I set [Scanline Direction] No Scanline Mode to 1 as a temporary workaround.
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So I updated the shaders and everything on Retroarch in general to see if that would equalize the performance of Smooth Glass and Smooth, and it didn’t, but they both look worse now? Here’s the before and after:
I only suspect updating did this because I didn’t do anything else. I thought the way it looked before was perfect. None of these little issues I’m having make any logical sense.
Hmm, doesn’t look worse to me, the mask is slightly stronger on the one on the right, mask settings are really more about taste than if one is objectively better than another.
If you would like a softer mask you can adjust it in the Guest Advanced settings (at the bottom of the parameter list) , there is even a no mask setting you could use if desired.
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Have you given any further attention to NTSC presets? I’m not really satisfied with the current state of NTSC shading despite the best efforts of the brightest minds around here, and I’m starting to think that maybe what we currently have is as good as it’s going to get. I wonder if a completely new approach is needed. Of all the options available, the default output is too blurry compared to real hardware and all the tools we have to sharpen the image come at the cost of unsightly artifacts that aren’t present on real hardware.
I’ll try messing around with masks, then, thank you. And it’s the pupils that bother me the most. I was initially really impressed with how that particular sprite looked, so it stood out to me when I tested it again and it wasn’t quite the same.
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@Wally and anyone else interested.
You need to edit the base presets in my “Duimon-Mega-Bezel\zzz_global_params\Base_Shader” folder. There are 6 subclasses for each class.
e.g.
- ADV.slangp
- ADV_Bezel.slangp
- ADV_Bezel1.slangp
- ADV_Bezel2.slangp
- ADV_PVM20.slangp
- ADV_TM20.slangp
for the advanced presets.
So to turn on magic glow for all the Advanced “Bezel” presets, edit “ADV_Bezel.slangp” and add the following lines at the end of the file.
m_glow = "1.000000"
glow = "0.500000"
I turned up the glow in my example (From the default 0.080000 to 0.500000.) but you can choose whatever value you like.
I will not be making any changes to these files myself AFAIK so the changes will survive a regular pull if you are updating using the Git method. (You would need to do a “force” pull to overwrite them.)
Just an FYI to those reading this post. I posted an updated set of instructions on my thread.
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Well, not even turning the mask off restored the original look. Most perplexing.
Which preset are you using specifically?
MB ADV Smooth Glass. MD AVD Smooth looks identical aside from lacking the reflections (and distorting the audio for some reason, but that original concern of mine doesn’t make a difference, since I just manually turned off the Glass version’s reflections in the parameters). All that has changed is that I updated the shaders (and the other Retroarch options that can be updated online), but I don’t really see how that could mess with the output without me going in, making tweaks myself, and saving them. Even the default presets have the slight visual downgrade now.
Ah I see your tactic: instead of trying the brightest minds you thought you’d try the dimmest - great idea! So in answer to your question no I havent as Im off trying to build a business at the moment. ‘Trying’ being the operative word.
If it really is not up to snuff (Ive not put stuff through composite or RF at home to know) then arguably a better simulation of the hardware at the component level is involved much like people do for software synthsizers replicating old hardware synthsizers. But dont know Ive not really looked into much past shoving one of the pre-existing NTSC shaders in front of my stuff.
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The eye of the picture in the right, looks like if it’s got a blind eye… 
It does! It’s a silly thing to get worked up about, but the way the game looked with that preset before the update was the way I’ve tried to make it look for years! I’m not even sure updating all the Retroarch components and shader folders would have even done anything to cause the change in output, but what else could even be responsible? Is there a troubleshooting-oriented place for Mega Bezel feedback? I’ve hit up some shader threads elsewhere, but no one seems to know anything more about it than I do.
Do you know that updating the Slang_Shaders also updates Mega Bezel Reflection Shader?
All you might need to do to get back your old look is just download some older versions of Mega Bezel from the repo then install them one by one until the output looks the way you had it before.
If you used to read these threads more you wouldn’t have been surprised that a shader preset that looked a particular way doesn’t look the same way after updating shaders. Some shaders are actually updated pretty frequently and with each update comes the potential for default settings, parameter behaviour and other things to have changed which might alter the way a particular preset looks.
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This is the place for feedback & asking questions
If you want to get a previous release, you can go to the github release page, all the releases since last August are there.
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I tried a slightly older release, the December 11th one, and Bowser’s eye is in an in-between state compared to the old and new eyes I posted earlier, like the objective of the preset is to gradually advance his cataracts: 
I’m sure I’ll eventually l be able to restore his vision through this method now, but I’m wondering what it is that’s doing this? Adjusting and disabling the mask didn’t revert the presentation of the eye, as sensible as that sounded. And what could the tradeoff be? An updated preset is logically going to be generally better than earlier versions, but maybe things like pupils are a bit tricky and can get sifted out during fine-tuning. Regardless, I think I’ll be satisfied here, thank you! My original issue with the less-intensive Smooth preset being more taxing on my device will probably remain an enigma, but it’s getting time for an upgrade anyway.
Okay, the 9/11 release has the full eye I wanted back, which is interesting, because it’s stated that this release introduces a new mask for the presets in question. Seems the different result indeed isn’t mask-related. Whatever contributed to the changes started in December’s release and was gradually developed in later versions.
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So I think the difference you are seeing in your original post with the side by side is an increased core resolution multiplier opposite direction (which corresponds to the vertical here) the actual param name is HSM_CORE_RES_SAMPLING_MULT_OPPOSITE_DIR the old SMOOTH-ADV preset had a value of 125 which means it adds extra vertical scanlines smoothing to the image. So if you set this you may get closer to what you were liking before.
The reason this was changed back to 100 is because a higher number of vertical scanlines can cause misaligned scanlines with horizontal features E.G. The ground in Super Mario Bros.
There is also a folder Presets/Variations/Smoothed which has a bunch of examples of different settings which you can try
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In my opinion, it really isn’t. Composite video is far, far sharper even on a low quality CRT compared to all of the existing shaders. The shaders might be as blurry as a TV with a notch filter but I don’t know because I never had one of those, and I grew up in the 80s and 90s. The sharpening options all come with a side dish of unwanted artifacts that were not present on actual hardware.
I get that we’re limited by algorithms and such but I can’t help but think that maybe there’s a better way that hasn’t been tried yet.
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Excellent, thank you!
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HyperspaceMadness, i tried your latest preset MBZ__1__ADV__MEGATRON.slangp and with some little adjustments i found it perfect for my current likings, however i only have to tweak perceived brightness which is too low and don’t feel to push my monitor brightness too much. I decided to play around with the afterglow, but it seems disabled in your preset, it doesn’t do anything when changed, maybe is it because it is missing the magic glow functionality? I wouldn’t know how to make it myself as when editing your presets with notepad plus plus they are basically empty.
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