Surface shaders

Per-window effects — blur, glass, borders, and ambience — with category, author, and tunable-parameter count.

Surface shaders draw on a window itself rather than on the zone overlay. 24 packs ship in-box across 4 categories. Blur and glass packs sample the scene behind the window through a downscaled multipass chain; border packs paint the frame; ambience packs tint, shadow, or texture the result. User packs drop into ~/.local/share/plasmazones/surface/ and hot-reload on save.

Packs are bound to windows through decoration profiles, so a rule can give one app frosted glass and a marching border while everything else stays plain. The two sibling families are overlay shaders for zone highlights and drag ghosts, and animations for open, close, minimize, and desktop-switch transitions.

Blur

Sample and blur the scene behind the window. Frosted, rippled, and bevelled-glass treatments that show through wherever the window itself is translucent.

blur preview pending
Blur A plain blur behind the window. The scene behind the surface is blurred and lightly tinted, and shows through wherever the window itself is translucent. The Content opacity parameter sets how much of the window content stays visible over the blur.
backdropmultipass 5 params
PlasmaZones
duotone preview pending
Duotone The scene behind the window blurred and remapped onto a two-colour gradient by brightness, the concert-poster look. Shadows take the first colour and highlights the second. It shows through wherever the window itself is translucent, and the Content opacity parameter sets how much of the window content stays visible over the gradient.
backdropmultipass 6 params
PlasmaZones
frosted-glass preview pending
Frosted Glass The phosphor-shell frosted panel look over a real blur. The scene behind the surface is blurred and tinted by a slowly turning two-colour gradient. A drifting crystalline grain and a soft vignette sit on top. Where nothing sits behind the surface it falls back to the original translucent gradient slab. The Content opacity parameter sets how much of the window content stays visible over the pane.
backdropmultipassanimated 12 params
PlasmaZones
glass preview pending
Glass A pane of glass over the scene behind the window. The backdrop is blurred and bends toward the edges like a bevelled lens, with slight colour fringing and a soft rim light. It shows through wherever the window itself is translucent, and the Content opacity parameter sets how much of the window content stays visible over the glass.
backdropmultipass 16 params
PlasmaZones
mosaic preview pending
Mosaic The scene behind the window pixelated into coarse cells instead of blurred, the privacy-glass look. Nothing behind the window is readable but its colours still show through. It shows through wherever the window itself is translucent, and the Content opacity parameter sets how much of the window content stays visible over the mosaic.
backdrop 5 params
PlasmaZones
phosphor-glass preview pending
Phosphor Glass Dark navy glass over a real blur that behaves like a phosphor screen. Bright content behind the surface excites a glowing response in the brand gradient, and the glow breathes like phosphor persistence. A slow diagonal sweep recharges the pane as it passes. Where nothing sits behind the surface it falls back to a translucent navy slab with the same shimmer. The Content opacity parameter sets how much of the window content stays visible over the glass.
backdropmultipassanimated 13 params
PlasmaZones
rain-glass preview pending
Rain on Glass The scene behind the window fogged by a blur, with rain droplets running down the pane. Each droplet refracts the scene and leaves a trail of beads that fade as it falls. Droplet size, rain amount, fall speed and refraction strength are this pack's own parameters. It shows through wherever the window itself is translucent, and the Content opacity parameter sets how much of the window content stays visible over the rain.
backdropmultipassanimated 7 params
PlasmaZones
rippled-glass preview pending
Rippled Glass A pane of rippled glass over the scene behind the window. The blurred backdrop warps across the whole pane under a drifting watery distortion, with slight colour fringing and soft highlights along the ripples. It shows through wherever the window itself is translucent, and the Content opacity parameter sets how much of the window content stays visible over the ripples.
backdropmultipassanimated 10 params
PlasmaZones

Borders

Paint the window frame. Static, gradient, animated sweep, marching-ants, and audio-reactive variants, plus a double-stroke and an RGB cycle.

border-audio preview pending
Audio Border A rounded border that pulses with the music. The bass energy pushes the border toward a pulse colour and brightens it on each beat. It reacts on window borders, OSDs, and popups whenever the audio visualizer is turned on, and stays a plain static frame when it is off.
borderanimatedaudio-reactive 6 params
PlasmaZones
border preview pending
Border Rounded corners and a window border. Clips the surface to a rounded rectangle and lays a configurable border band over the desktop, so a translucent border blends with what is behind the surface rather than its own content. Width, corner radius and colour are this pack's own parameters.
border 8 params
PlasmaZones
border-circuit preview pending
Circuit Border Rounded corners and a window border textured as a hex circuit, with bright data pulses travelling around the band over a dim base grid. The cells flicker faintly and the whole band dims when the surface loses focus. Width, corner radius, hex size, pulse count, pulse speed and the two colours are this pack's own parameters.
borderanimated 7 params
PlasmaZones
border-double preview pending
Double Border Rounded corners with two concentric border lines separated by a clear gap, each with its own width and colour. The lines dim when the surface loses focus. Both widths, the gap, the corner radius and the two colours are this pack's own parameters.
border 6 params
PlasmaZones
border-gradient preview pending
Gradient Border Rounded corners and a window border coloured by a still two-colour gradient across the frame. The gradient direction is set in degrees, and the band dims when the surface loses focus. Width, corner radius, angle and the two colours are this pack's own parameters.
border 5 params
PlasmaZones
border-marching preview pending
Marching Ants Rounded corners and a dashed window border whose dashes march around the frame, the classic selection marquee. Dash count, fill, march speed and the dash and gap colours are this pack's own parameters, and the motion dims when the surface loses focus.
borderanimated 7 params
PlasmaZones
border-phosphor preview pending
Phosphor Border Rounded corners and a window border carrying the Phosphor brand gradient from cyan to rose, flowing slowly around the frame with a soft gleam orbiting the band. The whole band dims when the surface loses focus. Width, corner radius, flow speed, gleam and the four gradient stops are this pack's own parameters.
borderanimated 10 params
PlasmaZones
border-pulse preview pending
Pulse Border Rounded corners and a window border that breathes between two colours on a smooth cycle, with an optional brightness dip at the low end. The pulse dims when the surface loses focus. Width, corner radius, pulse speed, dip depth and the two colours are this pack's own parameters.
borderanimated 6 params
PlasmaZones
border-rgb preview pending
RGB Cycle Rounded corners and a window border painted as a full colour wheel wrapped around the frame, slowly rotating. The classic gaming-rig ring. Set the speed to zero for a still rainbow. Width, corner radius, cycle speed, rainbow count, saturation and brightness are this pack's own parameters.
borderanimated 6 params
PlasmaZones
border-sweep preview pending
Sweep Border Rounded corners and a window border with a moving colour sweep. Two colours circulate around the border band, and the sweep dims when the surface loses focus. Width, corner radius, sweep speed and the two colours are this pack's own parameters.
borderanimated 5 params
PlasmaZones

Ambience

Tint, texture, or surround the window. Drop shadows, glows, duotone grades, and drifting particle effects.

shadow preview pending
Drop Shadow A soft dark shadow behind the window, cast slightly downward the way a real light would. It follows the frame's rounded corners and leaves the window content untouched. It softens when the window loses focus.
7 params
PlasmaZones
fireflies preview pending
Fireflies A handful of soft glowing sparks drifting around the window in the clear margin outside its frame, each blinking on its own rhythm. The swarm dims when the surface loses focus. Count, spark size, drift range, drift speed and the two spark colours are this pack's own parameters.
animated 6 params
PlasmaZones
glow preview pending
Glow A soft coloured halo that hugs the surface's edge, brightest against the window and fading out over the glow size. It follows the frame's rounded corners and dims when the surface loses focus.
5 params
PlasmaZones
opacity-tint preview pending
Opacity and Tint Fades the window's surface and can wash it with a colour of your choice. Opacity dims the whole surface, while the tint blends it toward the tint colour by the amount you set. Leave the tint strength at zero for a plain fade.
3 params
PlasmaZones
phosphor-motes preview pending
Phosphor Motes The window sheds embers of luminous dust from its own frame. Each mote is born on an edge and drifts straight out from it through the clear margin, so the dust radiates evenly in every direction, trailing its own path history back toward the frame. Near motes are larger, brighter and faster than far ones, a few flare into rare bright embers, and a fine halo of twinkling micro dust hugs the frame. Colour burns through the brand gradient over each mote's life, born cyan at the frame and fading out rose at the end of its drift. The dust dims when the surface loses focus.
animated 12 params
PlasmaZones

Focus

React to whether the window has focus, dimming or fading it when it doesn't.

focus-fade preview pending
Focus Fade Washes out the window itself while it is unfocused, so the focused window stands out at a glance. Unfocused windows lose saturation, darken slightly and can take an optional tint. The focused window passes through untouched. Desaturation, dimming, tint strength and the tint colour are this pack's own parameters.
4 params
PlasmaZones

Using surface shaders

Shader authoring guide → GLSL 450 contract, uniform block, metadata schema, multipass, audio reactivity.
phosphor-surface → The library behind these packs: registry, decoration profiles, uniform packing.
Overlay shaders → The sibling family that draws zone highlights, snap previews, and drag ghosts.
Bundled pack sources on GitHub → Every pack listed here, complete with GLSL source for reference.