Love the first look. Would you like to share your shader preset and settings?
1 Like
It’s 199X-BLOOM from Brim’s set of shaders at default settings https://1drv.ms/u/s!AovNCJqCEyJOhLp_hJlJKP4cSByg2A
Thanks. I was hoping it’s something more flexible like GLSL or SLANG. Can’t use Brim’s shaders with Beetle PSX running on Vulkan (
Would you mind uploading your shader preset? Looks like that combo is not the repository and i can’t replicate it myself.
@Arviel, below is the preset used by @Nesguy, you will also need to download the shader file combined by @hunterk, save both files in the same directory.
Shader file by @hunterk: zfast+dotmask.glsl
Preset file by @Nesguy: zfast+dotmask-preset.glslp
Follow other guidelines provided by @Nesguy in his post above.
3 Likes
Thank you! Shader looks very nice once i boost my monitor’s brightness to the max. Which does have the side-effect of burning my retina when i switch windows. Which is unfortunate because it makes using this shader kind of inconvenient.
Glad you got it sorted out; true, adjusting the backlight is a bit of an inconvenience, but my monitor has multiple preset picture modes that can be adjusted, so I just use one for running Retroarch and another for daily computer stuff. Most displays have multiple picture modes that you can adjust; you might look into that.
1 Like
Unfortunately mine doesn’t. No OSD at all actually, just basic brightness adjuster. Thank you for the suggestion though!
Nice visuals @Arviel.
What would be handy is when people post their screen shots, they also post an indication of the shader preset(s) they are using 
5 Likes
You are right, my mistake! The shader is crt-royale-tvout+image-adjustment.
2 Likes
Hey guys, FYI: I felt like a lot of the discussion, while good and interesting, was not really right for the goal of this thread, which was to share screenshots and settings, so I moved those discussion/debate posts over to another thread:
Carry on!
4 Likes
OK. It looks like I’ve managed to deal with all my struggles with PSX games. Thanks to @shenglong @hunterk and all the others who made “blendoverlay.slang” shader possible. I’ve combined GTU-v50 + CRT-easymod-halation to smooth the picture and apply some decent glow. Image adjustment helped with some black level cranking. And at the very end of the chain is “Blendoverlay” with “dot pitch” texture made everything almost perfect (IMO).
This works especially good with the games like GEX and Rayman. Where edgy textures applied on top of the background making the whole look very pixellated (in a bad way)
Shader preset https://pastebin.com/xXQEhczQ
6 Likes
Looking good @Great_Dragon, like a CGA monitor from the early 90’s… Credit definitely goes to @hunterk and @torridgristle, I was just the director!
Please note, I would like to add for people viewing @Great_Dragon screen shots from close up (laptop or desktop screens), these screen shots look better when viewing from a couch (6ft+ distance) and are better in motion. The dot pitch/slot-mask and smoothing effect might look a bit “in your face” from close up.
You’ve done well to make the shader combo effective on PSX games which is a system I always find tricky to get the right look out of.
GTU-V050 is my bread and butter preset. Where possible, I always go with that at the start of a shader chain. I feel it handles smoothing/blurring (which can be controlled) really well for both 2D and 3D content and applies a nice colour profile, it’s pretty universal, works out of the box plus plays nice with other shader passes.
Funny how I was desperate (and still am!) to get the 199x shader by @Birm in a lightweight GLSL/SLANG format, which you used in your screen shots earlier in the thread, and from that, this blendoverlay was born!
2 Likes
Regarding the mask effect in Great Dragon’s shot…at 1080p, that’s emulating a 180 TVL TV. This is much lower than even a cheap 20” TV from the early 90s, which was around 300 TVL. That’s why the mask seems too coarse and “in your face.” You need 4K at a minimum for that particular effect to look right, IMO.
What shaders do you guys recommend for PSX Games at their native resolution? The Playstation used many different resolutions (254x224, 320x240, 512x240, 384x480, 512x480 etc.) and i guess most shaders only work with 240p games?
Some examples (Beetle PSX HW Core, Vulkan Driver, Integer Scale, 4x internal Resolution and the new SSAA option):
Ridge Racer Revolution (native resolution 320x240) looks gorgeous with CRT-Aperture:
Tekken 3 (runs at a odd resolution of 384x480) on the other hand, looks like crap with CRT-Aperture:
1 Like
You can force the resolution to stick to 240 by running stock.glsl as the first pass, setting it’s scale to absolute and scale y to 240, then you can run any CRT shader after that to get better scan lines, I do this and saves a me a lot of headache.
@hunterk posted info on this in this post Reicast 240p and mame roms support
Hope that helps.
3 Likes
Wow that’s really nice, @Great_Dragon! In the first examples you posted I really missed some scanlines, but after these recent updates, and as much as I like them, I don’t think yopur preset needs them anymore. I have the impression that text might appear a bit too soft, and maybe smaller sprites too. But those backgrounds look fantastic. I’m glad you managed to nail the look you were looking for.
@ryuuji89 - sexy shot too, as gritty as it gets. But there’s something going on with the mask, have you noticed how it vanishes in highlights? (the trousers for example).
@Phiben - shenglong suggestion is probably the way to go in this case, particularly if you want to keep using CRT-aperture. Alternatively, you can try Easymode, which somehow usually gets along better with odd resolutions than most crt shaders. (edit: true, @lfan also hyllian3d!)
I have posted several PS1 shots already by the way. Check them out if you are interested.
And here are some arcade screens I took these days, after finally setting up the FBA and MAME cores properly. Those games look glorious on RA 
3 Likes