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[mild sriracha]

I was introduced to scalefx shader in retroarch (I know I'm late to the party) and my god it is a wonderful thing to look at. Some 240p games start feeling like legit 480p. I'm still learning how to use this shader, default settings are being used, so go easy on giving me shit about "your settings suck, it's blurry" or whatever.

This game is called Super Gem Fighter.

What shaders are you people using? Show me your screenshots.

 

[Maiden Voyage]

Was this meant to be in the gaming section instead of communities?

 

[mild sriracha]

Was this meant to be in the gaming section instead of communities?

then move it to gaming

 

[DGrayson]

I think it was a question what your intention was. Ill go ahead and move it.

We could use a Retroarch discussion in Communities for sure, an official OT thread would be awesome. Anyways ya shaders on RA are the shit.

 

[MasterCornholio]

I use this guy for any guides on my RG351P.



I haven't messed around with shaders much but some of them really do sound neat.

Any recommendations for PSX titles?

 

[stranno]

I'm a hater of post-processing filters since hq/eagle days. Sorry but can't see the appealing of converting pixels into noisy/blurred lines.

 

[Rat Rage]

I was introduced to scalefx shader

 

[Kuranghi]

If you want it to look good without upscaling the image like that and have a 4K screen, then render the games 9x internal res, so 2880x2160 (If you have a 1080p screen then use 4x scaling to give 1280x960) and maintain the proper aspect ratio so you have black pillars on the sides.

Then add CRT-Caligari & CRT-Hylian if you prefer sharpness or CRT-Geom, CRT-Lottes or CRT-Royale (+ variants) for authenticity with glow and the like, the art style will be maintained and it will look as close as it can to a PVM/BVM CRT monitor which is probably how the devs saw it when they made it.

More info about the shaders here:

Shaders, filters, and sound - Emulation General Wiki

emulation.gametechwiki.com

If you don't like how "blurred" it is then you can tweak that in the settings of the shader.

edit - More info here:

Please show off what crt shaders can do!

I’m by no means an expert in video technology and I believe CRT shaders applied to pixels is a very subjective topic, I don’t think anyone can agree what is the “best” solution as everyone has their own opinion based on how they were exposed to the technology in their younger days. In my...

forums.libretro.com

 

[Kuranghi]

Here is a comparison of the raw output of The Minish Cap on GBA and then with a CRT filter I modified to look more like the GBA screen made games look + colour correction to fix the crazy oversaturated colours:

Make sure you load these images fullscreen and then alt tab between them to compare, not viewing them 1:1 scale won't show you the difference properly. The pixel grid/outline + filtering/blurring of the pixels really gives it a ton more depth and texture imo, especially on the title screen.

Thats similar to what I'm trying to capture when I use CRT filters on SNES games.

People are reacting negatively because they don't like upscaling/blending filters like this, because it alters the art style/feeling of the game and usually looks subpar in motion.

 

[MMaRsu]

Except on IPS displays the game looks more like the top screens you posted

 

[oldergamer]

To be frank I think a machine learning algorithm would do a better job of up res and clean up. at the texture page level.

 

[oldergamer]

GitHub - M-J-Murray/MAMEToolkit: A Python toolkit used to train reinforcement learning algorithms against arcade games

A Python toolkit used to train reinforcement learning algorithms against arcade games - M-J-Murray/MAMEToolkit

github.com

This one looks like its not for graphics however

 

[oldergamer]

Someone has to have done this though? use ML to up res old arcade games?

 

[ACESHIGH]

I use ImgBorder Kurozomi. Looks good enough to me.

 

[Ev1L AuRoN]

It's Awful IMHO. Totally Destroyed the pixel art. Try CRT shaders such as kurozumi-royal or CRT-royal.

 

[jakdex]

Retroarch can do amazing stuff with it's shaders, but i don't think that one is it OP.

 

[yurinka]

I hate the shaders that softens the image changing the artstlyle, like the ones posted in the OP.

If you want it to look good without upscaling the image like that and have a 4K screen, then render the games 9x internal res, so 2880x2160 (If you have a 1080p screen then use 4x scaling to give 1280x960) and maintain the proper aspect ratio so you have black pillars on the sides.

Then add CRT-Caligari, CRT-Geom, CRT-Hylian or CRT-Royale to it, the art style will be maintained and it will look as close as it can to a PVM/BVM CRT monitor which is probably how the devs saw it when they made it.

100% agree, love CRT-Caligari, CRT-Geom, CRT-Hylian, CRT-Royale, kurozumi, etc. for the CRT low res systems. They look pretty similar to a great CRT. I like to use the "core provided" aspect ratio and to hide overscan.

Then for the upscaling you can activate integer scaling depending on your taste (to enable it keeps black bars on top and bottom depending on your display resolution and the in-game resolution in exchange of a more accurate and clean pixel size). In the past I prefered to enable it to get zooms of x4, x5, x9 etc instead of x4.1, x5.4 etc. but now with these shaders and 1080p and above display resolutions I think they look great disabling the integer scaling to avoid black bars in the top and the bottom and to have black bars only on the sides.

 

[nkarafo]

Guest-venom and the bezel reflection shader are amazing.

 

[jaxs]

i use HQ2x

 

[Spukc]

is OP trying to piss people off?
nice try

this is about the best image i can get out of my OG snes using a frame meister on a LG c9 using rgb scart

 

[kurisu_1974]

Never used shaders and don't think I ever will. I came to like the look of unfiltered SNES and PC Engine games even on a LED TV.

 

[MeatSafeMurderer]

I'm a hater of post-processing filters since hq/eagle days. Sorry but can't see the appealing of converting pixels into noisy/blurred lines.

This guy knows what's up. The only acceptable post-processing is CRT shaders...and if you can you're better off just using a real CRT. Anything else is a crime against humanity.

 

[nkarafo]

Never used shaders and don't think I ever will. I came to like the look of unfiltered SNES and PC Engine games even on a LED TV.

The problem with unfiltered games that were made for CRTs and get displayed on modern panels is that they look wrong:

Just look how rounded and recognizable every patch of messy pixels become when they are filtered by a CRT. Look how Donkey and Diddy themselves become the shapes they are supposed to be.

These games were made with CRTs in mind. They are the final layer for the graphics to look correct.

 

[kurisu_1974]

I like the messy pixels more than I like that blurry filter I guess.

Only time I ever had an issue was with Lode Runner on the Atari 8-bit but the emulator had a specific composite artifacting setting to fix that without having to use a shader.

 

[ss_lemonade]

For handhelds, I usually use the ones the emulate both the display and borders

As for retro consoles on a bigger screen, I usually use the HSM mega bezel shader

https://forums.libretro.com/t/hsm-mega-bezel-reflection-shader-feedback-and-updates/25512

 

[Alexios]

Yuck. Why destroy all that awesome pixel art? Use lottes or crt royale kurozumi preset or similar instead.

Since I play both 2D and 3D games and both play native or upres the latter and I cba to micro manage shaders per game or core or playlist I usually just go for the mattias crt shader.

It is a nice catch all solution for that purpose though when having dark background scenes like space or whatever the duplication becomes a bit too prominent.

It even somehow looks like it deinterlaces games like Saturn's Virtua Fighter 2 that appear to be full res without the wobble effect of actual deinterlacing shaders.

 

[Shakka43]

crt royal and crt lottes are the only shaders I ever use for RA. HQ and smoother type shaders have never caught my attention.

 

[LiquidMetal14]

Always looking into getting things running again. Especially since I got a Shield Pro a couple months ago.

 

[MadchesterManc]

Sometimes I'll use a filter/shader that makes the game look as tho it is being played via RF or Composite output. Takes me back. Good times.

 

[nkarafo]

 

[mild sriracha]

Omg you guys hate changing the original pixels like its putting down your dog or something. Come on bruh, scalefx is not that bad. I like CRT filters but I want to try something different too.

This game is Street Fighter Third Strike.

 

[mild sriracha]

I like CRT filter only if the brightness setting on the LCD is cranked up to the max. But it gets fucking annoying to change the setting every time I do some other shit on the said monitor.

 

[jinnosuke]

Well, it's disgusting.

 

[Max_Po]

Ewwwwwww Op..congratulations on having trash taste.


Emulation ...gayyy

MiSTer 25% Crt Scanlines + Nearest neighbour scale and contrast fix == Yaaay

 

[mild sriracha]

I have a legitimate question.
Did you guys use LCD, or CRT to play video games when you were teenagers ?

 

[Faust]

If you want it to look good without upscaling the image like that and have a 4K screen, then render the games 9x internal res, so 2880x2160 (If you have a 1080p screen then use 4x scaling to give 1280x960) and maintain the proper aspect ratio so you have black pillars on the sides.

Then add CRT-Caligari, CRT-Geom, CRT-Hylian or CRT-Royale to it, the art style will be maintained and it will look as close as it can to a PVM/BVM CRT monitor which is probably how the devs saw it when they made it.

More info about the shaders here:

Shaders, filters, and sound - Emulation General Wiki

emulation.gametechwiki.com

If you don't like how "blurred" it is then you can tweak that in the settings of the shader.

edit - More info here:

Please show off what crt shaders can do!

I’m by no means an expert in video technology and I believe CRT shaders applied to pixels is a very subjective topic, I don’t think anyone can agree what is the “best” solution as everyone has their own opinion based on how they were exposed to the technology in their younger days. In my...

forums.libretro.com

How do you download/install/set up the CRT-Royale? Namely the Kurozumi preset?

 

[a multicultural team of v]

Sometimes I'll use a filter/shader that makes the game look as tho it is being played via RF or Composite output. Takes me back. Good times.

Yea, pretty much all CRT filters look absolutely awful and nothing like an actual CRT, but I've used a composite output filter that looked phenomenal. Problem is it only supported certain low resolutions - I need to look into finding a better one.

 

[mild sriracha]

I think CRT filters look okay but only if the LCD is bright enough.

 

[Faust]

I think CRT filters look okay but only if the LCD is bright enough.

Very true. However, for most HDR capable 4K displays, that isn't much of an issue anymore! You still lose a bit of that unique glow a CRT screen provides, but the rest is near perfect nowadays.

 

[mild sriracha]

This game is Street Fighter 2 Alpha.

That K.O. lettering is legit 480p.

 

[mild sriracha]

This game is Dark Stalkers 3.

 

[Bonfires Down]

I'm sorry but I'm not a fan of these upscaling filters either. It looks like someone tried to paint a high res version of the assets but their brush was too large so they couldn't get the details right. And yeah, I also like crt filters for the original pixels as they smooth out the shapes and colors and spice up mono colored objects.

It's good that the option is there for those who like the upscaling though.

 

[German Shocks]

all these scanlines are giving me mental fatigue..

 

[kiunchbb]

I used to like scalefx, but then eventually I start preferring the pixels in pixel arts as I am tire of the look since it looks like a flash game. Scanline and CRT

 

[Max_Po]

I'm sorry but I'm not a fan of these upscaling filters either. It looks like someone tried to paint a high res version of the assets but their brush was too large so they couldn't get the details right. And yeah, I also like crt filters for the original pixels as they smooth out the shapes and colors and spice up mono colored objects.

It's good that the option is there for those who like the upscaling though.

These filters OP is using are amongst the most hated in the community.

 

[DGrayson]

Jesus people get crazy worked up over an opinion.

If you dont like how it looks say so respectfully. Its an opinion at the end of the day, you arent a gatekeeper of retro games nor emulation.

Last warning.

 

[Kuranghi]

How do you download/install/set up the CRT-Royale? Namely the Kurozumi preset?

I just followed at this and then messed around with the parameters a bit:

RetroArch

RetroArch is a frontend for emulators, game engines and media players. It enables you to run classic games on a wide range of computers and consoles through its slick graphical interface. Settings are also unified so configuration is done once and for all.

www.retroarch.com

I haven't played in months and I'm on an old version of RA, which doesn't get CRT-Royale Kurozumi preset when you use the online updater to download the shaders zips as per the guide above, so you may have to download it manually and add it to the shaders folder.

I'm just going to clear my whole install out and start again because its a big mess and half my games don't work anymore. Best to ask someone else for more a detailed guide/reply, sorry.

 

[nkarafo]

all these scanlines are giving me mental fatigue..

There are options to make them more subtle. Back in the day this wasn't such a huge problem because TVs were smaller and there was usually a healthy distance between you and it.

Now both PC monitors and TVs are huge. Which makes the scanlines look more obnoxious.

Yea, pretty much all CRT filters look absolutely awful and nothing like an actual CRT

You are using the wrong shaders or settings.

I have both a CRT TV and a jamma arcade monitor. Guest-venom has options that can simulate the appearance of many different models. I managed to make my arcade games look exactly how they do on my arcade monitor.

The only thing shaders can't do is reduce the motion-blur. But that's an issue with modern panels, not the shaders.



Anyway, this is Guest-Venom with lottes scanlines option close up:

It looks exactly like my arcade monitor. The scanlines, amount of blurriness, blending are all identical. You can even see the scanlines in the dark background (something many filters/shaders don't get right).

 

[a multicultural team of v]

You are using the wrong shaders or settings.

I have both a CRT TV and a jamma arcade monitor. Guest-venom has options that can simulate the appearance of many different models. I managed to make my arcade games look exactly how they do on my arcade monitor.

The only thing shaders can't do is reduce the motion-blur. But that's an issue with modern panels, not the shaders.



Anyway, this is Guest-Venom with lottes scanlines option close up:

It looks exactly like my arcade monitor. The scanlines, amount of blurriness, blending are all identical. You can even see the scanlines in the dark background (something many filters/shaders are doing wrong).

Ok that looks legit. Almost all of them I've seen just look like shitty lines across the screen which makes absolutely no sense, but the screen you showed actually has the image being made up of those vertical rectangle things. I'll have to look into this one next time I emulate.

 

[cortadew]

I use CRT royale, it's a complex shader that tries to emulate the signal of a crt to a T