HyperGlow by @directmessage

Installation

Download the HyperGlow plugin
Unzip the downloaded zip file
Drag the HyperGlow.zip file onto the Cavalry interface
Find HyperGlow in the Add Layers window

Tips & Techniques

Viewport Zoom

Important! Set your viewport zoom to 100% for an accurate preview of the filter's result. Viewport scale significantly affects how the filter appears in the viewport, but not how it renders to the final output — the effect operates on the available canvas pixel space, which changes with zoom level. Zooming beyond 100% also forces the effect to process more pixels, so performance will drop at higher zoom levels.

Performance

Use Low or Medium quality during design work
Switch to High or Ultra for final renders
Normal glow style is fastest (separable 2-pass blur)
Star mode is slowest (4 directions sampled per pixel per sample)

Getting Deep Glow-Style Results

Set Threshold to 0.4-0.6 for highlight-only bloom
Use Glow Radius of 250+ for cinematic bloom
Set Blend Mode to Add and Intensity to ~3.0
Enable Film Grain (~3-5) & Glow Soften (~30) to break up banding

Rainbow / Neon Glows

Set Chroma Shift to 0.5-1.0 for visible rainbow dispersion
Boost Glow Saturation to 0.5+ for vivid colors
Works best with Add or Screen blend modes

Avoiding Banding

Use Glow Soften (20-60) to dissolve visible banding rings
Increase Quality to High or Ultra for finer base blur
Enable Film Grain (10-30) to mask any remaining artifacts
Lower Falloff for wider, smoother spread

Living / Animated Glow

Enable Shimmer with moderate Amount (0.3-0.5) for organic breathing glow
Pair with matching Glow Style — e.g., Star shimmer for Star glow
Use low Shimmer Frequency (2-5) for slow atmospheric movement
Use high Shimmer Frequency (50+) for sparkle / fizz effects
Lower Shimmer Threshold to keep the core stable while edges shimmer

Controls Reference

General Settings

Grow Bounds

Type: Int2 (X, Y)
Default: Auto-connected to Glow Radius

Expands the layer bounding box to prevent glow clipping at the edges. Automatically scales with Glow Radius via the setup script (radius * 2 + 200). Increase manually if glow still appears clipped at extreme radius or low falloff values.

Glow Style

Type: Enum
Options: Normal | Vertical | Horizontal | Cross | Star
Default: Normal

Selects the directional shape of the glow:

Normal: Circular bloom emanating equally in all directions (separable H+V Gaussian blur)
Vertical: Glow stretches vertically only
Horizontal: Glow stretches horizontally only
Cross: Glow stretches along both horizontal and vertical axes simultaneously
Star: Glow stretches along 4 axes (horizontal, vertical, and both 45-degree diagonals)

Glow Diffusion

Type: Float
Default: 0.0
Range: 0 to 1

Only visible when Glow Style is not Normal.

Blends a natural circular aura into directional glow styles. At 0, the glow is purely directional. At 1, the directional glow is fully diffused into a circular bloom. Use moderate values (0.2-0.5) to soften harsh directional edges while maintaining the overall glow shape.

Glow Soften

Type: Float
Default: 0.0
Range: 0 to 100

Smooths banding artifacts in the glow by applying a post-process blur. The blur radius adapts automatically to the current Glow Radius and Falloff settings. At 0, no softening is applied and there is no performance cost. Higher values progressively dissolve visible banding rings, especially useful at large glow radii and high intensity.

Tip: Start around 20-40 for subtle smoothing. Values above 60 produce very soft, diffused results.

Threshold

Type: Float
Default: 0.5
Range: 0 to 1

Luminance cutoff for glow emission. Only pixels brighter than this value produce glow. At 0, everything glows. At 1, only pure white produces glow.

Threshold Softness

Type: Float
Default: 0.1
Range: 0 to 0.5

Width of the smooth transition around the threshold. Higher values create a softer, more gradual falloff between glowing and non-glowing areas. Prevents harsh banding at the glow boundary.

Blur & Intensity

Glow Radius

Type: Float
Default: 50
Min: 0

Size of the glow blur in pixels. Higher values create larger, softer glows. There is no upper limit, enabling massive bloom effects.

Note: The Grow Bounds (padding) auto-scales with glow radius via the setup script. If glow appears clipped, increase the Grow Bounds manually.

Quality

Type: Enum
Options: Low | Medium | High | Ultra
Default: Medium

Number of blur samples per pass:

Low: 32 samples (fastest, may show banding on large radii)
Medium: 64 samples (good balance)
High: 96 samples (smooth, slower)
Ultra: 127 samples (maximum quality, slowest)

Performance: Quality has a direct impact on viewport performance. Use Low or Medium during design and switch to High or Ultra for final output if your playback frame rate is dropping.

Falloff

Type: Float
Default: 2.0
Range: 0.5 to 8.0

Controls the Gaussian sigma relative to the radius (sigma = radius / falloff). Higher values create tighter, more concentrated glows. Lower values spread the glow wider and softer.

Intensity

Type: Float
Default: 1.5
Range: 0 to 10

Brightness multiplier for the glow. Values above 1 create overbright, blown-out bloom. At 0, the glow is invisible.

Exposure

Type: Float
Default: 0.0
Range: -3 to 3

Fine exposure adjustment in photographic stops (power of 2). Each stop doubles or halves the brightness. Use for subtle brightness tweaks alongside the coarser Intensity control.

Color & Output

Chroma Shift

Type: Float
Default: 0.0
Range: -1.8 to 1.5

Progressive chromatic dispersion across the glow. Creates rainbow spectrum effects using a combination of per-channel blur separation and spectrum tinting. Works on any source color, including pure white.

0: No color dispersion
Positive/Negative: Increasing values add more rainbow cycles

Glow Saturation

Type: Float
Default: 0.0
Range: -1 to 1

Adjusts the color saturation of the glow:

-1: Fully desaturated (grayscale glow)
0: Original saturation unchanged
1: Double saturation for vivid, punchy glows

Tint Color

Type: Color (RGBA)
Default: White (255, 255, 255, 255)

Color tint applied to the glow. The RGB channels set the tint hue — white preserves original colors, any other color shifts the glow toward that hue. The alpha channel acts as a blend amount: at full alpha (255) the tint is applied at full strength, at zero alpha the glow passes through untinted, and intermediate values blend between the two. Use this to create warm golden glows, cool blue blooms, or colored neon effects, and dial back the alpha to subtly mix the tint with the original glow color.

Blend Mode

Type: Enum
Options: Add | Screen | Color Dodge | Overlay | Linear Light
Default: Screen

How the glow composites over the original image:

Add (Linear Dodge): Simple additive blending. Bright areas get brighter. The standard glow blend, can exceed white for hot, overblown highlights.
Screen: Lighter than original, never exceeds white. More controlled and photographic than Add.
Color Dodge: Dramatic, intense bloom. Brightens the original based on glow intensity, creating a burning highlight look.
Overlay: Multiplies darks and screens lights. Subtle enhancement that preserves contrast.
Linear Light: Combination of Linear Dodge and Linear Burn. More aggressive than Add with deeper contrast.

Glow Opacity

Type: Float
Default: 1.0
Range: 0 to 1

Overall opacity of the glow effect before compositing. At 0, no glow is visible. At 1, the glow is at full strength.

Film Grain

Type: Toggle (On/Off)
Default: Off

Enables animated film grain over the glow. Grain is sampled per-pixel per-channel from a hash function and animates automatically when Time is connected to scene time. When off, Grain Amount and Grain Threshold are dimmed and no grain computation runs.

Grain Amount

Type: Float
Default: 50
Range: 0 to 100

Intensity of the film grain noise added to the glow. At 0, no grain is added. At 100, grain is at maximum strength. Use this to break up banding at large glow radii or to add organic, cinematic character. Dimmed when Film Grain is off.

Grain Threshold

Type: Float
Default: 0.1
Range: 0 to 1

Controls where grain is applied based on glow luminance. At 0, grain covers the entire glow uniformly. Higher values restrict grain to brighter areas of the glow, so faint edges remain smooth while hot cores receive texture. Useful for keeping grain subtle in dim regions while still breaking up banding in bright bloom. Dimmed when Film Grain is off.

Shimmer

Type: Toggle (On/Off)
Default: Off

Enables an animated shimmer — a flowing noise pattern that modulates glow brightness over time, giving the glow a living, breathing quality. The shimmer noise adapts to the selected Glow Style (e.g., vertical bands for Vertical style, 4-axis noise for Star). When off, Shimmer Amount, Speed, Frequency, and Threshold are dimmed and no shimmer computation runs.

Shimmer Amount

Type: Float
Default: 0.5
Range: 0 to 1

Intensity of the shimmer modulation. At 0, no shimmer is applied. Higher values create stronger brightness variation across the glow. Dimmed when Shimmer is off.

Shimmer Speed

Type: Float
Default: 1.0
Range: 0 to 10

Controls how fast the shimmer noise animates. At 0, the shimmer pattern is frozen in place (only visible if animated via Time). Higher values create faster, more energetic shimmer motion. Requires Time to be connected to scene time to animate. Dimmed when Shimmer is off.

Shimmer Frequency

Type: Float
Default: 5.0
Range: 0.5 to 2500

Density of the shimmer noise pattern. Lower values create broad, slow-moving shimmer waves. Higher values create fine, tight shimmer bands (like a sparkle or fizz effect). Dimmed when Shimmer is off.

Shimmer Threshold

Type: Float
Default: 0.5
Range: 0 to 1

Protects bright glow areas from shimmer. Shimmer is masked by inverse glow brightness, so faint edges shimmer most and the hot core is protected. Higher values let shimmer reach further into the bright core. Lower values keep shimmer restricted to dim outer regions only. Dimmed when Shimmer is off.