Updated crt-pi shader

dankcushions

@davej Thanks for the update!

I guess the best way to apply these would be on a per rom cfg basis? (unless the vertical and horizontal games were split into their own folder/emulator settings)

this is what i've been doing! eg:
donpachi.zip.cfg

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

# Never save-on-exit after an override config
# or the override will make into the core config.
config_save_on_exit = false

If thats the case, a script could potentially parse a mame .dat file that contained the rom orientation then output a .cfg file with the correct .glslp file referenced for each game?

great idea! i guess you could build a specific dat/gamelist using romlister, of all vertical games. i don't think the dats themselves hold information about the screen orientation (?)

i'll update the common-shaders repo with the new shaders soon. i have a few ideas for variants that i'm bouncing around the other thread.

Floob

@dankcushions Thats a good point - yes, I dont think it is in the mame dat.
From memory I think romlister has a very flexible .bat editor - so it could generate these .cfg itself!

It is bugging me I cant remember exactly how romlister/mame etc.. know which game has what screen orientation.

dankcushions

i think it's in the various files you merge in to the dat via romlister, to add metadata to help searching. eg controls.dat/xml has a 'cocktail' field, which seems to be set to true for vertical games: http://controls.arcadecontrols.com/

however, the file doesn't seem to be complete. eg, i couldn't find donpachi listed at all, which is definitely a vertical game. might be a start, though!

davej

@Floob said in Updated crt-pi shader:

I guess the best way to apply these would be on a per rom cfg basis? (unless the vertical and horizontal games were split into their own folder/emulator settings)
If thats the case, a script could potentially parse a mame .dat file that contained the rom orientation then output a .cfg file with the correct .glslp file referenced for each game?

If you are going to implement this keep in mind that people who have vertically oriented screens need the opposite shaders to those who have horizontal screens. An option to use the opposite shaders would be needed for those people.

dankcushions

the shaders in retropie have been updated to these latest versions. here's some pretty screenshots:

crt-pi
alt text

crt-pi-curvature
alt text

crt-pi-vertical
alt text

crt-pi-curvature-vertical
alt text

reinstall retroarch via retropie-setup to get the new ones.

PS @davej - i added pre-modified curvature versions with the mask + curve + scanlines turned on. hope that's ok? can always remove if not :)

Riverstorm

Just to clarify will the new shaders make their way into the RetroPie distribution package or will we need to download and manually install them from here on out?

dankcushions

@Riverstorm said in Updated crt-pi shader:

Just to clarify will the new shaders make their way into the RetroPie distribution package or will we need to download and manually install them from here on out?

they are in. a reinstall of retroarch would get them, or i presume the just released version of retropie :)

Riverstorm

@dankcushions said in Updated crt-pi shader:

@Riverstorm said in Updated crt-pi shader:

Just to clarify will the new shaders make their way into the RetroPie distribution package or will we need to download and manually install them from here on out?

they are in. a reinstall of retroarch would get them, or i presume the just released version of retropie :)

Oh, thanks Dank, I didn't see the new release. This will give me something to setup over the holiday weekend! ;)

BuZz

@Riverstorm would need to install retroarch from source if the shader was updated after the last binaries were built. I will split out the overlays and shaders for retropie 4.0 so they can be updated independently

dankcushions

oh, careful installing retroarch from source as it currently breaks mame2003! i'm trying to fix that at the moment.. hopefully tomorrow

Riverstorm

@BuZz said in Updated crt-pi shader:

@Riverstorm would need to install retroarch from source if the shader was updated after the last binaries were built. I will split out the overlays and shaders for retropie 4.0 so they can be updated independently

Thanks Buzz, shaders made me a Libretro core convert. It's like art in motion on my screen, simply beautiful! Have a great weekend! ;)

@dankcushions Thanks Dank for the heads up!

Riverstorm

Is anyone using the shader with Atari 2600 (lr-stella) games? It looks great to me with MAME, FBA, NES and SNES but the Atari seems off or touch to blurry. I've been using River Raid as my test game and looking at the word FUEL and the text on the bottom it looks like it goes from blue to white with slight lighter shading until it soft blurs out to much and not really artifact-ish. Could the rendering engine of Stella be creating a different effect with the Shader?

gt4chuck

@Riverstorm is your mask type set to 0 in the config file?

davej

@Riverstorm The Atari 2600 has a very low horizontal resolution. By default, crt-pi just uses linear filtering horizontally - which, in combination with the low resolution, is what is causing it to look blurry. You can make it sharper by uncommenting the SHARPER line so it reads.

#define SHARPER

Riverstorm

@davej said in Updated crt-pi shader:

@Riverstorm The Atari 2600 has a very low horizontal resolution. By default, crt-pi just uses linear filtering horizontally - which, in combination with the low resolution, is what is causing it to look blurry. You can make it sharper by uncommenting the SHARPER line so it reads.

#define SHARPER

Perfect! That was the ticket! Is it best to duplicate the files to accommodate the Atari Shader? I duplicated crt-pi.glslp and crt-pi.glsl adding -atari to the name. Then modified the shader 0 line to point to the newly named glsl while uncommenting #define SHARPER or how are people doing per emulator tweaks.

Should I do anything with the mask or leave as is?

davej

@Riverstorm said in Updated crt-pi shader:

Perfect! That was the ticket! Is it best to duplicate the files to accommodate the Atari Shader? I duplicated crt-pi.glslp and crt-pi.glsl adding -atari to the name. Then modified the shader 0 line to point to the newly named glsl while uncommenting #define SHARPER or how are people doing per emulator tweaks.

That sounds a reasonable approach. I tend to use just one shader unless I'm working on them so I'm not the best person to ask.

Should I do anything with the mask or leave as is?

It's pretty much an aesthetic decision as to which mask to use so whichever you think looks best.

Riverstorm

@davej said in Updated crt-pi shader:

That sounds a reasonable approach. I tend to use just one shader unless I'm working on them so I'm not the best person to ask.

Thanks Dave, I didn't want to mess up how MAME and other emulators looked so I duplicated it with the tweak for Atari but out of curiosity would leaving #define SHARPER on effect how the other emulators look or would they still be the same?

davej

@Riverstorm said in Updated crt-pi shader:

Thanks Dave, I didn't want to mess up how MAME and other emulators looked so I duplicated it with the tweak for Atari but out of curiosity would leaving #define SHARPER on effect how the other emulators look or would they still be the same?

Images will look a bit more pixelated with SHARPER enabled. The reasons for having the default as linear filtering is a) it's needed to get 1080P @ 60Hz on a Pi1/Pi2 (I don't know about a Pi3) and b) I think it looks better for games that try to create smooth transitions with limited palettes.

Ultimately, it's down to personal preference.

The image below shows some example differences. Default on the left, sharper on the right.
crt-pi default/sharper comparison

Riverstorm

@davej said in Updated crt-pi shader:

Ultimately, it's down to personal preference.

Thanks Dave for the side by side I wouldn't be able to see the difference without it. I prefer the default (exception being Atari ;). I agree on the limited palette-smooth transition. I think consoles on old CRT TV's were able to take advantage of that or I should say they optimized their graphics to create some nice color blending as a side effect of low resolutions. Also on old CRT's I don't think they really had "true" blacks as TV's do now but more of a dark muddy gray and they definitely had more of a blur. :)

aikon82

Hi Dave, I have a Pi 3 I picked up over the weekend and have been playing about with RetroPie and reading up a LOT of info.... However there seems to be an issue with the crt-pi shaders running at 1080p on my tv. The frame rate seems to be a near constant 52.9-53fps in Altered Beast for the Megadrive (haven't changed the default core) and any other Megadrive/Genesis game for that matter. I then tried some Super NES games and the rate was nearly 60 fps.

At first I thought I thought it may be down to CPU use so went ahead and tested different overclock settings by editing the config.txt file, this seems to make no change whatsoever if I set the ARM to 1200, 1400, 800 or stock. I've even messed around vsync on and off but that made no difference.

I then tried reducing the render resolution in the configuration editor to less than 1080p (eg 800x600) and I then get a full 60fps. Has anyone else had an issue?