MonoGame Custom Effects Implementation Guide

This skill covers the MGFX effect system, stock effects, and cross-platform shader compilation. For HLSL syntax, the Material pattern, and SpriteBatch integration, see the monogame-shaders skill. For compiled API signatures, see references/effects.md.

MGFX — MonoGame's Effect System

MonoGame uses its own FX runtime called MGFX, designed to support multiple shader backends from a single .fx source file. Core capabilities:

• Same technique/pass/shader structure as Microsoft FX files.
• Textual .fx source compiled to optimized .mgfxo binary at build time.
• Cross-platform: targets DirectX HLSL and OpenGL GLSL from one source via MojoShader.

Pipeline:

MyEffect.fx  →  MGFXC (or MGCB)  →  MyEffect.mgfxo  →  Content.Load<Effect>()

Stock Effects