Mega Bezel Reflection Shader! - Feedback and Updates

RetroArch Additions Shaders
#2456

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Mega Bezel is updated to V 0.9.013 2021-05-30

Changes:

  • Guest-DrVenom Advanced
    • Guest-DrVenom updated to Guest-DrVenom Advanced!!!
    • Additional Guest features added to other CRT shaders, e.g. interlacing, deconvergence
    • Added Threshold where afterflow appears
  • Turned OFF Anti-Flicker by default
  • Decreased Scale Increment for Cabinet Glass
  • Added BASIC-BORDER-EXTRA-PASSES preset
    • Added Max-Int-Scale__BASIC-EXTRA-PASSES in Variations folder
    • Has the scaling and extra image processing of the Mega Bezel but no Bezel or Reflection
    • No Curvature, uses integer scale and will scale to slightly larger than the screen
  • Resolution Debug Info
    • Fixed errors in rounding in resolution debug info
      • This should now report the correct screen size and integer multiples
    • Added text to show which base preset type is loaded
    • HDCore presets or other presets where there is resolution reduction in the first pass this is reported properly
  • Added MBZ__3__BASIC-BORDER-WITH-REFLECT__EASYMODE
    • Good for low spec systems, uses 1/3 less processing than Guest-DrVenom counterpart
  • X Position offset added to ADVANCED presets
  • Added Brightness parameter to the gamma in and out to adjust brightness after the CRT pass, should be helpful for things like vector games
  • Grade
    • Updated to latest version from 2020-11-20
    • This fixes the darkening which seemed to be happening before
    • Added On/Off Switch
    • Removed the LUT options from Grade since Guest’s LUT is now included
    • Removed Vignette since we already have a vignette in the Mega Bezel

Max-Int-Scale__BASIC-EXTRA-PASSES preset

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Smoothing Examples

No Smoothing

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Increased Horizontal sampling

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Increased Horizontal sampling with some downsample blur

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Increased Vertical sampling

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Note: @duimon has mentioned that grade vignette doesn’t affect the overall brightness whereas the mega bezel does, so I will probably update the mega bezel vignette to keep the overall brightness

6 Likes
New CRT shader from Guest + CRT Guest Advanced updates
#2457

Enabling “Threaded Video” under Settings/Video seems to produce surreal results. My frame rate was bumped to limits of the core used, but i have some suspicions. :smiley: Nevertheless, this mode might improve glcore performance, hard to say how much.

1 Like
#2458

What setting are you using here for the ‘downsample blur’? Looks great!

1 Like
#2459

Yeah it’s a nice effect

This is the settings in the preset in the variations folder

Smoothed-ScaleFX_Horz_Only__STD.slangp

HSM_CORE_RES_SAMPLING_MULT_SCANLINE_DIR = "500"
HSM_DOWNSAMPLE_BLUR = "100"
HSM_DOWNSAMPLE_BLUR_OPPOSITE_MULT = "0"

What this gives you is only the horizontal blur and no vertical blur. The other thing this preset is showing is MDAPT at 1 which blends the checkerboards.

Since now ScaleFX is always on, if you use core res sampling at 100% the image will be as if there is no ScaleFX, then as you change the sampling multiplier you reveal the results of the ScaleFX pass which smooths the contours.

4 Likes
#2460

Thanks! I hadn’t tested it first without asking. :blush:

1 Like
#2461

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hsm1386×748 95.9 KB

Hmmm… lots of hardcoded paths this release. Is this the intention? This requires the whole shaders pack to be in the same directory as the RetroArch exe.

1 Like
#2462

Ah ok I forgot this. I’m now autogenerating the presets and I need to do a pass at the end of my preset generation to turn the absolute paths into relative for people with this sort of setup.

For my info, What is the reason you have your shader directory not in the retroarch root? On windows this is default. Are you on Linux?

2 Likes
#2463

Haha! My good friend! I could bore you with a thousand reasons why I set the environment up differently XD

And yeah - I’m on Windows. The main reason is that I am a developer developing a universal frontend for MAME, RA, and a few others. I separate the UI from the emulation completely, and I actually only use the RA exe, the cores, and shaders from from the whole RA ecosystem.

Another reason - more specifically is - is that it is far too easy to overwrite shaders during updates of RA , and looking at the base RA shaders pack, I can’t help but think there’ll be a purge sometime soon… a lot of nonsense in there poorly organised. Just keeping my powder dry.

1 Like
#2464

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hsm1920×1080 669 KB

Honestly though… What a shader. What a magnificent project this is.

5 Likes
#2465

Thanks! Which front end do you work on if you don’t mind me asking?

1 Like
#2466

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Mega Bezel is updated to V 0.9.014 2021-05-31

Changes:

  • Guest-DrVenom Advanced
    • Adjusted default interlace option so it is like the last version and will more easily used with fake scan lines
    • Changed presets to local paths
  • Grade
    • Removed the Vignette from the Mega Bezel and added back Grade’s Vignette which is looking good!
    • Set the CRT Phosphor Gamut back to the grade default 2
8 Likes
#2467

Not released yet, my friend. And still years of work ahead :slight_smile:

It’s a great project, though, as it gives me an excuse to test games and try out amazing projects like yours :slight_smile:

2 Likes
#2468

For the Crt Mask Size (2K | 4K) option, should I use 2K or 4K with a 2560x1440 monitor ?

2 Likes
#2469

Hmm good question, it’s really a taste thing about what you like better.

1 is one pixel for each different color in the mask, and 2 is 2 pixels for each. It also depends which mask type you are using some of these feel bigger than others.

You remind me, I need to use BendBombBoom’s settings to make a royale-like preset

2 Likes
#2470

Here is a screenshot of FF9 with Beetle PSX HW and its awesome downsampling feature, using PSX_Alt Dr Guest Venom Advanced, tweaked a bit ; it may be a little too dark, but what can I say, I love strong scanlines :slight_smile: :slight_smile:

[Album] imgur.com
2 Likes
#2471

Yeah I really like these cores with the downsampling feature!

The cores which can multiply the internal res but can’t downsample create another issue of having too many pixels to push through the shader chain.

That’s what some of the presets in the experimental folder are for, to downrez at the first pass, so for example if the emulator is outputting 4096x4096 it can downrez it to something reasonable before passing it through the rest of the shader passes.

There is even a preset in there to downrez to standard res for 3DS for people running higher internal res to get better antialiasing. 1x res for 3ds on 3d games is quite harsh with very little anti aliasing creating a very crunchy picture.

2 Likes
#2472

The preset for Royale that @BendBombBoom created is making it’s way into Mega Bezel land…

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6 Likes
#2473

I’m having trouble with the latest changes with this update :upside_down_face:

Previously I was able to change scale14 = 3 line with scale14 = 1 in Base_CRT_Presets folder with your trick that you thought before in shader files. Now the default settings comes as scale14 = 1.0 and RA crashes again with 2x internal core res settings.

I just wanna know if this is the future for Standard shaders from now on so if this is the case I’ll stuck with previous V 0.9.012 2021-05-10 version. Or is there any other trick that works similar fashion with the new shaders?

The left side is from previous shader release where I was able to change ‘3’ with ‘1’ in order to get it to work with 2x internal res in most of 3D based cores. And on the right is from the latest shader release which comes with ‘1.0’ parameter by default but somehow crashes RA on 3D cores with above 1x internal res which is rather strange :thinking:

Shader change
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I’ve noticed the overall change in shader file so it has to be something more than I thought.

#2474

I believe you are editing the wrong line. You are only looking at the “shader14”.

The equivalent line is “shader18” “hsm-scalfx-pass4.slangp” you need to change the last pass.

2 Likes
#2475

That was it! Thanks, it works again. It seems like some lines has been changed with the latest update. I should’ve check the file properly :sweat_smile:

2 Likes