Shader Playground

About

Shader Playground is a tool for experimenting with fragment shaders in real time. Load an effect, tweak its parameters with the keyboard, and watch the results instantly on animated demo content. It’s built for rapid iteration—whether learning GLSL, prototyping post-processing effects, or just playing with visuals.

Built-in Effects

The shader library includes 14 effects ready to explore:

• Distortion: Wave ripples, radial blur, kaleidoscope
• Color: Chromatic aberration, grayscale tint, posterize, invert
• Retro: CRT scanlines, pixelation, film grain
• Enhancement: Glow/bloom, vignette, edge detection

Each shader exposes adjustable uniforms with min/max bounds and fine-tuning support.

Controls

• A/D: Cycle through shaders
• W/S: Select parameter
• Q/E: Adjust value (hold Shift for fine control)
• R: Reset parameters to defaults
• Tab: Toggle UI overlay
• Space: Bypass shader to see raw output

Technical Details

• Language: Lua
• Framework: LÖVE 2D 11.x
• Shading: GLSL fragment shaders with OpenGL backend
• Architecture: Modular shader manager with parameter metadata system
• Demo content: Animated gradients, floating particles, pulsing geometry