@smurfmier1985 As far as I know wind zones still utilize a grass sway shader, they just act as the “controls” for that shader in a different way. Grass swaying can be expensive, but I can’t say to what extent as I’ve never really looked into it. Grass swaying is essentially just moving vertices of a mesh in different directions, but this is being updated multiple times per second (along with the textures/lighting)so I would probably limit the swaying to a small area near the player and update that area whenever the player moves.That said I think Unity does have a swaying option in one of the HDRP default materials.
Vertex animation shaders are definitely one area I’d like to dedicate an entire course to. I’ve experimented with a Fortnite bouncing effect, cloth movement and some masked out vertex animations (like Melvin’s stomach growing/shrinking). Other things I’d like to create are a flat tire shader that can react to physical objects and a punching bag, although those may be very similar in technique. Vehicle destruction and being able to bend specific parts of a mesh (like a tree branch) would all be fun things to go over.
