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godot shaders

Pixelation with nearest-colour palette mapping

Pixelate the screen into blocks and snap each block to the nearest colour of a small palette texture, with optional ordered dithering between palette colours, for low-resolution retro looks.

Recorded render of Pixelation with nearest-colour palette mapping

What this component contains

  • ATTRIBUTION.md
  • LICENSE
  • README.md
  • component.json
  • demo.tscn
  • inspect_shader.py
  • material.tres
  • post_pixelate_palette.gdshader
  • preview.png
  • test_package.py
  • verification/native.json

How it works

Shader type
spatial
Render modes
unshaded, cull_disabled, depth_test_disabled, depth_draw_never, skip_vertex_transform, fog_disabled
Parameters
screen_texture (sampler2D), palette (sampler2D), palette_size (int = 8), pixel_size (float = 4), dither_strength (float = 0.35), palette_mix (float = 1)
Use it on
A MeshInstance3D with a 2 x 2 QuadMesh, `material.tres` as its material override and a large extra cull margin, as in `demo.tscn`., Optional: a palette image (N colours side by side) for `palette`.
Result
The scene as chunky 4-pixel blocks reduced to an eight-colour retro palette.
Renderers
compatibility: compiled and rendered, forward plus: not verified, mobile: not verified
Placement
res://baltor/godot_shaders/post_pixelate_palette/

Recorded checks

godot 4.7.2.stable.official.ed1daf0bf

  • contract_static
  • engine_run
  • engine_log_clean
  • shader_in_scene
  • capture_written
  • render_not_uniform
  • shader_changes_pixels

Limits to consider

Blocks sample one point, so thin details can vanish between frames as the camera moves. Palette matching is a weighted RGB distance, not a perceptual colour space. Cost grows with `palette_size`. The pass reads Godot's screen texture after opaque geometry, so transparent objects drawn after it are not processed and its order among other transparent passes is not controlled.