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Preset shaders, Simple through Extreme
These presets are complexity, not a pack
Volume Shader does not ship downloadable shader packs. Simple, Standard, Advanced, and Extreme are four loads of the same Mandelbulb kernel. Each button changes iteration count and ray steps, rebuilds the shader, and restarts the work. You pick them under the canvas on Run Volume Shader.
- Same scene, more or less loop work per pixel
- Changing level is not a new test URL
- A custom GLSL edit in Advanced is not a preset
What each level is for
Ray marching is a loop per pixel. Extra iterations cost more than extra triangles in a typical game scene. That is why Extreme can look like a slideshow on a mid range phone and still look fine on a discrete GPU. The short list also lives on What is Volume Shader.
- Simple: fewer iterations. Use it if Standard hitchs on an older phone.
- Standard: the classic Volume Shader load. Use this to compare two devices.
- Advanced: more ray work. Use it when Standard looks easy.
- Extreme: stress. Hold it only if you want heat.
Fair compares stay on one preset
Extreme on a hot phone versus Simple on a cooled laptop is not a comparison. Lock the same URL and the same complexity. Standard is the default comparison point. Write the level next to the FPS. Method notes are on GPU benchmark and how to interpret results.
Advanced the button vs Advanced the editor
Advanced as a complexity button still uses the site kernel with more ray work. Advanced as a panel on the same page opens a GLSL editor. Mixing those two in a quote confuses the result. If you changed the kernel, say so. Developer notes for that editor are in the BM test developers guide.
When Extreme is the wrong preset
If you want a number you can write down, stay on Standard after a cool down. If you want heat and throttling, Extreme for one to two minutes is the point. That path is GPU stress test. First-run steps without stressing the phone are in getting started.