Capcom vs SNK (Dreamcast) shaders?

Drdave79

Hi,

On my R4 cabinet I'm running Capcom vs SNK on the Dreamcast running the Redream emulator. The game runs pretty smooth without audio or video stutter. However the characters in the gameplay are very pixelated/blocky. Video mode is 1280x720 @60 Hz n/a (74.25 Mhz, phsynch, pvsynch, driver).

Any advice on smoothing the characters out somehow like on a lot of MAME emulators? Or is that even possible? I'm pretty shocked the Dreamcast would display these characters so blocky when almost all other Dreamcast games are very smooth.

Thanks!

sirhenrythe5th

@drdave79 i dont know redream at all, but when you say "when almost all other dreamcast games are very smooth" while only CvS has no shaders, redream HAS shaders in general?
Did you set the redream-shader global or per game?
I dont see any reason why only one game would have no shaders, while all others do?

I am not a member of the mainstream and use "lr-flycast".
Global shader (Z-Fast CRT) is set and works.
As mentioned: i dont know redream, but if for any reason it should not be possible to run a shader on CvS you could run this specific game with "lr-flycast".
Second bonus: it might also get achievements in the future, DC-support with lr-flycast is announced (redream will never be supported as it is not a libretro-port).

Drdave79

@sirhenrythe5th The sound on lr-flycast is very choppy, where Reddream works very smooth. That being said, after watching some game footage on youtube, it seems the blocky characters are intended for this game in the first place. Not sure why, especially on a system like the Dreamcast. I think it's a SNK thing because other games like DoA 2 or Fighting Vipers 2 are gorgeous.

Crush

@drdave79 Those are 3D fighters, Capcom vs SNK is a 2D fighter (albeit with 3D backdrops)

Drdave79

@drdave79 I find it interesting that the following is very clear and not pixelated at all. It's actually quite beautiful.

Anyone know how this was achieved? I tried bumping up the resolution in retroarch before launching to 1920 and it didn't help at all.

dankcushions

@drdave79 the way it's shimmering and blurred looks like a dreamcast to analog capture card to me. perhaps a VGA capture (although i would have thought that would be crisper than this result, but i've no idea).

analog output degrades the signal somewhat (and the capture and compression and youtube probably degrades it more). you can replicate such degradation with certain shaders, but you'd need lr-flycast to run those, and indeed the pi likely doesn't have the headroom for those with lr-flycast. video_smooth in the same might be a pleasing, free effect, though: https://retropie.org.uk/docs/Shaders-and-Smoothing/#video-smoothing

Drdave79

@dankcushions Thanks for the quick response. Kind of sad that it's the effect of video transfer and not an improvement to the game itself. But I'll try that configuration change to see what it does for the game! I appreciate it.