You came back right on time actually as I’m zipping up my latest update now and getting ready to release it just in time for the holidays.
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Thank goodness. You know I love your shaders.
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New Version Release (12-23-2023)
Changes Made
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Still uses guest.r’s latest shader update version (2023-12-02-r1) like my previous update so if you’ve already upgraded to that one you’re good to go.
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Changed all “normal” US preset white point temperature settings from 7500k to 7100k l, all “cool” US white point settings from 8500k to 7700k, Pal “normal” white point settings from 7500k to 6900k and Pal “cool” settings from 8500k to 7500k (grade shader settings).
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Changed the “crt contrast” setting from 35.00 to 25.00 (grade shader settings).
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Lowered the “contrast” setting from -50.00 to -10.00 and defaulted the “contrast pivot” setting to default (grade shader settings).
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Lowered both the “white-red tint” and “white-green tint” to 0.90 and 0.88 (grade shader settings).
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Raised the “ntsc filtering gamma correction” setting to 1.08 making composite look a bit sharper.
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Lowered the “magic glow cutoff” setting from .08 to .05 (seems to lighten up and display more small pixel details in the background)
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Raised the “bright boost dark pixels” setting from .50 to .75 to brighten up dark pixels a bit more.
Couple of screenies: (All from the composite preset)
Download the latest pack in the first post.
I tested out many different looks from tweaking trying to see if I could come up with something unique bit ultimately ended up with what’s here now.
My main goal was to lower the contrast and get rid of that “orange-like” tint it was giving off at the previous values it was on to bring colors back to a more “neutral” state and to get a sharper composite image, I aim to get the cleanest composite image I can get while still getting all the proper dithering effects.
Hope you guys enjoy the new look.
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Thank you and Merry Xmas to y’all
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You’re welcome and likewise.
New Version Release (12-25-2023)
Changes Made
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Tweaked Magic Glow settings for a brighter image.
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Few tweaks in the “grade” shader.
Composite shots:
Download the latest pack in the first post.
This is a small update but I wasn’t satisfied with how the brightness looked in the previous pack after switching to the new look so I gave that area a little boost with some magic glow tweaking.
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Hi there! I tested out the new presets on MediEvil II, and I have to say that I really like the result. But I noticed that there is a moire effect on the slot mask preset (03) in curvature mode, which is not present in the apperture version, also with curvature enabled. I’m using 4k btw. I had an older version installed before testing the latest version and there was no moire effect in the older preset.
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Also, what presets would you recommend for arcade games?
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That moire was probably always there but was “masked” and “hidden” by the old contrast settings, I actually used contrast to help hide some moire, crazy that trick even worked. Once I lowered that setting I’m assuming the moire returned. Is that a N64 game there?
For arcade I always use Slot Mask RGB.
I might put out another update pack, still messing around with brightness settings
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Hi. MediEvil II is a PS1 game. I try a lot of different presets and my preference changes all the time, so I use a lot of different shaders.
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Ah ok. I plan on putting out another update later today hopefully you’ll try it out and see if your issue is resolved.
Whenever I try switching to a new look I sometimes go back and retweak a pack about 2 to 3 more times, sometimes I feel like I hit a sweet spot with a certain look then I let it sit for a day then come back to it later with fresh eyes and start realizing something I didn’t notice from before from staring at the screen for too long, such is the life of a tweaker lol
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New Version Release (01-05-2024)
Changes Made
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Tweaked a couple settings in the “grade” shader portion of the preset such saturation (raised it up a little bit), contrast, crt contrast, white-red/green tint, crt hue settings.
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Tweaked a few settings in the guest advanced hd/ntsc shader such as magic glow cutoff, magic glow low strength, interlace brightness, bright boost dark pixels (lowered it), base (black) mask strength (raised it), ntsc brightness and ntsc filtering gamma correction (raised them both a bit for more sharpness/brightness).
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Still uses guest.r’s latest shader update version (2023-12-02-r1)
Couple screen shots mostly all with the RGB preset:
Grab the pack in the first post.
Starting the new year off with a fresh new pack with a slightly new look, The main two stand out settings is “crt-hue” from “grade” and raising the “base mask” setting in “guest”. This is my first time using the crt hue setting in any pack, it changes the whole image up especially on skin tones, gives everything a fresh new look. Another is raising the base mask setting, I like how it brightens up darker areas especially in backgrounds, you’ll get no “perfect blacks” with this setting cranked up lol.
Hope you guys like the new look.
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Now that my latest pack is out I decided to do the one thing that I love, and that’s go back in the lab once more lol. Previously I was messing around with the upscaling shaders that guest.r made possible in his recent updates, I still would like to “smooth” the pixels out on my presets without having to rely on any upscaler shader and I think I found an alternative while keeping the original look of the pixels right in the guest shader itself with an unexpected setting I haven’t tweaked in a while:
Both the horizontal and vertical glow sigma when raised has both the benefits of adding a bit more glow and smoothing pixels at the same time. My presets currently have both settings at .30
Here’s my current preset:
Here’s with both glow sigmas turned up to .40:
Current preset:
Both glow sigmas at .35:
At .40:
I think I like it at .35 the most but .40 looks good on the older systems, anything above .40 looks too blurry to me. I’m not even sure what I’m going to do with this information myself, just something I discovered and wanted to share.
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@sonkun! Nice shaders you have here — I wanted to try them out on my Odin 2 Android handheld, but I’m having trouble loading them (the message failed to apply shader preset kept popping up)
I’ve attached the log from Retroarch here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/10qSDbrGjrPQYGmAMPGDejMvHS0G7hPND/view?usp=drive_link
[Vulkan]: Failed to load LUT "/storage/DE74-B556/retroarch/shaders/crt/shaders/guest/advanced/lut/trinitron-lut.png".
[Vulkan]: Failed to create preset: "/storage/DE74-B556/retroarch/shaders/sonkun/aperture-grille/flat/1080p/01-1080p-crt-guest-advanced-ntsc-aperture-grille-u-normal-rf.slangp".
[Vulkan]: Failed to create filter chain: "/storage/DE74-B556/retroarch/shaders/sonkun/aperture-grille/flat/1080p/01-1080p-crt-guest-advanced-ntsc-aperture-grille-u-normal-rf.slangp". Falling back to stock.
Using Vulkan and FCEUmm core for NES.
Appreciate the help! 
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I got it working! I had to move the sonkun directory into the shaders_slang directory for it to work. /ignore me — now gonna experiment with them! 
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Nice, glad you got it working. I wonder how they look from your end, these presets were put together on a 65 inch TV plus I make them bright as hell. I hope they don’t blind you on such a small screen lol.
how in the world did you got it working to move them in the shaders_slang directory? cant’t access the directory because it’s protected from android… tried a lot of things to get access to that directory.
could you explain how you did it? would be very much appreciated
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I made a post a few months ago that should answer your question to the T dealing with the root folder and shaders on Android.
I did what @sonkun linked above. I’ve placed all my shaders, saves and states into my SD card, update the shaders directory to refer to the custom shaders directory, redownload Retroarch shaders and then load the custom shaders there.
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I just posted that link in my first post for all Android users going forward as well.
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