SHADERS.md

custom shaders

Write your own shaders for cava!

cava can use SDL/OpenGL to render custom glsl shaders.

The shader files are loaded from the folder $HOME/.config/cava/shaders

under [output] set method to 'sdl_glsl'

use the config options vertex_shader and fragment_shader to select file.

look in the bar_spectrum.frag shader for how the shaders interact with cava.

the custom shaders will use some of the same config parameters as the other output modes, like number of bars.

feel free to commit your own shaders (or improvements to the sdl_glsl output mode) and create pull request.

To add a shader to the cava repo do the following:

1. Copy or create your shader in the $HOME/.config/cava/shaders folder and load it via the config file.
2. When done writing the shader copy it to the output/shaders folder in the cava source code
3. In config.c:
   1. Increment NUMBER_OF_SHADERS define
   2. Add it to the INCTXT, IDR lists as well as the default_shader_data and the default_shader_name arrays at the top of the config.c. The orders of the arrays is important! There are two default_shader_data arrays one for windows and one for linux.
4. Add it to cava_win/cava/cava.rc

The shader will then be compiled into the bionary and written to the $HOME/.config/cava/shaders folder on runtime (if it is not already there).