Zombeaver

Retroarch gives us tons of cool shaders to work with; so many that it can be a bit overwhelming and hard to know where to begin or what will suit your needs best. I thought it would be useful to create a thread for discussing various Retroarch shaders where people could show examples of specific shaders and potentially provide tips and tweaks for others. @lordmonkus, continuing our previous tangent on the subject, I messed around a bit with CRT-Royale-Kurozumi to see what I could do to tone down the bloom effect. It turns out quite a few of the passes have an impact on this effect. Passes 2-4 and 8-10 all directly affect it. I messed around with all of them for a while and ended up settling on a simple adjustment of pass 10 - "crt-royale-bloom-horizontal-reconstitute" by changing it to a scale of 2x. No more ugly gray smears! Default: Adjusted: Setting Changed:

Having NeoGeo as a separate platform is perfectly normal. I do that as well. After upgrading to 6.7 the problem I was having with arcade platforms has been resolved. Basically it was using the wrong cores/configs between the platform in my library and the "associated platform" in the Retroarch emulator entry - "CPS-2" games were using the core and config I had entered for "Arcade". I thought maybe this is what you were experiencing. You can post screenshots of your Retroarch emulator entry screens (Emulator Details and Associated Platforms) and we can take a look. The main points to examine are: 1. Is LB's path to Retroarch correct? 2. Is the name of the "associated platform" in the Retroarch emulator entry identical to the platform name in your game library? 3. Is the name of the core dll file in the Retroarch emulator entry correct, and formatted as -L "cores\[core name].dll"? 4. Is the path to the rom correct in the launcher tab?

I can confirm that after upgrading to 6.7 official the problem I was experiencing above has been resolved. Everything seems to be routed correctly now between CPS-1, CPS-2, NeoGeo, and Arcade for me. I have custom configs for two of them and when launching associated games it's launching the correct core with the correct custom config, and the ones that don't have custom configs are launching the correct core and just show "retroarch.cfg". That's a relief...

Try changing your Arcade platform association in your Retroarch emulator entry to fb_alpha_neo_libretro and then launching it the game in the Neo Geo platform (I know, it doesn't make any sense, just test it to see what happens). Mine were all kinds of screwed up when I was testing last night. Take a look at this post.

Welp... now I'm a little concerned. I was under the impression that the last beta/6.7 was going to fix this. I'll be home in about 20 minutes to test...

Hmm. Have you closed out and reloaded LB? It prompts you on a new session. According to the Launchbox twitter 6.7 was put out about 2 hours ago.

Are you sure you're not just on 6.7 official now? Because it should be out and fixed now. I've never touched Lightspeed and it was misdirecting cores for CPS-1, CPS-2, and Arcade prior.

I'm willing to bet it's the same issue that's reported in that thread and has been fixed as of the latest beta. What version are you using currently? If you're not on the newest beta, Jason should be releasing the next official version at some point today which should fix your issue.

It's a Vizio E371VA. It's a 37" 1080P TV and I sit about 2' away from it. I also have an E55-C1 in my living room which is a nicer TV; also 1080p. I can see the "bloom" there as well, although it's not very obvious sitting across the room on my couch. Both are thoroughly calibrated. I don't think it has anything to do with the resolution to be honest. That's something that certainly has an impact on scanlines looking correct, but that isn't my issue with either one. Higher resolution isn't going to make Kurozumi suddenly have gradation on its phosphor bloom. It's still going to look like a white smeared Photoshop brush...on a 4k image! *the sound of a crowd going "Ooooh" can be heard in the distance* If anything, that'd probably make it more noticeable. Sitting 2' away from a 40ish inch TV, at any resolution, with bright colors on top of a dark background...you're gonna see it. Meanwhile CRT-Easymode-Halation also has phosphor bloom but looks perfectly fine in that same scenario. I found this post by hunterk over at Retroarch about editing CRT-Royale-Kurozumi and noticed this: // Blur all colors more than necessary for a softer phosphor bloom? static const float bloom_excess_static = 0.0; // range [0, 1] That sounds like it has potential. I may try messing with that. We should...probably just start a "The Big Bag-O-Shaders Thread" ...thread. Haha

Jason Carr said MAME does provide the option to have a button combination close itself out, so you can customize the MAME config to handle it with the same buttons instead. Ah! I didn't even think of that! I'll give that a shot. That should work via Steam Link since the controller inputs themselves all seem to register. Jason Carr said ...you can't simulate any keypresses for it... I didn't realize this - I bet that's actually why keyboard presses via Steam Link don't work. It's actually the only emulator that I've used that's exhibited that behavior so I knew there had to be something weird with it. Thank you!

So this one was a bit similar to Amiga in that it's using artwork that I've always been really fond of, and I just didn't think the normal techniques that I've used on many of these would be all that beneficial. I decided that if I was going to do alternate versions that I'd make the alterations more dramatic than normal. I uh... kinda went nuts with it You've got plenty of options! Normal - Unfiltered: Scanlines - Unfiltered: Normal - Filter Style 1: Scanlines - Filter Style 1: Normal - Filter Style 2: Scanlines - Filter Style 2: Normal - Filter Style 3: Scanlines - Filter Style 3:

I'm so sorry...

Ah, okay. That's really good to hear. Honestly, I read that note in the changelog and it didn't even occur to me that it had anything to do with this. I've had the CPS platforms in my library prior to the existence of scrape-as functionality; before the Games DB even existed for that matter. For some reason I interpreted that as an issue affecting new imports to the library. I'm not on the newest beta so I'll update tonight. Thanks for letting me know! This is definitely the source of the OP's problem. chicomandell said I actually got it to work by setting FBA as the default core for Arcade as well. It seems to use that instead of the Capcom CPS1 settings for some reason.

So after doing some testing, I think you've discovered a very real bug @chicomandell. For some reason LB seems to be mixing up cores/configs among CPS1, CPS2, and Arcade. I created a new emulator entry that I just called "Retroarch - Test". I wanted to test some CPS-2 roms with this. So the first thing I did was add associated platforms for only CPS-2 and Arcade: Based on this setup, using this emulator entry for a game that's in the "Capcom CPS-2" platform in my library shouldn't actually do anything at all because I don't have a core associated with that platform in the emulator entry. But... it loads up fba_libretro... which I have as associated with "Arcade". That's... not supposed to happen. So then I tried swapping the core over to CPS-2 and leaving the Arcade one blank. Based on the previous test, I actually expected this scenario to not load at all...but it did load...with fba_libretro. Which...is what's supposed to happen. This left me a little perplexed... So then, just to make absolutely certain something odd was going on, I added in a config modifier specifically for "Arcade" only. I launch the CPS-2 game...and it's using the custom config... So then I swapped the custom config position over to the CPS-2 platform and left the Arcade one as the base core... ...and it didn't load the custom config in Retroarch. Again...not what should be happening. So I went and checked my primary Retroarch entry and looked at the CPS-1, CPS-2, and Arcade entries. They're all using fba_libretro core, but I noticed... The config that it's loading for CPS-2? It's the config that I have associated with CPS-1 in the emulator entry... @Jason, I definitely think you should take a look at this if you get a moment. There's something clearly amiss here... EDIT: Also, @lordmonkus I see them all over that screenshot haha. It is less obvious than with bright color on top of a lot of complete black (like in the Ghouls N' Ghosts screenshots) but all you have to do is look at any areas that are particularly dark and you'll see them. The effect also tends to move/shift in a way that's different from the way graphics on the consoles themselves move...almost like it's too smooth. It's hard to describe. It's especially noticeable when stuff is fading in and out. I know it's picky but it's one of those things where it's like once I've seen it and noticed it, then I look for it, and I can't unsee it and it ends up bugging the crap out of me EDIT 2: Looking at this same image on my work monitor I can barely see it at all. My home monitor is obviously setup with higher contrast because it's really apparent there; it's also about twice the size so there's that too...

lordmonkus said The Ghouls N Ghosts screen I posted in that other thread was from my Mame HLSL setup. Yeah, I know - that's why I posted my MAME HLSL in the last image. lordmonkus said Also a displays colour calibration can effect them a fair amount. True. I use a THX calibration tool for calibrating all of my TVs. I usually spend a couple hours whenever I get a new one tweaking color balance, temperature, contrast etc. lordmonkus said That glow you are talking about with Royale-Kurozumi is really noticeable and offputting on screenshots and even more so when it's on a pure black background like in the screenshot but once you are actually in game with lots of colours in motion and a quick response monitor it becomes unnoticeable. Ehh...less noticeable? Yes. Unnoticeable? No, not for me. It's distracting enough that it made me look for alternatives in the first place. lordmonkus said I do agree with you on the Easymode-Halation though, that does look really good. I will have to give that one another shot for an extended period. Out of everything, I prefer my MAME HLSL settings the most, but Easymode-Halation is actually pretty similar and has been the one that I keep coming back to in Retroarch. Like you said, it's all subjective, but to me it's just the most consistently good looking for all situations (other than vertical shooters of course).

Yeah I like Kurozumi's Royale quite a bit as well, and it does indeed look like complete garbage on vertical shooters :( CRT-Easymode works in any orientation because of how its aperture grill is setup - basically it's squares rather than scanlines so it works either way. CRT-Easymode-Halation is actually my preferred CRT shader overall for Retroarch, even over Kurozumi, but it does not look correct when rotated unfortunately. The thing that's always bugged me about Royale (including the Kurozumi version) is how overblown and generally pretty ugly the glow effect is. It almost looks like an additional sprite or something that's slapped on top. I remember you posting some screenshots from the Ghouls 'N Ghosts menu screen so I'll use that as an example. Obviously these all need to be viewed fullscreen... No shader: CRT Royale: CRT Royale Kurozumi: CRT Easymode Halation: Take a look at the text in the lower portion of the screen in these. Notice the glow? See how garish it is on the two Royale shaders? I generally prefer Kurozumi over normal Royale but for this particular issue it's worse - there's almost no gradation at all and it just looks like somebody opened up photoshop and took a circular brush, white color, and about 10% opacity and just smeared it over the text... Now look at the CRT Easymode Halation screenshot. The glow is still there (compare to the shot with no shader) but it's much more subtle and doesn't look like a photoshop paintbrush. If I were sitting halfway across the room from my monitor, I'd prefer Kurozumi, but I'm using a 40" Vizio TV as my monitor and I sit about 2' away from it so that glow is just so garish and over the top that it bugs the hell out of me. Just for giggles, here's a shot from MAMEUI with my HLSL settings:

@Jason I reported an issue a while back about two emulators (CCS64 and MAMEUI) not closing via the controller automation key combination. I did some experimenting and discovered that they actually do close via that combination if you add in the old autohotkey script for closing on "ESC" into their emulator entries. The problem is, doing so causes other problems for using both of these emulators: In the case of CCS64 you need to have access to ESC for navigating some of its menus. In the case of MAMEUI when you close via the AHK script it doesn't save changes you've made in the MAME UI (like button reassignments, for example). MAMEUI is setup to close normally on ESC anyway (and retains changes you make), but the problem is that for whatever reason that particular emulator doesn't recognize keyboard inputs when played via Steam Link, but controller inputs (including Launchbox controller automation inputs) work just fine. Basically, adding in the AHK script makes the controller automation close function work, but I need to be able to use controller automation without using this script (and least in association with the ESC key) because of other problems that it creates... I thought maybe this information would help narrow things down a bit. I hope so anyway For CCS64 all that's really necessary for it to work is for the existing AHK + Controller Automation functionality to function as-is but be piped to a button other than ESC. Changing the script to "End", for example, makes pressing the End key close the emulator just fine, but then the controller automation close no longer works. For MAMEUI I basically just need the controller automation combination to send an "ESC" input. Sorry for the information overload AHK Script: Also...thank you for all the bug fixes! You definitely knocked out some biggies there. Thanks!

That's generally true, although CRT-Easymode works in either orientation.

Alright, glad to hear it's working. I was just about to post those screenshots but sounds like you've got it under control

I'm running out of ideas at this point, to be honest. This is normally about the point that I start looking at external things like adding Retroarch and Launchbox folders to my AV whitelist, restarting my computer, running as administrator... that kind of thing. I'll post screenshots of every relevant section for this game when I get home tonight. It works fine via LB for me. Basically all LB is is a GUI for organizing a pretty looking collection of shortcuts. There's no reason it shouldn't work through LB if it works through RA by itself. 1. Is LB's path to Retroarch correct? 2. Is the name of the "associated platform" in the Retroarch emulator entry identical to the platform name in your game library? 3. Is the name of the core dll file in the Retroarch emulator entry correct, and formatted as -L "cores\[core name].dll"? 4. Is the path to the rom correct in the launcher tab? That's...about it really. It's just a fancy shortcut.

lordmonkus said Well the "fb_alpha_libretro.dll" core is the core that gets downloaded with the updater when you pick Arcade (FB Alpha) from the list. The "fba_libretro.dll" core is the one you get when you pick Arcade (FB Alpha-SVN). Not sure what the actual difference is between the two. I just know that the system specific core are just streamlined for lower end systems to squeeze out every drop of performance they can. Ahh, okay! I didn't realize there were two different versions. I love Retroarch, but this is the kind of shit that seriously drives me crazy about it @chicomandell, can you post a screenshot of your "Launcher" tab in the game entry? That's the only thing I don't see included above. We're running out of potential points of failure here...

...wouldn't that just be "fba_libretro.dll"? I think one of us is using an older one haha; or one of us has an older formatted name anyway. The non-system-specific FBA core that I have is simply named "fba_libretro.dll"

Ah okay. I thought I'd seen them named like that at some point before but I wasn't sure - I just knew the one I use is simply called "fba_libretro". They can be named whatever you want really, I just wanted to make sure he wasn't using the "fba_libretro" core when he was loading it manually in Retroarch and using "fb_alpha_cps1_libretro" (which he may or may not actually have) in the Retroarch entry in LB.

If you're using FBA, it looks like you're using the wrong (or possibly an old) core. It should just be "fba_libretro.dll". If you actually do have your core file named like that (and it's the correct core), it should be fine regardless, but it's one thing that I see that's a bit odd. I've got a screenshot of my various core settings here although my platform is named "Capcom CPS-1" not "Capcom CPS1" (I'm not sure if this discrepancy is due to a recent format change to the default, or if you manually changed them). CPS-1 and CPS-2 work fine through LB for me. I do have some custom named cores for FBA but they're actually just duplicates of "fba_libretro.dll" with different settings. I don't see anything particularly weird about your settings though.

Most of these take about 30 minutes to an hour to make; some a bit less, some a bit more. This particular one was about four hours... the colors were abnormally difficult to get the way I wanted, primarily because the background is pretty busy which makes things more complicated. I just hope it's sufficiently legible at this point... I made both a normal and a desaturated version. I'm not sure which I like better honestly. Normal: Scanlines: Normal (Desaturated): Scanlines (Desaturated):