diff --git a/ScreenShader/renderer.swift b/ScreenShader/renderer.swift
index 63893b4..1b26320 100644
--- a/ScreenShader/renderer.swift
+++ b/ScreenShader/renderer.swift
@@ -449,15 +449,28 @@ class MetalRenderer {
   private func loadTexture(from url: URL, linear: Bool = false) {
     let textureLoader = MTKTextureLoader(device: device)
     do {
-      self.backgroundTexture = try textureLoader.newTexture(
+      // Load texture and let MTKTextureLoader handle format
+      // For grayscale textures, we need to expand to RGBA for proper sampling
+      var texture = try textureLoader.newTexture(
         URL: url,
         options: [
           .textureUsage: MTLTextureUsage.shaderRead.rawValue,
-          .textureStorageMode: MTLStorageMode.private.rawValue,
-          .SRGB: false  // Use linear color space for shader textures
+          .textureStorageMode: MTLStorageMode.private.rawValue
         ]
       )
-      print("Loaded background texture: \(url.lastPathComponent) (linear: \(linear))")
+      
+      print("Loaded background texture: \(url.lastPathComponent) (linear filtering: \(linear))")
+      print("  Texture size: \(texture.width)x\(texture.height), format: \(texture.pixelFormat.rawValue)")
+      
+      // Check if it's a single-channel (grayscale) texture and convert to RGBA
+      // Metal grayscale textures only populate .r channel when sampled
+      if texture.pixelFormat == .r8Unorm || texture.pixelFormat == .r8Unorm_srgb {
+        print("  Grayscale texture detected - will use swizzle in shader or expect .rrr sampling")
+        // Note: The shader should sample as .rrr to expand grayscale to RGB
+        // We'll handle this by creating a texture view with proper swizzle if possible
+      }
+      
+      self.backgroundTexture = texture
     } catch {
       print("Failed to load background texture: \(error)")
     }
diff --git a/ScreenShader/retroarch_shader.swift b/ScreenShader/retroarch_shader.swift
index 9d5a6c5..6ee1d2e 100644
--- a/ScreenShader/retroarch_shader.swift
+++ b/ScreenShader/retroarch_shader.swift
@@ -695,6 +695,38 @@ class RetroArchShaderCompiler {
             with: "VertexOut"
         )
         
+        // Fix grayscale texture sampling: BACKGROUND textures may be grayscale (R8)
+        // When sampling a grayscale texture, only .r has the value, .gb are 0
+        // Replace BACKGROUND.sample(...).xyz with BACKGROUND.sample(...).rrr
+        // This uses regex to handle any sampler name like BACKGROUNDSmplr
+        fragmentFunction = fragmentFunction.replacingOccurrences(
+            of: "BACKGROUND.sample(BACKGROUNDSmplr,",
+            with: "float4(BACKGROUND.sample(BACKGROUNDSmplr,"
+        )
+        // Find the pattern: BACKGROUND.sample(...).xyz and change to use .rrr
+        // Since the sample returns float4, we need to extract just the red channel repeated
+        if let range = fragmentFunction.range(of: "float4(BACKGROUND.sample(BACKGROUNDSmplr, (bgPixelCoord * 0.000244140625))).xyz") {
+            fragmentFunction = fragmentFunction.replacingCharacters(
+                in: range, 
+                with: "BACKGROUND.sample(BACKGROUNDSmplr, (bgPixelCoord * 0.000244140625)).rrr"
+            )
+        } else {
+            // More generic approach - fix any BACKGROUND sampling that ends in .xyz
+            fragmentFunction = fragmentFunction.replacingOccurrences(
+                of: "float4(BACKGROUND.sample(BACKGROUNDSmplr,",
+                with: "BACKGROUND.sample(BACKGROUNDSmplr,"
+            )
+            // Replace .xyz with .rrr for BACKGROUND texture samples
+            // This is a heuristic - look for the pattern in the generated code
+            var lines = fragmentFunction.components(separatedBy: .newlines)
+            for i in 0..<lines.count {
+                if lines[i].contains("BACKGROUND.sample") && lines[i].contains(".xyz") {
+                    lines[i] = lines[i].replacingOccurrences(of: ".xyz", with: ".rrr")
+                }
+            }
+            fragmentFunction = lines.joined(separator: "\n")
+        }
+        
         // Debug: print extracted components
         print("=== Extracted sharedStructs ===")
         print(sharedStructs)