What are the best shader combos to make genesis or snes look good on a 1080p lcd

RetroArch Additions Shaders
#1

So Im new to this whole shaders thing.

I was playing around with different presets and discovered sabr, which so far seems to give the nicest smoothest image Ive seen so far on tons of old 2d games.

For example… (click for fullsize)

none sabr

or

none sabr

Then I discovered the dithering (or technically anti-dithering right?) shaders, and how they can blend the dithered colors and pseudo transparency used in some games

none gdapt

Then I realized I could combine them to get the benefits of each gdapt + sabr

So really Im just interested in what I should try next as far as making the image look nice on a 1080p monitor…

#2

[QUOTE=tjwoosta;28958]So Im new to this whole shaders thing.

I was playing around with different presets and discovered sabr, which so far seems to give the nicest smoothest image Ive seen so far on tons of old 2d games.

For example… (click for fullsize)

none sabr

or

none sabr

Then I discovered the dithering (or technically anti-dithering right?) shaders, and how they can blend the dithered colors and pseudo transparency used in some games

none gdapt

Then I realized I could combine them to get the benefits of each gdapt + sabr

So really Im just interested in what I should try next as far as making the image look nice on a 1080p monitor…[/QUOTE]

Sorry, but I think that shader looks pretty terrible :stuck_out_tongue:

There is a huge amount of lost detail and it totally destroys the pixel art, not at all what the original artists intended. I’d look into the CRT shaders if you want to improve the image quality and accuracy. My personal favorites are CRT-Easymode and CRT-Hyllian-glow without the glow effect, with some adjustments to the parameters.

#3

Meh, been using crt shaders from the start, just now discovered sabr :stuck_out_tongue:

Im not really looking for accuracy, or mimicking a crt. If I were Id start with 4:3 aspec ratio at least. I just want the most cripst hd fullscreen image I can get at 1080p.

#4

For smoothing shaders, I like xbr-mlv4-multipass for most things, though Hyllian’s new super-xbr presets may handle dithering patterns more gracefully. In general, I handle dithering with aliaspider’s GTU but he also came up with some presets that combine mdapt and xbr to handle pseudo-transparency:

RetroArch-0624-194722.png1024×956
It’s not available in Cg format at the moment but you can get it in higan v094’s ‘quark’ format here: https://github.com/hunterk/interpolation-shaders/blob/master/xbr.mdapt.hiresSplit.shader.zip

#5

Awesome, thanks :slight_smile: This shader format works in retroarch?

#6

For a 1080p screen I think crt-easymode-halation is the best. If you have a 1440p/2160p screen, crt-royale.

Not a fan of smoothing shaders for SNES :stuck_out_tongue:

#7

I’ll probably get lynched for saying it, but guess I just don’t get the hype with whole crt/scanline thing. I don’t have crt-easymode-halation to test, but these are comparisons I get with easymode vs sabr

To me sabr just looks so much nicer. Am I doing it wrong, or it really that much of a personal preference thing?

#8

Softening shaders… are what they are, it’s purely subjective yes but in many games they look horrible, also they produce artifacts. Personal preference indeed.

#9

I have noticed it looks horrible in certain games, sega cd games in particular (where they have like really pixelated live action graphics), also pretty much anything 3d

#10

Actually, on that subject…

Is there a way to auto-load different shader presets for individual games?

#11

You can use overrides as described here: http://blog.andressm.org/new-retroarch-features-2/

Games that are meant to be cartoony, like SMW and Yoshi’s Island, generally look great with smoothing shaders, while other games–like the digitized graphics you mentioned–usually do not. I think scanline/CRT shaders usually look consistently solid regardless of the games’ graphic style.

I’m not an aspect ratio nut but I find 16:9 stretching to be pretty unpleasant. 4:3 for lyfe.

#12

I like crt-geom. In opengl mode. I turn the sharpness up to 3 and remove the curves. I set the scanline to .35, Then I change the aspect ratio to 30:17. This looks awesome on my 1080p lcd.

I did a bunch of testing and found 30:17 seems to stretch the image while keeping squares the most square. It is still stretched a bit, but it’s better then 16:9.

These settings I use for older consoles like snes,genesis etc

#13

I usualy don’t like crisp pixel art but i don’t like sharp sabr or xbr as well it’s too artificial for me. So I use a specific shader to soften the image then I put a lot of other effects. I know it’s no more faithful to the real thing but i really like it that way :stuck_out_tongue: I know a lot of people won’t like but… here are my personal favorite combinations I switch depending on the game.

Xbr + 4xsoft

Xbr + 4xsoft + Reshade ! ( chromatic aberration+ 2 sorts of bloom )

xbr ( only horizontal ) + CrtHylian tuned for soft picture and dynamic scanline width

the same with additional Reshade effects

the same with stronger Reshade effects

#14

[QUOTE=Flamex;32776]I usualy don’t like crisp pixel art but i don’t like sharp sabr or xbr as well it’s too artificial for me. So I use a specific shader to soften the image then I put a lot of other effects. I know it’s no more faithful to the real thing but i really like it that way :stuck_out_tongue: I know a lot of people won’t like but… here are my personal favorite combinations I switch depending on the game.

Xbr + 4xsoft

Xbr + 4xsoft + Reshade ! ( chromatic aberration+ 2 sorts of bloom )

xbr ( only horizontal ) + CrtHylian tuned for soft picture and dynamic scanline width

the same with additional Reshade effects

the same with stronger Reshade effects[/QUOTE]

I never really liked that XBR look until I saw your screens where you combine them with scan-lines. They look really good.

What is the re-shade effect you speak of? One of the shader parameters?

#15

Thanks ! xbr+scanlines is the best combination I know so far . It gives good results with every games. Reshade is an external effects injector http://reshade.me/ It works with opengl/directx 32 or 64 bit. you should have a look since it offers vast possibilities. I use it because some multipass shaders are difficult to combine with RA The effects I use are : Chromatic aberration : sweetfx CA Short range warm bloom : CustomFX Gauss wide range bloom GemFX Bloom a bit of vibrance : SweetFX Vibrance All the parameters are tweaked and of course I have multiple presets

#16

Hey Flamex wow that pics look amazing from chrono trigger and mana. Maybe you could tell me exact wich shader i have to use to get this nice picture? Reshade i think i cant use on Android?! So to know wich xbr or where to find it with the scannline… Must be good enough for me. I dont find the right shader in the Tons to choose from.

#17

That’s pretty great that ReShade supports OpenGL now. I just wish they would open-source the framework. I can’t get behind a closed-source hobbyist framework that could get dropped/commercialized/whatever at any time.

It’s bad enough that we bought into Nvidia’s Cg framework, which they deprecated awhile back… It’s still the best way for us to support both GLSL and HLSL shader languages without maintaining two copies of each shader but the days of direct Cg support on Mac/Win/Lin are likely numbered :confused:

#18

I found my perfekt shader combo for playing snes on a 50" sony lcd TV with the Nvidia Shield Android tv Box.

Maybe you like it too :slight_smile:

First i choose super-xbr-6p.glslp

Then i deleted the Dark Level in gtu-v050 and added all three passes to the shader combo ( all have scale 1 / pass 2&3 is set to nearest)

At last i added ctr-hyllian.glsl to the combo but set the scannline from 72 down to 52.

I love it☺

Big thanks for all your work to bring us so nice shaders!

Hope my Englisch is readable �� im from Germany

Greetz :v:

Some Pics:

1 Like
#19

#20

[QUOTE=Taggy;32918]Hey Flamex wow that pics look amazing from chrono trigger and mana. Maybe you could tell me exact wich shader i have to use to get this nice picture? Reshade i think i cant use on Android?! So to know wich xbr or where to find it with the scannline… Must be good enough for me. I dont find the right shader in the Tons to choose from.[/QUOTE]

Thx! Sadly Reshade is for windows only. The only way is get it on your android device would be to stream from your PC. I assume it’s possible with an appropriate app but i never tested it :confused: In any case I think that all these shaders used natively would be too gpu intensive for a portable device…

The basic shader combination is in the “cgp” directory 2xbr-crt-hyllian.cgp I just tuned the parameters and changed xbr 2.8c to xbr 2.8a which is more rounded. it’s purely subjective. you’ll find it in xbr/legacy directory

Then you can add Reshade and activate effects as described above.