Effects, Filters & Shaders¶
Three ways to change how an object looks, from simplest to most powerful. None of them changes the object itself: you can switch any of them off or remove it at any time.
| You use it with | Think of it as | |
|---|---|---|
| Effects | sliders | finishing touches: shadow, outline, bevel |
| Filters | sliders | a photo filter for the whole object |
| Shaders | code (or a template) | your own filter |
Where to find them:
- Effects and Filters — the inspector sections in Modern, the Effects tab in Pro, and the Effects window in Smart.
- Shaders — the Shader tab of the Effects window, in the Smart interface.
Shaders in Modern and Pro
In 0.2.0-alpha the Shader tab is only in Smart's Effects window. Switch to Smart to write a shader; the result stays on the object in every interface. Bringing it into the Modern and Pro right panel is planned.
Effects¶
Click + Add effect and choose:
- Drop Shadow and Inner Shadow
- Outline
- Blur
- Color Overlay and Gradient Overlay
- Inner Glow
- Bevel & Emboss
- 3D and Extrusion
Effects stack: an object can have several, and you can move them up or down, switch each one on or off, or remove it. Each has its own sliders (distance, size, colour, opacity…). Dragging a slider updates the canvas live and records one undo step when you let go.
Filters¶
Click + Add filter. A filter transforms the pixels of the object as it is drawn:
| Filter | What it does |
|---|---|
| Frosted Glass | Blurs what's behind and tints it, like frosted glass |
| Grain | Film grain (colour or monochrome) |
| Duotone | Maps the object to two colours: shadows and highlights |
| Neon | A coloured glow around the object |
| Chromatic Aberration | Splits the colour channels, like a cheap lens |
| Glitch | Shifts horizontal bands, like a broken screen |
| Halftone | Turns it into print-style dots |
| Pixelate | Big square pixels |
One of each kind per object.
Shaders¶
A shader is a small program that runs on the graphics card and decides the colour of every pixel of the object. The Shader tab has:
- a code editor with line numbers and highlighting, which checks your code as you type and marks the line with the error;
- Live mode — the object updates while you type;
- templates to start from: invert, greyscale, wave, pixelate, hologram, rim light, animated rainbow, blur;
- a library of your own shaders: save, load, rename, duplicate, delete.
Shaders use Godot's shading language (similar to GLSL). Applying a shader is one undo step, and it's saved in the .vtc file.
Note
Shader parameters of type texture are not saved in the file yet.