Hi @sonkun! I was trying out the latest release of your shader presets (05-03-2023) and the scalefx variants do not work for me. It loads correctly, but I don’t see the upscaling effect (even if I set ScaleFX threshold parameter to max). I am using the latest guest.r shader release (2023-07-30). I also tried to just load crt guest advanced HD in retroarch and prepend ScaleFx Hybrid and that didn’t work as well. As a last resort I tried to save that shader preset and manually fiddle with it and that also did not work. So I don’t know what’s going on :-p. Any thoughts? Finally, I’d just like to sincerely thank you and guest for all the amazing work thstt you guys do!
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Ok, discovered that it does work on SNES (SNES9X current core), but not on N64 (Mupenplus next, ParallelRDP, 2x Upscale, 1/2 Downscale). And N64 is where I intended to use the ScaleFx+Guest combo. The shaders work individually (in isolation) though. I wonder if there’s something inside guest’s shader that is either disabling the upscaling effect or just making it too subtle (to the extent where I cannot notice any practical difference). Tks in advance for the help!
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It’s implemented in a way that scanline mode works differently compared with no-scanline or interlaced mode.
“Unfortunatelly” full scale effect isn’t supported with scanline mode.
If you want pure scalefx then it’s best to use interlaced mode and increase the internal resolution parameter (HD version).
In scanline mode there is still a very nice horizontal pixel AA effect. I guess if you want scalefx in full mode and scanlines then you can use the mega bezel presets and fake scanlines.
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The man himself! Hey, thanks for the reply @guest.r
Gotcha, tks!
Sorry for the ignorance, but how exactly can I set interlaced mode (what shader parameter should I change)? I’m still somewhat new to shaders (and I’m not a shader programmer)
Right, I’ll experiment more with it. It’s just that N64 textures still look too pixelated for my taste on my 4K tv. I was then quite happy with scalefx->royale. But then I discovered your amazing shader, so I wanted to replace royale with yours. And here I am 
Ok, I’ll check those too. Just wanted to keep things as simple as possible.
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Oh, maybe it’s just a matter of lower the “Interlace trigger resolution” to zero or something? And should I keep the interlace mode at 4 (interpolation)?
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Yes, you are doing it right, the interlaced mode 4 is also correct.
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Hello sonkun! I came here to thank you, playing with your filter has given me a new meaning for my super nintendo games, it’s like reliving my childhood. I would like to thank you for allowing me to relive all of this. Could you tell me if there is provision for 720p screens?
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I return bearing gifts. Had to step away from the scene and the lab for a bit but I’ve still been tweaking any chance I had. In my previous packs I only included warm and cool variants for my u/j/pal presets, this time around I added in a “normal” (neutral) version. So far this only for the “U” presets:
Normal:
Warm:
Cool:
This sample works with @guest.r’s latest shader update so grab that before trying out the samples. Place presets directly into your “shaders_slang” folder.
@Dogway I took a page out of your book and switched up from srgb to rec 709 in the grade shader and I notice that setting gives a significant brightness boost while also allowing to see more pixels that were “buried” in the background from the dimness that srgb displayed. I had to rearrange a few guest shader brightness settings after switching that on because things just got too bright lol.
Try the samples here:
Try out my latest pack in this thread and see what you think.
Yeah the scalefx effect doesn’t display the way I expected. I might just remove the scalefx presets in my next update, I only added those in as a bonus plus they hog up a lot of gpu resource, they even slow my set up down.
Thank you I appreciate it. Be sure to try my sample pack up above that I’m working, it’s completely different than the current pack that’s out and is the new look I’m going for.
Hey there @luizclaudio98 I’m glad you’re enjoying my current pack. I’m working on a whole new pack with a new look coming soon. You can get a sample of what I’m working on from the sample pack above so please try it out. I believe the guest shader also scales to 720p as well.
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Nice. Looks like you used the warm preset for those shots if I’m not mistaken. I’m aiming for a “cinema mode” type of look with the warm presets.
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no I tested the 3 different shaders the 1st is cool the second is warm the third is normal
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Ah now I see the difference more clearly in those snes shots, I guess the colors in tmnt was just throwing me off. That looks nice. I’m deciding on if this should be the look I should stick with as a foundation before proceeding to make aperture grille and shadow mask, ntsc etc. types.
I think these already look vastly different (and better) from my current pack presets but I don’t know, I feel like something may still be missing that can enhance the look even more. I was thinking of going for that “hazy glow” look that Royalle has but I don’t know, maybe I should stick to the look I already got here.
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You have to configure for your display, so if your display uses a darker gamma like 2.4 which is the usual for TVs you need to set the color space to 709. The image will look similar if you set to sRGB on a display using 2.2 gamma.
The fact that scanlines and masks darken the image has to be dealt on the scanlines shader as I did here. It should be good practice to separate image gamma and scanlines by compensating scanline + mask gamma via a prefit function. In my tests the gamma curve that they draw is more “shoulder” weighted while a typical gamma with a power function is more “knee” weighted.
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here we can see better the comparison really nice job I think that you are still going to refine the shaders it becomes an endless thing lol
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I’m pretty sure it is 2.4, I’m using some off brand 4k TV to do all this shader tweaking on. What I do know is that rec 709 lights everything up.
Here’s my current sample preset with srgb enabled:
Here’s with rec 709:
Rec 709 brings everything to the forefront and lights everything up almost as if it acted like a “backlight” setting, you can even see the new black base mask more in the black areas now.
I went and read some of the posts there. You mention something about “inverse gamma”. Is that a setting in grade? I also seen someone else mention it the other day.
Yeah I definitely see those different white point temps being displayed there with those shots. I go back between normal and cool. Warm I probably will never use personally especially since Dogway told me that crts didn’t ship back then with a white point of 6500k which is what the warm preset uses but more between 7000k and 7500k but it’s good to have the option there nonetheless. I may do one more tweak or just leave it as is.
@guest.r I tried playing around with the new latest mask bloom/fine bloom combination settings and wasn’t really getting the desired look I wanted. Mask bloom seems to “smooth” the overall mask over the higher you raise it. With plain negative bloom the mask remains sharp and still “pops” when raising the negative values. I should’ve took some comparison shots before I left home to show you what I mean.
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Yeah, it works a bit differently, the idea is also to dissolve the mask on very bright colors without clipping them too much, which is a problem for ordinary bloom at full mask strength. But ordinary bloom is still quite fine.
Edit: i guess i can fix this too.
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I see and ok cool. I guess I’ll wait for your next update to try it out again.
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Yes, “Inverse Gamma” might sound a bit confusing as reverting a gamma (aka linearization), so probably the term “inverted gamma” might fit better. Basically it’s like a gamma/pow function inverted in the x and y plane, in grade the most similar thing is the (Digital) “brightness” control, it’s not exactly the same as that one is a rolled-off gain, whereas in my zfast-crt shader it’s indeed an inverted gamma. It’s only meant to compensate for the scanline+mask gamma so it has no place within grade.
You can see the difference here: https://www.desmos.com/calculator/9qijf9ppoj
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Testing out guest.r’s latest shader update with all the new features:
Normal:
Warm:
Cool:
Try out the sample pack here:
This pack works strictly with guest.r’s latest shader update so please grab that first before trying out the samples.
Place presets directly into your “shaders” folder.
@guest.r I’m digging that new “fine bloom/halation sampling” setting, it gives a nice finishing touch smoothing the overall image out which is what my rgb presets been needing, very sexy update you unleashed on us. Thank you once again for the best shader ever.
I also went a different route this time, lowered the scanline saturation setting to ease some of that saturation off the image a bit.
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