What This Is

A collection of screenspace shaders for TF2 that can be activated via HUD elements.

Example Screenshots

Blur

Celshade

Rain

Sepia

Paint

PSX

Red

Kitsune

try flat textures with this :)

Nightmode

with custom skybox + some mods...

Noshadows

WIP, Screenshots coming soon...

Halftone

WIP Screenshots coming soon...

Note: these are all taken on mastercomfig-low, different graphical settings may require tweaking the shader parameters in the VMT

Required Commands

Add to your autoexec:

`mat_viewportscale 0.9999999`
`mat_viewportupscale 1`

This is mandatory for _rt_FullFrameFB1. Without it, shaders will show black/white screens.

mat_viewportscale 0.9999999 enables upscaling post-processing pipeline. _rt_FullFrameFB1 is only populated by CopyRenderTargetToTextureEx(), which only runs if mat_viewportscale < 1. If mat_viewportscale 1, then the function never runs and the framebuffer never gets copied.

In simpler terms, we are hijacking the upscale post-process with our own shader.

Note: _rt_PowerOfTwoFB doesn't require this, it's populated on-demand via CopyRenderTargetToTexture() when materials request it.

Please Read

There are a few different framebuffers we can access, depending on settings. Here are some things to consider.

For _rt_FullFrameFB:

• Change _rt_FullFrameFB1 to _rt_FullFrameFB in the VMTs and set mat_hdr_level 1 instead of mat_viewportscale. Unfortunately, this does not work on all maps, and adds its own post processing that might interfere with the desired effect.
• Or enable motion blur with mat_motion_blur_enabled 1 and disable it visually with mat_motion_blur_strength 0. This ensures the _rt_FullFrameFB framebuffer exists, however, it is created without the viewmodel, so the viewmodel might not exist/be transparent with the alpha.

For _rt_PowerOfTwoFB:

• Use _rt_PowerOfTwoFB instead of _rt_FullFrameFB. This framebuffer is used for depth calculations earlier in the pipeline, it always exists. Unfortunately it is a 1024x1024 image and therefore the mapping of pixels is not as clear as the full resolution framebuffer. It also does not contain the viewmodel. On the plus side you can use it without mat_hdr_level 1 or mat_viewportscale, so if you are doing hud overlays instead of fullscreen shaders it might be a better option.

To disable the shader:

• Disable the ImagePanel with "visible" "0" and "enabled" "0", then refresh the hud with hud_reloadscheme.

Installation

1. Shader files go into folder to hud/shaders/fxc/
2. VMT files go in hud/materials/vgui/replay/thumbnails/
3. Activate via HUD ImagePanel or console commands (sv_cheats 1 only)

ImagePanel

Inside of scripts/hudlayout.res

CustomShaderOverlay
{
    "ControlName"   "ImagePanel"
    "xpos"          "0"
    "ypos"          "0"
    "zpos"          "-10000"
    "wide"          "f0"
    "tall"          "480"
    "scaleimage"    "1"
    "image"         "replay/thumbnails/shader_vmt_name"
    "visible"       "1"
    "enabled"       "1"
}

Creating New Shaders

Use sdk_screenspace_shaders for shader compilation.

Basic process:

1. Write .hlsl shader
2. Compile to .vcs
3. Create .vmt material file
4. Reference in HUD

VMT Template

"screenspace_general"
{
    // No need for the b at the end of the filename
    $pixshader   "yourshader_ps20"
    $basetexture "_rt_FullFrameFB"
    
    // Optional extra textures you can pass to the shader
    // $texture1    ""
    // $texture2    ""
    // $texture3    ""

    $x360appchooser 1     // Required for vertex transformations
    
    // $copyalpha is only needed if you wish to pass the alpha through to the shader
    // I would just keep it enabled always...
    $copyalpha                 1
    $ignorez                   1
    
    // 16 customizable parameters that are passed to the shader
    $c0_x     0.0
    $c0_y     0.0
    $c0_z     0.0
    $c0_w     0.0
    // ...this block repeats 3 more times with the number after $c incrementing by 1

    "<dx90"
    {
        $no_draw 1
    }
}

Animating Parameters

Shaders with time parameters (like rain) auto-update via CurrentTime proxy:

Proxies
{
    CurrentTime
    {
        resultVar   $c0_x
    }
}

Using Depth for Masking

The alpha channel of any _rt_FullFrameFB contains depth information. You can use this to exclude nearby objects (mostly just the viewmodel) from shader effects.

Approach 1: VMT-level

Set $copyalpha 0 in your VMT. The material system will use alpha for depth-based blending, automatically excluding viewmodels and creating a distance-based falloff.

Approach 2: Shader-level (manual threshold)

Implement depth masking in your shader code with $copyalpha 1:

float4 baseColor = tex2D(TexBase, i.uv);

// Skip nearby objects (alpha < threshold)
if (baseColor.a < depthThreshold)
{
    return baseColor; // Don't apply effect to nearby objects
}

// Apply effect to distant objects only
float4 processed = applyEffect(...);
return float4(processed.rgb, baseColor.a);

VMT parameter for threshold control:

$copyalpha 1
$c0_y     0.3  // Depth threshold (0.0-1.0)

This creates a hard cutoff at the threshold value.

Extra Notes

Framebuffers

_rt_FullFrameFB - Native screen resolution. Includes viewmodels. Alpha channel contains basic depth information (low alpha = near, high alpha = far).

_rt_FullFrameFB1 - Same as _rt_FullFrameFB but only exists with mat_viewportscale 0.9999999. As such, it is not the native resolution (ie 1920x1080 -> 1919x1079)

_rt_PowerOfTwoFB - Allocated as 1024x1024 texture. Lower quality compared to FullFrameFB. Viewmodels not included. Also has depth in alpha channel.

_rt_FullFrameDepth - Just an alias for _rt_PowerOfTwoFB.

VMT Parameters

Required:

• $pixshader "name_ps20" - Shader to use
• $basetexture "_rt_FullFrameFB1" - Texture input
• $x360appchooser 1 - Required for shader to display

Alpha handling:

• $copyalpha 1 - Preserves framebuffer alpha (depth). Shader effect applies to everything including viewmodels and nearby objects.

• $copyalpha 0 - Material system uses alpha for depth. Shader does not apply to viewmodels and nearby objects.

Parameters:

• $c0_x through $c3_w - 16 customizable shader parameters (4 float4 constants)

Color space (for framebuffer processing):

Reading from _rt_FullFrameFB (gamma-corrected):

• $linearread_basetexture 1 - Reads texture as linear instead of sRGB. Causes washed out appearance.
• $linearwrite 1 - Writes output as linear instead of sRGB. Causes darkening.

Linear color flags are intended for UI shaders that use custom textures or constant colors (non-framebuffer content) to prevent double gamma correction. For shaders processing _rt_FullFrameFB, I think its safe to omit these flags.

Other:

• $ignorez 1 - Appears to have no effect for what we are doing.

Performance Notes

• Pixel shaders run every frame, every pixel
• The instruction limit is low so be careful with loops
• Keep texture samples low (expensive)

Resources

All credits go to:

• Shader Compilation: sdk_screenspace_shaders

Useful:

• HLSL Reference: Microsoft HLSL Docs
• Shader Inspiration: ShaderToy