Home › Formats › .SHADERVARIANTSID
What is a .SHADERVARIANTS file?
.SHADERVARIANTS is a Unity / IL2CPP file (Games). Analyser identifies a .SHADERVARIANTS file and reads the metadata in its header, right in your browser.
- Did you know
- A shader variant collection lists exactly which compiled shader permutations a game uses, so Unity can pre-warm them.
- Pre-warming avoids the dreaded shader-compilation hitch, where a game stutters the first time a new effect appears on screen.
- Because a shader can have thousands of variants, shipping only the needed ones keeps build size and load times down.
- What Analyser reads
- Identify and read Unity engine files, including IL2CPP-compiled games: the IL2CPP symbol map (.usym - version, symbol count) and global-metadata.dat (magic-gated - metadata version, mapped to a Unity release), Addressables binary catalogs (catalog.bin, content-gated) and their catalog.hash, ShaderLab shaders (.shader) and shader variant collections (.shadervariants), asset bundle manifests (core_assets.manifest), renamed .NET metadata blobs (.pd_ - BSJB runtime version) and House Flipper photo thumbnails (.hfthumb - JPEG wrapped, re-openable as an image). Plus generic hash/checksum text (.hash).
- Depth of analysis
- .SHADERVARIANTS is an identification-grade format: Analyser recognises it from its bytes and decodes the header metadata it carries, rather than opening it in a full viewer. Formats that do get a full viewer are marked "Full" on the formats page.
- Open a .SHADERVARIANTS file
- Drag a .SHADERVARIANTS file onto the Analyser home page (or tap to pick one). It is identified entirely in your browser - nothing is uploaded, there is no account, and it works offline once installed.