Scanlines in Libretro AdvMAME and FBA

Floob

@jretropie If you are using shaders (as opposed to overlays) when you install them via my tool you would need to add

video_shader = /opt/retropie/emulators/retroarch/shader/crt-pi.glslp
video_shader_enable = true

to the top of the file /opt/retropie/configs/arcade/retroarch.cfg

That would apply the shader to all games in the arcade folder.

jretropie

Does anyone knows why the shader has vertical color line when I connect to 32" 720p TV?

The shader works fine with smaller 22" 1080p computer LCD.

alt text

davej

@jretropie said in Scanlines in Libretro AdvMAME and FBA:

Does anyone knows why the shader has vertical color line when I connect to 32" 720p TV?

The shader works fine with smaller 22" 1080p computer LCD.

It looks like the shadow mask simulation in the shader is interfering with the dot pitch of your TV - TVs do image processing on input signals which might be making this worse as well. Try turning this off by changing the value of MASK_TYPE in the version of the crt-pi.glsl file you are using to be 0. You can try 2 as well but that is likely to give you red/green/blue colour bands instead of green/magenta ones.

It's worth me pointing out that the shader really needs about 4 vertical pixels to do even scan lines so you might get moire patterns on your 720p screen.

jretropie

I am looking at the file and can't find any variable call mask_type

shaders = "1"
shader0 = "shaders/crt-pi.glsl"
filter_linear0 = "true"
wrap_mode0 = "clamp_to_border"
mipmap_input0 = "false"
alias0 = ""
float_framebuffer0 = "false"
srgb_framebuffer0 = "false"

Floob

@jretropie Try

sudo nano /opt/retropie/emulators/retroarch/shader/shaders/crt-pi.glsl

davej

What Floob said, although as you're using a curved version of the shader you'll need to edit the corresponding glsl file. You can find which one by looking for the line that says something similar to:

shader0 = "shaders/crt-pi.glsl"

Riverstorm

@dankcushions said in Scanlines in Libretro AdvMAME and FBA:

anyway, the shaders have been updated to the latest versions. here's some pretty screenshots:

Those look amazing! I think the scanlines really add another level of genuineness.

Riverstorm

@caver01 said in Scanlines in Libretro AdvMAME and FBA:

@Riverstorm said in Scanlines in Libretro AdvMAME and FBA:

One more question for you if that's ok. You're a fountain of knowledge my good sir! ;) How do you get full resolution for these vector games?

You need to look for these lines in your .rc file for the version of advancemame you are using. Edit both if you might use each, but let's say you are using 1.4. So edit advmame-1.4.rc and look for the lines that look like:
display_width 1280
display_height 1024
display_flicker 15
display_intensity 1.5
display_antialias yes
display_translucency yes
display_beam 1.2
These settings only affect vector games. I like them this way on my screen. The flicker is a nice effect and it's set light here. The beam seems to enlarge in one dimension only, so if you want thick beams, you can't really get them, but I like a little larger than 1 pixel. Intensity can go up to 3 which I like, but if you back it down a bit, the flicker is more visible as is the translucency.

If you haven't already done it, also set sound_latency 0.05. The default is ridiculously high and you can see/hear the delay, so set this to the minimum of 0.05.

Finally, make sure when you launch using the runcommand that you are using the full resolution of your display.

Thanks Caver, I did a copy and paste as I do with several of your posts. I will be adding this in tonight to see how it looks!

jretropie

@Floob When I try 0 or 2 for the mask_type. the scanlines disappeared.

caver01

@Riverstorm said in Scanlines in Libretro AdvMAME and FBA:

Thanks Caver, I did a copy and paste as I do with several of your posts. I will be adding this in tonight to see how it looks!

Just be mindful that when you are messing with the AdvanceMAME .rc files, it doesn't like duplicate config entries. So, if you copy and past mine, you need to remove the ones that are there, or add a rom name in from of them like oldsetting/display_flicker 0. This example tells advancemame to use this config line with the game called "oldsetting" which of course there isn't one, so you can create commented lines in this manner. AdvanceMAME is very picky about its config file.

Floob

@jretropie I'll have to try it out myself. I'm afraid I dont have the setup you do so cant test like for like.

davej

@jretropie said in Scanlines in Libretro AdvMAME and FBA:

@Floob When I try 0 or 2 for the mask_type. the scanlines disappeared.

That sounds like what you get when there's a mistake in the shader and it defaults to what you get when you specify no shader.

Reinstall the files so you've got a correct version and change line 18 so it reads:

#define MASK_TYPE 0

Riverstorm

@caver01 said in Scanlines in Libretro AdvMAME and FBA:

Just be mindful that when you are messing with the AdvanceMAME .rc files, it doesn't like duplicate config entries. So, if you copy and past mine, you need to remove the ones that are there, or add a rom name in from of them like oldsetting/display_flicker 0. This example tells advancemame to use this config line with the game called "oldsetting" which of course there isn't one, so you can create commented lines in this manner. AdvanceMAME is very picky about its config file.

Ok, that brings up another question. Are these global settings that only vector based games will utilize or should the games be added individually like:

solarq/display_width 1280
solarq/display_height 1024
solarq/display_flicker 15
solarq/display_intensity 1.5
solarq/display_antialias yes
solarq/display_translucency yes
solarq/display_beam 1.2
starcas/display_width 1280
starcas/display_height 1024
starcas/display_flicker 15
starcas/display_intensity 1.5
starcas/display_antialias yes
starcas/display_translucency yes
starcas/display_beam 1.2

caver01

@Riverstorm They are only used by vector titles. You don't need to precede them with anything if you want all vector games to behave the same way. AdvMAME includes references like this so you can affect entire classes of games or just single ROMs. I don't know them all by heart, but I know classes of resolutions can be specified and so can vertical games. For example: vector/display_flicker 15 would only affect vector games. Also, something like, vertical/display_ror yes was one I used for a lot of vertical games so they were rotated, although I had to UNDO this by setting it to no for specific titles: 1941/display_ror no. Back when I was using advancemame for everything, these kinds of settings offered a lot of flexibility.

Riverstorm

@caver01 said in Scanlines in Libretro AdvMAME and FBA:

@Riverstorm They are only used by vector titles. You don't need to precede them with anything if you want all vector games to behave the same way. AdvMAME includes references like this so you can affect entire classes of games or just single ROMs. I don't know them all by heart, but I know classes of resolutions can be specified and so can vertical games. For example: vector/display_flicker 15 would only affect vector games. Also, something like, vertical/display_ror yes was one I used for a lot of vertical games so they were rotated, although I had to UNDO this by setting it to no for specific titles: 1941/display_ror no. Back when I was using advancemame for everything, these kinds of settings offered a lot of flexibility.

Thanks Caver, yeah it sounds like AdvMAME was adding all kinds of flexibility to MAME with added parameters. I really like that display_ror no to reverse it is really quite flexible. I appreciate the information. I am looking forward to see how it looks with these new settings! ;)

Riverstorm

@Riverstorm said in Scanlines in Libretro AdvMAME and FBA:

display_width 1280
display_height 1024

Caver, are these two settings global or under a section that only pertains to vector games?

Also is it possible to set shader effects or video_shader_enable = true or the aspect ratio on a per ROM with the menu (Libretro cores)? Recently I've been using the Configuration Editor under RetroPie for some of these settings as it allows me to test/tweak without needing a keyboard or leaving ES using a joystick.

My minimalist setup is a RetroPie in fan case with a Microsoft wireless dongle and 4 XBOX 360 controllers thrown into a Tupperware box. Really light weight for easy travel! :)

caver01

@Riverstorm Those settings are in the .rc file for AdvanceMAME only, and they only affect vector games. According to @BuZz, advancemame code for RetroPie was setup for 640x480 only. He tweaked it to allow for user-defined resolution for vector games.

Normally, setting up video for AdvanceMAME can get extremely complicated requiring you to define all of the frequency details for your display hardware--details that don't make sense on the Pi. Anyway, display_width and display_height were added (thanks BuZz!) solely for configuring vector games in AdvanceMAME.

As for the retroarch menu, I don't really use it. I know it's possible to enable saving from the menu, but that always seems to write out a gigantic settings file with every single item inside. Normally, you only want the overriding settings, or the differences from the ALL config, or from the emulator config. I connect to my system over the network with samba shares and edit the configs on another computer, and shader settings per rom are few and far between for me, so I typically rely on the global and emulator configs.

Riverstorm

@caver01 said in Scanlines in Libretro AdvMAME and FBA:

@Riverstorm Those settings are in the .rc file for AdvanceMAME only, and they only affect vector games. According to @BuZz, advancemame code for RetroPie was setup for 640x480 only. He tweaked it to allow for user-defined resolution for vector games.

Thanks Caver, I really appreciate all the information you've shared. It's really helped me with several different things! :)

jretropie

@davej

@davej said in Scanlines in Libretro AdvMAME and FBA:

@jretropie said in Scanlines in Libretro AdvMAME and FBA:

@Floob When I try 0 or 2 for the mask_type. the scanlines disappeared.

That sounds like what you get when there's a mistake in the shader and it defaults to what you get when you specify no shader.

Reinstall the files so you've got a correct version and change line 18 so it reads:
#define MASK_TYPE 0

Thanks! You are right. It works now. when I set it to zero.

Th