity3d?
I watched a tutorial which is Unite 2015 - Writing Shaders. Yilmaz Kiymaz (Nordeus) explains the basics of shaders, how they work and how they're written.
However, I don't have any idea why I have to write shaders? What is point in writing shaders myself? Why do I need to write shaders in unity3d?
I need clear clarification about it.
You don't need to write any shaders if you are happy with the functionalities of the included shaders, community provided shaders or asset store paid shader packs.
If at some point you want to have a shader do a specific task, that is not available in all above shaders, you will have to write your own one. Custom lighting, like tanoshimi said, for example.
If you are a beginner, following some tutorials, making some games for the sake of learning it, you will not need any knowledge in writing shaders or how they work.
About 85% (I estimate) of games made with Unity ("Indie" games like slender clones included) don't use custom shaders except the unity-included shaders.
If you want to make a game that is based on custom visual effects and art, it could be time to look into it.
Le Pampelmuse have you actually made a game?
I started with Android, making some simple tools for my phone (Didn't release them because they were for my personal use). After that I began working on some pc projects.
Why do you ask?
Just curious what data your "85% use inbuilt shaders" estimate is based on? I can't imagine finishing a game using only the supplied shaders! .
Like I said, I'ts a just an estimate ;) I base it on absolutely nothing.
When I think of the hundreds of indie horror games alone, for example.
All the slender clones, the cheap-jumpscare-haunted-house games.
All use the same unity tree without any variation as a forest, and they certainly don't make use of anything custom. It's mostly the user's first published project, so there naturally are some limitations.
Watching Youtube Let's Plays can be very frustrating sometimes. :P
I can't imagine doing without my item outline shader as well!
Shaders are the parts of your program that run on your graphics card and draw pixels to the screen. Without them, you wouldn't have any graphics.
Unity comes with some built-in shaders and you can use them if you only want basic materials. As you start to develop custom lighting models or special effects, you'll probably want to write your own however.
