Custom Shader Chain

Custom Shader Chain

Setting the shader preset to Custom unlocks the shader chain editor -- a stack of shader passes applied in order, each with tunable parameters. Access it through Settings > Built-in Emulator > A/V & Performance > Shader > Custom (or tap Filter when Custom is selected).

This is a deeper dive than the preset picker on Video; use it when one of the named presets isn't enough.

Shader catalog

Argosy ships a catalog of shaders grouped by category:

• CRT -- CRT Easymode, CRT Lottes, CRT Geom, CRT Hyllian, zFast CRT, CRT Aperture, CRT Pi, Fake Lottes, CRT Mattias, CRT Beam, CRT Nobody, and more (50+ CRT variants).
• Handheld -- shaders designed to emulate original handheld screen characteristics.
• Scaling -- integer scalers, super-xBR, xBRZ, and similar upscalers.
• Scanlines -- simple and advanced scanline passes.
• Sharpening -- sharpeners like CUT (Contrast Upscaling Transform) variants CUT / CUT2 / CUT3.
• Anti-aliasing -- AA passes for smoothing diagonal edges.
• Other -- color filters, grain, bloom, and miscellaneous effects.

Shaders in the catalog download on demand the first time you add them, and are cached locally for offline use.

Building a chain

• Add shader -- picks from the catalog, grouped by category.
• Reorder -- drag to change pass order. Order matters: an upscaler before a CRT produces a different look than the reverse.
• Remove -- drops a pass from the chain.
• Live preview -- the editor shows a sample frame so you can see the effect as you tune.

Parameters

Many shaders expose parameters (brightness, curvature, scanline intensity, sharpness weights, etc.). Select a shader in your chain to reveal its parameter list; adjust values with the controller or touch.

Performance

Each pass costs GPU time. A long chain on a demanding system (PS1, N64, PSP) may drop frames. If performance suffers, trim passes or swap expensive CRT variants (CRT Lottes) for lightweight ones (CRT Lottes Fast, zFast CRT).

Custom chains are saved globally but can be overridden per platform -- e.g. keep a heavy CRT chain for NES and a lightweight one for N64.