Shader packs ​

A shader pack is an addon that grades the game's picture with a colour look. The look is a .cube 3D LUT, the format DaVinci Resolve, Photoshop and most grading tools export. The in-game core applies it to the 3D picture after the game's tonemap. The HUD and menus draw on top of the graded picture and keep their own colours.

Start from templates/shader-pack: three looks and settings to pick one.

Manifestshader, "category": "shaders", "experimental_features": ["shaders"]
Featureshaders — experimental, on while an addon lists it in experimental_features
Launcher1.4.0 or later; an earlier launcher rejects the manifest
PictureSDR. With HDR on, the game keeps its own colours

Make a look ​

  1. Turn every shader pack off and take a screenshot of the game in SDR.
  2. Grade the screenshot in DaVinci Resolve, Photoshop, Affinity Photo or any tool that exports a 3D LUT.
  3. Export the grade as a .cube file. 17, 33 and 65 points per side all work.
  4. Put the file in your addon, such as looks/my-look.cube.

The core applies the look to the same sRGB colours a screenshot holds, so the race looks the way your graded screenshot does.

The manifest ​

json
{
  "schema_version": 1,
  "id": "me.my-looks",
  "name": "My Looks",
  "version": "1.0.0",
  "author": "Me",
  "category": "shaders",
  "experimental_features": ["shaders"],
  "compat": { "game": "f1_25" },
  "shader": { "lut": "looks/my-look.cube" }
}
FieldTypeValue
shader.lutstringThe .cube file, a path inside the addon. {{id}} is replaced with a db option's value.
shader.strengthnumber or string?How much of the look applies, from 0 to 100, or "{{id}}" naming a db slider that stays within 0 to 100. Defaults to 100.

shader needs "shaders" in experimental_features. Installing checks the block: a lut that is not a .cube file inside the addon, an unknown option, an option that binds native, or a strength outside 0 to 100 is refused.

Settings ​

To let players pick a look and its strength, declare db options and name them in shader:

json
"options": [
  { "id": "look", "type": "choice", "label": "Look", "default": "monochrome",
    "values": [{ "value": "monochrome", "label": "Monochrome" }, { "value": "noir", "label": "Noir" }],
    "binds": "db" },
  { "id": "strength", "type": "slider", "label": "Strength", "min": 0, "max": 100, "step": 10,
    "default": 100, "binds": "db" }
],
"shader": { "lut": "looks/{{look}}.cube", "strength": "{{strength}}" }

The settings appear on the launcher's Addons page and in the game's ADDON SETTINGS. The build reads them, so a change applies from the next launch. Strength 0 shows the game's own colours, 100 shows the look in full, and values between mix the two.

The .cube file ​

LineValue
TITLE "…"Optional.
LUT_3D_SIZE nRequired. n is 2 to 129.
DOMAIN_MIN r g b, DOMAIN_MAX r g bOptional. Default 0 0 0 and 1 1 1. LUT_3D_INPUT_RANGE min max sets both.
r g bn³ colour lines, red changing fastest, then green, then blue.

# starts a comment, and other keyword lines are skipped. A 1D LUT (LUT_1D_SIZE) is refused. The build checks the file and stops at the first problem, with the line it is on:

text
My Looks: looks/noir.cube: line 9: "0 0 x" is not 3 number(s)

What players see ​

  • The build prints the look: shaders: My Looks grades the picture with looks/my-look.cube (33x33x33) at 100% strength.
  • The Addons page lists the pack under Shaders, tags it Uses experimental features and shows its lut under Look in its panel.
  • One look applies at a time. With two shader packs on, the one later in the load order applies, and the build warns about the other: My Looks: its look is not applied; one shader look applies at a time, and Other Looks loads after it.
  • With HDR on in the game's display settings, the picture keeps the game's own colours. The look applies again when HDR is off.
  • swofty/loader.log in the game folder shows [shaders] grading the picture with My Looks's look (33x33x33) at 100%, then [shaders] the picture now goes through My Looks's look once the race renders.

How it works ​

The game maps the colour of the 3D picture to display colour through a 64×64×64 LUT, eaid://ego_package/aces_rrt_odt_lut.image, and rewrites it every frame. The build checks your .cube file and installs it as swofty/shaders/look.lut, and swofty/assets.json names it under shader. In game, the core reads the game's LUT back, runs each entry through your look and copies the result over the game's LUT every frame. Every two seconds it reads the game's LUT again, and grades it again when the game changed it, as after a brightness change.

Publishing