glcore is good as well, so just switch to glcore and restart retroarch, then update slang shaders and you should be able to try slang shaders.
New preset with TVL set to 500 and (almost) no visible moire at 1080p obtained by highering the minimum phosphor width.
- Monitor-slotmask-TVL500-for_1080p
13 Likes
Some new fresh updates in terms of motion clarity.
-
LCD Antighosting:
This already available feature still needs to be enabled in config-user-optional.txt with#define DO_LCD_ANTIGHOSTING, but has gained the following runtime parameters configurations:
Strength:
The effect strength; it has to be tuned depending on your LCD response time.
Ceil:
The effect is proportional to the color difference over time,
however you can set an hard maximum here.
Flip Mask:
Enabling this will cause the horizontal mask to be flipped at every frame.
It is an experimental measure to mitigate ghosting that could work or not,
depending on your display.
To recap, it is useful for low refresh desktop use intended monitors; its purpose is to force LCD cells to change state faster; it wonât help with motion induced blur, but will still make the image less blurry in motion.
-
SubFrames Support:
Shader can now be instructed to take some optimized paths when using subframes.
The most obvious one is to reuse previous rendered frames and gain performance.
So if you want to append shaders that make use of subframes like crt-beam-simulator, the performance hit will be much much lower than before. You can enable those optimizations in config-user-optional.txt by using:#define SUBFRAMES_OPTIMIZATIONS -
Adaptive strobing: my take on the motion induced blur reduction issue:
Across frames and subframes, the image will be alternately darkened and brightened on a per-pixel basis. This modulation will be maximized without clipping whites or crushing blacks, aiming for a final temporal average that is perceived as the original image.
Doing so will greatly improve motion clarity without sacrificing brightness, as opposed to the common solutions to the very same issue.
The drawback is that the motion clarity will be maximum for mid-tones and lower for brighter and darker ones (for which, in my experience, just the former is really an issue).
This option is, again, statically disabled by default, but you can enable it in config-user-optional.txt by using
#define DO_ADPT_STROBE
âŚas per LCD Antighosting, enabling this option will make in turn the following runtime parameters actually functional:
Strength:
This modulates the clarity and the perceived flickering.
Gain adjustment:
Since the perceived image depends on the display pixel refresh speed,
it may be needed to adjust this.
Gamma adjustment:
Since the perceived image depends on the display pixel refresh speed,
it may be needed to adjust this.
I tried Adaptive strobe on my OLED@120hz and the results were really encouraging; on my poor 60hz MVA display, it is somehow acceptable with the strength set to 0.15 or so.
6 Likes
There is a new setting:
It affects the brightness across the screen with soft âstainsâ, this is with uniformity set to 0.8 :
Unlike what happens on real screens, Iâve set those stains to be dynamic: slowly moving and morphing across the screen, they wonât always affect the same zone, so do not draw excessive attention, while still adding some personality to the image.
Vignette effect needs to be enabled for this to work; If you donât like vignette itself, you can set its size to 5.0 to make it disappear and keep the uniformity effect.
Good values are in >0.85âŚ0.95 range.
10 Likes
Running into an issue with posterization and as I was looking at my screenshots I realized that the issue only appears when the image is at 100% scale on my computer. Photo above is a picture taken with my phone and here is a link to the fullsized screenshot. https://drive.google.com/file/d/12Ouvyoz8n6q2LkfBbLRv0ThsXSvugpUM/view?usp=sharing
Any idea whatâs going on? Scaling options in retroarch do not seem to fix it. Turning off the low level phosphor grid fixes it but then no masks or scanlines. Display is a 4k oled. Preset is the base preset in the ng folder with scanlines turned off so itâs easier to see but I notice it with scanlines on too.
Thanks!
1 Like
I can clearly see the posterization effect on the photo made with the phone, but NOT on the screenshot.
That would point to an issue with the display and the mask.
Can you confirm by opening the screenshot with another display?
Speculating on that, deep masks can often stress monitors, producing weird effects, but this is the first time I hear something like that affecting oleds.
You could try to change the horizontal mask preset parameter from rbg to something else like gmx, rgb, rgbx and/or lower the main horizontal mask parameter from 1.0 to something around 0.8 and see if it would mitigate the issue.
Also, thank you for the detailed report!
1 Like
Unfortunately this is the only display i have access too but Iâm fairly certain it is some weird interaction between the display and the mask. I should have been more specific that my tv is a WOLED with an RWBG layout. I donât think this matches any of the preset layouts? I have to admit I donât really understand any of this very well. The wwx settings cleans it up a bit but the others just create different patterns of posterization.
The other thing I have found is that changing horizontal mask resolution from screen (default) to core fixes it almost entirely.
1 Like
âŚcorrect, but that does not seem to be the issue anyway.
Yup, this is coherent with the theory that steep masks put the display controller under excessive stress.
Try the development version with the presets which contain the TVL keyword, I think they will be fine, then you can tweak the TVL parameter itself to make the mask wider or narrower.
2 Likes
OOh yes the tvl presets seem to be the ticket. Look fantastic but Iâll have to play around a bit to find what looks best. Thanks for the pointers! Also unrelated but I really love the ambilight effect you have.
1 Like
Tweaked this preset:
Preset
#reference "../koko-aio-ng.slangp"
GAMMA_OUT = "0.400000"
DO_CCORRECTION = "1.000000"
IN_GLOW_POWER = "1.300000"
BRIGHTNESS = "0.050000"
CONTRAST = "0.050000"
TEMPERATURE = "7200.000000"
SATURATION = "1.200000"
VIBRANCE = "0.500000"
NTSC_MIX = "0.700000"
NTSC_FILTER_WIDTH = "9.000000"
NTSC_FILTER_SCF = "1.000000"
NTSC_FILTER_FC = "3.300000"
NTSC_PHASE_SHIFT = "1.000000"
NTSC_ARTF_TRSH = "0.360000"
NTSC_SHOW_ARTF_MASK = "1.000000"
DO_SAT_BLEED = "1.000000"
SAT_BLEED_PAL = "1.000000"
SAT_BLEED_STRENGTH = "3.049999"
SAT_BLEED_SIZE = "3.000000"
DOT_C = "0.360000"
DOT_C_YUV = "1.000000"
DOT_C_SPEED = "-8.000000"
DO_SHIFT_RGB = "1.000000"
OFFSET_STRENGTH = "0.250000"
DO_RF_NOISE = "1.000000"
RF_NOISE_STRENGTH = "0.090000"
RF_NOISE_SPARK = "0.140000"
DO_IN_GLOW = "1.000000"
IN_GLOW_SPREAD = "2.000000"
IN_GLOW_W = "0.800000"
IN_GLOW_H = "0.800000"
DO_PIXELGRID = "1.000000"
DO_PIXELGRID_H = "0.600000"
PIXELGRID_MIN_H = "0.500000"
PIXELGRID_MAX_H = "1.000000"
PIXELGRID_H_PRST = "4.000000"
PIXELGRID_MAX_W = "0.300000"
PIXELGRID_BASAL_GRID = "0.600000"
PIXELGRID_Y_MASK = "1.000000"
PIXELGRID_Y_MASK_OFFSET_DEHIVE = "2.300000"
PIXELGRID_Y_SPARK = "8.000000"
DO_HALO = "1.000000"
HALO_POWER = "0.500000"
HALO_SHARPNESS = "6.000000"
HALO_GAMMA = "1.400000"
HALO_VS_SCAN = "0.250000"
DO_BLOOM = "1.000000"
BLOOM_MIX = "0.340000"
BLOOM_SIZE = "2.500000"
BLOOM_GAMMA = "10.000000"
BLOOM_GAMMA_OUT = "2.200000"
BLOOM_POWER = "2.200000"
BLOOM_EYE_ADPT_SRT = "0.300000"
DO_CURVATURE = "1.000000"
DO_BEZEL = "1.000000"
BEZEL_R = "-0.190000"
BEZEL_G = "-0.190000"
BEZEL_B = "-0.190000"
BEZEL_CON = "2.180000"
BEZEL_REFL_STRENGTH = "0.370000"
BEZEL_DIFFUSION_STR = "0.150000"
DO_GLOBAL_SHZO = "1.000000"
GLOBAL_ZOOM = "0.991500"
AMBI_SMP_INT_OFFSET = "0.130000"
DO_VIGNETTE = "1.000000"
V_SIZE = "0.500001"
UNIFORMITY = "0.800000"
DO_SPOT = "1.000000"
S_SIZE = "0.780000"
S_POWER = "0.100000"
4 Likes
Vignette effect has got some love.
There is now a âpillowâ parameter:
- The default 1.0 will act as the legacy behaviour.
- Setting it to a negative value will switch the vignette to reflect a tube shaped curvature, useful when combined with curvature/WARP_X set to 0.0.
- Setting it to a value near 0.0 will morph the shape from a bell to a pillow.
I think pillow shape is more accurate and better reflect the curvature itself. - The pillow shape is better used with very low sized vignette.
Examples:
Vignette with tube shape, no pillow:
- Pillow = -1.0 (pillow < 0.0 gives tube shape)
- Size = 0.8
- Curvature -> WARP_X = 0.0 (to match the tube shape)
Vignette with tube shape, pillow:
- Pillow = -0.18 (pillow < 0.0 gives tube shape and near zero -> more pillow)
- Size = 0.32 (pillow is better with low size)
- Curvature -> WARP_X = 0.0 (to match the tube shape)
Vignette without tube shape, with pillow:
- Pillow = 0.18 (near zero -> more pillow)
- Size = 0.32 (pillow is better with low size)
- Curvature WARP_X and WARP_Y both greater than 0.0
For comparison with old and still default values, the default/legacy bell shaped vignette:
- Pillow = 1.0 (1.0 -> no pillow)
- Size = 1.0
- Curvature WARP_X and WARP_Y both greater than 0.0
Real content, pillow = 0.13, size = 0.32:
-edit: pillow effect can now be applied despite the size of the vignette itself.
12 Likes
Hi, Iâm looking for a shader that resembles my old Hantarex monitor, but I havenât had any luck. The scanlines donât seem to be as pronounced. Are there any settings I can tweak to achieve this effect?
2 Likes
What about:
Presets-ng/Monitor-Screen_Hmask-Screen_SlotMask_Taller_Brighter?/
For a more accurate result, check the not âbrighterâ variant.
Going lower in brightness (higher accuracy): Presets-ng/Monitor-for_HigherNits.slangp
As a general rule, If you want less pronunced scanlines, you can make: Phosphors height Min, Max higher (under scanlines section).
Also, you may want to lower the warpedglow strength under glow section (this modulates the scanline inflation, mostly absent in the screen you posted)
Btw, I would not say the scanlines on your Hantarex to be not so pronunced. Quite the opposite to me, as I see big gaps between them. However the parameters I pointed can be used either way.
Let me know!
1 Like
Hi there,
Any plans to add a glass screen type overlay? I understand the issue about what to reflect, but it could be just a spot type reflection, if that makes sense. Might be itâs already there, if so, could you point me in the right direction? Cheers.
1 Like
Check this wrong commit
It works nicely for 40% strength, but Iâve no license over it, thatâs why Iâve had to remove it.
I could take a pic of my room.
1 Like
Cool and shame - or perhaps the glass overlay with a type of spot? Just thinking out loud, so to speak.
As per the spot, I think you can use the spot function of the shader, It can act as a diffused glare or a little spot.
1 Like
Thank you for your help. Iâm trying to tweak the shader Monitor-Screen_Hmask-Screen_SlotMask_Taller_Brighter , but Iâm not getting good results â the dots seem too far apart. I should mention that the monitor Iâm using has a resolution of 1024x768 , which might be causing some issues.
EDIT: Sorry for the confusion â what I actually meant is that Iâm trying to make the horizontal scanlines darker and more pronounced . My English isnât very good, I apologize if I wasnât clear.
Oky, letâs try to understand each other 
- For âHorizontal scanlinesâ do you mean: â===â or â|||||â ?
- 1024x768 is indeed quite difficult to manage for â==â scanlines, even more if you plan to put curvature into the equation, because of weird articacts that may arise, like weavy patterns without curvature or moire for curved screens.
- Whatâs the real monitor? Iâll assume a 4:3 1024x768 LCD.
- What size (inches or cm)?
Iâll try to craft a preset starting from the same base preset you were trying to tweak.
For such low resolutions (assuming low dot pitch here), trying to emulate phosphors triad can be challenging, and indeed it leads to too wide patterns (I think this is the issue with the âdotsâ too far apart you mentioned).
You can mitigate that by using a 2 sized mask => mask type preset set to 1:
Which will give you this:
- Slotmask/Curvature:
Unfortunately low vertical resolution is not enough to emulate real slotmask with accuracy; But there are some workarounds you can use.
First is to disable real slotmask emulation:
âŚnext is to enable fake slotmask emulation which, instead of drawing staggered tiny gaps vertically between phosphors, staggers the scanline itself; the value 0.18 is important, read on.
this will give you something like that:
On such low resolution, koko-aio automatically switches to âfake integer scanlinesâ, which is a rude way to draw straight lines which align to the real screen lines, but are not curved and wonât follow the content you are emulating (to make it easy, instead of drawing a line for each core line, it will draw a straight line every 2 screen lines).
That way the weird weavy or moire patterns mentioned earlier are âbypassedâ
However the fake slotmask emulation we just enabled in the previous step has the ability to trick the brain, somehow hiding those patterns to the eye, so we are going to tell the shader to draw proper scanlines. (The â0.18â earlier set for fake slotmask parameter is the one that is able to hide moire on 768p)
Next tweak is about the scanline gaps; I think your Hantares has well defined gaps, so Iâd lower the min/max scanline height to 30âŚ50 range (do not set minimum to less than 25 or moire will be visible, you can still lower the max from 50 to 30 for steeper/darker/better defined scanlines) and contextually Iâd disable Haloing and any vertical deconvergence to leave those black gaps, black.
Your hantarex:
Parameters:
However haloing helps in retaining brightness, so Iâm going to trade mask definition for a brighter image by highering the maximum
phosphor width:
Next step is to push some more bloom to gain even more brightness; white blooming has the ability to give you more lumninance while keeping good mask definition.
With some other smaller final tweaks to the output gamma and color corections you can see in the attached preset, we have the following:
Put the following preset in the same folder as to koko-aio-ng.slangp (or change the #reference line)
1024z768_v3
#reference "koko-aio-ng-slangp"
GAMMA_OUT = "0.380000"
DO_CCORRECTION = "1.000000"
IN_GLOW_POWER = "2.000000"
LUMINANCE = "0.100000"
TEMPERATURE = "7300.000000"
VIBRANCE = "0.000000"
DO_SHIFT_RGB = "1.000000"
OFFSET_STRENGTH = "0.250000"
DO_IN_GLOW = "1.000000"
IN_GLOW_BIAS = "0.000000"
IN_GLOW_SPREAD = "1.700000"
IN_GLOW_W = "7.000000"
IN_GLOW_H = "7.000000"
DO_PIXELGRID = "1.000000"
PIXELGRID_COREY_FAKE_SCAN = "0.000000"
PIXELGRID_MIN_H = "0.300000"
PIXELGRID_MAX_H = "0.500000"
PIXELGRID_GAMMA_H = "3.000000"
PIXELGRID_OFFSET_CORE = "0.180000"
PIXELGRID_H_DEDOT = "0.700000"
PIXELGRID_H_PRST = "1.000000"
PIXELGRID_MIN_W = "0.050000"
PIXELGRID_MAX_W = "1.000000"
PIXELGRID_BASAL_GRID = "0.020000"
PIXELGRID_Y_MASK = "0.000000"
PIXELGRID_Y_MASK_HEIGHT = "-2.000000"
PIXELGRID_Y_MASK_OFFSET_DEHIVE = "0.700000"
PIXELGRID_Y_MASK_ON_WHITE = "0.000000"
HALO_NO_PREGAIN = "1.000000"
HALO_POWER = "1.000000"
HALO_SHARPNESS = "7.000000"
HALO_GAMMA = "1.000000"
HALO_GAMMA_OUT = "2.350000"
HALO_VS_SCAN = "0.260000"
DO_BLOOM = "1.000000"
BLOOM_MIX = "0.400000"
BLOOM_SIZE = "1.000000"
BLOOM_GAMMA = "4.000000"
BLOOM_GAMMA_OUT = "1.600000"
BLOOM_POWER = "3.500000"
BLOOM_EYE_ADPT_SRT = "0.600000"
DO_CURVATURE = "1.000000"
DO_BEZEL = "1.000000"
BEZEL_REFL_STRENGTH = "0.370000"
BEZEL_DIFFUSION_STR = "0.150000"
DO_GLOBAL_SHZO = "1.000000"
GLOBAL_ZOOM = "0.991500"
DO_VIGNETTE = "1.000000"
V_SIZE = "1.200000"
V_SHAPE = "0.800000"
DO_SPOT = "1.000000"
S_POWER = "0.067000"
ADPT_STROBE_STR = "0.000000"
I think this could be a good starting point for you to further tweak as per your likings, If you havenât already, please take a look to the docs-ng.md file, which documents all of the parameters.
4 Likes
