Alphultima PURE 4K -- a crt mask based upscaler. $1000 Challenge!

[djayjp]

I was wrong! Mea culpa! This is a back to basics, less is more approach. This upscaler utilizes FRACTAL tech to create new detail, with PIXEL BLENDING, from/between the original pixels. It is an interpolation based upscaler, with zero to modest sharpening, with a subtle-ish CRT mask on top.

This is about respecting the original look and taking as much of a hands off approach as possible to do the job of showing the original look of the pixels/art on a CRT–without scanlines.

You’ll be absolutely forgiven for thinking your games have had a PIXEL REMASTER!

THESIS: In upscaling retro 2d pixel games, anything other than the actual pixels that is visible is noise or visual artefacts (including scanlines etc). I think this is logically sound.

The 3 presets are solely intended for 4K displays.

$1,000 USD CHALLENGE: If you can show me a shader that is in the RetroArch published library before this is posted, that clearly looks better than all of the 3 4k presets on a 4k display, does not feature scanlines, is interpolation based (respects the original look of the art), features pixel blending, and does not consider the dimness/brightness of the image, within 1 month of this date, then I will give you $1,000. The prize can only be won once.

NOTE: It looks much sharper, brighter, and more vivid on my mostly calibrated set LG BX OLED with sharpness set to 0 and super resolution disabled. So please view on a 4k display natively (not via screenshot) before judging. The mask also doesn’t show properly in the screenshots vs natively on screen where the mask isn’t visible.

Even GBA games look great!

All other credit goes to the geniuses behind the bilinear filter, the fast sharpen shader, and the res independent scanlines shader!!!

Screenshots also viewable here: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1ivURNzG9Ts1H8lf0CI6P9hU2MLBuPkQK

[djayjp]

Presets are here:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1GZnXinjLb0WckDCtePNPipLe7Qw2BlbN

1. The Pure OG preset is with zero sharpening and so presents the full resolution image without loss of pixel gradations. It pretty much requires a 1000+ nit 4k display.

2. The Pure Smooth preset is the same but with very mild sharpening. Good for 750 nit 4k displays.

3. The Pure Sharp preset is an extension of the prior. Good for 500 nit 4k displays.

4. The Alt Mask preset is the brightest but with reduced image quality and uses a more visible mask. Good for 250 nit displays and is decent for sub 4k displays.

[djayjp]

@hunterk @guest.r @Hyllian @thingsiplay @DariusG

Please let me know your thoughts!

[Hyllian]

I’d like to test, indeed! It’s always good when alternatives appear for RA! Congrats for your achievements! Unfortunately my Retroarch is hooked on a 1080p display and shaders quality is dependent on display characteristics. So, maybe I can’t compare these shaders. OTT, I’m not at home this week.

[Drybonz]

I’ll try it out. Where do I want to place these in my folder structure?

[djayjp]

Thank you so much!! Well you could give the Alt Mask one a shot

[djayjp]

Cool! It depends on your OS, but just where you see any saved presets show up. Let me know what you think

[djayjp]

Here are the shots for the ALT MASK preset:

[Drybonz]

@djayjp

It depends on your OS, but just where you see any saved presets show up.

I guess I couldn’t figure it out. The shader fails to load each time.

[djayjp]

Hmm note that it’s in slang format so the video driver in the RA configuration/video options should be set to Vulkan. Give that a shot!

Alternatively let me know which one you’d like to try and I’ll let you know the settings for each shader pass.

[Hari-82]

Just tried the ALT mask (1080p monitor here) it looks very nice! well done!

@Drybonz to make it load I had to change this line

shader0 = “…/…/…/…/data/user/0/com.retroarch.aarch64/shaders/shaders_slang/stock.slang”

with this

shader0 = “shaders_slang/stock.slang”

with this it loads fine from main shaders directory.

[Drybonz]

@Hari-82

with this it loads fine from main shaders directory.

Thanks. With this change it will load but looks very weird as if some of the other elements aren’t loading and needs more line edits in the preset. I’ll take another look at it later.

[djayjp]

Thank you very much!

Yeah not too familiar with that ha

Please let me know if there’s some reference guide that shows how to share saved presets (?)

[Hari-82]

I’m not sure there is a guide in the docs, but just make sure that the paths in your slangp files are relative, when they refer to a shader.

I checked the other presets and I think that in all 4 the line that I showed before has to change. Doing that they will work from the main shaders directory, if you want them to be in some other location you can use “…/” to go one folder up.

[alderi3]

failed to load shader preset

[Hari-82]

@djayjp @alderi3

try here, I just changed the reference of the first pass.

unzip in the main shaders forlder

[djayjp]

Sorry about that! Special thx to @Hari-82 I’ve re-uploaded them with his fix!

[djayjp]

Just finished V2 of the ALT MASK preset that looks way better for 1080p!:

[djayjp]

Alt Mask V2 for pre-rendered games:

[djayjp]

1080P versions are now about 4x better!

The PURE version now basically matches the 4K sharp version and is suitable for 500 nit 1080P displays.

Version 3 of the ALT MASK preset is not quite as good, but is suitable for 250 nit 1080P displays.

NOTE: they won’t look right at other resolutions.

Would love to know your thoughts on the newest version @Hari-82 ! And sorry I don’t actually have a computer lol (just Nvidia Shield and my Android tablet) so that file issue might still be happening