Godot Shader Studio

Visual shader editor for Godot 4, built as a pure GDScript addon.

Overview

Godot Shader Studio is a standalone visual shader authoring tool for Godot 4. It is not a wrapper around Godot's built-in VisualShader. The addon ships its own graph model, type system, compiler, serializer, and editor UI.

All core logic is written in GDScript. No C++, no GDExtension, and no native build step.

Features

• Node-based shader authoring inside the Godot editor
• Pure GDScript compiler pipeline with deterministic output
• Saveable graph assets with reusable subgraphs
• Built-in validation, compiler diagnostics, and preview tooling
• Support for multiple Godot shader domains

Supported shader domains

Domain	Status
spatial	✅
canvas_item	✅
particles	✅
sky	✅
fog	✅
fullscreen / postprocess	✅

File formats

Extension	Description
.gshadergraph	Visual shader source file
.gssubgraph	Reusable subgraph asset
.generated.gdshader	Generated shader output

Installation

1. Copy addons/ss_godot_shader_studio/ into your project's addons/ folder.
2. Open Godot and enable the plugin in Project Settings -> Plugins.
3. Use the Shader Studio editor tab to create and edit shader graphs.

Requirements

• Godot 4.5+

Documentation

• Architecture overview
• Compiler pipeline
• Graph format specification
• Node definition specification
• Extreme validation examples
• Roadmap

Development

Run the editor once to refresh the script class cache, then execute the test runner:

godot --headless --editor --path . --quit
godot --headless --path . --script test/runner.gd

The first command regenerates .godot/global_script_class_cache.cfg. It is required after adding any new file that declares a class_name. Skip it and the runner will fail with "Could not find type" errors.

Release Flow

• Feature work lands in release through squash merges.
• Pushes to release create prereleases such as ss_godot_shader_studio-v0.9.0-rc.1.
• After validation, run the Promote Release workflow to open the promotion PR from release to main.
• Stable releases and downstream docs or landing updates only happen after the promotion merge into main.

License

MIT. See LICENSE.

Part of the SliceSoft ecosystem.