A single-file, no-install tool for browsing, previewing, and lightly
editing Quake 3 .shader files, with a live 3D preview of
how each shader actually looks in-game: textures, blending,
deformVertexes wave ripple, tcMod/rgbGen/alphaGen
animation, alpha cutouts, and more.
Loading shaders
- 📁 Set baseq3 location: point this at your mod's
baseq3 folder (or any folder with a textures/ tree) so textures can resolve. Do this first.
- 📄 Load single .shader: look at one file on its own.
- 📚 Load all .shaders: index every shader under baseq3 at once.
Use either Load single .shader or Load all .shaders.
Editing & saving
- ↑ Apply edits: re-parses your hand-edited text and refreshes the preview, without saving.
- ↺ Revert: snaps back to the last-loaded/saved version. Always safe to use.
- 💾 Save: in Chrome/Edge with real file access, writes straight back into the original
.shader file on disk. Otherwise, downloads the edited shader as a new file instead.
About that permission prompt
The "Allow this site to edit files?" dialog is your browser's own File
System Access permission prompt,it's what lets Save write directly
back to disk instead of only downloading copies. Choosing Allow
is expected and safe; it only grants access to the folder you just
picked, nothing else on your machine.
Browser support
Full read/write (in-place saving, remembered baseq3 location) needs
the File System Access API, Chrome and Edge only. Firefox and
Safari still work for loading and previewing, but Save always
downloads a new file instead of writing in place.
Known limitations
deformVertexes wave is a visual approximation tuned for this small preview plane, not an exact in-game reproduction.$lightmap/$whiteimage render as flat white (a neutral multiply no-op), there's no real BSP lightmap data to show.- Only uncompressed/RLE 24-/32-bit truecolor
.tga is supported (no colormapped or greyscale TGAs), plus whatever formats the browser itself can decode.
Credits
Built by Yves 'evillair' Allaire. Code written with Claude (Anthropic)