Shaders and filters

File formats

• .cg - Cg shader. Spec: Cg shader spec.

• .shader - XML/GLSL shader

• .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

List of emulators and what shaders they use.

Name	Shader file types	Notes
RetroArch	.cg,	.shader deprecated in current RetroArch.
Dosbox	.fx
Higan	?	. shader Removed in future higan releases,
MAME	.fx
OpenEMU	.cg,
Snes9x	.cg,
Project64	.fx	Only with a custom Rice Video plugin

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