Licensing & the Watermark

Shader Engine is free to download and fully functional. There’s no account, no payment, and no feature gate before you can try it — the whole plugin works from the first launch. The only difference in the free version is a periodic watermark.

What the watermark is

When Shader Engine is unlicensed, it shows a small watermark over the output briefly and periodically — on the order of a few seconds out of every roughly thirty. It’s meant to let you fully evaluate the plugin — load, browse, import, edit, and perform with everything — while marking output as unlicensed.

The watermark:

• does not block installation, loading, or any feature,
• does not break local shader playback, and
• appears only while the plugin is unlicensed.

Unlocking the full version

Removing the watermark is a one-time purchase:

1. Buy a license from the Shader Engine page (secure checkout).
2. Activate in the plugin under Browse Library → Preferences → License.
3. The watermark disappears once your license is active.

How activation works

• Activation ties your license to your machine using a hardware fingerprint, so your purchase unlocks Shader Engine on your system.
• Once activated, the license is cached locally. Shader Engine loads it instantly at startup and only contacts the server in the background when a renewal is needed — license checks never block the plugin from loading or rendering.
• Because it’s cached, an activated machine keeps working offline — your show doesn’t depend on a network connection.

Multiple machines

Activation is per-machine (via the fingerprint). If you perform on more than one computer, or you replace/rebuild a machine, that’s a licensing question rather than a technical limitation — reach out through the Shader Engine page and we’ll sort it out.

Free vs. licensed at a glance

Related

• Getting Started — download and first run.
• Troubleshooting — the watermark is expected behavior, not a fault.