Layer Types
Ghost Arcade provides 11 distinct layer types, each designed for a different kind of visual content. Layers stack in the timeline from bottom to top, composited together using blend modes and opacity. Every layer type shares a common set of properties—opacity, blend mode, visibility, effects chain, and warp controls—while exposing its own specialized parameters.
Add a new layer from the toolbar or right-click the layer list. Each type is described in detail below.
On this page
ISF Shaders
Over 100 GPU-accelerated GLSL fragment shaders built on the Interactive Shader Format (ISF) standard. Each shader runs entirely on the GPU, making them extremely performant even at 4K resolution. ISF shaders are the backbone of generative visuals in Ghost Arcade—they produce infinite, never-repeating motion without any imported media.
Shader categories
- Fractals — Mandelbrot, Julia, Burning Ship, fractal noise landscapes
- Particle systems — Starfields, sparks, snow, rain, embers
- Kaleidoscopes — Mirror-based pattern generators with segment control
- Voronoi — Cell-based patterns, cracked earth, organic tessellation
- Plasma — Classic sine-wave interference, lava lamps, liquid metal
- Sacred geometry — Flower of life, metatron, platonic solids, mandalas
- Generative — Reaction-diffusion, cellular automata, noise fields
ThreeBody mega-shader
A consolidated shader simulating periodic three-body orbital solutions from the Suvakov-Dmitrasinovic and Li-Liao catalogs. It exposes 30 orbital presets multiplied by 12 effect styles, producing 360 unique visual combinations from a single shader file. A quality selector lets you trade fidelity for frame rate on lower-end hardware.
Parameter control
Every ISF uniform is automatically mapped to a UI control: float values become sliders, booleans become toggles, long types become dropdown selectors, and color types become color pickers. All parameters are MIDI-mappable and can be driven by audio reactivity or LFO modulation.
Media
Import video and image files directly into your composition. Supported formats include MP4, MOV, WebM, GIF, PNG, and JPG. Media layers are the simplest way to bring pre-rendered content, captured footage, or still images into a live set.
Playback controls
- Speed — Adjustable playback rate from slow-motion to fast-forward
- Loop modes — Loop (continuous), ping-pong (forward-reverse), or play once
- Trim — Set in and out points to use a subsection of the clip
- Scrubbing — Frame-accurate seeking for precise cueing
- Timelapse — Frame-skip mode for accelerated playback of long recordings
Chromakey
Built-in chroma key lets you remove a background color (green screen, blue screen, or any custom color) directly on the layer. Adjust tolerance, edge softness, and spill suppression to get a clean key without needing a separate effects layer.
3D Models
Import GLTF, GLB, and FBX files with full support for embedded skeletal and keyframe animations. The 3D model renderer is built on Three.js with an AnimationMixer that automatically detects and plays back animations baked into the file.
Materials
Choose from 16 material types including standard PBR, wireframe, toon, hologram, x-ray, disco, iridescent, glass, chrome, lava, matrix, glitch, scan-line, and more. Materials can be swapped on the fly and each exposes its own set of tweakable parameters.
Deformations
Apply any of 15 vertex deformations to warp the geometry in real time: twist, bend, inflate, melt, explode, pixelate, noise displacement, wave, shatter, and others. Deformation intensity and speed are fully controllable.
Animation modes
16 procedural animation modes control how the model moves through space: rotate, orbit, bounce, float, spin-pulse, pendulum, spiral, figure-eight, and more. These are independent of any file-embedded animations and can be layered on top of them.
For models with embedded animations, toggle useFileAnimation and control speed with fileAnimationSpeed.
Echo and instancing
Duplicate the model across space using the echo/instancing system with 18 arrangement patterns: grid, circle, helix, sphere surface, random scatter, fibonacci spiral, line, wave, pyramid, DNA helix, galaxy arm, and more. Control instance count, spacing, scale variation, and time offset between copies.
Camera and lighting
Camera position, rotation, and field of view are fully automatable. Dynamic lighting supports multiple light types with color, intensity, and position controls. All parameters are MIDI-mappable and audio-reactive.
Gaussian Splats
Load 3D gaussian splat captures in PLY or native .splat format. Gaussian splats are photorealistic point-cloud representations of real-world scenes captured with photogrammetry tools. Ghost Arcade renders them as stylizable, animatable visual layers with over 100 parameters.
File formats
- PLY — Standard point cloud format. Files containing
scale_0/rot_0vertex properties are detected as gaussian splats; otherwise treated as point clouds. - .splat — Native binary format at 32 bytes per splat: position (float32 x3), scale (float32 x3), color (RGBA uint8 x4), quaternion rotation (uint8 x4).
Animations and effects
12 animation types let you bring static captures to life: explode, breathe, wave, vortex, scatter, pulse, swarm, orbit, ripple, and more. 13 color effects remap the splat palette: thermal, x-ray, neon, posterize, hue shift, invert, duotone, and others.
Physics and interaction
Enable physics simulation to apply gravity, wind, and collision to splat particles. Mouse interaction lets you push, attract, or paint splats in real time. 8 displacement modes (noise, sine, radial, twist, etc.) add procedural motion to the point cloud.
Lines
Draw directly on the canvas using freehand or point-click modes. Line layers are essential for projection mapping—trace the edges of a building, stage element, or sculpture, then animate the lines to bring the surface to life.
Stroke effects
15 stroke effects transform simple lines into dynamic visuals:
- Glow, Neon — Soft or hard bloom around the stroke
- Snake — Animated segment that crawls along the path
- Laser — Thin, high-intensity beam with flare
- Pipe — 3D-shaded cylindrical stroke for PVC pipe tracing
- Electric, Fire, Smoke — Procedural simulations along the path
- Plus dash, dot, gradient, rainbow, taper, and more
Draw animation
Progress-based draw animation reveals the stroke over time, perfect for tracing architectural edges in projection mapping or creating stage line work that builds up during a performance. Control draw speed, easing, direction, and loop behavior.
Light Painting
A freeform drawing tool that simulates long-exposure light painting. Unlike the Line layer which produces structured paths, Light Painting creates expressive, organic trails with physics-based brush behavior.
Brush types
13 brush types each with distinct visual character:
Trail and persistence
Control how long painted strokes persist with trail effects, bloom radius, and afterglow duration. Echo mode creates time-delayed duplicates of your strokes. Stagger mode offsets multiple brush instances for complex layered trails. All brush parameters respond to pen pressure on supported tablets.
SVG
Import SVG vector files and bring them to life with animated fills and edge effects. SVG layers preserve the crisp, resolution-independent quality of vector art while adding dynamic motion that would be impossible in a static file.
Fill modes
7 fill modes control how SVG shapes are colored: solid, gradient, shimmer, liquid, noise, pattern, and animated texture. Gradient fills support linear, radial, and angular directions with customizable color stops.
Advanced effects
15+ SVG-specific effects that operate on the vector paths:
- Edge particles — Emit particles along the outline of shapes
- Energy pulses — Animated energy waves that travel along paths
- Lightning — Procedural electric arcs between path nodes
- Plasma — Fluid, glowing fill that animates within shape boundaries
- Connections — Animated lines linking SVG elements together
Text
Render text with full typographic control and animated presentation. Text layers support any system font, custom font loading, stroke outlines, and drop shadows.
Animation modes
18 text animation modes for dynamic typography:
3D extrusion
Extrude text into 3D geometry with adjustable depth, bevel size, and bevel segments. 3D text receives dynamic lighting and can be rotated on all three axes. Combine with material overrides for metallic, glass, or neon-lit dimensional type.
Color
Simple solid color or gradient layers. Despite their simplicity, color layers are essential building blocks in any composition.
Common uses
- Backgrounds — Solid black, colored, or gradient base behind other layers
- Color washes — Overlay a tinted layer with reduced opacity for mood
- Blend mode tinting — Combine with Multiply, Screen, or Overlay blend modes to shift the color palette of layers below
- Gradient transitions — Linear or radial gradients for smooth color fields
Screen Capture
Capture any screen, window, or application as a live video layer. Screen capture layers update in real time, letting you pull content from external applications directly into your visual composition.
Capture options
- Entire screen — Capture a full display output
- Application window — Capture a specific window, even when occluded
- System audio loopback — On Windows, capture the audio output from the selected source alongside the video
Screen capture layers are useful for incorporating web browsers, presentation software, game engines, or any other visual application into your projection mapping or VJ set.
Group Layers
Collapsible folders that organize multiple layers into a single unit. Group layers do not produce visuals on their own—instead, they act as containers that let you manage complex compositions more efficiently.
Group-level controls
- Opacity — Scale the opacity of all child layers at once
- Blend mode — Set a blend mode that applies to the composited group output
- Effects chain — Attach effects to the group, applied after all children are composited
- Visibility toggle — Show or hide the entire group with a single click
- Collapse — Fold the group to reduce clutter in the layer list
Nest groups inside other groups for deeper organizational hierarchies. Drag layers in and out of groups to restructure your composition.
Common Layer Properties
Every layer type in Ghost Arcade shares the following properties, accessible from the layer panel regardless of content type.
Opacity
0–100% transparency control. Opacity animates smoothly and is MIDI-mappable for live fader control. In VJ mode, clip opacity can be driven by the clip launcher.
Blend Mode
Controls how the layer composites with layers below it. Standard blend modes include Normal, Multiply, Screen, Overlay, Add, Difference, Exclusion, Soft Light, Hard Light, Color Dodge, Color Burn, Darken, Lighten, Hue, Saturation, Color, and Luminosity.
Visibility Toggle
Instantly show or hide a layer without changing its position in the stack. Hidden layers consume no GPU resources. Toggle with a click or bind to a MIDI button.
Effects Chain
Every layer has a drag-and-drop effects chain. Add any of the 89+ effects from 16 categories. Effects process in order from top to bottom—reorder them to change the result. Each effect has its own parameter set, all MIDI-mappable. See the Effects Pipeline documentation for the full catalog.
Warp Controls
Every layer supports per-layer warping for projection mapping alignment. Corner pin warping adjusts the four corners independently. Mesh warp divides the layer into a grid of control points for curved-surface mapping. Warp settings persist per layer and are independent of the global canvas warp. See Projection Mapping for detailed warp workflows.