PIRL -- Perceptual Illusion Rendering + Lighting

Perception-driven rendering optimization framework for Godot 4.x, built by Inner Void Studio.

Full architecture: addons/pirl/docs/PIRLSpec.md

Status

Block 2 -- Core Shaders, done. pirl_surface (Stage 1+2), pirl_post (Stage 5), and pirl_particle are in this drop. The originally-planned pirl_shadow.gdshader was dropped as a separate file -- see the note in PIRLSpec.md Section 7 for why -- with its one genuine technique (alpha- cutout shadows) folded into pirl_surface instead.

Install

1. Copy addons/pirl/ into your Godot project's addons/ folder.
2. Project Settings -> Plugins -> enable PIRL.
3. A PIRL autoload singleton is now available game-wide.

What's in this drop

addons/pirl/
├── plugin.cfg              Godot plugin manifest
├── plugin.gd                Editor entry point, registers the PIRL autoload
├── core/
│   └── pirl_renderer.gd     Global pipeline controller (skeleton -- Blocks 3-4 fill this in)
├── shaders/
│   ├── pirl_surface.gdshader   Stage 1 + Stage 2 -- base render + perceptual lighting
│   ├── pirl_post.gdshader      Stage 5 -- post-processing illusion
│   └── pirl_particle.gdshader  Lightweight GPU particle effects
├── resources/
│   └── pirl_preset.gd       PIRLPreset -- the schema every preset is built from
└── docs/
    └── PIRLSpec.md           Full technical specification

Roadmap

Block	Contents	Status
1. Foundation	Spec, plugin skeleton, preset schema	Done
2. Core Shaders	pirl_surface / pirl_post / pirl_particle (shadows folded into pirl_surface)	Done
3. Rendering Systems	Renderer, temporal upscaler, foveal pass, lighting manager	--
4. Optimization Systems	LOD, budget manager, physics optimizer, texture streamer	--
5. Presets	semi_realistic / stylized / horror / cel_shading	--
6. Tools + Testing	Demo scene, benchmarks, doc polish	--