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Quick Start

Get up and running with Shimmer Effect Highlight in just a few minutes!

Your First Shimmer Effect

Method 1: Using the Pre-configured Material

The fastest way to add a shimmer effect:

  1. Select Your Object

  2. In the Hierarchy, select the 3D object you want to apply the effect to

  3. Apply the Material

  4. In the Inspector, find the Mesh Renderer component
  5. Expand the Materials section

  6. Drag Shimmer_Effect_Highlight.mat from Assets/GameReadyTools/Shimmer Effect/Materials/ into the material slot

  7. Enter Play Mode

  8. Press the Play button to see your shimmer effect in action!

That's It!

You now have a working shimmer effect on your object with default settings.

Method 2: Creating a New Material

For more control, create your own material instance:

  1. Create Material
  2. Right-click in your Project window
  3. Select Create → Material

  4. Name it (e.g., "My_Shimmer_Material")

  5. Assign Shader

  6. Select your new material
  7. In the Inspector, click the Shader dropdown

  8. Search for and select Shader Graphs/Shimmer_Effect_Highlight

  9. Apply to Object

  10. Drag your new material onto the object in the scene

Basic Customization

Now let's customize the shimmer effect:

Change the Highlight Color

  1. Select the material in the Project window
  2. In the Inspector, find the Highlight Color property
  3. Click the color picker and choose your desired color

Color Suggestions

  • 🟡 Yellow/Gold: Premium items, treasure
  • 🔵 Cyan/Blue: Magical or tech effects
  • ⚪ White: Pure energy, divine items
  • 🟢 Green: Nature, healing, or poison

Adjust Animation Speed

  1. Find the Speed property
  2. Adjust the value:
  3. 0.5 - 1.5: Slow, elegant shimmer
  4. 1.5 - 3.0: Standard speed (default is 2.0)
  5. 3.0+: Fast, energetic effect

Change Wave Pattern

  1. Locate the Wave Tiling dropdown
  2. Select from available patterns:
  3. Diagonal 1: Classic diagonal sweep (default)
  4. Bottom To Top: Vertical scanning effect
  5. Pulse: Radial pulsing effect
  6. And more!

Common Scenarios

Highlighting a Collectible Item

Base Color: Your item's base color
Highlight Color: Gold (#FFD700)
Speed: 1.5
Wave Tiling: Diagonal 1
Emission: 0.3

Creating a Quest Marker

Base Color: White
Highlight Color: Bright Yellow (#FFFF00)
Speed: 2.0
Wave Tiling: Pulse
Emission: 0.8

Sci-Fi Scanning Effect

Base Color: Dark Blue
Highlight Color: Cyan (#00FFFF)
Speed: 3.0
Wave Tiling: Bottom To Top
Emission: 0.5

Testing in Play Mode

Runtime Only

The shimmer animation only plays in Play Mode. You won't see the animation in the Scene view while editing.

To test your effect:

  1. Press the Play button in Unity
  2. Observe the shimmer animation on your object
  3. Exit Play Mode to adjust properties
  4. Repeat until satisfied with the result

Next Steps

Now that you have the basics down: - 🌊 Understand Wave Tiling Options