Screenspace_General

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Screenspace_General is a Vertex shader available in all Source games since Source 2007.^[confirm] It is most commonly used to draw generic screenspace effects.

Unlike other shaders using screenspaceeffect as its vertex shader, screenspace_general allows developers to easily access and modify its pixel shader, 4 texture samplers and 4 shader register constants.^[Clarify]

This can be useful for quickly iterating and testing screen effects, without having to reload all shaders, or recompile stdshaders to define/modify parameters.

Todo: Document available constants and inputs

Note Garry's Mod has the Counter-Strike: Global Offensive version of this shader.

Notable usage

dev/halo_add_to_screen

Used by the TF2 Glow Effect (2013 SDK) to help create an outline around models using stencils. It uses the haloaddoutline_ps20 pixel shader to apply cheap blur. $C0_X controls the glow fade value (restricted to 1.0f in code.)

Todo: Test if changing $C0_X actually does what it says it is supposed to do.

Parameters

$PIXSHADER <string>

Name of the pixel shader to use. Can be loaded from any directory. In Portal 2 and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, shaders can only be loaded from the platform directory. In Garry's Mod, they can only be loaded from the mod directory, packed BSP, or a workshop addon.

NoteIf you intent to draw your shader on DX8, you'll have to add the following code your material file (inside the "screenspace_general" keyvalue.)

"screenspace_general_dx8" { "$PIXSHADER" "YOUR_DX8_PIXSHADER_HERE" }

$VERTEXSHADER <string>

Name of the vertex shader to use. (in all games since )

Custom shader inputs

$c0_x <float>

$c0_y <float>

$c0_z <float>

$c0_w <float>

$c1_x <float>

$c1_y <float>

$c1_z <float>

$c1_w <float>

$c2_x <float>

$c2_y <float>

$c2_z <float>

$c2_w <float>

$c3_x <float>

$c3_y <float>

$c3_z <float>

$c3_w <float>

$c4_x <float>

(in all games since )(not in )

$c4_y <float>

(in all games since )(not in )

$c4_z <float>

(in all games since )(not in )

$c4_w <float>

(in all games since )(not in )

$c5_x <float>

(in all games since )(not in )

$c5_y <float>

(in all games since )(not in )

$c5_z <float>

(in all games since )(not in )

$c5_w <float>

(in all games since )(not in )

$TEXTURE1 <texture>

$TEXTURE2 <texture>

$TEXTURE3 <texture>

Other parameters

$DISABLE_COLOR_WRITES <integer>

$ALPHATESTED <float>

$ALPHA_BLEND <integer>

$ALPHA_BLEND_COLOR_OVERLAY <integer>

$LINEARREAD_BASETEXTURE <integer>

$LINEARREAD_TEXTURE1 <integer>

$LINEARREAD_TEXTURE2 <integer>

$LINEARREAD_TEXTURE3 <integer>

$LINEARWRITE <integer>

$COPYALPHA <integer>

$X360APPCHOOSER <integer>

Dictates if vertex color should be used and if they should be transformed from world space. In later games, this is replaced by the usage of $vertexcolor material flag and $vertextransform. (removed since )

$VERTEXTRANSFORM <integer>

verts are in world space (in all games since )

$VERTEXNORMAL <integer>

specify vertex normal (compressed) in material format (in all games since )

$ALPHABLEND <integer>

whether or not to enable alpha blend (in all games since )

$MULTIPLYCOLOR <integer>

whether or not to multiply src and dest color (in all games since )

$WRITEALPHA <integer>

whether or not to enable alpha write (in all games since )

$WRITEDEPTH <integer>

whether or not to enable depth write (in all games since )

$TCSIZE0 <integer>

Number of components in texture coord0 (default is 2) (in all games since )

$TCSIZE1 <integer>

Number of components in texture coord1 (in all games since )

$TCSIZE2 <integer>

Number of components in texture coord2 (in all games since )

$TCSIZE3 <integer>

Number of components in texture coord3 (in all games since )

$TCSIZE4 <integer>

Number of components in texture coord4 (in all games since )

$TCSIZE5 <integer>

Number of components in texture coord5 (in all games since )

$TCSIZE6 <integer>

Number of components in texture coord6 (in all games since )

$TCSIZE7 <integer>

Number of components in texture coord7 (in all games since )

$POINTSAMPLE_BASETEXTURE <integer>

(in all games since )

$POINTSAMPLE_TEXTURE1 <integer>

(in all games since )

$POINTSAMPLE_TEXTURE2 <integer>

(in all games since )

$POINTSAMPLE_TEXTURE3 <integer>

(in all games since )

$CULL <integer>

Culling control where 0 is nocull, 1 is do cull (in all games since )

$DEPTHTEST <integer>

Enable Depthtest (in all games since )

$VIEWPROJMAT <matrix>

(in all games since )

$INVVIEWPROJMAT <matrix>

(in all games since )

$BlendOpMin <integer>

(in all games since )

Tools

An SDK to easily create custom pixel shaders for any Source game is available here: ficool2/sdk_screenspace_shaders.

NoteAlthough not intended. This shader also correctly displays on brushes, overlays, decals, and models (requires $softwareskin 1 and $translucent 1)

Todo: Is this sdk_screenspace_shaders exclusive?