ScaleFX: the best RetroArch upscaling shader beats even xBRZ!

The scalefx-aa-fast shader in RetroArch is the very best upscaling shader I've seen for retro graphics - even better than 6xBRZ. Here are some screenshot and in-game comparisons, and how to set it in RetroArch.
Oh, and I nudged its sharpness up a tad by setting this in "Shader Parameters":
Deblur offset: 2.25
Deblur str.: 5.50
Smart deblur: 0.05

[@Sp00kyFox]

Hi there, I'm Sp00kyFox the creator of this filter. Thank your for this video, it's really apreciated. I plan to come back to this filter and optimize it so it can be used on mobile devices as well.

[@BrandArtery]

Hey, thanks to *you* for making this badass filter. I was really impressed with all the work that went into it, from reading through the thread on the Libretro Forums (and only understanding small portions of it. ;-)). Exciting to know you plan to improve it even further!

[@naam4769]

Are there any recommended other shaders you may have or recommend to use along with your preset ? Thanks for sharing, even with my 10 years old PC it can be handled pretty well but even better than 6xBRZ as the video author claimed.

[@naam4769]

@@BrandArtery The link from your pinned comment doesn't work, the frames comparison i mean.

[@BrandArtery]

@@naam4769 I really like the handheld shaders for GameBoy and GB Advance. I use them instead of (not in addition to) scalefx-aa-fast for those two platforms. dmg-6x.slangp for GameBoy, gba-retro-v2-6x.slangp for GB Advance, gbc-lcd-grid-v2-6x.slangp for GB Color.

[@BrandArtery]

@@naam4769 Unfortunately, they got taken down and I lost the screenshots. I haven't yet gotten around to making new ones and uploading them elsewhere.

[@DennisRamberg]

I mean, in the 90's I thought things like Super Eagle etc looked amazing since it made the old 2D games look high-res. But with time I definitely appreciate proper CRT filters with smooth, rounded, yet square pixels. Things like crt-hylian-glow. I believe this is more or less how pixel artists intended their art to look.

[@BrandArtery]

I really like that shader, too! And CRT Royale.

[@gunpei]

Shocking to me that these algorithms can do this. It looks hand-drawn almost. awesome

[@BrandArtery]

Right?! I felt the same way when I discovered xBRZ and again when I came upon this shader.

[@OriginalZybeZ]

better hold your buckle for the coming 10+ years.

[@cusaum]

This looks amazing. Thank you for this

[@jadesprite]

Thanks so much for the video, it's always nice to learn something new about retroarch!

[@BrandArtery]

My pleasure. You should out the Mega Bezel shaders, too, if you haven't yet. They're resource intensive, but they look freaking amazing.

[@user-xq2fz5tz9t]

I love it. In fact, now it becomes my only global preset for everything :) Thank you for sharing your information with the world. Bless you, and greetings from Indonesia :)

[@BrandArtery]

Glad you like it! Greetings back from Germany :-)

[@Laekith]

LOOKIN' GOOD

[@marcusbullock630]

WHOA this will look crazy with shaderglass over it

[@luandf1]

Amazing video friend. I really love to play with shaders. Right now I'm using a some sharpening filters in the first passes, after sharpening the image I'm using some cel shading (i love the effect, even with 2d games) and last some scan lines. What I'm trying right now is to use this combination of shaders with a preset called crt-royale, but it's complicated to make them to work together, they have more than 20 passes all together. Now that you showed how great scalefx is, I'll use it too, thanks man!

[@BrandArtery]

Happy to help! There's so many awesome things that can be done with shaders in RetroArch, I think they're one of its most amazing features. Do you have a cel shading preset you could share?

[@luandf1]

@@BrandArtery Here are all my shaders presets. The ones i recommend the most is: zzzzzzbest.slangp = the last one i did, i use it with pretty much everysingle core except some 3d games. gamecube_final = i enjoy this one with 3d games, like the majority of gamecube and n64 games You can fiddle around and find whats looks the best for you, the zzzzzbest preset is by far the best one i ever did, but i don't think it's for everybody, since it has a lot of things going on. Just drop them in your shader folder and it will work! drive.google.com/drive/folders/1WnU4OCqjXIXuxTvpGRJbsXuShffJnSvh?usp=sharing

[@BrandArtery]

@@luandf1 Nice, thanks for sharing!

[@luandf1]

@@BrandArtery I hope you find some of them useful!

[@cinnamonroffles]

LOOKIN GOOD

[@-tweeomoz-1786]

You are a GODSEND my dude!!! I’ve always wanted to run the Neverhood in high-quality, but I just couldn’t figure it out. You are a true bro and have earned a subscriber :)

[@BrandArtery]

Heh, thanks! Glad to help!

[@olympicjbrag5913]

This works great. Thank you!

[@armyofninjas9055]

Awesome video! Thanks!

[@saintd_ii]

lookin' good

[@3131Ele]

Thank You So Much for showing ScaleFX, using it right now on Retroarch instead of xBRZ (which was great but not perfect).

[@convexcornet2169]

Now I would love this filter in official rereleases, and for PC, if this filter scales to 4k+

[@convexcornet2169]

To add to this, The main thing that a composite (from the og hardare) had that these shaders couldn't do, was combine dithering into one colour. I need something like Gdapt to make dithering apear as 1 combined color (this makes sonic 1's waterfall look transparent) to add to something like what Scalefx-aa-fast does, and maybe scale more than 4k too. I tried to do this,to the scale of the original shader preset, adding to the settings that were in the preset and It didn't work (I couldn't get mdapt to work with it either), so I added scalefx pass 0 after both gdapt passes (I started with these) starting the shaders from scratch and continued from there to match the original preset. the result looked good in 1080p, but somehow it wasn't 4k. I changed the 4th scalefx shader pass to 5x instead of 3x and it scaled to 4k, and the waterfall in sonic 1 was transparent, but it was a bit too wobbly for me, so I have to stick with either scalefx-aa-fast on it's own, or use Gdapt and 6xBRZ 🙁 I hope companies come up with a way to make a filter that scales to resolutions like 4k+, and have no staircase effect (like this shader preset on it's own), with a filter that works like gdapt. I was so close to getting it to work. Shader passes are best added one at a time and applied at each shader setting change, or retroarch doesn't like to apply them. I crashed my PC trying different settings, so be careful.

[@ralphhardy6048]

Thanks so much my games look super because of you I was looking for this exact thing wondering how people were getting there 🎉games to look so good

[@DiegoSanchesCabral]

Thank u. This really helps

[@BrandArtery]

My pleasure!

[@nessy3338]

very nice!

[@Nochift138]

I forgot how much fun the shareware game Commander Keen was back in the early 90s. Miss those days!

[@BrandArtery]

Right?!

[@zZiL341yRj736]

Makes everything kinda blobby looking.

[@bloxotrotbt4732]

Its do to many of the games being made with pixel art in mind so when you smooth pixels out they mix into a Picasso like mass, but this is still the only way to upscale these games without screwing the game completely up or making a respective hand-drawn mod for each game.

[@daddykarlmarx6183]

I still think it looks pretty good most of the time, best you can do without remakes

[@Asterra2]

The future of this shader, or its replacement, will be a shader that can accomplish the same thing where it's needed, but understand scenarios where the reduction of detail is detrimental-fine character art, text, etc. Such considerations will probably need to be specifically hardcoded, as opposed to allowing one single filter to affect the entire output willy nilly.

[@BrandArtery]

I was thinking the same thing! Who knows, perhaps somebody will come up with AI that does that one day.

[@Asterra2]

@@BrandArtery When they start implementing some measure of AI, I expect one of the first benefits we may see will involve crosshatch pixel art, as vividly exemplified in the first game in this video. For the most part, what the artists are seeking to achieve with crosshatch patterns is an extra color which the limited palette cannot provide. For example, the "five" different shades of gray seen on the stone house, achieved through the use of black, white, and two gray colors. A correctly-tuned AI would be able to recognize the intended colors-midway between black/gray, white/gray, gray/gray-and substitute the crosshatch pixellation outright for the respective missing color. As can be seen in the video, xBRZ handles crosshatch scenarios extremely poorly, and I certainly don't imagine scalefx-aa-fast does things much better. This is an issue.

[@Sp00kyFox]

@@Asterra2 I worked on a different filter that deals with these dithering patterns and merges them. after that you can safely apply edge intepolation filters without these issues. of course it is already not a trivial problem to recognise these dithering patterns without merging pixels that are in fact pixelart detail.

[@Asterra2]

@@Sp00kyFox Looking forward to seeing it in action. And certainly, the only way to perfect such a filter is to eventually hardcode exceptions in a non-transparent fashion.

[@franciscobutte]

Great improvements. But I love the boxy pixels art.

[@BrandArtery]

I get ya. The great thing about RetroArch is that it gives us all these options! Such a fantastic piece of software.

[@wagnermanin]

This filter is really better!!!

[@MohsenTheKnight21]

thanks dude Minish cap looks way better now lol

[@docsavage4921]

Works flawlessly on a a14 5g Samsung, Pokemon Unbound with this filter and the GBA color correction looks BEAUTIFUL.

[@bishoptm]

I am trying to do this on hakchi 3.9.2 with Retro Arch 198 Ozone. I see all the steps, and select the shader, but it does not apply. Any ideas to why?

[@mefi100]

Have you tried this shader in 3D games for texture smoothing or games with 2D sprites/ pre-rendered backgrounds? I'm interested to learn how it deals with those.

[@BrandArtery]

I tried it in MDK in DOSBox, and I thought it looked pretty neat! Apart from that, I think pretty much my whole collection is 2D, some top-down stuff like Bomberman, Colonization, Cannon Fodder, and then a lot of side-scrolling platformers. I do play Brutal DOOM in GZDoom with the 6xBRZ shader and fwiw, I think it looks awesome.

[@mefi100]

@@BrandArtery awesome! I cant wait to try ut this weekend!

[@Nochift138]

It makes Virtua Fighter look a whole lot better

[@TXFDA]

I know this comment is a year old, and I'm not sure what you've tried this shader on yet. But it works pretty well on Mario Kart DS. Not perfect, obviously, but it cleans it up a bit.

[@mefi100]

@@TXFDA Thanks, I did play around with it and there are a couple of titles I always have it on as it just takes things to another level! 🙂

[@BrandArtery]

Want a better look at the difference between the stock shader settings and my sharpened preset? Here you go: screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/15287. You can download my preset for GLSL here: www.dropbox.com/s/bxbpkxizril8ude/scalefx-aa-fast-sharpened.glslp?dl=0

[@Minou2882]

Hi. i am new in RetroArch.....how to load your Preset?

[@BrandArtery]

@@Minou2882 Hi Michael! You can download my modified preset using the link above, then place it e.g. in the root of RetroArch's shader directory. Find out where that directory is on your system by going to Settings > Directory > Video Shader in RetroArch. Then, jump to 1:35 in the video for instructions to load the preset.

[@Retro64_]

strange i followed the guide and didn't look like yours. I downloaded the file preset in case i was missing something but it's .glslp and the slang shaders are .slangp does this make a difference?

[@BrandArtery]

@@Retro64_ Yeah, that may well be. Wanna give this one a shot? www.dropbox.com/s/u3xdnp98r2wft3b/scalefx-aa-fast-sharpened.slangp?dl=0

[@Retro64_]

@@BrandArtery cheers mate, will give it a go when back from work. Following the guide it gave some results but it just smoothed the edges of the pixels whilst on your video they are almost gone

[@orlandofurioso7329]

Unrelated, but your voice is really relaxing

[@BrandArtery]

Thanks man!

[@CodeF53]

Cant wait to screw around with this with Mc textures

[@gaigeeeeeee]

💀💀💀

[@BillyBetYT]

This looks amazing thank you! I just started tinkering with RetroArch on the Xbox Series X and this shader and tweak combo is nothing short of transformative on my 4K display. Gameboy Advance games look better than the 3DS now, what type of sorcery is this? :) I should add that I used shaders_glsl then presets then scalefx-aa-fast.glslp with your tweaks on Xbox Series X and got the same results as the slang shaders on PC.

[@BrandArtery]

Yeah, I was using the GL driver on Linux Mint until mid-October, when the Libretro team released that blog post. So I started out with the glsl presets as well, then switched to glcore driver and slang. Both look identical, thankfully :-) Enjoy!

[@AJ-po6up]

These filters really benefit from adding scanlines into the mix, try it and you'll see! I myself love to use them with my actual CRT TVs and CRT monitors, on the TV at 240p they just hit differently and they're a vast improvement to the native image.

[@Topaze22]

OMG even better than the XBRZ6X the dream comme true !!

[@shadowmaster0111]

It looks extraordinary, is there a version for mame?

[@Alexrocks1253]

When playing retro games on the go, I prefer to upscale so thanks! But when I’m my desktop at home, I try to get it looking as close to real as possible with crt shaders and things. CRT Royale comes to mind and makes Donkey Kong Country look miles better than direct non-shaded showing.

[@BrandArtery]

CRT Royale is insane. I also very much like Lottes-Multiglow-Bright!

[@abdalazezbilal4251]

thank you veryyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy match❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤

[@cattocatto6057]

Hello. I did everything as in the video, but still in the Mario inscription there are stairs. Where did I go wrong?

[@ElfWhisper]

Hi! Retroarch android: where to put this? Which folder? Can't find any shaders folder! Thanks

[@jppj3278]

It really is amazing! I don't have the shader in the 2021 version, its tucked away in the glsl folder, not the slang. Nonetheless, when I applied that shader the game slowed down so much, so I probably need a faster computer.

[@BrandArtery]

Yeah, quite possible you might need to upgrade your PC. I guess you tried switching the video driver to glcore and to see if RetroArch offers you the Slang shaders for download then?

[@jppj3278]

@@BrandArtery actually, those shaders don't appear in the glcore or the vulkan. They're in the gl driver. I don't know if the makers wanted to make the default such that it runs with everything or not. I'm a new user as of 1 week, so I have no basis of comparison.

[@spscan]

Hi, shader not working... I've download the glsl version but when select it, parameters aren't present. Help please

[@BrandArtery]

Have you tried temporarily moving the retroarch.cfg from your RetroArch folder somewhere else to reset RA to initial settings? Try using the shader on a complete fresh config and see if that helps.

[@dylankoett2761]

I can see the files in the windows folder when I look at it but the presets dont show up in retro arch what the heck!

[@home1261]

Some games have dots on screen how to fix this?

[@JoaoVitor-pj3uk]

Amazing, I wonder how can I install this on my RetroPie, I'm looking for shaders, but this one is not there. Is there a place to download it? And how to install on RetroPie?

[@BrandArtery]

I remember tinkering around with shaders on a Raspberry PI a few years ago, though I think I had Lakka installed back then. From what I recall, I installed RetroArch on my desktop PC, downloaded all shaders, went to the shaders directory, copied the desired shaders and then manually put them into Lakka's shaders directory on the Pi. I don't know if that works on the RetroPi though. Might be worth a shot.

[@gerbaniumgreen9624]

Where is the load shader preset button?

[@Kyouma.]

Can the filter be used with other system cores (GBA) too?

[@BrandArtery]

Absolutely. You can use any shader with any core (I believe there are only a few exceptions, like BeetlePSX-HW iirc). All you need to do is start a game, then load the shader. If you want to use a shader by default, you can save it as a global preset (or core preset, directory preset...). Libretro's shader documentation has more about this.

[@TheMarcopalomares]

thanks!!!!!

[@TXFDA]

I find it neat how many different opinions there are on the looks of emulated games. For me, personally, I prefer my games to look as close to the real thing as possible. Meaning, for my Game Boy games, I have a Super Game Boy palette set, and the original Super Game Boy DMG border, along with a composite TV Out shader on to look as though I'm actually running the game through a real SNES and SBG via a composite cable. I have an identical setup for my Game Boy Color games, except I made a custom "Super Game Boy Color" border to replace the original DMG one, and obviously I'm not using a SGB palette since they're already in color. And for my Game Boy Advance games, I have the same TV out shader, but I'm using the border from the GameCube Game Boy Player. So, my GB/GBC/GBA games look almost identical to what they'd really look like if I ran them through a SGB or GC GBP, through a composite cable, onto my 1080p tv. It's actually surprising how accurate it looks. Meanwhile, my console games, like SNES, Genesis, NES, PC Engine, N64, PS1, etc, are all using a super nice CRT shader, with a CRT TV image border. Has a really nice effect that makes it look like I'm running the games through an actual CRT. My Arcade/Mame games are similarly ran through a CRT shader (though I'm using a different CRT shader for TATE mode games since they tend to screw up the scanlines), with the actual Arcade Cabinet bezel borders. I never really liked emulated games looked without shaders. They look too 'clean'. It doesn't look how I remember them looking since I used to play them on original hardware back in the day. And honestly, as neat as the shader in this video is, it's still too clean for what I want. It just looks...wrong. Like someone ported these games to Android for the play store, and someone tried to redraw everything to look 'modern'. I'm not against the shaders existing, and I'm not saying there's anything wrong with people liking and using them. I just can't stand my emulation to look clean and 'polished'. I need my stuff to look messy like it originally was.

[@BrandArtery]

Fair and reasonable! Do you know the "Console Border" shaders in the Handheld directory? I love those. They really look incredibly authentic.

[@TXFDA]

@@BrandArtery Yeah, I swap to those occasionally. I'm actually getting one of them Emulation handhelds soon (the Retroid Pocket 2+) and plan to use them on there. Can't wait to see how they look on a handheld device.

[@bman8363]

Hi thanks for the video, what pc specs are you running I get slow down when applying the filters.

[@BrandArtery]

Hey! My laptop has an RTX 2070 and my laptop has a GTX 1080 Ti. 32 GB RAM each, i7 CPUs.

[@SefyZero]

@@BrandArtery overkill

[@akarshmittal9601]

Have you switched from slang to glsl shader?. If so any difference between the two?

[@BrandArtery]

Hey! I can't tell a difference. To the best of my knowledge, there's none.

[@daddykarlmarx6183]

Does anyone know how well this works for ds games? I wonder how it would look on pokemon gen 5 animated battle sprites, I plan on trying it myself but I was just curious if someone else did it and how well it worked for them

[@BrandArtery]

I am playing New SMB and Bubble Bobble Double Shot using DeSmuME right now and it looks really good. I don't crank up the internal resolution in the core options though, I leave everything on standard because that way, everything looks more homogenous.

[@hopetagulos]

I'm testing a preset that, in addition to bringing the qualities of the crt TV, seeks to make the graphics in high definition corresponding to the size or dimensions of modern TVs and monitors: I'm using 8 shaders (total, ordered sequence) trying like this: anti-flicker; mdapt (has 5 steps of it); xbrzfree (2x on the scale); crt-hyllian. obs.: in the parameters I edit "0.38" for the option "scanlines Strength". Disable, first, any graphic effects of emulators, especially the "bilinear filter", it is normally in the "video" options in the "settings" tab of RetroArch. The intention is to leave the image "pure" or original so as not to interfere with the result or the complete effect of the predefined shaders. I'm using this preset in almost every game with dithering, 2D with low resolution, any console/arcade/handheld from the 32bit era and below. If possible, someone test it out there, and write some criticism or advice, please.

[@yasagani]

Maybe some comparison screenshots?

[@hopetagulos]

@@yasagani On my channel there is a video with a download link, if you want. So there's a video there.

[@CristopherOS]

How Can I use this in Recalbox? (Rasperry P4)

[@BrandArtery]

I'm afraid I have no idea. I never heard of Recalbox.

[@richardgouws]

Where can I get this? Does it work with SCUMMVM?

[@drewfreeman7754]

Hi, I totally want to try this out great Video! However I am a noob when it comes to retroArch (Im using 1.9.0) When I go to the Online updater the "slang" shaders do not appear and there are two different choices which are "Update Cg Shaders" and "Update GLSL Shaders" I have switched the video driver to gLcore and have got games to work with bsnes core( if that matters) Could you help out and give a quick suggestion of what to do?

[@BrandArtery]

Hey Drew! I think the ones you want are the GLSL shaders. I remember using them in the past and I'm almost certain the same shader (scalefx-aa-fast) is in the same directory, "presets". Let me know if that works for you!

[@drewfreeman7754]

@@BrandArtery Hi again Im still playing with this and it did look a little better when I enabled the scalefx-aa-fast. Its certainly nowhere near as smooth the way your does in the video. I still see a lot of jagged lines on words such as super Mario world "word" and "mario appears" heavily pixelated still. Maybe there are other settings that are at work? causing this I'm new to retroarch I have a 26 inch monitor set at 1920x 1080 resolution swt in windows 8.1 My computer is not a beast but it has GTX 770 video card and i7-4970k and16 Gb ram I can run Skyrim heavily modded with ENB's Part of me thinks it is some other basic setting or feature I have perhaps inadvertently enabled or disabled in retroarch I also tried playing retroarch in windowed mode and LOL that makes the pixels smaller but it appears still quite jagged. Compared to where when you apply the shader is seems quite "crisp" Mario and the words appear very smooth. Maybe Retro arch screen resolution or integer scaling? Should it be full screen mode in retroarch ( thats what id prefer) maybe the aspect ratio of snes games 640x480 Any further advice? I much appreciate your video and work here!

[@BrandArtery]

​@@drewfreeman7754 Hey Drew! Hmmm, what a strange occurrence. I never experienced what you describe! IMO, your PC is clearly strong enough to do this. I can't imagine the 770 wouldn't be able to pull this off (though I never tried. During my time with RA, I've had a 970, a 1080Ti, a 970 laptop, a 980 laptop and a 2070 laptop and it always worked). Try this: Go to your RetroArch folder (%appdata%/Roaming/RetroArch) and move retroarch.cfg somewhere else (keep it safe in another place), then start RetroArch. You'll have a completely fresh setup. Now only do this: download the shaders (GLSL or Slang, as applicable/available), install just one core and run just one game. As far as SNES is concerned, the core I've been using since the beginning is Snes9x-current, in case you wanna try that. While in the game, without having configured anything else in RA, load the scalefx-aa-fast shader and see what happens. Oh, of course you can do this in fullscreen or windowed mode, it should work the same way either way. Also, lastly, I never touched the configuration options you mentioned above myself, I'd be surprised if they had anything to do with the display. If the issue still happens, can you upload a screenshot to pasteboard.co and paste the link here?

[@BrandArtery]

Two other things you can do: 1. Perhaps re-install your graphics driver in Windows. Pick "clean install" when you do. 2. In RA' settings, in "Drivers", see if using the gl or glcore driver makes a difference. As for Windows: Perhaps consider moving to Windows 10. I know many people are apprehensive, but after 5 years of using it as a second OS, I can say it really is great. You just need to turn off all the spying shit first, there's apps that do it for you in one fell swoop. You can still upgrade from 8.1 to 10 for free: www.zdnet.com/article/heres-how-you-can-still-get-a-free-windows-10-upgrade/

[@drewfreeman7754]

@@BrandArtery Hi Brand thanks for your additional help on this. I think resetting the config file was the ticket. I almost fell off my seat at the difference, that is astonishing! I think I followed the instructions in video on many attempts but perhaps it was the bsnes core that I was originally using or maybe something I did inadvertently before I tried the steps in your video and applied the shader scalefx-aa-fast after ward that caused it to not work. Resetting the config file and then following your typed instructions worked perfectly. I also saved it as a global preset and it applied to other games automatically. Much appreciated. I can relive the games of my youth. Cheers!

[@-tweeomoz-1786]

Eyyyy Nord ui gang

[@lucasnguimaraes]

Hi! I don't have the option to update Slang Shaders, only CG and GLSL shaders. What's wrong?

[@BrandArtery]

Hey! You can either change your graphics driver from "gl" to "glcore", or just use the GLSL version of the same shader. Up to you. No difference.

[@lucasnguimaraes]

@@BrandArtery I tried the scalefx, but my retroarch shutted down. =/

[@BrandArtery]

@@lucasnguimaraes Hmm, beats me. You could try resetting your RetroArch to default settings. Just move the retroarch.cfg to another folder temporarily and then launch RA. See if the issue still occurs. Check further down in this comments thread, somebody else had a similar problem and you can find more details about resetting RA to default settings in that discussion.

[@thuggeegaming659]

It seems the latest versions of Retroarch no longer support a lot of the older shaders with the .cg extension. Any way to fix this?

[@shaolinsnake9650]

same , it wont see most of the slang shaders.... thats sad i want it so bad

[@Phallica-js7ht]

These look especially good on some PSX games.

[@BrandArtery]

Been playing Alundra and I agree! Which other ones does it work well on for you?

[@SefyZero]

@@BrandArtery Wild Arms and Symphony of the Night

[@naam4769]

3:43 and 4:03 ... Just needed those timestamps to notice tihe difference. Both 6xbrz and scalefx look almost literally the same to me that it's really hard to notice. Thanks for sharing this info !

[@BrandArtery]

Actually, my extra sharpening settings that I applied to the shader myself don't come across in the video at all. I used to have a screenshot comparison up on framecompare.com, but it's been taken down (expired?) :-(

[@naam4769]

@@BrandArtery Would it be possible for you to show up where you got info about this preset ? I have been using xBRZ for years, not only retroarch and this definetely is an improvement beyond that... My PC is rather old (about 10 years old) and at most I can handle 4xBRZ but I still could apply those current changes with this preset... I'm truly impressed that brings the smoothness to even a greater level !

[@BrandArtery]

@@naam4769 I'm really glad to hear it not only looks better than xBRZ, but is even less resource-hungry! I wasn't quite how their requirements compare because both my PCs are pretty beefy, so this is good to know. I stumbled upon it while browsing the Libretro forums back in late 2019. This is the thread: forums.libretro.com/t/scalenx-artifact-removal-and-algorithm-improvement/1686

[@BrandArtery]

@@naam4769 Nice!! Really glad it woks so well for you and I was able to bring another improvement to your RetroArch experience. :-)

[@jessecopeman579]

Dude how do you get controls to work with dos games i wanna play keen so bad. Cant figure it out...

[@BrandArtery]

I assume you're already familiar with and using RetroArch, right? If so, the DOSBox-Pure core is your friend. Check out the documenation, it tells you pretty much all you need to know: docs.libretro.com/library/dosbox_pure/

[@jessecopeman579]

@@BrandArtery ooooooomfg thank you

[@BrandArtery]

@@jessecopeman579 My pleasure! Keen is f'ing awesome. Ejoy!

[@RRRRRRRRR33]

Do you recommend any shader presets for Street Figher 3? I found this old video showcasing the scalefx: /watch?v=3AzBusZfsxA&t=99s The download link is dead, so I tried your tutorial and I was able to load the presets, but they don't quite look like the video. So... any tips?

[@BrandArtery]

Heya, I'm afraid I have no clue. I don't really know how to make shaders or shader presets, I was only able to make the few adjustments I mentioned at the end of the video by taking a bit of info I found in the forum thread, plus a lot of trial and error. If you want to get into making or tweaking shaders, this is a good place to start: docs.libretro.com/guides/shaders/

[@hajinganneon3754]

Use MDAPT Shaders (4 Levels) and then followed by Scale FX (0, 1, 2, 3, 4), and add some SmartBlurs

[@docsavage4921]

If you don't mind my asking: When would you use multithreaded fork of a filter? Is there a reaaon to not use a MT variant?

[@BrandArtery]

Hmmm, this is the first time I hear of multithreaded filters. Do you have any further information about what that is?

[@docsavage4921]

Looking at the faq included with the filters, apparently it was a port of the XBRZ filters specifically designed for use with Kega Fusion. Essentially the dev converted the original into a more efficient form, then created lesser versions of X1-X3, with X4 being the cap, and those four in turn having a multithreaded option that splits up the image into four pieces to work with dual cores. I have a Ryzen 7 Vega 10 laptop that can't even maintain 60fps at X3, but the X3 MT is very smooth. But on further investigation this isn't a normal implementation, and may have bugs.

[@docsavage4921]

Would a system like mine struggle with your filter on Retroarch? Steam does not have it, so I'd need to import the filter.

[@BrandArtery]

​@@docsavage4921 Ahh, wow that sounds complicated. I'm afraid I can't really give you any helpful info on this - it goes a bit over my head. ;-) I can say this much; I am running the scalefx-aa-fast shader preset on my desktop and laptop PCs, but both are pretty beefy. The desktop has a GTX 1080 Ti graphics card, and the laptop has an RTX 2070. I can't quite comment on the Steam version of RetroArch, since I never used it. Have you tried the standalone? For Windows, you can download a portable version of it, just pick the "Download" (not "Installer") link on the download page. Just unzip and run, then use the Online Updater to get all shaders that come with standalone RetroArch.

[@adrian_veidt]

I have personal bias for CRT shaders specially GDV-NTSC and Gameboy.slangp with DMG colors. But this looks interesting 👌

[@BrandArtery]

I hear ya. I've actually started using the Mega Bezel shaders, they kick ass.

[@dans-designs]

great video, thanks! This shader looks brilliant, any idea how to install it in a raspberry pi 3b+ running retropie??

[@BrandArtery]

Hi Daniel! I don't think that's going to work. I had a Raspberry Pi 3 back in 2019 running RatroArch and numerous shaders weren't available for it. I manually copied the xBRZ shaders onto the Raspberry and tried to run them, it even really old games turned into slideshows. So I honestly don't think you'd get any playable performance even if you manually copied the shaders over from a PC. But hell, if you wanna try it, basically what you'll need to do is, install RetroArch on PC, download the correct shader pack (not sure which ones are right for the Raspberry PiI 3), then put the shaders you want on an SD card and copy them onto the Raspberry Pi 3.

[@dans-designs]

@@BrandArtery ahh I see, thank you for sharing your experience.. I think I will give up on that then and just stick with the one I'm using 😅

[@terrapinflyer273]

Kicking it off with Commander Keen: Secret of the Oracle... My first thought - 'This guy knows what he's doing!' lol. I wonder if ScaleFX is available on Batocera. I prefer Bato to Retroarch/Lakka simply due to it's interface and user-friendliness. But RA/Lakka is definitely more versatile for advanced users. I was super happy to find that Commander Genius works as a Windows game in Batocera. Getting ready to test BStone source port next, with the ERSGAN upscale on Nexus... And several other source ports. They're just so much fun to tinker around with, and experiment with HD texture packs.

[@BrandArtery]

It's pretty freaking awesome what one can do with all emulation platforms. I never cease to be amazed by RetroArch. I've also been playing Blake Stone with the BStone source port, using Wine on Linux - even surround sound works just fine that way! Finished episode 1. The built-in XBRZ filter does a great job, too. I gotta admit I switched to the regular pixellated look a while ago and I like that one, too. Wasn't aware of the upscaled textures, will check them out. Oh, and I never tried Batocera. I'm kinda partical to RetroArch now after using it for over 6 years. ;-)

[@ThePikkutyyppi]

Can i use this in gba

[@dexterboy2736]

"🙀"Wow ! After updating, i can't find this nice shader ! Under slang shaders scale fx 🍁no aa fast but pass1 2 3 4... what can I do or is one of these four an alternative with a different name?

[@BrandArtery]

Hey Dexter Boy! You can find the shader preset in the "presets" directory. Check from 2:20 onwards in my video.

[@Yoshsterpalooza]

Is the scalefx hybrid shader better? Or standard scale fx?

[@BrandArtery]

Not sure. I use the "scalefx-aa-fast" preset in the "presets" directory.

[@GT-lv7hq]

How do I get glcore driver? Only options are gl and vulkan on retroarch for android...do I need to download??

[@BrandArtery]

No idea, unfortunately. I never used RA on anything other than Windows and Linux.

[@megapro1725]

Select vulkan, it's better

[@archttila]

Great video, thanks! Do you recommend it for PSX or just for sprite graphics?

[@redcrafter18]

is it possible to somehow download the shader in order to let it run over pictures?

[@BrandArtery]

Oh man, I wish. Afraid not, though. The next best thing is the XBRZ scaler testing tool. github.com/BradleyPudge/XBRZ It's not ScaleFX, but XBRZ is a really seriously good shader too.

[@BrandArtery]

Oh, and doesn't RA have its own image viewer? Perhaps tinker with that. It might allow you to run the shader, and then all you'd need to do would be tot take a screenshot.

[@redcrafter18]

@@BrandArtery Okay thanks. The funny thing is that I was actually looking for an XBRZ tool for images at first, but then I was really impressed by scalefx

[@BrandonPetaccio]

RetroArch on Windows. Intel core. Laptop. All the shader folders say "No Items" every though the files are there. 😭

[@BrandArtery]

To my knowledge, the shaders require an OpenGL compatible graphics card, and you need to activate the OpenGL driver (glcore) in RA's settings.

[@SeanLumly]

I would love to see this on modern game upscaling.

[@BrandArtery]

Yeah, me too!

[@emilianoluna4443]

The shaders were deleted from the SHADER SLANG folder, HOW CAN I RECOVER THEM?

[@BrandArtery]

I'd say just redownload them using RetroArch's Online Updater. If that doesn't work - perhaps reset RetroArch?

[@emilianoluna4443]

@@BrandArtery I updated the shaders online and they didn't appear. If I download retroarch again and copy paste the SHADER folder? It will work?

[@BrandArtery]

@@emilianoluna4443 It might. I can't say for sure, I've never had this issue. I'd say it's worth a shot.

[@bluecorp8557]

Can you do this for Retroid Pocket?

[@BrandArtery]

No idea, I never heard of Retroid Pocket and I have no affiliation with this shader.

[@permitrax]

Whats your hardware? SLANG shaders have to use GPU of your video board?

[@BrandArtery]

Core i/ 4790k, GTX 1080 Ti. OS is Linux Mint. To my understanding, all RetroArch shaders make full use of your GPU, not so much of your CPU. But I might be wrong.

[@crashbandicootspyrohinson05]

will it also work on retroarch android?

[@BrandArtery]

I expect not. I have it working well on my desktop PC with a GTX 1080 Ti graphics card, and my laptops with an RTX 2070 and RTX 3080 Ti, respectively. But I also tried it on a Raspberry Pi 3 a couple years ago and it ended up being a slide show. Shaders like this do require some solid computing power. I might be wrong though.

[@Ideal-1990]

Thank you. Which snes core should I use?

[@BrandArtery]

For me, SNES9X-Current has always worked well. BSNES is supposed to be pretty good, too.

[@Ideal-1990]

@@BrandArtery Keep it up mate. Love your videos.

[@BrandArtery]

@@Ideal-1990 Thanks! :-)

[@CloudOmegaVII]

Does it work on Raspberry Pi 4 with xbr or scalefx?

[@BrandArtery]

Can't say for sure. I tried XBRZ on a Pi 3 about 2 years ago and it was a slideshow. Didn't work at all. However, the Pi 4 is said to be much more powerful, so I think it's worth giving it a shot!

[@CloudOmegaVII]

@@BrandArtery But I cannot find scalfx

[@BrandArtery]

@@CloudOmegaVII Then I wouldn't count on it working. Back when I tried it on the Pi 3, I actually needed to manually copy the files I wanted onto the Pi from my big PC, because they simply weren't included in the version for the Raspberry Pi.

[@johneygd]

A great example would be doom,wolf3D,supermario kart and starfox etc,, because am very curious how those games will look with those shaders😁

[@MdrnRtrGamr]

Honestly try using upscaling as high as your device can run a game smoothly then use the easymode - halation shader and you’ve got the crispiest retro gaming you could ask for!

[@docsavage4921]

So, learned I've been using the ScaleFX2 "filter", as opposed to the shader. Looked at shaders, and apparently all the presets need to be downloaded? Is there any real reason to use a shader instead of sticking with the screen filters?

[@BrandArtery]

I'm afraid I don't even know if there's a difference between "filters" and "shaders" or if they're just two words for the same thing. I've been using them interchangeably, although I try to say "shader" in general to avoid confusion. Anyhow, I can tell you this much: all I need to do to get this shader preset working is to install all shaders using the Online Updater in RA, then select the preset from the presets directory. It still works the same way today as it did when I recorded the video, so you should be fine by following the steps in the video.

[@docsavage4921]

Turns out the folder the presets go into varies by renderer, and I switched from Opengl to Vulkan. It's the last folder in a list of three, guess I gave up searching the folders too quickly. Anyways, found a ScaleFX preset I like that includes something called Sharpsmoother, this seems to clean up the little distortions I kept seeing when scrolling, and nearly matches Kega Fusions clean look. No idea why Kega never had this problem, perhaps its interpolation is different than what Retroarch uses? But I'd prefer to use thoroughly tested shaders over the experimental Xbrz ones I've been using.

[@BrandArtery]

@@docsavage4921 Nice! Glad you found a good preset. Me, I actually got into the HSM Mega Bezel shaders lately, they look incredible. I wanna make a video about those some time soon, just need to find the time...

[@docsavage4921]

@@BrandArtery Funny you mention the mega bezel shaders, I just heard about those today from a random Reddit. Are those meant for crt displays?

[@BrandArtery]

@@docsavage4921 They're meant for modern displays, but they replicate the behaviour and look of CRT displays, using a lot of technical terminology I don't understand ;-) But you get impressive effects like screen curvature, the little dots and scanlines that CRTs had, reflections on the bezel and more magic trickery. I started work on my video about them yesterday and uploaded a comparison, the first snippet I have ready for the whole video. You can see it here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/a6rOeouAfZhlj7c Also, you can learn more about the shaders here: www.libretro.com/index.php/retroarch-introducing-the-mega-bezel/

[@dianaxrose9]

Jak and Daxter 3 here I come!! =D

[@sheikhrayan9538]

Do both of them work on 3D games?

[@BrandArtery]

I saw it on MDK in DOS and it looked pretty good.

[@NuYuBeauty]

You need to restart retroarch after selecting glcore, otherwise update slang shaders doesnt show

[@gorofujita5767]

Is this/will this be ported to Reshade??? There's A LOT of 2D games on the PC that would benefit immensely from this

[@richardhambel648]

There is no option to update slang shaders and the presets folder is almost empty

[@richardhambel648]

nvm got it!

[@dexdroid]

There is a way to use it on mobile ?

[@BrandArtery]

I think probably not. It does require a fair bit of computing power. Worth a try, though, you never know!

[@MariusMerchiers]

I'm using retro arch on Nvidia shield tv pro. I can't use your guide because I can't select glcore, only gl. Edit: it's OK. I used Vulkan and it runs fine

[@BrandArtery]

Ahh, good news! Glad it works.

[@ColeMay]

Make a video for super mario rpg please? Tried this but to no effect. I'm using steam deck emudek/retroarc

[@Alexey_the_LightSpeed_1994]

The only disadvantage of ScaleFX and other shaders like that is semi-transparent objects, you can see that it's not looking good for example in "Streets of Rage 2" in bar stage.

[@JoseRodriguez-tx1qz]

Thank you for sharing this video. I am a big fan of retro GBA Pokemon games, so will this shader work with RetroArch emulator for those games? Also, can this work on an Android tablet as well or only PC?

[@BrandArtery]

I don't think smaller devices have the kind of power required for this shader. You do need a PC with a good graphics card. But yeah, you can use it for any game you run with RetroArch!

[@JoseRodriguez-tx1qz]

@@BrandArtery Awesome man thank you for replying! I’ll definitely give this a shot on my PC jeje

[@BrandArtery]

@@JoseRodriguez-tx1qz Enjoy 🙂

[@Chronotri]

I used this shader on all the GB systems but using the steam deck and yeah it does make it look better

[@JoseRodriguez-tx1qz]

@@Chronotri What devices did you use it on before the Steam Deck? Sounds interesting to emulate on a handheld PC like the Steam Deck jeje

[@Mandingo281]

Where can u buy scale fx

[@BrandArtery]

It's all free. Check out the second half of the video where I explain how to use it :-)

[@jenniferw8963]

That's Commander Keen game? I remember that on PC back in 1991.

[@BrandArtery]

Yeh, episode 4. What an awesome game that was!

[@jenniferw8963]

@@BrandArtery I think it was the first video game I got my dad into.. first he played. He was born in 1933 and he played it in 1991.. so he was 58. He played it through the end and all subsequent sequels :) Good memories about that game. I need to get it again and play it.

[@BrandArtery]

@@jenniferw8963 Oh man that's awesome! My dad always liked computers and worked with them, but he never got into games. He did bring home a 12 MHz 286 some time in the early 90s though and taught me my first 3-4 DOS commands.

[@SlayerM]

Spent 2+ hours to realise that CORE is matters... dammit. Tried all the scalefx shaders - always get a stairway effect on SMW logo letters. Edit/delete cfg files - nothing helping. Change core (from bsnes to snex9x) - starways are gone. Hope it will help somebody.

[@docsavage4921]

Finally getting around to actually migrating to the Steam version of Retroarch, and using this filter. Compared to Xbrz on Kega, have to admit it does look nice. The main reason I'm switching is because I've been on a Sonic bender lately, and Genesis Plus GX feels more responsive. Could be my imagination I suppose, but I doubt it. Only problem is if I made a full switch, I'd need to restart a lot of games.. Beyond Oasis, Phantasy Star 4 to name a few. How close is Kega sound emulation compared to the cores on Retroarch anyways? I keep reading that a guy named Nemesis did work on the audio emulation, and his work happened well after Kega Fusions update cycle ended? Yet it sounds fine to me...

[@BrandArtery]

Welcome in Steam land :-D I've only ever used the standalone RetroArch versions on Linux and, sometimes, Windows. Can't comment on the differences in sound quality - but I can say, I like how all the cores I use sound.

[@timonalexandr151]

Followed everything to the letter, but retroarch crashes as soon as I chose scalefx-aa-fast

[@BrandArtery]

That sucks. Sorry to hear that. Which OS are you on - Linux, Windows? Which graphics card are you using? Are its drivers up-to-date?

[@timonalexandr151]

@@BrandArtery Windows 10 and it's got an integrated Intel graphics chip. Its an HP Pavilion laptop from 2014 so it's not exactly a gaming machine but its never given me any issues.

[@BrandArtery]

@@timonalexandr151 Oh, you might be SOL with that :-/ Perhaps try some of the other video drivers, then re-download shaders. There are different shader sets for different video drivers. But in my experience, your best bet is an actual graphics card.

[@briannation4479]

Whats the best shader for Retropie?

[@BrandArtery]

Beats me, never used it. RetroArch comes with a whole library of shaders suited to any kinds of tastes. The Retropie will be underpowered for some of them, but if you cycle though, I'm sure you'll find one that works best for your individual taste.

[@shaolinsnake9650]

I dont see it on pc, where can i download it?

[@BrandArtery]

Main Menu > Online Updater > Update Slang Shaders

[@shaolinsnake9650]

@@BrandArtery thankyou I found it, just not working for NDS 😅