Music-reactive visuals, from one screen to a synchronized second screen.
Spiroshader™ is a real-time music visualizer for the desktop. It plays MilkDrop presets, Shadertoy-style shader art and still images in one playlist, supports HDR output on compatible systems, can turn a webcam into an audio-reactive visual source, and can synchronize one follower copy over your local network.
It is built for people who want visuals that react to music without a production pipeline. Put it on a second monitor, run it fullscreen at a party, let it be a moving backdrop while you work, or curate a playlist for a stream, a performance or a living-room display.
Who it is for
- Listeners who want their music to look like something. Start with a playlist and let it run.
- Hosts and DJs who want music-reactive party visuals or a webcam-driven magic mirror for the room.
- Streamers and performers who want generative graphics behind or around a keyed subject, their logo on every visual, and supported video exchange with tools such as OBS.
- Installations and venues that want one display machine synchronized with the machine that plays the music and controlled from one place.
- Collectors who want to find presets in a large library by how they look, not just by filename, and keep their tuning between sessions.
- Preset authors who want credits and license metadata to travel with their files instead of getting separated from them.
What it plays
| Content | What it is | Where it comes from |
|---|---|---|
| MilkDrop presets | The classic music-visualization format, versions 1 and 2, including custom shaders, waves, shapes and sprites | Spiroshader’s own included presets, and compatible files you add yourself |
| Shader presets | Shadertoy-style GPU shaders, single- and multipass, with their own style of audio reactivity | Included presets and your own .stoy files |
| Images | PNG, JPEG, TGA, DDS, Radiance HDR and OpenEXR | Your own files |
Included presets during Early Access. Spiroshader ships with a small, curated library of its own presets, and we are expanding the included set during Early Access. Spiroshader can also index, measure and play compatible presets you add yourself, from a folder or as pack files. Third-party presets are not included, and WiderUp does not review or endorse them: their authors’ licenses apply, and you use them at your own risk. Preset licensing explains how Spiroshader shows the credits and license information a preset carries.
What it runs on
Spiroshader runs natively on each platform’s own graphics interface, with no translation layer. It uses Vulkan, Direct3D 12, Metal or OpenGL. HDR output is available with Vulkan, Direct3D 12 and Metal on HDR-capable displays.
| Platform | Store | Status | Graphics | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Windows | Steam | Early Access | Direct3D 12 (default), Vulkan, OpenGL | HDR with Windows HDR enabled; Spout in and out (Direct3D 12, OpenGL) |
| Linux | Steam | Early Access | Vulkan (default), OpenGL | HDR with Vulkan on an HDR-capable display; PipeWire in and out (input with Vulkan) |
| macOS | Steam | Early Access | Metal (default), OpenGL | HDR with Metal on Liquid Retina XDR and other HDR-capable displays; Syphon in and out (Metal) |
Full system requirements are on the Steam store page.
Audio comes from your system output (play anything, visualize it), a microphone or line input, or another Spiroshader instance over the network.
What it costs
Spiroshader is sold through Steam as a one-time purchase with no subscription. Steam shows the price in your currency, with applicable taxes, on the store page. Each running copy needs its own Steam copy of Spiroshader. With Steam Families, one copy can be used by one family member at a time, so running two at once needs two copies.
Where to get it
Spiroshader is available in Early Access on Steam.
The essentials, in one list
- MilkDrop 1 and 2, Shadertoy-style shaders and images in one playlist
- HDR rendering on supported Vulkan, Direct3D 12 and Metal setups
- Enhancement levels plus per-preset glow, vividness, clarity, speed, beat sensitivity, motion timing mode and audio analysis, each control linked to the global default or kept per preset
- Render resolution independent of the window, per preset
- Performance profiles that set every performance setting in one click; the first start picks one for your graphics hardware
- A library database for thousands of presets: instant search across loose files and packs with live preview, tags, six measured characteristics with optional background measurement, two-way filters by characteristic, rating, favorites and skip marks in search, and a metric filter on the playlist
- Playlists with durations, shuffle weighted by your ratings, favorites and skip marks, and a lock that holds the current preset; saved, loaded, imported and exported as files; keyboard, mouse, gamepad and touch
- Crossfades with a library of animated blend styles, hard cuts, automatic cuts on musical peaks
- Packages: install collections as single files, enable or disable them as a unit, or build your own
- Steam Cloud: ratings, favorites, skip marks, per-preset settings and tags follow you to your other computers with the same presets installed
- Credits and a copyable credit block from preset metadata, a starting point to check against the applicable license
- Webcam magic mirror with green-screen keying
- A composite mixer for cameras, images and the preset itself: up to four layers, chroma key on each, one effect before and one after the mix, and up to 16 sprites, such as a logo watermark or a camera picture-in-picture
- Spout, Syphon and PipeWire in and out
- Flash protection, a blackout key and a flicker filter: best effort, not a safety guarantee (see the health warning)
- One follower: a second copy on another machine, with its own license and Steam account, follows with audio streaming; Conductor Mode leads without rendering locally; both run the same Spiroshader version
- Multi-display layouts on one machine: a horizontal or vertical stripe, or a 2×2 wall
- JSON-RPC remote control for scripts, show control and music players