I noticed a small improvement with this quick update where there were some weird vertical lines that would appear on sprites when turning the rainbow bar setting all the way up, those have disappeared now. That’s definitely a good thing.
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Hmmm…this is interesting. I remember when I did my first Genesis Rainbow presets, when I got the rainbow effect to work on the Sonic The Hedgehog waterfalls and Sonic 2 pipes, the rainbow effect also worked on the Streets of Rage bar lights without any modification.
Did I miss something?
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Not “the same rainbows”, unless you were using some other ntsc shaders. The new implementation brings new options, since base ntsc-adaptive are made with a hard-coded shift, which nullifies fixed rainbows as well as with merged fields.
Checkboard “rainbows” are existent in previous versions, but at the expense of flickering. I guess you could manage to do some standalone guest-advanced-ntsc testing to get an update on the changes, since it’s like about changing 1-2 parameters.
Edit: the “02.10” release was updated.
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This may sound a little newbie for people around but, is possible to actually incorporate customized LUT files in CRT guest advanced NTSC preset? It’s just a 16-bits color palette
I’ve looked around other presets which allow to use Rainbow effect, yet no success to incorporate a custom one I’ve made with a bit more yellowish colors.
Yet, I’ve managed to use it with other smaller presets with dithering, but not in case where Rainbow can be applied. I’ve added up here the file in case may be useful for anybody. https://1drv.ms/i/s!AsFufmS9x-kdgj7N-Kg4-jPHDTPE?e=2vf4Dn
This one is in case, you may know how to do it.
I’d appreciate the help.
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Lut pngs are placed in the shaders/guest/advanced/lut folder.
Just copy your custom lut file over there and rename it with the same name as one the existing lut pngs.
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New Release Version (2024-02-14-r1):
Notable changes:
- Rainbowing effect simplification and artifacts mitigation.
- Number of ntsc taps can be set now.
- Ntsc chroma fall-off implemented.
Download link:
https://mega.nz/file/4lhgDDzC#ov6a8RZ7wddMxbsnDyMez02I9cdX2JdlKJsjx7LIXrE
13 Likes
Ok so right off the bat after firing this update up I notice those weird artifacts I was telling you about in this post are completely GONE (thank goodness).
Now I can use the rainbow setting and have clear clouds again in Sonic:
The second thing I noticed is that my fps takes a hit now loading up any of my ntsc presets, goes as far down to 53fps on my setup but then gradually increases back to full speed. Not sure why that is but it’s something I noticed.
The new rainbow/ntsc settings are coming along good, I can even crank chroma scaling back up to 4.00 again:
I do notice that with the rainbow setting turned up to 1.0 or -1.0 the vertical line dithering in the waterfall doesn’t fully “blend” as well as when it’s off:
I guess that has to do with how that rainbow setting is interacting with the other ntsc settings, maybe I’m just not dialing it in right I don’t know. Other than that though everything looks good.
Edit: @guest.r playing around a bit more, yeah these dips in fps are tampering my enjoyment, not sure why it’s happening but I was getting a constant 60fps on the last release, now it either stays around 53fps or sometimes it increases up. This is only for the ntsc shader btw, the only other one I also use is HD and that one has no issues at all.
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This is probably a special issue indeed. What really matters is the shader performance under the fast-forward mode without frame skipping.
But there are some things you could try out. First is to decrease the number of NTSC Taps (like sub 24), see if it helps. Maybe, just in case, you could try to clear the system shader cache.
The ntsc shader got a bit more complex, but it shouldn’t matter much on discrete gpus. The only imaginable culprit is that the 2-phase loop in pass 2 isn’t unrolled, but so isn’t the 3-phase (like always) and reducing the number of taps for 2-phase makes them same performance.
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Yeah it could be that your shader has gotten to a point where my hardware is the issue, maybe my gpu can’t handle it anymore the more complex your shader gets. If that’s the case it might be time for me to upgrade on my end.
It’s funny you mentioned that, I literally have that setting ON 24 lol, I noticed it further cleared up some minor other artifacts on the screen bringing it down . Maybe bringing it down by one could clear up this whole issue, I’ll give it a try later and see thanks for the suggestion.
Speaking of the new “NTSC Taps” setting, what exactly is that and what is its function/use for?
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2nd ntsc pass makes 2xTAPS + 1 texture lookups for final color assembly, also going in width left and right as it does so.
Default for 2-phase is 32 TAPS and 24 for 3-phase (3-phase max. taps is always 24, so no worries). Reducing the number of taps can have a nice effect on performance and coloring, especially with pre-scalers and increased internal resolution.
A special case where this really helps is the SMB “aura” etc.
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Interesting. All my answers might be in that Taps setting. I’ll play around with this in the lab later thank you for the explanation and for constantly improving this amazing shader.
In the emulation community you and this shader will go down in history as one of the greatest to ever do it if it’s not there already, you single handedly helped enhance the enjoyment of playing games from decades ago on modern hardware and I’m (and I’m sure everyone else that uses your shader are) forever grateful.
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New Release Version (2024-02-15-r1):
Notable changes:
- Rainbowing effect simplification and artifacts mitigation.
- Number of ntsc taps can be set now.
- Ntsc chroma fall-off implemented.
- Update: ntsc pass 2 register usage optimizations, mixed mode speedup.
Download link:
https://mega.nz/file/EowjXBgI#N6u_-PHExoDaZ2b0faz25MR-xpJo2kzuE07IDaPVBpo
14 Likes
Potential feature suggestion: separate “NTSC Chroma Scaling / Bleeding” settings for 2 phase and 3 phase “NTSC Phase”.
I have found that setting Chroma Scaling to 2.55 makes 2 phase a good match for 3 phase with Chroma Scaling at the default 1.00.
For games/systems with fixed resolutions, that is simple enough, but for games/systems that switch resolution, a compromise setting of one sort or another is currently required. It would be very nice to be able to use Auto NTSC Phase and have it automatically switch to my preferred Chroma Scaling settings for each.
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I could reproduce it with some of your presets. If I change the FPS display setting interval from default 256 frames to let’s say 15 frames (RA settings), the problem goes away. It has something to do with a single low FPS moment when the shader is loaded.
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With your latest update my issue seems to have went away since I lowered the Taps setting down to about 19 (any lower on my presets and it then starts to break/sharpen the dithering effects) but just in case, which setting exactly did you touch? “FPS display setting interval”? Where do I find that? I updated to the latest RetroArch 1.17.0 version.
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This setting is under Settings -> On-Screen Display -> On-Screen Notifications -> Notification Visibility.
Then select Framerate Update Interval (in frames).
My thoughts on this is that it’s a “false positive”, basing on a single initial shader loading frame drop, nothing to worry about. I’m certain, it’s a frame rate report issue involved. My guess is that it roots in a bit longer shader compile time because some loops need to be unrolled etc.
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Ah ok. I was looking in the video settings section getting lost lol. Ok then everything is looking good to go, I’m off to the lab to work on my next update pack, should be ready soon.
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New Release Version (2024-02-17-r1):
Notable changes:
- Major ntsc pass 2 reformation and performance improvements (especially 2-phase and high-res content).
- Ntsc chroma scaling has now separate parameters for 2-phase and 3-phase modes.
- Chroma taps fall-off now only works where needed (2-phase).
- Feedback is welcome.
Download link:
https://mega.nz/file/p4ZgACiY#0hZZbw5EzaFMI3CUN4y1nKXNtaOwNMmjn-NMz5zpP48
15 Likes
I had a feeling this was coming right after I released my pack lol. I’ll take a look at it later, I have a feeling I’ll be back in the lab with this one.
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