How do I apply effect to all layers but one?

Here's what I want to do: apply an effect to all layers except one. Is there any way to do this short of applying said effect every layer above and below the one affected? Because that works...but the perf cost is not realistic.

You'll just have to apply the effect to every layer you want affected. The performance cost is going to be the same regardless, unless optimizations are made in the engine for this specific case -- e.g. compositing the lower layers and applying the effect, then doing the same with the upper layers. Even in the best case, the effect is being applied twice, which is a lot considering that both applications are full screen.

If possible, you should simplify your layer structure to reduce the number of layers you need to apply the effect to.

linkman2004

A belated thanks for the reply. I found a slightly more optimized way to do this for some shaders: Effect Mask. For layer effects with a mask variant, the effect applies to the background, ie., all layers below it.

So, if you want to have an effect apply to all but one layer, you:

put Effect Mask on a blank layer right below the layer that is supposed to remain unaffected. Turn off layer transparency.

Add the effect individually to all layers above the unaffected layer.