Ok round 2 of my upscaling preset experiments, still using the xbr-lv3 upscaler shader. In my pack above I noticed on the composite presets the outlines on sprites looked too thick, a simple fix for that was changing the scaling on the first ntsc pass in the shader chain.
Now it went from looking like this:
To this:
More composite screenies:
Try out the pack here:
Just like above after extracting the pack copy and paste presets of choice directly into just the shaders folder not shaders_slang.
Ok here’s round 3 of me experimenting with these upscaling shaders. This time we’re going in a slightly different direction using the ddt-xbr-lv1 shader. It seems to work a bit different compared to the xbr-lv3 shader that I used in the previous two packs as it looks to “clean” up the pixel edges more than “smooth” them out. The results are that pixels look closer to their original look but with the edges cleaned up giving a really clean looking image overall. Let’s compare.
Here’s xbr-lv3:
Ddt-xbr-lv1:
Here’s my standard rgb preset:
Ddt-xbr-lv1 looks more like my rgb preset but “cleaned up”.
More examples in the same order:
Here’s an example just comparing xbr-lv3 with ddt-xbr-lv1
With xbr-lv3 Mario’s eye has this weird slanted that connects to his mustache, although the over image looks smoother those are not how the pixels originally look. With ddt-xbr-lv1 the pixels look like their original look with the edges cleaned up to bring out that black outline more.
Another example:
Xbr-lv3 looks more smooth, ddt-xbr-lv1 looks more original.
Try the pack out here:
Copy and place presets in the shaders folder not shaders_slang.
These presets are a little more gpu intensive as well.
Edit: Just replaced with “version 2”, these should be faster now.
Just a reminder, if mask mitigation is sponsored by magic glow, then an important factor is also the “Fine Glow/M.Glow Sampling”, which does lookups on a denser pixel grid, also acknowledging pre-scaling.
Ideally we would use FineSampling = 3.0 with a 3x pre-scaler. To compensate for sampling radius in this example, sigma values are to be multiplied by 3 as well as as Glow Radius.
Fine sampling was introduced with glow passes also to endorse magic glow mask mitigation setups which also include pre-scaling.
Thank you. I’m learning all sorts of new information both here and on discord just because I randomly decided to go back into the lab and I’m loving it lol. By the way I just swapped out the link above with a new version 2. I changed the y2 scale from “viewport” to “source” and that gave the presets a performance boost. Also this ddt-xbr-lv1 shader is scaled at x1 compared to x3 that xbr-lv3 was on.
New Version Release (12-03-2024-v5)
Changes Made
Still uses guest.r shader version 2024-10-27-r1.
Adjusted sharpness on all presets
Adjusted glow on all presets to go with new sharpness settings.
Kind of a small update nothing too major, wanted to shave a little bit off the pixel edges for a bit of a sharper look.
Basically we’re going from this:
To this:
Download the new pack in the first post.
Edit: Changed up the glow settings, didn’t like how they looked on the initial release, grab the new pack under “v2”.
Edit 2: Adjusted sharpness again as well. v3 now up.
Edit 3: Changed “Fine Glow/M.Glow Sampling” from 5 to 3 on all rf/composite presets, helps to “smooth” out pixels out a bit better. “v4” now up.
Edit 4: Fixed a sharpness regression in the rf/composite/rainbow presets where artifacts were being produced. Thanks @JosepMC for pointing that out. v5 now up.
The thicker outlines is appreciated, but rf/composite seems worse in this release in my opinion. Looks weirdly “smoothed”/“HD” and doesn’t blend as nicely as before.
It also introduces some artifacts in the outlines for games like Super Mario Bros.
Are those images from v3? I just recently put up a v4 version hoping to smooth the rf/composite presets out a bit more. It’s true that I’m aiming for a sharper look, trying to balance and hit that sweet spot right between the two. That Mario shot from the rf preset? If so I believe those artifacts always been there, probably not as noticeable in the old release because everything was more “blurred” together.
I don’t notice a difference with rf after I changed the “fsharpen” setting from 5 down to .50. At 5 the artifacts are still there but bringing it down to .50 seems to make the artifacts expand out more making it more noticeable:
They are from v4, I saw your update before posting. All the pictures are shadow-mask/normal/composite-rainbow-artifacts. Here’s how SMB looked to me in the pack from 11-06-2024.
Ok had to go back and take some comparison shots. Also I discarded that 11-06 release and went back to the 10-29 one, forgot the reason why tho.
But anywho here’s composite from 10-29:
Composite from this current release:
And here’s me applying back the old glow settings from 10-29 to the new release:
Do you think that’s a better look?
Also rf in the old release looked just as garbage, artifacts not as pronounced but was still there:
Old version:
Current version:
Edit: Ah you said rainbow. Yeah I see it now.
Hmm, I’ll have to see what’s causing that. Might be what’s also causing the rf issue.
Edit 2: Just like I figured, it was that ntsc Fsharpen setting. When I put it back to 5.00 the way I previously had it it goes away:
Now that I found the culprit I guess I can just revert that setting and put up a new release, gonna do that for both composites RF too. Does everything else look ok/better to you?
Edit 3: New v5 version up with sharpness fix.
You’re welcome and thank you I appreciate it, it looks even cooler with your overlay, good stuff there. I decided to retweak sharpness settings on a whim wasn’t really planned out or anything but the idea started when I started messing around with those upscaler shaders again. Not sure if people will like the change or prefer the previous look, guess time will tell.
New Version Release (2024-12-20-r1)
Changes Made
Uses guest.r shader version 2024-12-05-r1.
Uses the brand new setting “NTSC Preserve ‘Edge’ Colors” setting on composite and composite rainbow presets (Composite colors look more vibrant and pixel edges look more “full”. You must download the latest guest.r shader for this setting to take effect, link and guide for manual installation in first post).
This is another small update but this one new setting has changed the game for the ntsc adapter shader forever. It’s now possible to get one of the cleanest looking composite images to date, composite has never looked better.
Here’s my previous composite preset:
Here’s how it looks now with the new setting:
Take a look at the character sprites to see the difference. Previously it was never possible to get the ntsc adapter shader to look this way before without breaking the blended dithering effect.
More composite screenies:
Download link in the first post.
@guest.r I can’t thank you enough for making my wish a reality. Your shader will forever be legendary for changing the way I and many others retro game.
Edit: Tweaked the Fine Glow/Magic Glow Sampling setting on S-Video and RGB presets from 5 to 3, helps to soften the image up just a little. You can grab the new pack with that change under “v2” in the same spot as always.
Edit 2: This pack now works with guest.r’s newer update (2024-12-20-r1) which further improves upon the new “edge colors” setting that has been implemented so please be sure to grab that update as my pack works directly with it.
So, the V2 is much better than the original one?
It’s pretty much the same. I just decided to use the same glow settings that I applied to the composite presets to keep everything looking uniformed. The way I had the glow settings on RGB on the first release made the overall image look a bit too sharp. The “glow sampling” setting was set to 5, I set it to 3 which helps “smooths” the image out just a tiny bit more, that’s pretty much all what “v2” is. I guess you can say it’s better that way.
Hey there, son. I’ve been putting off reporting this, as it’s been addressed previously, but what the hell. As you can tell from the images below, I too am suffering from the gray cast on black backgrounds. Per your recommendation, I’ve made sure the ‘dynamic range’ setting in NVCP is set to full. This hasn’t had any effect whatsoever - is there any way to troubleshoot and get to the bottom of this?
For some reason, it doesn’t look quite as bad here as it does live in-game. Still, I hope it comes across.
Try this and tell me if it makes a difference:
That setting that I have highlighted, default that to 0 and tell me if that makes a difference, it can be found near the bottom in the shader parameters. If that works I then have a question for you afterwards, are you playing on a TV or pc monitor? Time to do some information gathering on this.
Setting ‘Base (black) Mask strength’ to 0 removed the cast completely. I’m on a PC monitor.
Your answer was exactly what I expected. To further confirm my thoughts I would like if a user that plays on a TV has this same issue. I don’t think I confirmed this in the past but I believe users that came to me with this issue were all on pc monitors.
I tweaked all of these settings on a standard TV, a lcd screen at that. The blacks on my TV is so dark that even with that setting placed the way it is it’s barely noticeable at all unless I start putting my face close to the tv, for me that setting actually enhances the image.
So this issue seems to be specifically pc monitor based, I could be wrong because I would need more users that also strictly play on pc monitors to come in this thread and say they have the have your same issue and fixed it by defaulting that setting.
I guess for now what I can do to hopefully help anyone regardless of display with your similar issue is to put up a disclaimer on my main post to either turn that setting down or off completely. Settings that may look right to me on my display may look insane on another user’s display, hopefully this fix will serve good for others. I’m also glad the picture now looks better for you as well.
I’m on a natural high right now excited about this latest guest.r shader update having too much fun testing out different games and I want other people that use my presets to be enjoying themselves as well so thank you for pointing this out.
Got more for ya.
While playing around, I noticed something new entirely. While Landstalker is a game I commonly use to try out shaders, I never once came across anything like this before. Notice the windows of the church. This is using the 1440p, flat, slot mask J Normal Composite preset.
That can’t be right. Looks like an overly-aggressive de-dithering algorithm to me.
Edit Sorry, uploaded the wrong screenshots. Fixed.
Had to step out for a bit so can’t really go look at it first hand but here’s my first question after applying the brand new guest.r update, is there a difference if you turn that new “edge colors” setting off? If not then does it also look that way by loading up the vanilla “guest-advanced-ntsc” shader as well? Those are the first two things I would try.
