Checkerboard-Dedither shader

New release today! Use your RA shader update online to get the latest version.

What’s new:

  • Added more pattern recognition rules;
  • Added new mitigation method for false positives.
  • Added Gamma Slider

The new rule will detect that vertical double line in pic below and filter:

As expected, it worked:

It’ll filter completely sonic blob too:

And more Saturn (include the X-Ray of dithering detection, LOL):

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Is there anything that can be done with the “x” in Sonic The Hedgehog or Super Mario World? Maybe tell the filter to ignore if a certain pattern is below a certain number of pixels tall x wide or is below a certain threshold set for amount of repetitions?

Not for now. The second mitigation introduced in the last version is exactly what you’re talking about, it ignores if a dithering pixel isn’t in a horizontal or vertical line of four pixels. If I increase to 5 pixels, it just destroy the detection all over the place, not only in Mario X.

The problem with Mario X (life multiplicator) is that it is exactly like a dithering of 4x4. I didn’t find a way to just ignore this, other than a very specific rule just for this game. And Sonic X is similar.

I could just use some very specific rule to ignore only that little 5x5 region of the screen, but I think it’s too much just for a game.

I’m open to suggestions, though.

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Before the version that corrects the dither in Sonic’s bubble shield, and the glass in Panic Puppet’s everything was already beautiful!

This new checkeboard filter seems to better “build” the image behind the dither and shows crisp transparency! Until then maybe only the X in Sonic seemed to have a problem. But despite that the shader seems to be very respectful and even increasing the error prevention the transparency is still consistent!

Well, I think a way to merge the dither into vertical lines doesn’t fit here (obviously), and it would be too demanding of such an amazing job! And the shader name says it all!

But it would be nice to have a shader that allows you to merge Sonic’s waterfall with the same quality as this checkerboard shader.

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That’s a task for sgenpt-mix shaders. I think they must be developed separated.

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Doesn’t MDAPT already do that? Also, have you tried my Blargg_NTSC_Genesis_Composite_CyberLab_Special_Edition.filt aka Blargg_SNES_Custom_Psuedo_MD_Composite or Blargg_NTSC_Genesis_S-Video_CyberLab_Special_Edition.filt aka Blargg_SNES_Custom_Psuedo_MD_S-Video.filt video filter presets?

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This is a tough one, Start Cruiser for the Mega Drive

With checkerboard-dedither makes it look like this, this game went the extra mile with its graphics, stripes and heavy dithering.

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I can’t define what’s that texture on those walls. It’s not a regular dithering. Can you show how ntsc shader filter that?

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I’m not sure which NTSC shader to choose from, I picked this one from the NTSC folder, ntsc-256px-svideo

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The ground looks right. Only I think that ntsc isn’t blending in linear gamma (Yeah?).

Those walls are one more mole to catch I think… :face_with_monocle:

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I’m guessing those walls wouldn’t be completely blended by an NTSC signal, either.

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Here are two raw screenshots from the original X68000 release,

I’m not sure if this is just an impression but it seems that in dialogs, the resolution ramps up to 480p, title screens and cutscenes too.

This review was released today, it’s another one such as New 3D Golf simulation which originates from 80’s Japanese PC’s, this game in particular seems to be really deep for its time.

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Zippy share link is dead. does anyone have a mirror?

Have you tried this?

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Any thought of porting this to ReShade? The difference this makes is incredible, and I’d love to apply it to other retro games and collections that run outside of RetroArch.

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Are you referring to the checkerboard-dedither shader in this thread or RetroArch shaders in general?

Checkerboard-dedither specifically. I’m familiar with the “RetroArch shaders for ReShade” pack but I’m unaware of a Checkerboard-like equivalent in there or among any other packs.

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Well, I’m not sure if these are available for ReShade, however the CRT-Guest-Advanced series has been recently ported though and that includes CRT-Guest-Advanced-NTSC, which should be able to blend dithering albeit in a different way from the Checkerboard dedithering shader.

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What kind of black magic is this? :scream:
Amazing results and consumes almost no resources.
Excellent work, Congratulations!

I have been testing it with PURE with excellent results.
In VGA there is not much to do, there are few checkerboards, but with EGA and CGA it is a different story. DOS does not use checkerboard transparencies, but it does use many textures to generate additional colors.

A crt shader without checkerboard and with checkerboard, and another crt with checkerboard…



I have noticed some minor glitches.
In this one, some yellow letters are lost in the blue background. Even if you set Mitigare Errors (neighbors) to 4 and (regions) to 1, remains the same.

The 2x1 checkerboards do not merge, in the following image you can see the effect. The wall merges, the floor does not.


That 2x1 pattern, is present in other games, Super Hang ON se Genesis, has it, while the Arcade version, is a normal checkerboard and it works.

For now I have only tried these, I am still testing.

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