Difference between revisions of "Shaders and filters"

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(Types)
(Porting most of this to its own article.)
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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.
 
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.
 
Use integer scaling. This means either using windowed mode (x2,x3,x4) or setting an integer scaling option in the video options. The reason is that non-integer scaled scanlines will result in uneven lines with artifacts.
 
 
If you're using a CRT monitor, you can use [http://www.mediafire.com/download/6ygh7saafpn7gm0/CRT-Geom_for_CRT_monitors.7z these] variants of CRT-Geom at 1280x960 full screen for an authentic 240p look. These variants are based on the flat variant with phosphor code commented out and the gamma correction disabled. There are three main variants (Normal, Sharp, Sharper), and each have different scanline brightness presets and interlacing enabled/disabled. As above, use integer scaling and force 4:3 aspect ratio. Some games may have black borders due to the full overscan area being visible, use your monitor's zoom function to zoom in and hide overscan. Also works with handheld games if you use the non-interlaced variant and force a 4x scale in RGUI.
 
  
 
===NTSC Filters===
 
===NTSC Filters===

Revision as of 17:00, 18 July 2013

File formats

  • .cg - Cg shader, implemented in RetroArch, OpenEmu and Snes9x/Win32. Spec: Cg shader spec.
  • .filter - Works in old bsnes and RetroArch. Not current Higan. Filters from bsnes v82 and below work in RetroArch.
  • .cgp - Meta shader. Can stack several .cg files on top of one another.
  • .glsl/.glslp - Same as .cg and .cgp, except using GLSL instead of Cg. Intended to replace the .shader spec in RetroArch.

Emulators that use shaders

Name Shader file types
RetroArch ?
Dosbox ?
Higan ?
MAME ?

Types

crt-geom-flat

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

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.

Downloads

.cg shaders

https://github.com/libretro/common-shaders

http://www.emucr.com/2013/04/snes9x-cg-shaders-pack-20130427.html

.filter files

Win32 Win64  Linux32  Linux64 MacOS


GameBoy Shader

Further reading

All things shaders and filters