Trying to make this shader preset not as intense on my system

RetroArch Additions Shaders
#1

I’m running this build on the following:

  • CPU - Intel i5-4590 3.3Ghz
  • GPU - AMD R5 240

Obviously not a powerhouse of a system, but it’s running every game I throw at it as long as I choose the right video drivers. It’s the ‘shaders’ where things start to fall apart.

I’m running this all through a CRT, super resolutions (1920x240 & 480i, etc) and using the following presets to simulate connection types. (RF, Composite, & S-Video)

  • NTSC-adaptive
  • GTUv50
  • Image Adjustment

For the most part, there is no issue, except for the following situations which cause major slowdown.

  • N64 w/ Angrylion using any kind of AA filter in core-options.
  • PSX anytime it goes to 480i.
  • Dreamcast, as it’s all 480i.

If I run ‘just’ NTSC-adaptive, or ‘just’ GTUv50, there is no problem, but I need the ‘ntsc’ effects (and that composite rainbow effect) from the former and the blurring/blending from gtuv50 for the whole concept to work.

I tried running TV-OutTweaks to use it’s blur instead, but at this resolution it’s not appearing to do anything in that regard. I also tried the multi-pass variant of TV-OutTweaks, but it also caused major slowdown in the same scenarios.

Does anybody have any suggestions? I just need something that will let me blur/blend. I was using 320 for S-Video, 192 for Composite, and 128 for RF in these presets.

#2

I would try ParaLLEl-N64 instead of Angrylion for N64. Your radeon card should run it just fine, I think (the GPU in my office machine is a radeon 270[?] and it can go well over full speed).

tvout-tweaks should be identical to GTU aside from scaling, but I’m assuming you’re not doing much/any scaling on your CRT? You’ll need to adjust the different bandwidth parameters to get more blurring.

#3

I tried using the ParaLLEl setting before, but it’s crashing whenever I boot a game on this PC. I tried it again, but this time ran a log and it looks like it’s trying to run Vulkan? I don’t think this card does Vulkan.

Log shows this as the last line… not even sure what this one means:

[libretro ERROR] This device probably does not support 8/16-bit storage. Make sure you're using up-to-date drivers!

I tried pulling in TV-OutTweaks again and adjusting the “TVOut Signal Resolution” Parameter and going below 224 just makes the screen get darker instead of blurring. I assumed this was because my resolution is 1920x240, and maybe that’s not high enough to see the effect?

#4

Hmm, I don’t think that would be a problem, no. That shader is intended for use with CRTs running at low res. It does get darker at very low resolutions. You mostly need to mess with the horizontal Y (luma) resolution, I think.

ParaLLEl-RDP does indeed require Vulkan, but the R5 240 series should support it (I just looked it up). Missing the storage extension is likely, but it shouldn’t prevent it from working altogether, AFAIK, just a little slower than ideal.

#5

So I ‘was’ using Sonic’s shield on genesis to measure the blurring, but I realized that was kind of stupid when something like the shadows on Sonic R exist, so I switched over to that and now I do see the blur effect. It’s not as pronounced as GTU, so I think that’s why I was thinking it wasn’t happening.

Unfortunately though… swapping GTU for TV-OutTweaks still results in the same slowdown :’( . I don’t suppose there would be a lighter alternative to NTSC-Adaptive would there? Felt like it was the only one that had the composite rainbow effect.

As far as Vulkan, I ‘am’ using CRT EmuDriver with this card - so maybe that’s what’s causing the Vulkan to fail, since I’m not using the ‘real’ drivers?

#6

I unfortunately don’t know much about crt emudriver.

NTSC simulation is unfortunately pretty expensive to do properly. Are you running all of the passes at 1x?

#7

Unfortunately running it at less than the 4x it loads with breaks it completely :frowning:

I tried running threaded video as a work-around, figured I probably won’t even notice the frame skipping. Dear god, I very much notice the frame-skipping lol. I’m just gonna go with GTUv50 + Image-Adjustment I guess. I got the presets looking pretty good - not perfect, like they were, but still damn good.

I looked into the CRT EmuDriver Vulkan issue more and it seems that I might have to uninstall CRT EmuDriver, install the latest official drivers, then install CRT EmuDriver again… Which sounds like an absolute nightmare unless I can figure out how to save my current ArcadeOSD settings lol So I’m just gonna stick with Angrylion for the time being.

Anyway, as always hunterk, I appreciate your help and input :slight_smile:

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