Go to Edit → Preferences → Add-ons / Extensions and click 'Install from Disk...' or by drag&dropping the .zip file into your viewport.

Like many, we are still relatively new to Extension format, which acts different from the legacy add-on system. Go to Edit → Preferences → Extensions, click the small arrow at the top right of the Aperturia FX entry and select 'Uninstall'.

The focus is photorealism — simulating how real digital lenses behave.

No — it enhances it. Aperturia FX adds a unified, pre-calibrated node that combines realistic post-processing effects such as lens distortion, film grain, chromatic dispersion, and fingerprint smudges while letting you stack or chain other nodes around it.

Yes. Aperturia FX emulates physical imperfections — like chromatic dispersion, vignetting, and slight sensor grain — which subtly alter contrast and sharpness. You can tone these down if needed using the effect intensity sliders or use a Color Correction node after the Aperturia node. Pro tier comes with a built-in color correction for fast and easy color tweaking.

The limits are intentional. They help prevent unrealistic results that can break immersion — similar to real camera constraints.

Shadow Masks analyze image brightness to simulate where light and shadow naturally influence digital noise and contrast. Advanced Shadow Mask goes further by using render passes (Diffuse, Glossy, AO, etc.) to read actual light bounce and shadow depth — perfect for physically accurate noise and tone response.

Aperturia FX works with both Cycles and Eevee, though the Advanced Shadow Mask performs best in Cycles due to richer render data.

The extension comes with an N-Panel in your Compositor tab, locate Aperturia FX category and you will find 'Restore' button, this will rebuild the node in case it is missing or damaged.

It switches your compositing device from CPU to GPU for faster preview and iteration. It’s ideal for complex setups with many effects.

Yes it is, the files are uploaded to a safe repository on GitHub by myself from where the downloader fetches new files from. The downloader strictly searches for specifically named files and asks your permission before downloading. When downloading, you are also asked where to send the new files. Installation is still manual.