New shaders/presets thread

[Jararaca]

Hi,

I have shader news!

One new CRT shader was made in this thread for bsnes. So I ported to cg and it's working with Snes9x. This news CRT is better than the currently version on PS3.

Besides, I've made some advances in my xBR shaders and will release some versions for 2xBR, 3xBR and 4xBR.

I've made some new box shaders (using an idea of tisurame). These box shaders put the image in 10:7 aspect ratio, which work marvelous with the new CRT (and oldies too). So I made some presets usings these new shaders.

They're intended to work fullspeed on Snes9x.

If you try in GenesisPlusGX or FCEU GX, some of them will be slow. We have to wait until these emulators get as fast as Snes9x got.

The pack is here: New CRT and xBR shaders + presets


One last thing: these box shaders only work ok with Snes9x and FCEU GX (after the next release). You have to put them into the boxed folders. So, for example, the "stock-box-4x-aspect-10-7.cg" must be put into the "4x-boxed" folder and so on.

One second last thing :P : When using the boxed presets, don't forget to choose "stretched" in the scale option (it's the only way to run in 10:7). Or put in 16:10 if you're running the last WIP version.

Found a bug in Snes9x: run Mortal Kombat 1 and enter the character menu. You'll hear a weird sound bug.

[squarepusher2]

In this thread, people can post new shaders and presets - screenshots to accompany each shader would be nice too.

These shaders/presets are currently compatible with:

* FCEU GX PS3 (Github version - will be published on Google Code soon and publicly released)
* SNES9x PS3
* Genesis Plus GX PS3
* FBANext PS3 (No presets at the moment since FBO is not in
* VBA PS3 (No presets at the moment since FBO is not in - no shaders which depend on vertex params)

Upcoming:

* ScummVM PS3

Hopefully more apps will decide on the same shader format so we can easily interchange them between apps. If any emu/game devs feel that the current shader format doesn't allow them to do certain things they want to - then just drop me a PM and we can certainly discuss perhaps changing it.

NOTE: These are plain Cg shaders - so theoretically, they could also be used on your PC - the app/game/emu would just have to support the entrypoints that we use for the vertex and fragment program - vertex and fragment program are both in the same file, and they are 'main_vertex' and 'main_fragment'. Otherwise, you could just make a few easy edits so that you can get these shaders to work with the app of your specific choice on PC.

[Jararaca]

Good idea this thread. Thanks Squarepusher2 and gambas!



So, there's some confusion about my xBR shaders. I took some time to take some screenshots to explain the differences among them. I've chosen 4x scale to work. By comparing the screenshots below you'll have an idea about what each version has to offer.

It's important to note that these shaders are good for cartoon games like: Super Mario, Zelda, Megaman, etc.

So, let's go!

Original


Firstly, see an original size image above, it's tiny. How could you show this image in 1080p setup like Plasma/LCD/LED?

Nearest Neighbor


The most easy filter is the Nearest Neighbor, which is simply the multiplication of pixels by a factor n in the two dimensions. The result is blocky. Some people like these jags. I think they hurt the eyes.

xBR v1


Here I began the development of this shader. This first version detects some lines in 45º. You can see in this image, there are some diagonals without jags. But, it's limited and the look still reminds you of the nearest neighbor.

xBR v1.1


The algorithm is evoluted and some patterns are recognized. This image look much better than the previous. But, as you can see, only 45º lines are recognized. The aspect is a bit broken yet.

xBR v2


Then, I paid some attention to the lines and realized I needed some more rules. The algorithm now can recognize lines with 18.5º, though some of the patterns of v1.1 aren't present here (this is because v1.1 came after v2 was already developed.). You can see some smooth curves here, though it'll be more clear with other examples.

xBR v2.1


This version combines the advances of v2 with the pattern recognition of v1.1. Just compare the headgears and eyes of Zero and Megaman and you can see the evolution.

xBR v2.2


And finally v2.2. This is the last version released. It can detect curves of 14º. The advance is too subtle in this example. Try to find some curves in this image more smoother than in previous (hint: zero headgear and hair, it'll be more clear in the example of YoNoid).

[Jararaca]

Second example:

Original


Nearest Neighbor ------------- xBR v1 ----------------------- xBR v1.1


xBR v2 ------------------------ xBR v2.1 --------------------- xBR v2.2

[Jararaca]

Third example

Original


Nearest Neighbor


xBR v1


xBR v1.1


xBR v2


xBR v2.1


xBR v2.2

[tisurame]

Pictures using the CRT shader.

CRT-cgwg.cg + stock-box-1x.cg + Scale Factor 4x

[tisurame]

Pictures using the "CRT-cgwg-plus-box-aspect-10-7" present.

http://i.imgur.com/h2tBU.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/IHWPR.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/NGuYB.png

[squarepusher2]

Very impressive work Jararaca on the 2xBR v2.2 shader. I tried it on FCEU and it really took me aback just how good it makes those old cruddy NES graphics look. ScummVM sure is going to be a feast with these shaders, that is for sure.

BTW, I hit upon a very cool-looking shader combo that I might like to share with you guys - here is the preset -

2xBR v2.2 + Sharpen-lighter

#1859365 - Pastie

I will try to post a screenshot of it once I get the time to start doing screengrabs.

It also makes Waterpaint-highcontrast live up to its name if you set that up as Shader 2 (point filtering on).

[kanketsu]

The xBR 2.2 looks amazing. I really love it. Unfortunately, this slow downs gameplay in Seiken Densetsu 3 whenever the dialog box/ something similar appear (try pushing Start/ Square).

Was wondering if there is any tweaks/ workrounds to make this work at full speed in this case?

P.S. I use the preset 2xBR-v2.2-plus-stock.conf

[squarepusher2]

The xBR 2.2 looks amazing. I really love it. Unfortunately, this slow downs gameplay in Seiken Densetsu 3 whenever the dialog box/ something similar appear (try pushing Start/ Square).

Was wondering if there is any tweaks/ workrounds to make this work at full speed in this case?

P.S. I use the preset 2xBR-v2.2-plus-stock.conf

The RSX seems just able to handle 2xBR v2.2 when the internal screen resolution is at 256x224. When the dialog box appears in Seiken Densetsu 3, the game switches to the SNES' 512x224 interlaced resolution - this puts a bigger strain on the RSX.

The only solution would be to optimize the shader itself - there are a couple of tools to do that with - NVShaderPerf - but to get anything out of it, they require that you can understand ASM. Another solution would be to select a lower resolution in the SNES9x PS3 menu.