Official release thread for WindowCast core

[Cyber]

It doesn’t have to be the Core causing issues. It could be a bug introduced by other changes to RetroArch itself. Why not report it?

[MrBlastman]

Yep, I have on github.

[MrBlastman]

After further investigation, it seems as if this core is hitting my VRAM limit of 12 Gigabytes on this particular PC, and causing a hard Crash to Desktop in Retroarch.

Event viewer confirms this crash in Windows 10.

I never had this issue before. Why is this core now creating 12288x12288 framebuffers?

Those are not needed.

Particularly when trying to capture a 320x240 or 640x480 game window.

No other core does this.

[Cyber]

@MrBlastman

Why is this core now creating 12288x12288 framebuffers?

Those are not needed.

Particularly when trying to capture a 320x240 or 640x480 game window.

No other core does this.

It’s not the WindowCast Core that’s doing this…

@MrBlastman

shaders such as MegaBezel

Use a Standard Preset, don’t upscale or use a DREZ preset.

[MrBlastman]

Found it!

shader21 = “shaders_slang/bezel/Mega_Bezel/shaders/scalefx/hsm-scalefx-pass4.slang” alias21 = “” wrap_mode21 = “clamp_to_border” mipmap_input21 = “false” filter_linear21 = “false” float_framebuffer21 = “false” srgb_framebuffer21 = “false” scale_type_x21 = “source” scale_x21 = “3.000000” scale_type_y21 = “source” scale_y21 = "3.000000

the 3.00000 was the culprit!

Not sure where the scalefx shader is manipulated within the MBZ shader settings options, but I manually edited this from 3.0 to 1.0 in the preset file and the problem went away. VRAM usage dropped significantly.

[Cyber]

Why are you doing all of that when the shader has already done that for you? That’s why there are different performance tiers. It’s one of the reasons for the DREZ presets as well. I already gave you the recommended solution.

Mega Bezel Reflection Shader! - Feedback and Updates

I think it is very likely that you are running out of video ram because of the increased core resolution and this is crashing it. This is a bigger problem with the SMOOTH-ADV presets, and would be less of an issue with the STD presets. What res is your monitor? If the option is available and you can increase internal resolution and then set downres (both in the core) then you may be able to get a nicer antialiasing but still with a not too high resolution. Basically anything over 640x480 goin…

Mega Bezel Reflection Shader! - Feedback and Updates

Thanks, it’s a fun thing to work on, Yup, this will work for the N64 preset as well . EDIT: Since in the N64 preset the last scalefx pass increases the initial resolution to 3x.The core sampling res multiple is set to 2, so that it samples the scalefx pass at 2x the core res, so something like 640x480.

Mega Bezel Reflection Shader! - Feedback and Updates

The reasons for the scaling up in the preset is for two reasons, one is scalefx and the other is GTU, a 3X scale is required for scalefx, and GTU normally uses a 2X scale, so each full pixel does not have to be blurred. Both these types of effects and all the MDAPT passes are really effects which are the most effective at probably max 640x480 core resolution. For golden age video games this isn’t much of a problem because the core resolution is low, e.g. 256x224. This is the stuff I tend to en…

[MrBlastman]

I had never messed with the DREZ stuff, til now. You gave me an idea, actually, as for the longest time I was stuck with whatever input res Steam games fed into Windowcast. DREZ settings are brilliant, and now the higher res games are looking proper NES-like @ 224, with a few tweaks in my 1980s Slot Mask presets.

Thanks!

[Cyber]

Screenshots/Photos/Videos or it didn’t happen!

[MrBlastman]

Alright, here’s a few…

First is a 1980s style RF connection NES TV that is rather typical of the TV set handed down to kids from their parents:

The next two are your failing late 1970s TV sets that kids were sometimes stuck with, complete with all the color distortion and noise:

All of these were generated with HDR on in Retroarch, so the colors won’t look right in SDR.

I had friends with the ultra shitty set, and the top one is pretty close to what we gamed on in college.

I’m old.

[Cyber]

Looks good to me, I only do HDR. Wish I could zoom in though, but I guess I’ll have to download first.

[psychic5]

The Wincast core was an interesting idea, but unfortunately it was abandoned. In the meantime, Mausimus’s fantastic Shaderglass was released. Over the weekend I had time to tinker with Claude and created a core that does what Shaderglass does, but from within RetroArch. It also offers a few advantages, such as launching .exe files and closing them in the same way as when you close a game with RetroArch. I’m not a programmer, but the result strikes me as impressive. It’s also quite intuitive and easy to use.

If interested I can share the core with a readme.

[Cyber]

@psychic5

It also offers a few advantages, such as launching .exe files and closing them in the same way as when you close a game with RetroArch. I’m not a programmer, but the result strikes me as impressive.

Not all people with great ideas for software are programmers and vice versa. Development teams must have people who have ideas, they don’t necessarily need to be able to code or write their own software to be of great benefit to the team.

@psychic5

If interested I can share the core with a readme.

This is definitely interesting.

[psychic5]

Here it is.

files_1.2.7z

There is still room for improvement, if there is interest I may improve it. Tell me what you think

[Broski86]

I tested the core; seems to work as intended…except I only get a black screen (with a pause icon in the upper right corner).

Tested with AM2R. I get sound; the game reacts to the gamepad inputs -everything seem to works fine…except for the black screen.

I’m on Win 10 (build 1909) so it should meet the requirements for WGC stuff from what I read. I even tested with a virtual machine Windows 10 OS…and it actually worked there, no black screen. Of course, performance won’t ever be great on a VM but at least that rules out an hardware or core problem. Vulkan, GLcore, D3D11…same results.

So, any ideas? I love the idea behind this, it could be a great core.

[psychic5]

That’s strange. I’m on Windows 11 and everything works without black screens. Claude sees two main suspects.

Quote:

1. RetroArch is paused. The pause icon in the upper right is the strongest clue. When the game takes focus, RetroArch ends up “not active” and, if the pause option is enabled, it stops. If no frames arrive, the screen stays black. Things to try:

• Press P (RetroArch’s pause key) and see if the image appears.
• In the settings, look for “Pause Content When Window Is Not Active” (it’s in the Input or Frame Throttle section; I’m not sure exactly where) and turn it off.

2. Windows 10 1909 is old. Basic capture with Windows Graphics Capture has existed since Windows 10 1803, but some extra features arrived later. Hiding the yellow border and capturing the cursor, for example, require more recent builds. If the core requests them without checking the Windows version, on an older build the capture can fail silently. The VM probably has a newer build, which would explain the difference. I’d have them check the VM’s build with winver , and, if possible, try updating Windows 10 to 22H2.

In the meanwhile I post two new screenshots from a homebrew done with Game Maker called Shantae and Asha - Dream Fantasia taken from Retroarch with the core

[psychic5]

Next step, if those two tests aren’t enough:

• Prepare a 1.1 version with two improvements. The first is an automatic fallback : if WGC capture fails to start, the core switches to PrintWindow, the method we used before. The second is clearer diagnostic messages in the log, to understand what’s happening on their PC.

[Broski86]

Ok so, the pause icon was indeed RA indicating it was “paused” (forgotten what it was since I normally always have “pause” unbind so I never use it, but here I was testing on a clean/new RA install). While RA was “paused” the exe was still playing. Anyway, the “pause” issue was fixed by disabling both “Pause Content When Menu is Active” and “Pause Content When Not Active”…unfortunately, it didn’t fix the black screen problem.

I tried switching from game mode to menu mode with ctlr+shift+f12 (an icon appears indicating the shift between both modes)… black screen still. Only difference is in one mode it accepts keyboard inputs and not in the other.

edit: Forgot. Also tried switching between WGC and PrintWindow in the core’s options (restarting afterward). Same results.

edit2: Oh yes, I also tried ShaderGlass itself, since (guessing) maybe Claude made the core based on ShaderGlass (at least in part) perhaps. ShaderGlass worked right out of the gate, so the problem isn’t here either.

What’s perplexing is that it works fine in the VM Windows 10…which normally is much less functional in terms of video drivers supported and such. I forgot which build the VM guest OS is but it’s pretty much up-to-date (and it doesn’t have Nvidia driver installed on it either)

So this has me thinking, it’s likely a problem with my Windows 10 build version or an issue caused by the Nvidia Driver and/or control panel/settings.

Whenever I get around of backing my current OS (am using Acronis True Image for backups semi regularly), I’ll tried updating Win 10 to see if that fix the problem. Well, I should probably just start by uninstalling the Nvidia driver first to see if that is the issue.

[psychic5]

If more people were testing the core it would be easier to understand if the problem is in the core or on your side. I’m on WIN 11 with Nvidia graphic card and everything is fine.

For now try this: before using Retroarch, set the game to ‘window’ or ‘borderless’ mode via its graphics options, or try Alt+Enter. For 2D games with pixel graphics, it is generally best to choose the lowest resolution if this option is available.Close the game and launch it from within Retroarch.

Let’s see what happens.

[Jamirus]

I don’t get a blackscreen on Win10 with Nvidia (older RA 1.17.0), made some quick test using Vulkan driver with an old PC game. Putting shader on and clickthrough worked. Interesting alternative to other approaches, thanks.

[Starman99x]

Nice, this worked with some games:

But I couldn’t get it working with Sonic Mania Plus. The exe doesn’t seem to launch at all, and it sends me back to RetroArch’s menu.

I think this core needs its own thread at this point, it seems quite promising.

EDIT: Ok I got it to launch by changing the game display mode to windowed, but I get a frozen image or black screen. The same problem happens with AM2R.