[WIP] RetroShader =Computer Friendly!= Update 4

[Pixel Eater]

That's good to know and helps me trouble shoot. The other project's problem might have been caused from using an integer in place of a decimal number but that hasn't been verified yet. Hopefully that's all this is too

Edit: I'm not seeing anything in particular wrong but added the crispier pixelation and tweaked some minor things just in case?

[Zenon]

Yep, shader and menu works now

[Pixel Eater]

Ah awesome, thanks!

[NightFright]

I only saw now that you created an alternate version without menu. Thanks a lot for that! It is indeed even (a bit) better than Rachael's shader since it's slightly crispier and IMO captures the original VGA resolution even more accurately. Gets my stamp of approval.

[Pixel Eater]

I only saw now that you created an alternate version without menu. Thanks a lot for that! It is indeed even (a bit) better than Rachael's shader since it's slightly crispier and IMO captures the original VGA resolution even more accurately. Gets my stamp of approval.

No problems NightFright

And kudos to TorridGristle for crafting it in the first place

[BROS_ETT_311]

Sorry for the necropost, but does anyone know if there is a way to enable the Playstation vertex jiggler without digging into the GZDoom pk3? Rather, for the sake of conveniency, is it possible to implement via its own shader?

[r&r]

I only saw now that you created an alternate version without menu. Thanks a lot for that! It is indeed even (a bit) better than Rachael's shader since it's slightly crispier and IMO captures the original VGA resolution even more accurately. Gets my stamp of approval.

No problems NightFright

And kudos to TorridGristle for crafting it in the first place

hoping for the next update that give presets like puppet combo options
able to select default to crt setup, psx and customize settings

[NightFright]

I just realized that the shader has some issues with certain renderstyles of actors. When using this with the legacy PSX Doom TC, the Nightmare Spectre which is supposed to look kinda transparent green (using RenderStyle "Subtract" IIRC) is completely messed up, kinda transparent bright pink with lots of distortions. Without the shader mod it looks OK.

A general weakness of this shader is also that the weapon is affected as well. In low pixelation modes like 1 it is very noticable. That 's a pity since otherwise this would be a fantastic way to play in (simulated) 320x200 or 640x400 resolutions without the usual side effects like pillarboxing or blurry images (due to downscaling via monitor).

*EDIT Mar 4, 2020*
Found the culprit. It's posterization. If you turn that off, renderstyles work correctly. Maybe it can be made so that sprites with certain renderstyles are excluded from applying the effect?

[NightFright]

I modified the shader a bit to fix some things and make handling easier in general. I even managed to implement Rachael's Low Detail Shader with the infamous 160x200 resolution mode. Some options are not as customizable any more as they used to be before (especially resolution/pixel count and aspect ratio), but this happened intentionally since I wanted to focus on the most commonly used presets. During the process I was also able to simplify the code.

UPDATE #2 (v2.7.2, March 11, 2020)
- Fixed incorrect width scaling from previous shader code for 320x200 and higher (factor 320 instead of 240)
- Added scaling option for 768x480 (NTSC)

UPDATE #1 (v2.7.1, March 10, 2020)
- Merged "Pixelation" and "Resolution" options into one (can now choose between: Off, 160x200, 320x200, 480x300, 640x400)
- Removed "Aspect ratio" option since it is no longer necessary (automatically determined)
- Renamed "Colors" to "Color bit depth" and limited it to 3-32 (instead of 1-128)

Changes v2.7.2:
- Shader menu moved to "Options" > "Display Options" > "Hardware Renderer" > "Postprocessing" (where it belongs)
- HUD weapon is no longer affected by the shader (which was the biggest issue with any previously released version, including spinoffs like Indecom's "Retro FX with Dither Shader" - in lowres modes, the weapon would become pixelated as well)
- Corrected and "crispier" width scaling (uses 320px instead of 240px as scaling factor, making the image a lot less distorted)
- Removed "Global Status" toggle (it's enough to just turn off pixelation and posterization for the same effect)
- "Resolution" "Pixelation" option replaces "Pixel Count": You now have some resolution presets (160x200, 320x200, 480x300, 640x400, 800x500, 960x600, 1120x700, 1280x800) instead of a slider with 0.01 incrementations
- "Aspect ratio" option replaces "Aspect X" and "Aspect Y" sliders: Choose between common presets (4:3, 5:4, 16:9, 16:10, 21:9)

Menu preview (also shows default settings):


Comparison 640x400 resolution on a 1920x1080 monitor, downscaled (left) vs. RetroShader (right):


Note that this is the version without the CRT/Gameboy tweaks, just the pixelation/posterization toggles. I have attached a version with menu and one without (the latter using the default settings shown in the screenshot - if you want to alter the values, you need to edit the "Customization" section of retroshader.fp inside of the pk3 archive).

BTW: Posterization is actually a rather redundant feature since a while due to "Palette" tonemap mode doing the same thing, but better. I kept the function, but deactivated it by default. The most interesting part about this shader is the pixelizer, anyway, and from all the available resolutions, only 320x200 and 640x400 are really interesting. Might just as well restrict available options to those to reduce the code even more. I'd rather have a vertex jiggler, but it's (obviously) a vertex shader and as such doesn't work via postprocessing.

[NightFright]

And for people who like it really simple: A pure pixelation mod with just one menu entry ("Pixelation" in "Postprocessing" submenu), four settings (Off, 200p, 300p, 400p) and absolutely minimized code. One CVAR used which is not saved upon game exit (default: 400p - equals 640x400). It can't get simpler than this!

[Hellser]

I'm personally using Pixelizer as posted above, and really do enjoy what you have done. Thanks for providing us with chunky/crispy graphics.