It is!!! I think Splatoon used this technique too for the single-player ink

Here! cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/a… I just remember reading it ages ago and had an exceptional moment where I needed something like it and hunted it down again. I generally do read the latest GDC and Siggraph papers so that I can remember them later for moments like this.

Looks good. I love Valve's shader tech from back in the day. They had lots of amazing ideas like self shadowing normal maps. A shame most of it never became standard.

Wooooot, where can I find out more about this black magic??? How do you get the POS of each billboard in the texture to apply the functionality?? So many questions

Looks like sprites start getting cut off when viewed from the side. Is there a way to deal with this?

This could be super cool for grass

goes hard

It's looking really good! Valve really was up to something back then

I NEVER??? NOTICED THIS???

thats so cool

Very nice! I've looked at that paper so often but never had the chance to try it.

is it a bit like orthographic projection and/or using the texture space nearly like an billboard to the camera? (will take a look at the link)