Hey GDevelop community!
I’ve been working deep inside GDevelop’s source code and have successfully implemented several major systems natively into the engine — fully buildable, fully integrated, and accessible directly through the layer effects panel and the Jolt physics behavior. Everything is built in and works out of the box.
Here’s a full breakdown of what I added:
Post-Processing Effects (Native Layer Effects)
All effects are registered as native 3D layer effects — you just add them on your layer like any built-in effect. No workarounds needed.
Chromatic Aberration — Scene3D::ChromaticAberration
Splits the RGB channels radially from the screen center, simulating lens distortion. Strength increases toward the screen edges.
![Screenshot 2026-03-02 015649|690x371]
Parameters:
intensity(default:0.005)radialScale(default:1.0)enabled
Uses ShaderPass integrated with GDevelop’s shared texture capture pipeline (captureScene3DSharedTextures).
Color Grading — Scene3D::ColorGrading
Per-pixel screen-space color correction. Default values are tuned for a cold/horror cinematic look.
Parameters:
temperature(default:-0.3) — negative = cooler bluetint(default:-0.1) — negative = green shiftsaturation(default:0.8)contrast(default:1.2)brightness(default:0.95)enabled
Tone Mapping — Scene3D::ToneMapping
Applies HDR tone mapping directly on the renderer. Supports multiple industry-standard modes.
Parameters:
mode:ACESFilmic(default) |Reinhard|Cineon|Linearexposure(default:1.0)enabled
When enabled, it sets renderer.toneMapping, renderer.toneMappingExposure, and switches output to SRGBColorSpace. Cleanly reverts when disabled.
Screen-Space Reflections — Scene3D::ScreenSpaceReflections
Registered in the post-processing pipeline as SSR. Uses depth + scene color to perform ray tracing in screen space, with up to 64 internal steps and a refinement pass for accuracy.
Parameters:
intensity(default:0.75)maxDistance(default:420)thickness(default:4)enabled
Step count adapts based on quality setting: low = 12, medium = 20, high = 28.
Depth of Field — Scene3D::DepthOfField
Registered as DOF. Reconstructs distance from the depth buffer and applies a Gaussian blur (7x7 kernel) based on distance from the focus plane. Blur strength is scaled by quality: dofBlurScale — 0.65 / 0.9 / 1.05.
Parameters:
focusDistance(default:400)focusRange(default:250)maxBlur(default:6)enabled
Volumetric Fog — Scene3D::VolumetricFog
Registered as FOG. Volumetric ray marching shader with transmittance calculation. Gathers lighting from PointLight and SpotLight sources (up to 16 lights) and computes per-light attenuation inside the volume.
Parameters:
fogColordensity(default:0.012)lightScatter(default:1)maxDistance(default:1200)enabled
Step count adapts based on quality: low = 18, medium = 30, high = 44.
SSAO — Scene3D::SSAO
Registered as SSAO. Reconstructs normals from the depth buffer and performs hemisphere sampling to calculate ambient occlusion. Maximum 32 samples, clamped by quality setting: low = 6, medium = 12, high = 20.
Parameters:
radius(default:60)intensity(default:0.9)bias(default:0.6)samples(default:16)enabled
Lighting Systems
Flickering Light Behavior — Scene3D::FlickeringLight
Introduced a Flickering Light behavior for dynamic light effects with fully configurable parameters. Attach it to any PointLight or SpotLight object to get realistic flickering with optional random failure states.
Parameters:
baseIntensity(default:1.0)flickerSpeed(default:10.0)flickerStrength(default:0.4)failChance— probability of a momentary blackout per second (default:0.02)offDuration— how long the light stays off during a failure event (default:0.1s)enabled
Uses a sine + noise signal blended together, writing intensity natively via updateDoubleParameter('intensity', ...).
Directional Light — Full CSM Shadow System
I heavily upgraded Scene3D::DirectionalLight with a Cascaded Shadow Map (CSM) system, alongside new shadow properties and stabilization features.
What’s new:
- Enhanced lighting effects with new shadow properties and stabilization features — a targeted upgrade to GDevelop’s existing DirectionalLight system directly in the source code
- 3 shadow cascades with practical split distribution via
cascadeSplitLambda - Each cascade has its own shadow quality (near = high detail, far = soft)
- Shadow stabilization — projection snaps to texel grid in light-space, eliminating shadow swimming as the camera moves
- Two anchor modes:
shadowFollowCamera = true— shadows follow the camera (good for moving characters)shadowFollowCamera = false— shadows anchored to a fixed world position (no movement artifacts)
- Auto bias/normalBias tuning per cascade
- Updated shadow map size to explicitly support
4096for high-end GPUs — respects GPU limits and scales accordingly - New shadow properties added for enhanced control over cascaded shadow behavior
New parameters:
maxShadowDistancecascadeSplitLambdashadowMapSizeshadowFollowLeadshadowFollowCamera
Rim Light — Scene3D::RimLight
Added a native Rim Light effect — a classic technique used in cinematic and game rendering to outline characters/objects with a colored backlight, separating them from the background.
- Fully native, registered as a 3D layer/object effect
- Controllable color, intensity, and falloff
- Works alongside existing lights without conflicts
SpotLight & PointLight — Origin Object + Target Support
Both SpotLight and PointLight now support:
- Specifying which object they originate from — the light source position follows the object in the scene
- A target object — the light direction is automatically aimed at the target every frame
- Center/pivot point customization
This makes dynamic lighting setups (e.g., a flashlight following a character and pointing at an enemy) fully native and event-driven.
Light Bounce System — Physics-Aware Lighting
Added a light bounce/reflection system that interacts with physics objects in the scene. PointLight and SpotLight now detect physics-enabled objects within their range and calculate reflected light contribution based on surface normals and material properties. This means objects that move, collide, or fall dynamically affect how light bounces in the scene — no baked lighting required.
Physics3D — Jolt Engine Joints & Ragdoll (Native Behavior)
All of this is built natively inside the Jolt physics behavior. Accessible through events and actions — no extensions needed.
Joint Types Supported
- Fixed, Point, Hinge, Slider, Distance, Cone, SwingTwist
- PulleyJoint — newly added (
Physics3D::PulleyJoint)
PulleyJoint — Physics3D::PulleyJoint
Simulates a rope-over-pulley system connecting two bodies.
Pulley A o----\
\ Body A
+--- total rope ---+
/ Body B
Pulley B o----/
Rule: lengthA + ratio * lengthB = constant
Actions available:
AddPulleyJointSetPulleyJointLength
Expressions:
PulleyJointCurrentLengthPulleyJointTotalLength
Advanced Joint Controls
Every joint type supports:
- Motors — drive rotation/translation
- Limits — min/max angle or position
- Springs — soft constraints
- Friction — resistance
- Solver overrides — priority, stability presets
- Break thresholds — joints snap when force/torque exceeds limit
SetJointBreakThresholds/ClearJointBreakThresholds
- Reaction monitoring:
JointReactionForceJointReactionTorque
Ragdoll System — Native Inside Jolt Behavior
A complete ragdoll system built natively into the physics behavior, with a built-in GUI for setup.
Features:
- Create ragdoll groups, add bodies, add joints, remove groups
- Ready-made states:
Active,Limp,Stiff,Frozen - Group-wide controls: damping, stiffness, friction, impulse, gravityScale
- Query: body count, joint count per group
- Collision filtering inside the ragdoll group
Humanoid Templates:
BuildHumanoidRagdoll— auto-builds a full humanoid skeletonBuildHumanoidRagdollFromTag— builds from tagged objects in scene
Skeleton structure:
Head -> Chest -> Hips
|-- UpperArmL -> LowerArmL
|-- UpperArmR -> LowerArmR
|-- ThighL -> ShinL
|-- ThighR -> ShinR
Build & Integration Notes
- Everything is implemented natively in the source code — fully buildable
- 3D effects and behaviors registered in:
Extensions/3D/JsExtension.js - Physics joints/ragdoll registered in:
Extensions/Physics3DBehavior/JsExtension.js - Post-processing integrates with GDevelop’s existing
PostProcessingStackon the layer - The ragdoll system includes a native GUI inside the behavior editor
Full List of All Available Layer Effects in This Build
Every effect currently available in the engine’s layer effect panel:
| Effect | Type | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Ambient light | Lighting | Built-in |
| Directional light | Lighting | Enhanced — CSM + stabilization + new shadow properties |
| Hemisphere light | Lighting | Built-in |
| Point light | Lighting | Enhanced — origin object + target support + light bounce |
| Spot light | Lighting | Enhanced — origin object + target support + light bounce |
| Rim Light | Lighting | Added — native cinematic rim lighting |
| Fog (exponential) | Atmosphere | Built-in |
| Fog (linear) | Atmosphere | Built-in |
| Volumetric fog | Atmosphere | Added — ray marching + multi-light scattering |
| Bloom | Post-Processing | Built-in |
| Brightness and contrast | Post-Processing | Built-in |
| Depth of field | Post-Processing | Added — Gaussian blur with focus plane |
| Exposure | Post-Processing | Built-in |
| Hue and saturation | Post-Processing | Built-in |
| Screen-space reflections | Post-Processing | Added — ray marching in screen space |
| SSAO | Post-Processing | Added — hemisphere sampling ambient occlusion |
| Skybox | Environment | Built-in |
| Chromatic Aberration | Post-Processing | Added — native shader pass |
| Color Grading | Post-Processing | Added — full color correction pipeline |
| Tone Mapping | Post-Processing | Added — ACES / Reinhard / Cineon / Linear |
Everything listed as “Added” or “Enhanced” was implemented directly in the source code and is fully buildable.
Happy to answer any questions or share more details about the implementation. This is all running natively in my build — no plugins, no external dependencies.
By Islam ibrahim
