Workspace

Find your way around the workspace

Open a shader from your library. Its live preview becomes the canvas behind the workspace.

The image shows an existing example and layout. Panel positions and appearance can differ by version and by your saved preferences.

The main areas

Area	Use it for
Library	Select, create, rename, duplicate, and export a shader.
Editor	Edit the Image pass, Vertex shader, Common code, buffers, files, and Config.
Preview	Watch the active shader, pause its clock, and capture a frame.
Inspector — Controls	Change the values generated by the Config schema.
Inspector — Textures	Assign texture assets used by the shader's channels.
Inspector — Post-processing	Build and tune the chain of effects applied after Image.
Inspector — Presets	Save named values and restore them later.
Diagnostics and performance panels	Find compile errors and inspect the cost of rendering.

Use the app's panel menu to reopen a hidden panel. The command palette (Ctrl+K) is another way to find actions without knowing their menu location.

Source, values, and presets

Source determines what the shader draws. Controls provide live values to that source. Presets remember a named set of those values.

A control with the key speed supplies u_speed:

Config type	GLSL uniform	Widget
number	float u_speed	Slider
boolean	bool u_enabled	Checkbox
color	vec3 u_tint	Color picker
select	float u_mode	Select menu

The last three rows use the example keys enabled, tint, and mode. The general rule is always u_<key>.

To preserve a look, save a preset. To preserve changes to the shader source, schema, or effects rack, save the shader too. Watch its save status before closing.

Effects and textures

Textures are inputs to the shader. Post-processing effects run after its final Image pass.

The rack's master switch bypasses the chain while retaining its settings. Individual effects can also be enabled, disabled, reordered, or removed. Reordering changes the image, so compare before and after.

A preset can also capture render settings. Applying such a preset can leave the shader with unsaved changes; save if you want those settings to become the saved version.

Keyboard shortcuts

Shortcut	Action
Ctrl+K	Open the command palette.
Ctrl+S	Save the shader.
Space	Pause or resume shader time.
H	Show or hide the inspector controls.
S	Capture the current frame as PNG.
Z	Enter or leave Zen mode.
Shift+Alt+F	Format GLSL in the editor.

Use preview shortcuts while focus is outside a text input or the code editor. If a shortcut types a letter into your source, use the corresponding menu action instead.

Present on a second screen

On Windows Desktop, use More actions → Open output window.

Move the output window to your second monitor or projector. It follows the active shader, live controls, pause state, render scale, and texture assignments while you keep editing in the main window.

Return to First shader, explore Features, or troubleshoot in FAQ.