Mega Bezel Reflection Shader! - Feedback and Updates

Cyber · 6 November 2021 10:21

You should have enabled Show Resolution Info for the screenshots with your bezels as well. My presets rely heavily on core sampling resolution so it could be that with a difference in bezel size and possibly resolution, somewhere along the line it’s affecting these resampling values/results.

You can also do some comparison tests using the standard HSM Mega Bezel Reflection Shader package just for reference as a sort of control.

On another note I said I would work on optimizing for 1080p. Well I just took my sharpest preset which is my Composite - Pure preset which doesn’t use Scale FX and turned off some of the composite look effects and combined it with these CRT Mask changes that I included in my tests above and man it looks really special! At 1080p! I guess my optimization work is done! I’ll post some screenshots at the end of this post in a bit.

Still, we should try to get to the root and try to understand the cause of the issue. I mean it doesn’t seem to affect your presets. I wouldn’t want to leave image quality on the table and would want all users to experience the presets in their best light as intended.

They don’t seem to be complaining.

TheNamec · 5 November 2021 23:38

Fixed in original post

They can’t complain. They’re beautiful thanks to HSM Mega Bezel Reflection Shader! (insert promo jingle here )

Cyber · 5 November 2021 23:57

Looking at your info, I’m wondering if due to the final screen size/resolution being lower compared to standard Mega Bezel, because there’s more downsampling needed to reach that lower resolution, there might also be more downsampling blur being applied. I tried to walk a very fine line with those downsampling blur settings but they’re optimized for the standard HSM Mega Bezel Reflection Shader and also 4K screens so anything outside of that can potentially lead to issues like these.

Besides that, I’ve noticed in my testing that deconvergence noise looks very different at different resolutions. My current settings are very low where that is concerned but that was tested at 4K. At lower resolutions the noise particles tend to get larger and “noisier” at the same settings. That can also be contributing to a loss of detail and resolution and even more so in the screenshots. With that said my current settings are extremely subtle to the point where it hardly even matters in screenshots at 4K.

HyperspaceMadness · 6 November 2021 00:02

I think the main difference is probably that in the first image the screen is at vertical integer scale 4 and the later ones are about 3.5, so the scanlines will maybe not be as sharp.

TheNamec · 6 November 2021 00:28

@HyperspaceMadness In fact, if I switch on integer scaling it gets way sharper.

@Cyber Nonetheless, I think with a little cranking it may get as good on 1080p as on those marvelous 4k screenshots!

Cyber · 7 November 2021 05:08

I may already have some settings like that, however real life beckons so a little later for that.

Updated: 6-11-21

1080p (and possibly 1440p) users can now enjoy presets that are optimized for that resolution providing almost the same look and feel of my existing presets which were all designed, tested and targeted towards 4K display users!

CyberLab Mega Bezel Death To Pixels (Composite - Pure 1080p Edition)

CyberLab Mega Bezel Death To Pixels (Arcade - Raw (I think) 1080p Edition)

CyberLab Mega Bezel Death To Pixels (Blending and Transparency 1080p Edition)

CyberLab Mega Bezel Death To Pixels (Arcade - Sharp 1080p Edition)

Click the link below to download

CyberLab Mega Bezel Death To Pixels Shader Preset Pack 6-11-21.zip

c9f5fdda06 · 7 November 2021 04:03

Good game selection

Cyber · 7 November 2021 07:49

Take a look at these @TheNamec and everyone else of course. Lol I made a new preset yesterday - CyberLab Mega Bezel Death To Pixels (Arcade - Raw). It doesn’t use Scale FX but still looks great in my opinion and it takes care of aliasing in different ways. It has a very authentic feel and testing it has been a joy! These new 1080p optimized presets have me a little jealous now because of how good they look and get the job done! I mean, I don’t really have much use for them for myself but I expect that using them and playing at 1080p would give much better performance than playing at 4K with the original ones. I’m glad I can give back something to the community.

I was thinking that they might be a good fit for the non-integer scale bezel presets.

You can check them out by clicking the drop down button in the link below:

Thanks!

Wally · 7 November 2021 18:37

Thank you for this superb pack.

One naive question.

Lets say I want to change the mask to Trinitron. Which file should I edit? Also, should I need to go in each platform and do the same change or can I do it somewhere centrally?

Thank yoy

Cyber · 7 November 2021 18:51

Is this a question for @HyperspaceMadness about the HSM Mega Bezel Reflection Shader or my recently posted CyberLab Mega Bezel Death To Pixels Shader Preset Pack?

Duimon · 7 November 2021 18:58

Either way there shouldn’t be a need to manually edit anything. Just load the shader, call up the shader parameters dialog, make the change to the mask, and save the preset with a new name.

Wally · 7 November 2021 18:59

Hi Cyber. For both actually.

Wally · 7 November 2021 19:01

Hi Duimon. In your wonderful bezel pack project, should I need to go platform by platform or changing the HSM preset is enough for all platforms?

Thank you

Duimon · 7 November 2021 19:14

I don’t use any custom mask in my CRT presets, (I do have some in my LCD systems.)

You will have to edit each one. I would not recommend changing HSMs presets as it will make it hard to update. I would load HSMs GDV preset, make the change and save it. Then do a mass search and replace on the presets to change the reference shader to your saved preset.

Of course you will have to do it again after the next update, but by then you will be a pro.

The next update will break some things, but it should be stable after, and going forward.

If there is enough interest, I would consider adding in a Trinitron preset, I just don’t want to double the number of presets, so I would have to limit it.

Alternatively, you could edit HSMs preset, but the layout is unfriendly. (He cleans up the output when saving a preset.)

Open one of my presets and read the first line to get the path of the reference shader.

Cyber · 7 November 2021 23:42

Okay, the way I have my stuff setup is I first have HSM Mega Bezel Reflection Shader installed properly then I have my presets in the \RetroArch\Shaders folder. I load up my Composite - Sharp Preset and save that as a global preset and as a core preset for SNES, TurboGrafx16 and any other core I come across in the future that I want to use it with.

I’m currently experimenting with having my Blending & Transparency Preset as my default Core Preset for Sega Genesis. So far so good. I’m looking for the one that works best in most cases.

For NES I have my Composite - Pure preset saved as the Core Preset and for Arcade Games I have my Arcade - Sharp Preset saved as the Core Preset.

If you don’t like a setting or want to experiment with the settings you can use one of my presets or any other preset as a starting point then go into Shader Parameters and change the settings you like then save as a new preset or you can make this your new core preset, global preset or game preset. Make sure Use Simple Presets is turned on. Once you set it you should be able to forget it.

For the CRT Mask Type you can probably start from the bottom and go up until you find that setting and pick the mask type and size of your choosing. I hope this is answers your question.

ledoeye · 7 November 2021 23:59

Is there a way to load our own wallpaper instead of the black texture default one?

Duimon · 8 November 2021 00:39

Yep. Load one of HSM’s presets and save a core, game, or content directory preset. (Make sure to leave “Simple Presets” on.)

Browse to your Retroarch/config folder.

Browse into the folder for the core you saved. (i.e. Beetle PSX HW) and open the saved preset.

Add a line of text after the contents.

BackgroundImage = ":/shaders/Mega_Bezel_Community/Duimon-Mega-Bezel/Graphics/Amiga_A500_Plus/A500.png" replacing my path with the path to your image.

The path I posted uses absolute paths with :/ being the root Retroarch folder. If your graphic is somewhere in there you can leave it. Otherwise you can use a normal absolute path like…

BackgroundImage = "D:/My wallpaper/A500.png"

ledoeye · 8 November 2021 03:26

Thank you so much @Duimon!

Duimon · 8 November 2021 03:36

You are welcome. Eventually we will have a guide to all the features of the Mega Bezel. I believe we may use example presets to help explain these image layer features.

It will be a pretty big project because of all the features, so don’t expect anything very soon.

Cyber · 8 November 2021 10:53

1440p users can now enjoy presets that are optimized for that resolution providing almost the same look and feel of my existing presets which were all designed, tested and targeted towards 4K display users!

While the 1080p presets can actually work well and look sharp at 1440p, certain settings vary quite a bit according to the resolution so the solution that would best preserve my vision and also help 1440p users encroach even more on 4K image quality would be dedicated optimized presets for 1440p resolution. After doing the 1080p groundwork, this wasn’t difficult at all to implement.

CyberLab Mega Bezel Death To Pixels (Blending and Transparency 1440p Edition)