Scanline Stack: Retro Screen Post-Processing for Godot 4

Make your Godot 4 game look like it runs on a CRT, a VHS tape, a PS1 or a Game Boy screen: add one node, pick one of 10 presets, done.

Try before you buy: download Scanline Stack Lite free (3 presets).

Or try it right here: the browser demo above runs all 10 presets. Click or tap the left or right half of the screen, or use the arrow keys, to switch presets.

Works in the Compatibility, Mobile and Forward+ renderers (Godot 4.4+). Only canvas_item screen shaders, nothing Forward+-only.

What's inside

10 presets (9 looks + Off), plus Custom. Each preset is a starting point: pick it, then change any value.

• Arcade CRT - curved glass, scanlines, RGB phosphor mask and a light colour fringe.
• Handheld 4-Color - four-shade green LCD look with a pixel grid.
• PS1 - low-resolution, 15-bit colour with a 4x4 dither. This is a screen effect only: it does not do 3D vertex snapping or affine texturing.
• VHS Tape - line wobble, tracking band, colour smear and tape noise, with film grain, a soft CRT and a colour fringe.
• Dither 1-Bit - two-colour (near-black and cream) 8x8 ordered dither.
• Amber Terminal - three-colour amber dither behind a curved, scanlined CRT.
• Comic Poster - flat colour steps, boosted saturation, a light colour fringe and grain.
• Cinema Fringe - strong lens-style colour fringing, grain and a vignette.
• Retro PC Dither - 4x4 ordered dither that reduces each colour channel to 3 steps.
• Off - everything hidden. Custom - set the passes yourself.

8 passes that stack in this order. Switch each one on separately, or use any of them as a plain .gdshader on your own ColorRect:

1. PSX - low-res pixels, colour bit depth, dither, saturation
2. VHS - line jitter, tracking band, colour bleed, noise
3. Chromatic aberration - sideways or lens-style (radial) colour shift
4. Posterize - flat colour steps, optional brightness-only mode
5. Dither - Bayer 2x2, 4x4 or 8x8; per-channel levels or a 2 to 4 colour palette
6. Game Boy - four-colour LCD with optional dither and pixel grid
7. Film grain - animated, adjustable size and speed
8. CRT - curvature, scanlines, phosphor mask, vignette, beam softness, flicker, rounded corners (last, so the glass shape sits over everything else)

Also in the zip: a demo scene (art drawn by code, no third-party assets), a smoke test scene you can run in your own Godot version, README.md with the full API, and LICENSE.txt. Bloom/glow is not included on purpose: Godot's own WorldEnvironment glow already covers it.

Drop it in (about a minute)

1. Copy addons/retro_screen_fx into your project (no plugin to enable) and add a RetroScreenFX node to your scene.
2. Pick a preset in the inspector. Tweak any value in the per-pass groups (PSX, VHS, CRT and so on).
3. Optional: drive it from code.

$RetroScreenFX.apply_preset("VHS Tape")   # by name or by enum value
$RetroScreenFX.next_preset()              # cycle presets from code
$RetroScreenFX.enabled = false            # master switch

Already using Scanline Stack Lite? The full pack uses the same folder, node name and preset values: replace the folder and your scenes keep their settings.

Tested on

Our smoke test (164 checks) passes on Godot 4.4.1 in the Compatibility, Mobile and Forward+ renderers, windowed, on one Windows desktop GPU. The browser demo above is a Web (Compatibility renderer) export of the same demo. Not tested yet: real phones, other GPUs, other Godot versions.

Known limits

The effect only changes what is drawn below its own CanvasLayer, so a HUD on a higher layer stays untouched (the demo puts its label above the effect on purpose). The high-curvature CRT also pushes the extreme corners into a dark bezel, so keep important HUD out of them.

License

Commercial use is OK in your own games and projects, no credit required. You may change the files. You may not resell, share or redistribute the files (modified or not), alone or inside another asset pack, template or plugin. Shipping the effects inside an exported game is always allowed. Full text in LICENSE.txt.

Made with AI help

This pack was made with the help of an AI coding assistant. The shaders were written from scratch from the underlying maths; no third-party shader code was copied. The demo visuals are procedural.

Get all 10 presets and 8 passes for $6. Not sure yet? Scanline Stack Lite is free: same node, 3 presets.

More from REEBOO Labs

• Stylized VFX Pack 2 for Godot 4 (61 stylized VFX)
• Sprite Juice Kit 2D for Godot 4
• Pixel VFX Mega Pack