New sonkun crt guest advanced hd presets thread

[sonkun]

Off on another gaming adventure since I’m taking a break from tweaking. This time it’s a import shoot em up called Eliminate Down:

I was trying to document my progress without using save states, wanted to beat it the old fashioned way but I died right on that last pic. This game is balls to the wall hard lol, dying at any time after the first stage is pretty much a suicide mission once you start over without any of the power up weapons. If you want to test your patience and reflexes this is the game.

[throwaway]

Hi @sonkun, I updated to the latest version of your shader presets according to your post. Unfortunately, all games with Snes9x and Genesis Plus GX core freeze the moment I start a game using your presets. Any idea?

[sonkun]

Freeze? That’s a new one. Instead of trying to diagnose what the issue might be causing it the fastest method I will say that probably will instantly fix the issue is a fresh install of RetroArch, preferably the latest version that’s available.

[throwaway]

I reinstalled Retroarch, reconfigured Genesis Plus GX and once I add any of your presets the shader gets applied to the game and with the next frame it freezes. When I restart the game, I see the following:

Since I do not have a problem with Flycast and FinalBurn Neo, I assume it is related to 240p games. Is there something with the switch from guest’s NTSC to HD that could cause an issue?

[sonkun]

@throwaway

Is there something with the switch from guest’s NTSC to HD that could cause an issue?

Hmm I’m not sure. I did apply the ntsc adaptive shader to the guest advance hd shader as an experiment but even then I don’t think that should be an issue. You’re on the vulkun driver right? Your image shows that it freezes during the screen flashing that the switch res shader does, or at least that’s what I think my eyes are seeing.

Let’s try this first, in the parameters the very first setting try putting that to 0 and see what happens. Also this freeze only happens with my presets? Loading up the guest.r shaders on its own works with no issues?

[throwaway]

Yes, I use vulkan on Mac. I only have this issue with your presets. Loading guest.r shaders on its own works fine. I tried restarting games with

#reference "../../shaders/shaders_slang/sonkun/slot-mask/flat-screen/4k/02-4k-crt-guest-advanced-hd-slot-mask-u-normal-composite.slangp"
RESSWITCH_ENABLE = "0.000000"

but it did not solve the issue.

The last version I used was the one compatible with guest.r shader pack from the Retroarch updater - I guess it was 03-03-2024(?) and it worked fine. I did not backup the files. Do you still have them?

[sonkun]

That old version is obsolete and I would never advise anyone to use that pack again. Let’s try to get to the bottom of this then, are you able to get a log the moment it freezes? Maybe from there I’ll bring in someone like hunterk who could probably help you better on a more technical level.

[guest.r]

It would help to pin down the issue if early shader passes in the chain are gradually replaced with the stock shader.

Maybe some cores have problems with OriginalHistory pixel fetches which happen in the ResSwitch shader. Setting the parameter to 0.0 probably doesn’t prevent the crach circumstance.

[Superdonkeyjack]

Simply amazing work on these preset, Sonkun.

[sonkun]

@guest.r

It would help to pin down the issue if early shader passes in the chain are gradually replaced with the stock shader.

Maybe some cores have problems with OriginalHistory pixel fetches which happen in the ResSwitch shader. Setting the parameter to 0.0 probably doesn’t prevent the crach circumstance.

One thing I tend to notice is that different OS’s seem to have different issues, like Linux users with the “black screen” contrast setting from before and now this user is on a Mac with this specific issue. Or maybe it’s not as simple as just “different OSs have different issues”.

These random occasions sometimes throw me off because I expect my presets to “just work” for everyone that loads them but that doesn’t seem to be the case.

@Superdonkeyjack

Simply amazing work on these preset, Sonkun.

Thanks I appreciate it, since I’m playing games a bit more lately I’m noticing myself that all that tint and saturation tweaking really brings a different look this time around, I probably over did saturation a little but I like it. I was also wondering last night if I should do one more minor tweak and put out a new pack but meh I guess. I’ll let this one ride out for a while unless guest.r brings something juicy and exclusive to the table in a new update.

[throwaway]

I logged a try. See https://pastebin.com/BhYvnE5M

I think the interesting part is:

[INFO] [Vulkan filter chain]: Using framebuffer feedback for pass #2.
[INFO] [Vulkan]: QueuePresent failed, destroying swapchain.
[ERROR] [Vulkan]: Failed to create swapchain.

[sonkun]

Hmm. If I’m not mistaken I believe pass 2 is the “afterglow” pass in my chain. @guest.r is this what you meant by checking the passes?

[Cyber]

@sonkun

I probably over did saturation a little but I like it.

Saturation can make games seem much more CRT like to me and strangely enough even adds brightness to a certain extent even though it’s supposed to darken the colours.

What I’ve found useful in balancing it is loading up games like Street Fighter II and Marvel Super Heroes and looking at the internal lines in the sprites as well as some of the different shades on characters clothes for example Ken’s Gi in Street Fighter II or Shuma Gorath’s skin in Marvel Super Heroes.

If the creases and lines start to fade or disappear or if some of the shades are lost or blend into one, then you’re know you’re going too far.

[guest.r]

Try replacing pass2 (afterglow0) with stock shader, see how it goes.

[sonkun]

@Cyber

Saturation can make games seem much more CRT like to me and strangely enough even adds brightness to a certain extent even though it’s supposed to darken the colours.

That’s exactly how I see it as well. At first I kept trying to match the “raw colors” that the LCD was giving me foolishly not even knowing even those colors are “wrong” as guest.r pointed out a few posts above. Once I stopped trying to do that that’s when my imagination started to run wild hence the reason for me even tweaking all those tint settings in grade. So basically my latest preset pack is me just letting my imagination run wild a bit, at least color-wise.

@Cyber

What I’ve found useful in balancing it is loading up games like Street Fighter II and Marvel Super Heroes and looking at the internal lines in the sprites as well as some of the different shades on characters clothes for example Ken’s Gi in Street Fighter II or Shuma Gorath’s skin in Marvel Super Heroes.

If the creases and lines start to fade or disappear or if some of the shades are lost or blend into one, then you’re know you’re going too far.

Yeah I was pretty much using all the Capcom Street Fighters and VS series as tests, Marvel Vs Capcom is so colorful it’s just fun to look at.

[throwaway]

Yeah, replacing pass2 with stock shader fixes the issue! What is the issue with afterglow that Snes9x, Beetle PCE, and Genesis Plus GX struggle with?

[throwaway]

When I start a game and change the shader to one of sonkun’s shaders and replace pass2 with stock shader while the game is running, the issue is fixed. Once, I run a game with the shader being applied from the start through global.slangp for example, the issue persists. See https://pastebin.com/f8XSPwGU

[guest.r]

[INFO] [Vulkan filter chain]: Creating framebuffer 2048x2048 (max 1 level(s)).
[INFO] [Vulkan filter chain]: Creating framebuffer 2048x2048 (max 1 level(s)).
[INFO] [Vulkan filter chain]: Creating framebuffer 2048x2048 (max 1 level(s)).
[INFO] [Vulkan filter chain]: Creating framebuffer 2048x2048 (max 1 level(s)).
[INFO] [Vulkan filter chain]: Creating framebuffer 8192x2048 (max 1 level(s)).

It’s a good question why your input framebuffer size is 2048x2048 (should be more like 320x224), that’s from the first 5 passes, last being the ntsc-pass1 which horizontally scales by 4x.

The horizontal resolution might be to large and it supposingly crashes RA. Dunno if it’s a bug, RA setting or system setting.

You can check that you don’t have any video filters or strange core options enabled, otherwise this is a good question for someone also familiar with the Apple ecosystem.

Edit: see the framebuffer sizes get updated, but it looks it gets stuck in the process (framebuffer creation and updates).

[throwaway]

The log is from a freshly installed Retroarch with no video filter and default core options. Only global.slangp is loaded.

[DJM]

Hey sonkun, I’ve been doing a lot of test with your shader in the latest days and it’s really awesome. But unfortunately it’s too heavy to be used on Android… while on some cores it still works ok on other cores it makes things too slow even with simple games (I am using a high end phone, S24 Ultra). Is there maybe a “lighter” version of this shader?