Proto Monitor

Post-processing X-ray visualization shader with scanline and interference effects.

Overview

Proto Monitor is a lightweight full-screen post-processing shader that transforms the rendered scene into a simulated X-ray monitor view. The effect is applied entirely in the composite pass, converting scene luminance into a high-contrast monochrome image with phosphor-inspired coloration, edge enhancement, film grain, periodic scan sweeps, and intermittent signal interference.

The shader operates on the final rendered image (colortex0) rather than modifying world lighting or material rendering, making it a screen-space visual effect.

Core Features

X-Ray Image Conversion

Visual Effect

The scene is remapped into an X-ray-style image where darker and brighter areas are transformed into a high-contrast negative representation.

Implementation

Samples the final scene color from colortex0.
Computes luminance using a standard RGB weighting:
- 0.299 R
- 0.587 G
- 0.114 B
Applies multiple contrast stages:
- Gamma expansion (pow(luma, 0.45))
- Inversion
- Additional contrast sharpening (pow(xray, 1.8))

This produces the base X-ray appearance used throughout the shader.

Performance

Very low cost. Requires only a single texture sample for the base image.

Edge Enhancement

Visual Effect

Object boundaries become more pronounced, creating stronger outlines within the X-ray image.

Implementation

Samples neighboring pixels horizontally and vertically.
Computes a simple Laplacian-style edge response:
- Current luminance compared against right and upper neighbors.
The resulting edge value is added back into the X-ray intensity.

This increases local contrast around geometry silhouettes and texture transitions.

Performance

Low impact. Adds two additional texture fetches per pixel.

Film Grain

Visual Effect

Subtle noise is layered over the image, simulating grain present in scanned film or imaging equipment.

Implementation

Uses procedural value noise generated from custom hash functions.
Noise is evaluated in screen space using viewport dimensions.
Grain intensity is centered around zero and blended into the X-ray output.

Performance

Low to moderate arithmetic cost with no additional texture lookups.

Scanner Sweep Overlay

Visual Effect

A bright scanning bar periodically moves vertically across the screen.

Implementation

Uses frameTimeCounter to generate a repeating scan cycle.
Computes distance from the current scan position.
Applies:
- Bright leading glow
- Faint trailing band

The sweep repeats continuously over time.

Performance

Minimal. Implemented entirely with mathematical operations.

Phosphor-Based Color Grading

Visual Effect

The grayscale X-ray image is tinted with cold blue-green monitor colors while preserving bright white highlights.

Implementation

Interpolates between:
- Dark blue-green shadow tint
- Near-white highlight tint
Applies additional green emphasis in mid-tone ranges through smoothstep masking.

Performance

Negligible.

Interference Burst System

Visual Effect

Brief periods of display instability introduce horizontal corruption and altered image regions.

Implementation

Driven by a repeating timed cycle.
Activates only during a narrow time window.
Uses procedural randomness to:
- Offset horizontal pixel positions
- Re-sample scene luminance
- Blend corrupted image data into selected scanlines

The effect appears as short interference bursts rather than continuous distortion.

Performance

Mostly inactive. During active bursts, additional texture sampling is performed.

Film Edge Response

Visual Effect

Screen edges become slightly brighter while the image simultaneously fades toward the corners.

Implementation

Radial distance from screen center is calculated.
Adds:
- Subtle edge glow
- Vignette darkening

This produces a film-viewer style framing effect.

Performance

Negligible.

Compatibility

Rendering Pipeline

Composite post-processing shader
Operates on colortex0
Full-screen screen-space effect

GLSL Version

GLSL 1.20 (#version 120)

Included Shader Stages

composite.vsh
composite.fsh

Detected Uniforms

colortex0
frameTimeCounter
viewWidth
viewHeight

Loader Support

No loader-specific metadata is included in the project files.

Compatibility with OptiFine, Iris, Sodium, or other shader loaders cannot be verified from the archive alone.

Known Constraints

Entire effect is applied after scene rendering.
Does not implement custom lighting, shadows, reflections, materials, or world-space rendering features.
Visual output depends solely on the final rendered frame.

Shader Options / Configurable Settings

No user-configurable shader options were found.

The archive contains an empty shaders.properties file and exposes no configurable parameters through project metadata.

Proto-Monitor