VKIntox is a next-generation extension layer built on top of the celebrated vkShade and vkBasalt post-processing frameworks. Where vkShade gives you the canvas and vkBasalt gives you the brush, VKIntox hands you an entire atelier of depth resolve modes — fine-tuned, art-directed, and engineered for people who believe a frame is not truly finished until its depth has been sculpted with intention.
Inspired by the original concept pioneered by buwryme/VKIntox, this repository takes the foundational idea of expanded depth resolve modes and pushes it into new territory. We asked a simple question: what if depth wasn't just a buffer, but a material? Something you could carve, glaze, weather, and illuminate? The answer is a toolkit of resolve modes that treat every pixel's Z-value as a story waiting to be told.
This project is for the tinkerers, the shader poets, the late-night colorists, and the engineers who measure beauty in nanosecond precision. It is not merely a plugin. It is a philosophy of depth.
- 🎛️ Expanded Depth Resolve Mode Library — A curated collection of resolve modes beyond the conventional lineup, each designed around a distinct visual philosophy: cinematic softness, technical sharpness, painterly diffusion, and everything in between.
- 🖥️ Responsive UI Layer — Configuration surfaces that adapt gracefully across resolutions, DPI scales, and aspect ratios, so the control panel feels native whether you are on an ultrawide or a modest laptop panel.
- 🌐 Multilingual Support — Interface strings and diagnostic messages localized across a growing set of languages, because depth is a universal language and your tooling should speak yours too.
- 🕛 24/7 Customer Support — Round-the-clock assistance channels for integration questions, resolve-mode tuning advice, and compatibility troubleshooting, regardless of your timezone.
- ⚡ Low-Latency Resolve Pipeline — Resolve modes are implemented with an eye on frame-time budgets, keeping overhead lean even when stacking multiple passes.
- 🧩 Modular Mode Registration — Drop in new resolve modes through a clean registration surface without rewriting the core dispatch logic.
- 🔬 Live Parameter Introspection — Inspect, tweak, and hot-swap mode parameters while the renderer is running, perfect for iterative look development.
- 🎨 Art-Directed Presets — Ready-made parameter bundles that evoke moods rather than numbers: "Foggy Morning," "Neon Rain," "Archival Film," and more.
- 🧱 Cross-Compositor Compatibility — Designed to coexist with common Linux compositor workflows and Vulkan layer stacks.
- 📊 Diagnostics Dashboard — Frame-time telemetry, mode-switch history, and buffer health indicators presented in a readable, human-friendly format.
- 🔁 Deterministic Mode Behavior — Same inputs, same outputs, every time — essential for reproducible pipelines and regression testing.
- 🧠 Documented Internals — Inline documentation and a companion architecture write-up so contributors can extend the system with confidence.
Most depth resolve implementations treat the depth buffer as a utilitarian artifact — something to be consumed and discarded. VKIntox treats it as a first-class creative resource. The distinction is subtle but transformative.
When you expand the vocabulary of resolve modes, you expand the expressive range of every scene that passes through your pipeline. A soft resolve can turn a harsh edge into a memory. A sharp resolve can turn a distant silhouette into a statement. VKIntox exists to give you that vocabulary, organized, documented, and ready to be played with.
VKIntox is organized around three conceptual layers:
- The Resolve Core — The heart of the system, responsible for dispatching depth data through the active resolve mode. It is intentionally minimal, predictable, and fast.
- The Mode Registry — A registry of resolve modes, each self-describing with metadata, parameter schemas, and default presets. Modes are isolated, so a misbehaving mode cannot sink the ship.
- The Presentation Shell — The UI, localization, and diagnostics layer that makes the system approachable. This is where responsiveness, multilingual support, and the 24/7 support touchpoints live.
This separation means you can swap the shell without touching the core, register new modes without touching the shell, and profile the core in isolation. Clean boundaries, sane defaults, and room to grow.
Below is a non-exhaustive tour of the resolve mode families VKIntox ships with. Each family contains multiple modes, and each mode contains tunable parameters. Think of this as a museum wing rather than a catalog.
Modes that soften depth transitions, ideal for atmospheric scenes, dream sequences, and anything that benefits from a gentle hand. Parameters control falloff curvature, edge preservation strength, and chromatic response.
Modes that sharpen depth discontinuities with surgical intent. Useful for technical visualization, architectural previews, and scene-debug views. Parameters govern threshold sensitivity and edge gain.
Modes that reinterpret depth as an artistic substrate — introducing controlled noise, stippling, and tonal banding reminiscent of traditional media. Parameters manage grain scale, palette influence, and stroke coherence.
Modes that fuse depth with color transforms, producing results that feel like light bending around geometry. Parameters cover hue rotation, saturation coupling, and luminance weighting.
Modes that emphasize geometric form through depth contours, isolines, and gradient amplification. Excellent for analysis and for stylized aesthetics that lean on structural clarity.
Each family is documented in the repository's extended reference material, including parameter ranges, interaction notes, and suggested preset pairings.
VKIntox configuration is designed to be readable by humans and machines alike. Parameters are named for what they do, not for what they are. Defaults are chosen to be pleasant out of the box, and every parameter has a documented safe range.
Presets are first-class citizens. You can author a preset, share it, version it, and load it without touching the underlying mode definitions. This separation of "engine" and "look" is what makes iterative look development a pleasure rather than a chore.
The presentation shell ships with a localization framework that supports right-to-left layouts, pluralization rules, and context-aware string selection. Adding a new language involves providing a translation bundle; no code changes are required. The goal is simple: if you use VKIntox in your language, VKIntox should feel like it was made in your language.
Depth resolve is a per-pixel operation, which means performance is a first-class concern. VKIntox modes are written with the following principles:
- Bounded work per pixel — no unbounded loops, no surprises.
- Coherent memory access — resolve reads and writes are organized for cache friendliness.
- Optional quality tiers — each mode exposes quality tiers so you can trade fidelity for frame-time when the moment demands it.
- Telemetry hooks — the diagnostics dashboard gives you the numbers you need to make informed tuning decisions.
Performance is not a bug to be fixed later; it is a design constraint honored from the first line of code.
Confidence in a resolve pipeline comes from reproducibility. VKIntox includes:
- Reference frame sets — deterministic inputs with expected outputs for regression testing.
- Mode isolation tests — each mode is validated independently before integration.
- Cross-platform smoke tests — sanity checks across common driver and compositor configurations.
- Performance regression tracking — frame-time baselines captured per release.
If a mode drifts, the tests catch it. If a driver quirks, the smoke tests flag it. Quiet reliability is the goal.
Support is available around the clock — literally 24/7 customer support — through the repository's discussion channels and issue tracker. Whether you are a first-time user unsure which mode to pick, or a seasoned contributor wrestling with a tricky shader optimization, there is a channel for you.
Community contributions are welcomed in the form of new resolve modes, localization bundles, presets, documentation improvements, and compatibility reports. The project grows when its users grow with it.
VKIntox operates entirely locally. It does not phone home, does not collect telemetry without explicit opt-in, and does not require network access to function. Your frames, your depth buffers, your business. The diagnostics system is local-first and designed for your eyes only.
VKIntox is released under the MIT License.
You are welcome to use, modify, and distribute this software in accordance with the terms of that license. A copy of the license text accompanies this repository, and the canonical reference is available at the Open Source Initiative's license library.
See the LICENSE file in this repository for the full text, or consult the MIT License reference page maintained by the Open Source Initiative.
Copyright (c) 2026 VKIntox Contributors.
VKIntox is provided "as is," without warranty of any kind, express or implied, including but not limited to the warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and noninfringement. In no event shall the authors or copyright holders be liable for any claim, damages, or other liability, whether in an action of contract, tort, or otherwise, arising from, out of, or in connection with the software or the use or other dealings in the software.
VKIntox is an independent extension project inspired by the vkShade and vkBasalt ecosystems. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by the maintainers of those projects unless explicitly stated. Compatibility with third-party compositors, drivers, and layers is provided on a best-effort basis and may vary across configurations. Users are responsible for ensuring that their use of VKIntox complies with the terms of service of any software with which it is combined.
Visual results may vary depending on hardware, driver version, compositor behavior, and the phase of the moon. The authors make no guarantee that any particular resolve mode will produce any particular aesthetic outcome in any particular scene. Experimentation is encouraged; expectations should be calibrated accordingly.
- 🧱 Expanded structural mode family with contour animation support.
- 🌐 Additional localization bundles and a community translation portal.
- 📊 Enhanced diagnostics with exportable frame-time reports.
- 🎨 Preset marketplace integration (community-driven, moderation-light).
- 🧪 Formalized conformance test suite for third-party modes.
- 🖥️ Refined responsive UI with adaptive density for small displays.
- 📚 Expanded documentation with annotated shader walkthroughs.
The roadmap is a living document. Priorities shift as the community speaks, and the community is always speaking.
Depth is not a number. Depth is a feeling. VKIntox exists to give that feeling a vocabulary — a set of resolve modes expressive enough to match the scenes in your head and disciplined enough to run at the frame rates your hardware demands.
Welcome to the atelier. Pick a mode. Turn a dial. See what happens.