Open Shaders v2.3.1

2.3.1 (2026-08-04)

Bug Fixes

• vr: don't flag unsupported ini as unknown (#390) (a0794be)

---

Feature Version Audit

Compared to base: v2.3.0
Base commit date: 2026-08-03T16:56:52Z (Monday, August 03, 2026 04:56 PM)
Generated: 2026-08-04 03:15:08

Feature	Prior Ver	Proposed Ver	Needs Bump	Change Types	Note	Commit
Light Limit Fix	3-4-0	-	False
Interior Sun	1-0-2	-	False
Sky Sync	1-3-0	-	False
Vanilla Fresnel	1-0-0	-	False
Volumetric Shadows	2-1-1	-	False
Terrain Shadows	1-2-1	-	False
Extended Translucency	1-0-0	-	False
Remote Control	1-0-0	-	False
CS Editor	2-0-2	-	False
Exponential Height Fog	0-5-0	-	False
Unified Water	0-2-0	-	False
Terrain Variation	1-1-0	-	False
RenderDoc	1-1-0	-	False
Skylighting	1-5-0	-	False
Screen Space GI	4-4-0	-	False
Hair Specular	1-1-2	-	False
Linear Lighting	1-2-0	-	False
Weather Picker	1-0-0	-	False
Subsurface Scattering	3-2-0	-	False
VR	1-2-0	-	False
Post Processing	1-0-0	-	False
Skin	0-1-0	-	False
Performance Overlay	1-2-0	-	False
CS Utility	1-0-0	-	False
Dynamic Cubemaps	2-4-1	-	False
Screen-Space Shadows	2-2-0	-	False
Terrain Blending	1-2-0	-	False
Screenshot	1-1-0	-	False
IBL	1-2-1	-	False
Volumetric Lighting	1-1-0	-	False
Grass Collision	3-1-0	-	False
HDR Display	1-2-0	-	False
LOD Blending	1-0-0	-	False
Water Effects	1-2-2	-	False
HorizonFix	1-0-0	-	False
Extended Materials	1-2-1	-	False
Cloud Shadows	1-4-0	-	False
Terrain Shadows - Heightmaps	-	-	False
Upscaling	1-5-0	-	False
TruePBR	1-0-0	-	False
Inverse Square Lighting	1-3-0	-	False
Wetness Effects	3-1-0	-	False
Grass Lighting	2-1-0	-	False

Critical Information Summary

Feature Metadata Summary

Feature	Is Core	Mod Link	Description	Key Features
CSEditor	True		Development tool for inspecting, editing, and previewing renderer-facing data in...	Provides weather editing functionality, Includes dynamic saving and loading of vanilla post processing and weather settings., Real-time editing and previewing of effects
CSUtility	True		Core utility controls for shared renderer tuning.	Atmosphere brightness control, Shared lighting multiplier controls, Separate controls for linear point lights
CloudShadows	False	Nexus	Adds realistic cloud shadows that move across the landscape, creating dynamic li...	Dynamic cloud shadow projection on terrain and objects, Configurable shadow opacity for artistic control, Real-time shadow movement synchronized with cloud motion, ...
DynamicCubemaps	True		Provides real-time environment mapping and reflections by generating dynamic cub...	Real-time environment capture for realistic reflections, Dynamic cube map generation based on camera position, Enhanced water reflections with environmental details, ...
ExponentialHeightFog	False	Nexus	Exponential Height Fog adds a realistic fog effect that increases in density wit...	Added exponential height fog effect, Adapted to vanilla fog settings, Creates atmospheric depth
ExtendedMaterials	True		Extended Materials adds advanced material effects including parallax occlusion m...	Parallax occlusion mapping for depth, Complex material blending, Terrain heightmap support, ...
ExtendedTranslucency	True		Extended Translucency provides realistic rendering of thin fabric and other tran...	Multiple translucency material models (rim edge, isotropic/anisotropic fabric), Realistic fabric translucency with directional light transmission, Per-material override support via NIF extra data, ...
GrassCollision	False		Enables dynamic grass interactions where grass bends and moves in response to ac...	Real-time grass deformation from actor movement, Collision detection for up to 256 simultaneous interactions, Dynamic tracking of actor positions for grass response, ...
GrassLighting	False		Grass Lighting enhances grass rendering with improved lighting, specularity, and...	Enhanced grass lighting model, Specular highlights on grass, Subsurface scattering effects, ...
HDRDisplay	False	Nexus	Real High Dynamic Range output for HDR displays.	HDR10 output support (10-bit) with upgraded HDR buffers (16-Bit), and fully unclamped rendering pipeline for true HDR values., HDR-aware tonemapping based on Skyrim's ISHDR path (Reinhard/Hejl-Burgess-Dawson), preserving the vanilla look while improving highlight handling on HDR displays., Configurable paper white and peak brightness.
HairSpecular	False	Nexus	Provides better hair shading with realistic specular highlights and tangent-base...	Realistic hair specular highlights, Enhanced hair glossiness and saturation controls, Separate specular and diffuse lighting multipliers, ...
HorizonFix	True		Enables water rendering beyond the far clip plane in support of the HorizonFix p...	Active only while the HorizonFix SKSE plugin is installed., Without HorizonFix, water keeps exact vanilla far clip behavior.
IBL	True		Replaces the game's ambient lighting with physically-based IBL derived from cube...	Projects environment and sky cubemaps into spherical harmonics (SH) for irradiance, Dual IBL sources: environment cubemap (Dynamic Cubemaps) and Skyrim's native sky reflections cubemap, DALC brightness matching to keep IBL consistent with the game's ambient light levels, ...
InteriorSun	True		Allows for the sun and moon to cast light and shadows into interior spaces.	Functions only for explicitly enabled interiors, Utilizes existing sun, moon, and weather systems, Includes an option to force double-sided rendering for unprepared interiors, ...
InverseSquareLighting	True		Implements an additional inverse square falloff for lighting which allows for a ...	Automatic light radius calculation based on intensity, Lights smoothly fade out at a configurable cutoff, solving the infinite distance problem, Does not modify any existing lighting, ...
LODBlending	True		Provides seamless visual transitions between Level of Detail (LOD) objects and f...	Smooth LOD object brightness blending, Enhanced terrain LOD appearance matching, Snow-specific LOD brightness adjustment, ...
LightLimitFix	True		Light Limit Fix removes the vanilla game's 4-light limit, allowing unlimited dyn...	Removes 4-light limit, Unlimited dynamic lights, Shadow support for point and spot lights, ...
LinearLighting	True		Linear Lighting does internal color space conversion to improve lighting calcula...	Customizable gamma correction, Corrects lighting calculations, Makes PBR really work
PerformanceOverlay	True		Real-time performance monitoring system that displays FPS, frame times, draw cal...	Real-time FPS and frame time monitoring with configurable update intervals, Interactive draw call analysis with per-shader type performance breakdown, VRAM usage monitoring with visual progress bars, ...
PostProcessing	False		Post Processing provides advanced image effects and enhancements to improve the ...	Customizable post-processing effects, Supports various presets for different visual styles, Improves overall image quality and immersion, ...
RemoteControl	False		Expose Open Shaders to AI assistants through the external devbench host.	Registers feature, inspect, shadercache, capture, and settings tools, Drivable over MCP and REST from the shared devbench bench, No in-game server — install the devbench plugin to enable
RenderDoc	True		In-application RenderDoc capture support and convenience UI.	Attach comments to captures that appear in RenderDoc UI, Open captures folder, Capture file management
ScreenSpaceGI	False	Nexus
ScreenSpaceShadows	False		Screen Space Shadows enhances shadow quality by adding detailed contact shadows ...	Enhanced contact shadows, Improved shadow detail, Better shadow accuracy, ...
Skin	False		Advanced Skin enhances character skin rendering with multiple techniques.	Physically-based dual specular lobes for realistic skin highlights, Tiled skin detail textures for enhanced realism, Extra texture support for roughness, translucency, and wetness, ...
SkySync	True		Synchronizes volumetric lighting and shadows with the actual sun and moon positi...	Fixes the mismatch between the positions of the sun and moons and the lighting direction, Includes a configurable alternative sun path for more realistic and dramatic lighting, ...

Open Shaders (dev) — latest build 2.3.0

Rolling build of dev at commit a0794be.

⚠️ Unstable integration build for testing — not a release.
For stable builds see the latest non-prerelease.

Changes since v2.3.1 (0 commits)

Open Shaders v2.3.0

2.3.0 (2026-08-03)

Bug Fixes

• bloom: smooth halo sampling and tune defaults (#385) (70275aa)
• cs-editor: compile fail due to stale leftover code (#2587) (19d4602)
• cs-editor: guard weather-lock hook install (#364) (41ab260)
• cs-editor: refactor time lock and robust guards (#2581) (de6284c)
• cs-editor: refactor time lock and robust guards (#2581) (c4f3152)
• cs-editor: throttle hover and suppress logs (#2555) (05e7184)
• cs-editor: viewport gamma and backdrop dimming (#2572) (bc2cb33)
• cubemaps: ceil mip dispatch, reset on jump (#2553) (98afff8)
• lighting-editor: missing ignorescale and CTD (#2561) (6301d0f)
• llf: add ShadowImpactFloor exit hysteresis (#367) (043b7ac)
• llf: cache effect light validation (#381) (1f9ae26)
• llf: guard alpha-group overflow (#370) (cb2396f)
• llf: guard shadow-mask shifts past bit 31 (#330) (bf467b9)
• llf: stop exterior light starvation (#371) (b185aa6)
• menu: scope font-preview atlas to active tab (#2554) (dc44007)
• motion-blur: stop disabling on cache clear (#354) (4a191d5)
• post-processing: sync RGB master sliders (#383) (c30a701)
• refresh lighting and shadows after time skips (#380) (c78bcf3)
• scm: fix shadow table row ID collisions (#348) (43f45b0)
• shadercache: auto-accept known feature flip (#327) (fa1f023), closes #322
• shadercache: sort defines by strcmp (#324) (a7c37a4)
• shadercache: stop spurious session resets (#353) (5b7ad6f)
• shader: rungrass compilation fail (#2582) (54b20ec)
• shaders: fix shadow light data stride (#363) (28397e7)
• skylighting: restore probe updates (#355) (dbfd787)
• skylighting: restore shadow visibility (#382) (4107919)
• support boot-state overrides (#384) (4de8ea2)
• terrain-helper: guard null material in hook (#365) (ad09f4c), closes #361
• unified-water: fix cache regenerating on each load (#2571) (28cda71)
• unified-water: guard cache against concurrent access (#2566) (380e595)
• unified-water: invalidate cache on ver bump, move folder (#2560) (501e970)
• unified-water: stale precache file location (#2570) (04482fc)
• upscaling: check sharpness toggle in DLSS output routing (#2583) (b70b4d8)
• vr: load CS fonts before VR HUD style setup (#319) (1aaa138)
• vsm: restore shadow copy under SLF (#329) (ea339ff)
• water: occlude non-shadow lights on water (#374) (7c2e94f)
• water: stop double-counting specular in LLF (#368) (66c6e44), closes community-shaders/skyrim-community-shaders#2403

Features

• api: add CS plugin interface for SKSE mods (#280) (d5ff157)
• core: add devbench runtime-only debug flags (#379) (e44af9c)
• Horizon Fix compat (#2567) (f60bae6)
• llf: upgrade to shadow atlas (#292) (c350c84)
• menu: add central performance settings menu (#338) (d18f9d8)
• post processing (#350) (74d1c52)
• post processing: add VR support (#352) ([d2acc80](https://github.com/alan...

Open Shaders 2.3.0 PR #391

• feat(horizonfix): enable VR support by @alandtse

View Pull Request

Open Shaders 2.2.0 PR #377

• feat(llf): add VSM-style shadow demand instrumentation by @alandtse
• feat(llf): add shadow demand instrumentation by @alandtse
• feat(llf): add Hi-Z depth reduction for demand by @alandtse
• fix(llf): close near-geometry miss in Hi-Z demand by @alandtse
• docs(llf): trim Hi-Z comments to standards ceiling by @alandtse
• feat(llf): add zero-demand redraw skip by @alandtse
• fix(llf): repair demand-skip economics metrics by @alandtse
• fix(llf): stop shadow-demand staging buffer misuse by @alandtse
• fix(llf): address demand-skip review round 2 by @alandtse

View Pull Request

Open Shaders 2.2.0 PR #372

• feat(llf): add VSM-style shadow demand instrumentation by @alandtse
• feat(llf): add shadow demand instrumentation by @alandtse

View Pull Request

Open Shaders v2.2.0

2.2.0 (2026-07-19)

Bug Fixes

• devbench: merge partial feature settings (#294) (10a461a)
• devbench: reject unrecognized setting keys (#304) (6ca78f8)
• editor: viewport alpha and backdrop (#312) (c8fadfd)
• effects: prevent twilight overbrightening (#302) (ea894af)
• fresnel: respect zero MLP envmap strength (#299) (88357bc)
• globals: globals for weather editor and scene manager (#2556) (09bcfc3)
• llf: restore missing particle-light configs (#260) (62159ba)
• llf: restore particle-light gradient gating (#266) (4ba4fb3)
• overlays: improve positioning and spacing (#311) (60eceed)
• prevent specular LOD reflection darkening (c7061e3)
• shadercache: harden mtime cache checks (#288) (57836d0)
• ui: isolate page scroll state (#310) (3f18361)
• underwater fog DOF blur (#268) (3331eff)
• unified-water: stop cache always rebuilding (#316) (76dd886)
• upscaling: track head in VR Playroom (#297) (a4bd009)
• vr: set skipReason on out-of-bounds reproject (#253) (47e18b4)

Features

• cs-utility: Vanilla DOF (#259) (5ac4cbc)
• devbench: generic per-feature diagnostics (#296) (b47ad21)
• grass-lighting: readd wrapped toggle (#271) (a110bba)
• ssgi: reprojection disocclusion debug view (#255) (c51f675)
• state: add Refraction Scale setting (#265) (d5269d9)
• ui: add feature actions flyout (#308) (878cbc8)
• UI: OS editor button navigation (#305) (7ba4938)
• vr: add Hide Compilation HUD toggle (#262) (89c26f5)
• vr: link foveation prereqs to their panels (#258) (113265f)
• vr: unify reprojection debug view (#256) (3e1a753)

Performance Improvements

• llf: batch ClusterBuildingCS dispatch (#261) (4e419eb)

---

Feature Version Audit

Compared to base: v2.1.1
Base commit date: 2026-07-06T02:29:32Z (Monday, July 06, 2026 02:29 AM)
Generated: 2026-07-19 06:58:33

Feature	Prior Ver	Proposed Ver	Needs Bump	Change Types	Note	Commit
Unified Water	0-2-0	-	False
Light Limit Fix	3-3-0	-	False	.hlsl		link (Alan Tse)
IBL	1-2-1	-	False
Water Effects	1-2-2	-	False
Screen-Space Shadows	2-2-0	-	False	.hlsl		link (Alan Tse)
TruePBR	1-0-0	-	False
CS Editor	2-0-2	-	False
Terrain Shadows - Heightmaps	-	-	False
CS Utility	1-0-0	-	False
Exponential Height Fog	1-3-2	0-4-0	False	.ini		link (Dlizzio)
Remote Control	1-0-0	-	False
Volumetric Shadows	2-1-1	-	False
Linear Lighting	1-1-1	-	False
Wetness Effects	3-1-0	-	False
Grass Lighting	2-1-0	-	False
Screenshot	1-1-0	-	False
Terrain Variation	1-0-1	-	False
Hair Specular	1-1-2	-	False
Extended Materials	1-2-1	-	False
VR	1-2-0	-	False
Skin	1-0-0	0-1-0	False	.ini		link (Dlizzio)
Vanilla Fresnel	1-0-0	-	False
Upscaling	1-5-0	-	False
Interior Sun	1-0-2	-	False
HDR Display	1-1-0	-	False
LOD Blending	1-0-0	-	False
Performance Overlay	1-2-0	-	False
Volumetric Lighting	1-1-0	-	False
Sky Sync	1-3-0	-	False
Terrain Shadows	1-2-0	-	False
Dynamic Cubemaps	2-4-1	-	False
Weather Picker	-	-	False	.ini	New ini added (v1-0-0)	link (Dlizzio)
Terrain Blending	1-2-0	-	False
Subsurface Scattering	3-1-1	-	False
Grass Collision	3-1-0	-	False
Inverse Square Lighting	1-3-0	-	False
Extended Translucency	1-0-0	-	False
Cloud Shadows	1-4-0	-	False
RenderDoc	1-1-0	-	False
Skylighting	1-4-0	-	False
Screen Space GI	4-3-0	4-4-0	False	.hlsl, .ini		link (Alan Tse)

Critical Information Summary

New Features Added (1)

Feature	INI Version	Nexus	Commit
Weather Picker	1-0-0		link (Dlizzio)

Feature Metadata Summary

Feature	Is Core	Mod Link	Description	Key Features
CSEditor	True		Development tool for inspecting, editing, and previewing renderer-facing data in...	Provides weather editing functionality, Includes dynamic saving and loading of vanilla post processing and weather settings., Real-time editing and previewing of effects
CSUtility	True		Core utility controls for shared renderer tuning.	Atmosphere brightness control, Shared lighting multiplier controls, Separate controls for linear point lights
CloudShadows	False	[Nexus](ht...

Open Shaders 2.2.0 PR #291

• fix(interior-sun): keep shadows on first cascade by @alandtse
• chore(i18n): sync en.json for interior sun strings by @alandtse

View Pull Request

Open Shaders 2.2.0 PR #287

• fix(perf): apply dynamic-resolution scale in GetScreenDispatchCount by @alandtse

View Pull Request

Open Shaders 2.2.0 PR #285

• fix(cubemaps): anchor VR history reprojection by @alandtse
• chore(cubemaps): bump feature version to 2-4-2 by @alandtse

View Pull Request