Your shaders are great. To be more precise, the shader settings, well done, and thank you very much for your work and for your answers. Maybe I’ll try to connect them according to your instructions today. I also wanted to clarify , it turns out that the most demanding and high-quality shaders are MBZ__1 or MBZ_0? As I understand it, based on what I read on the example of Mega Bezel, MBZ_0 Smooth are considered the best.
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Thanks!
Higher performance tiers don’t always necessarily translate to better quality presets. They’re mainly about the reflection and customization features and precision and reflect the differences in performance betweeen different shader combinations.
In addition to that higher performance tiers tend to have more shader features available but that doesn’t mean that the preset was designed to utilize every single parameter.
In my case, I always designed on the higher performance tiers because I didn’t want to be limited when creating. That still doesn’t mean, I used all features and parameters available in the highest tiers. In a case like the presets should look quite similar even if converted to use a lower performance tier.
MBZ__0 is technically more demanding than MBZ__1 but there are base shader presets which offer similar functionally using different shaders in MBZ__1 that can look just as good while performing better than a similar preset using an MBZ__0 base preset.
My latest Neo-GX and HDR Ready Mega Bezel presets actually use an MBZ__1 base preset, including the ones in the MBZ__0 folder - they’re identical. Just copied there for convenience and to minimize confusion and OCD effect for those who must have nothing but the best.
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I have a Sony 40" W905a TV, it’s full HD, and I’m currently trying out the Genesis game Stargate . I want to use a shader Cyberlab_Composite-Sharp_PVM-Edition_Adv - DREZ from MBZ_0_SMOOTH-Advanced_Full_Reflection, but I’m getting an error saying that the shader applied failed. Although another shader : Composite-Sharp_1080p_pvm-edition_Adv , can be used without any errors. I use the filter Blargg_Ntsc_Genesis_Composite_Cyberlab_Special_Edition_ii.
What do you think could be the problem? Maybe some settings are needed for this shader? And yet, apparently because of the filter in this game, when moving, there is a residual effect from objects. For example , from ropes , like a daub . Is it because of the filter used? By the way, please tell me, does it make sense in terms of picture quality to use 4K shaders on a 1080p screen? Or, for example, turn on the Dsr degree in the Nvidia control panel and then use 4k presets?
I’m happy to mention how great Aladdin looks, the pixels with your shaders and filter (I’m using the same combination as above). The pixels look so nice, smooth, and magical, and I think it’s very correct. There may be other interesting combinations, but I really like the result! It has a retro charm that’s both pleasing to the eye. And I have something to compare it to.
I tried the Arcade_Raw_1080_adv shader out of curiosity, and there was no residual effect or blur. Apparently, the shader had a blur setting somewhere (Composite Sharp 1080p pvm edition)
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It’s always a good idea to post a log using pastebin when reporting issues like these. Can you also post the full path of the preset since there are duplicated preset names in the various performance tier and resolution folders.
I await your log and the full path of the preset. I’ll check it out as soon as you post them.
For issues of a visual nature it’s a good idea to post a video clip recorded from the screen or a photo if it’s of a static nature.
By the way, are you using Mega Bezel v1.14?
Hmmm…did I waste my time and energy providing an entire folder with 1080p Optimized presets?
You can try that but you’ll lose the subpixel mapping with the emulated CRT Mask and phosphors.
Which “4K” preset are you so interested in that you can’t use a 1080p Optimized alternative instead?
Hello . Here full path : C:\RetroArch-Win64\shaders\Mega_Bezel_Packs\CyberLab\MBZ__0__Smooth-Advance_Full_Reflections\1080p_Optimized_Presets
The log file was created by running it from the command line, but the problem does not appear in this file.
Maybe there is some other way to create the correct log?At the beginning of the video, it is shown that the shader cannot load, and the one with 1080p is applied. Rewind for 3 minutes , there’s a moment right in the cave where you can see the residual effect near the rope and stones
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No, I’m using the latest version 1.17.1, I thought that if it was newer, it would be better. Maybe that could be the problem?
:)) No, I’m just clarifying if there are any cons with supersampling features.
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I’m guessing you never read the first post of this thread then, nor the readme file, nor the installation instructions immediately below the download link for my shader preset pack:
There are potential cons at least with using the SuperSampling features built into some cores in combination with the SuperSampling features built into the MBZ__0__SMOOTH-ADV presets though.
What mainly breaks consistency when using the same preset at different resolutions is the emulated CRT Mask. This is what determines the resolution (TVL) of the emulated CRT.
As your Display resolution changes the scaling/mappimg/alignment of these masks change so that changes the TVL (resolution) of the emulated CRT.
The way to fix this is to use an appropriate Mask Layout or triad size that would maintain a similar TVL (emulated CRT resolution) as the one in the 4K Preset.
So if you’re using an RRGGBBX Mask at 4K, that same Mask would look very chunky on a 1080p display due to its much lower subpixel pixel density relative to the number of subpixels in the Mask.
You now have to spread the same 7 subpixels across a larger percentage of the viewable area if rendered at a lower resolution on a lower resolution display because 7 supixels on a 1080p display would take up a larger percentage of the viewable area than on a 4K Display.
The solution?
Use an RGB Subpixel layout that uses 3 subpixel for each RGB phosphor triad instead of 7 or use RGBX or 5 subpixels for each triad in the case of 1440p.
I’ve already done this in my 1440p and 1080p Optimized Presets but after a while it became a burden to convert and test every preset at resolutions I don’t play at. There are other things that can change or go bad between rendering a shader at 4K and 1080p as well but I’m not going to address that here.
So users have always been free to ask how to go about making those adjustments while maintaining consistency.
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I read it, but apparently I didn’t take it so seriously. I didn’t realize it could be important. What is the difference between using versions 1.14 and 1.17? Wait, did I download your shaders version 1.14, or did you mean Mega Bezel? In short, i need 1.14 yours and 1.14 Mega Bezel
Seriously? It’s in bold, and REQUIRE is in bold and caps and MATCHING is in bold, caps and italics.
You can find that out on your own when you finally get things setup correctly.
In a nutshell though, after I spend thousands of hours tweaking and finally being satisfied that a certain parameter needs to be 2.51 a new version of the shader might come around and change the weighting of the value so that 1 now looks like what 2.51 did in the old previous version.
Imagine what 2.51 would now look like in the new version. Multiply that by 100 and now the creative control no longer lies with the person who created the shader preset and sometimes the changes can be be even more severe.
I’m not against progress but it’s always a cat and mouse game trying to keep up with the updates and figure out how to get things back to the way they were.
Change and progress is important though and through recently getting back into my Mega Bezel preset pack development, I’m seeing the limitations of using an older version of the Guest NTSC Shader for example.
Just as it says in the manual.
I’m still waiting on the proper log for this though:
Cyberlab_Composite-Sharp_PVM-Edition_Adv - DREZ failing to load.
Be sure to update my presets to the latest version though and (temporarily) downgrade Mega Bezel to 1.14. You can backup v1.17 first.
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Thank you for your time. I am attaching a link to the log file. I also changed the version and uploaded Mega-Bezel 1.14 to the bezel folder. But unfortunately the same error.
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No problem.
Did this fix your other issue with the visuals though?
From your log:
[WARN] [Shaders]: Could not read shader preset in #reference line: "C:\RetroArch-Win64\shaders\shaders_slang\bezel\Mega_Bezel\Presets\Base_CRT_Presets_DREZ\CBL_MBZ__0__SMOOTH-ADV__GDV__DREZ-480p.slangp".
[INFO]
[WARN] [Shaders]: Could not read root preset: "C:\RetroArch-Win64\shaders\Mega_Bezel_Packs\CyberLab\MBZ__0__Smooth-Advance_Full_Reflections\1080p_Optimized_Presets\CyberLab__Composite-Sharp__PVM-Edition__ADV - DREZ.slangp".
[ERROR] [Vulkan]: Failed to create preset: "C:\RetroArch-Win64\shaders\Mega_Bezel_Packs\CyberLab\MBZ__0__Smooth-Advance_Full_Reflections\1080p_Optimized_Presets\CyberLab__Composite-Sharp__PVM-Edition__ADV - DREZ.slangp".
[ERROR] [Vulkan]: Failed to create filter chain: "C:\RetroArch-Win64\shaders\Mega_Bezel_Packs\CyberLab\MBZ__0__Smooth-Advance_Full_Reflections\1080p_Optimized_Presets\CyberLab__Composite-Sharp__PVM-Edition__ADV - DREZ.slangp". Falling back to stock.
Okay, I’m seeing what’s going on here. This is part of the reason why I stopped bothering with so many variations, resolution and performance tier versions of so many presets. Maintenance means you have to do a lot of mass edits and I can’t possibly test all of those thousands of resultant presets all by myself.
The reference line, which is the first line in the preset is pointing to CBL_MBZ__0__SMOOTH-ADV__GDV__DREZ-480p.slangp in the Mega Bezel Folder. This file does not exist since in that folder. The original filename MBZ__0__SMOOTH-ADV__GDV__DREZ-480p.slangp should exist in that folder. If you remove the CBL_ it should load using the original DREZ slangp file.
However, this is probably not what I intended because I created my own sub-base presets which refer to the Mega Bezel Base presets in order to modify them and have the modifications be applied to a wide range of my presets.
So the other way to correct the error is to leave the filename intact but adjust the path to point to where that file actual resides somewhere in my CyberLab/Resources Folder.
I’m not in front of my computer at the moment but when I get a chance, I’ll see if I can get the correct path and at a later time, update the preset in the pack with the correct path.
I’m not even sure I originally wanted to include those DREZ presets in the 1080p_Optimized folder. I’m not sure if there is a point to using them. They were originally supposed to get around crashes caused by using MBZ__0__Smooth__ADV presets with cores which do internal resolution upscaling.
Anyway, they ended up in the 1080p_Optimized folder anyway and I probably updated the corresponding path in the 4K_Optimized folder but didn’t even remember I had to go and do that for the 1080p_Optimized folder as well due to the exists of that preset.
So, I know I resolved some similar issues with DREZ presets failing to load a while ago, so it’s quite possible that there is a corrected preset in the 4K_Optimized folder with the identical filename but with the correct path.
Feel free to copy the "C:\RetroArch-Win64\shaders\Mega_Bezel_Packs\CyberLab\MBZ__0__Smooth-Advance_Full_Reflections\1080p_Optimized_Presets\CyberLab__Composite-Sharp__PVM-Edition__ADV - DREZ.slangp" DREZ presets into the "C:\RetroArch-Win64\shaders\Mega_Bezel_Packs\CyberLab\MBZ__0__Smooth-Advance_Full_Reflections\4K_Optimized_Presets\" Folder and see if that resolves the issue. Other than that all that I suggested above, you can use another DREZ preset in the 1080p_Optimized folder or just use another preset. Only use a DREZ preset if you’re getting crashing issues when using internal resolution upscaling in a core that doesn’t support downsampling internally.
You can also just copy the reference line from the same preset in the 4K_Optimized folder to the one in the 1080p_Optimized folder. That should be the best fix because it would preserve any modifications I made to the preset for use with a 1080p display.
You can even test the same preset in the 4K_Optimized folder to see if it loads or fails to load.
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I think it’s the same or maybe a little better, but apparently the shaders act differently from game to game. Somewhere the picture is straight stable without any flashes, but somewhere it’s like I gave an example in the video.
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I take into account some nuances and really maybe this preset is not worth using. At least you told me what the problem might be. You know, it’s not even convenient for me to ask you for any help, considering how much time you’ve been messing with these settings. I don’T want to burden you too much. Anyway, thank you.
UPD . Just for the sake of interest, I tried to run the exact same shader from the folder: C:\RetroArch-Win64\shaders\Mega_Bezel_Packs\CyberLab\MBZ__0__Smooth-Advance_Full_Reflections\4K_Optimized_Presets And the shader applied ^)
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I wouldn’t know since I literally never used it. It was added to the 4K_Optimized folder for utilitarian purposes and probably just ended up in the 1080p_Optimized folder due to how I managed the pack, which is why the updates I did were never applied to it.
It’s actually not a burden for users to report these things. I actually appreciate the feedback and it’s the only way to fully test and validate what has been done.
That’s one of the main purposes of this thread.
You’re welcome,
You can try what I said and copy the reference line to the 1080p_Optimized version and see if it solves the issue.
Don’t forget to match the Mask Layout with the subpixel layout of your display.
Okay, I just looked at the video and saw what you were describing. That’s a very old preset by the way and as such there would be parameters which I had no clue how they operated at the time that I just left at whatever their defaults were.
Strangely enough, I have noticed this type of artifact from the Afterglow parameter before but it’s something that I would have eventually started to lower or eliminate completely in my presets.
So it was very surprising that when updating my CyberLab Mega Bezel HDR Ready presets, I noticed tons of artifact like that while playing one of my favourite games.
I haven’t reached by the computer to test anything yet but that’s the only Shader Parameter that I can think of that could possibly cause such an issue.
I will update with my latest Afterglow settings when I get in front of the machine but there’s nothing wrong with setting the Afterglow Strength to 0 or near 0 or as low as possible to get rid of any similar artifacts.
You can let me know if that works. By the way, what game is that?
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The game in the my video is Stargate for Genesis 
I’m going to read your answer now, as always informative, thank you.
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I’m sorry, I’m not a native English speaker, I’m Russian. You may have explained it to me above, but how do I do this and why do I need it?
I remember seeing your presets that relate to SDR content, but I remember I couldn’t apply them
For the sake of experiment, I’ll try. By the way, in your opinion, which of your filters is the most effective and high-quality? I had never used and did not know about filters before, I always used shaders exclusively. For example, which one do you recommend for Genesis and which one for Snes .
If using one of my Mega Bezel or CRT-Guest-Advanced presets, go into Shader Parameters then set Mask Layout to match the Subpixel Layout of your Display.
If using one of my Sony Megatron Colour Video Monitor presets, go into Shader Parameters then set Disolay’s Subpixel Layout to match the Subpixel Layout of your Display. .
You can visit RTINGS.com or read reviews of your display to determine its Subpixel Layout. You can also take a clear macro or very close picture of a white screen and you might be able to make out the individual Red, Blue and Green elements which mix to produce the different colours of each pixel which makes up the screen.
The Shaders are designed to line up perfectly with their subpixels in order to attempt to mimic the way a CRT’s phosphors are arranged and produce an image.
Since different displays may not have their subpixels arranged in the same order, the matching order (or layout) needs to be selected in the Shader Parameters.
What display are you using?
I made an entire Console Specific folder for this. I can’t really say which Shader or Filter is best or most effective. I tend to use my most recent ones for the most part but recently I’ve been using the ones in my Mega Bezel 4K HDR Ready presets folder and updating them.
The shader presets have descriptive names which you can use to help guide you but the ultimate guide should be your own eyes.
My Epic and W2 presets are my latest, also Neo-GX, Supreme, Ultra, Super, Mega, Turbo, you might also like Fine presets but that’s up to personal preference or mood.
As for my Video Filter presets, all are good and functional. You might just prefer a particular style or signal type.
The main improvement with the 3rd generation video filters is that I tried to maintaining brightness and colour fidelity.
That doesn’t mean that the older ones lack brightness or colour fidelity, it’s just that the 3rd generation might be closest to the unfiltered in terms of brightness and tint/colour temperature.
In many cases the video filter recommendation is already in the filename of the shader preset.
Not all cores support video filters.