Shaders and filters
Shaders and filters can be applied to video games to achive some kind of visual effect. These can be from attempting to replicate aperture grille displays, NTSC cables, or something more exotic.
Contents
Types
- Main article: List of shaders and filters
CRT Shaders
- Main article: CRT Shaders
These replicate aperture grille CRTs, which have sharp images and strong scanlines. If you find that this doesn't look a damn thing like your old TV, it's probably because you owned a shadow-mask style CRT, which has less noticeable scanlines (the easiest way to tell the difference is to feel the curve of the screen; aperture grilles only curve horizontally if at all). Unfortunately, shadow masks require resolutions of upwards of 3000x4000 to emulate accurately, so all we have for the time being are aperture grille shaders.
NTSC Filters
These replicate the cables used to connect the system to the TV. They vary in quality, with the lowest being RF, then composite, then s-video and RGB (scart) being the highest quality. They are created by blargg. They are in .filter format.
GameBoy Shader
This .cgp shader replicates the dot matrix screen of a Game Boy, complete with the ghosting problems to reproduce certain visual effects. Made by Harlequin. Requires RetroArch.
Emulators
List of emulators and what shaders they use.
Name | Shader file types | Notes |
---|---|---|
RetroArch | .cg, .cgp, .filter, .shader |
.shader only can be used through phoenix, not RGUI Filters from bsnes v82 and below work in RetroArch. .cgp stacks several .cg files on top of one another |
DOSBox | .fx | Only on special builds such as SVN Daum |
Higan | .filter, |
.shader removed in future higan releases, .fiter works in old bsnes Not current Higan. |
MAME | .fx | |
OpenEMU | .cg, | |
Snes9x | .cg, .shader | |
Project64 | .fx | Only with a custom Rice Video plugin. |
PCSX-R | .slv/.slf, .vp/.fp | Requires Pete's OpenGL2 or gpuBladeSoft |
ePSXe | .slv/.slf, .vp/.fp |
Requires Pete's OpenGL2 or gpuBladeSoft |
PCSX2 | .fx |
Support added in r5390 (after v1.0.0) Must be named shader.fx and be in the main directory PageUp to activate. |
Downloads
.cg shaders
https://github.com/libretro/common-shaders
http://www.emucr.com/2013/04/snes9x-cg-shaders-pack-20130427.html
.cgp shaders
.filter files
Win32 Win64 Linux32 Linux64 MacOS
PS1 shaders
http://www.emucr.com/2013/04/epsxe-shaders-pack-20130427.html
PS2 shaders
http://www.mediafire.com/?icqpvoc65omra75