Which one do you prefer? video_smooth true or false?

This topic has 28 replies, 11 voices, and was last updated 8 years, 5 months ago by redhalo.

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10/09/2015 at 18:45 #107533

pimpmyrig
Participant

I am wondering which one do you prefer.

1) Sharper but pixelated image?

[attachment file=”RetroArch-1009-232222.png”]

or

2) Smoother but blurer image?

[attachment file=”RetroArch-1009-231625.png”]

10/09/2015 at 19:19 #107538

herbfargus
Member

I’m partial to the first one

10/09/2015 at 19:35 #107540

petrockblog
Keymaster

on one on my monitors I prefer 1st, and on the other the 2nd ;-) (One monitor looks a lot more blurry than the other).

10/09/2015 at 19:36 #107541

petrockblog
Keymaster

In the specific images above – I guess the first, but it depends which platform/resolution etc.

10/09/2015 at 19:46 #107544

redhalo
Participant

If I’m using scanlines, then blurry.

10/09/2015 at 20:11 #107550

Floob
Member

I like most effects turned off, so the first image – but thats just because I like the image in a ‘clean’ state to prompt people to investigate whats possible. So maybe not the best reasoning :)

In practice I like smooth on, often in conjunction with scanline overlays.

10/09/2015 at 22:04 #107557

dankcushions
Participant

scanlines and smoothing off. smoothing just looks blurred to me, which i suppose it is! if the effect was just a bit subtler i might be into it, but it’s too much for me.

10/09/2015 at 23:25 #107562

labelwhore
Participant

The first one. It’s pixel art, it should be pixelated.

10/12/2015 at 01:06 #107727

MRKane
Participant

After years of being a competitive player: Whichever is fastest and clearest ;) Seriously though this is a real can of worms topic.

When it comes to emulation I actually find that some games tend to benefit from smoothing more than others depending on how the art is changed in its look and feel. Monkey Island is a perfect example of “a bit of smoothing really goes a long way” in my opinion as the art is very vibrant and has a high level of contrast meaning it scales up with smoothing nicely. Others (think: Micro Machines or TMNT: Turtles in Time, or anything that really worked with the pixel art feel such as Comix on the SNES) suit no smoothing.

10/13/2015 at 00:25 #107783

monochromatic
Participant

I find the smoothing irritating. I’m not using anything to make the output look CRT-ish though, and I guess that might change my answer.

Old games were blocky and pixelated, so that’s how I want them to look now.

10/13/2015 at 01:24 #107784

Floob
Member

For me its about trying to get close (ish) to that CRT effect.
So more like the right column than the (unaltered) left:

10/13/2015 at 06:50 #107793

pimpmyrig
Participant

Personally, I prefer pixelated too.

I just don’t understand why the default value of video_smooth is true.

I thought majority of users prefer that, which apparently untrue based on the feedbacks here.

It is kind of annoying to check the retroarch.cfg for each systems because some of the systems have its own video_smooth setting which overrides the settings in opt/retropie/configs/all/retroarch.cfg

10/13/2015 at 06:52 #107794

pimpmyrig
Participant

[quote=107784]For me its about trying to get close (ish) to that CRT effect.
So more like the right column than the (unaltered) left:

[/quote]

Floob, may I know what are the settings that you use to achieve that CRT effect? It looks interesting and may be worth trying.

10/13/2015 at 13:53 #107804

Floob
Member

@pimpmyrig

The image is from here:
http://retrogaming.hazard-city.de/framemeister.html

But thats overkill for the Pi really. So I tend to use overlays (as opposed to shaders or scanline generators). It gives a pretty good output.

Check these videos (see my signature for more):

10/13/2015 at 17:15 #107811

petrockblog
Keymaster

[quote=107793]Personally, I prefer pixelated too.

I just don’t understand why the default value of video_smooth is true.

I thought majority of users prefer that, which apparently untrue based on the feedbacks here.

It is kind of annoying to check the retroarch.cfg for each systems because some of the systems have its own video_smooth setting which overrides the settings in opt/retropie/configs/all/retroarch.cfg

[/quote]

The majority of users don’t partake on the forum I guess, but smooth seemed a reasonable default as it is also the retroarch default – there will be complaints no matter which is the default.

None of the per system configs have an overriding video smooth setting on by default if you have that you have old configuration files, or they have been modified by yourself – it’s quick and easy to use the configuration editor in the supplementary menu to switch the default video smooth. It even have help text on some of the core video settings etc to inform users.

10/13/2015 at 17:19 #107812

pimpmyrig
Participant

[quote=107811]
it’s quick and easy to use the configuration editor in the supplementary menu to switch the default video smooth.
[/quote]

Hi buzz. May I know where to find this?

10/13/2015 at 17:45 #107814

petrockblog
Keymaster

in the retropie-setup supplementary menu :)

10/13/2015 at 17:48 #107815

petrockblog
Keymaster

Sorry setup / configuration menu (menu 3) I forgot it’s renamed.

10/13/2015 at 17:48 #107816

pimpmyrig
Participant

[quote=107814]in the retropie-setup supplementary menu

[/quote]

Thanks! Didn’t know that!

11/08/2015 at 22:56 #109424

davej
Participant

I’m hijacking this thread to ask, which do you prefer, cubic or lanczos2 filtering? In the following few posts the the first image uses cubic filtering, the second uses lanczos2.

[attachment file=”cubic-1.png”]

[attachment file=”lanczos2-1.png”]

11/08/2015 at 22:58 #109427

davej
Participant

Next set:

[attachment file=”cubic-2.png”]

[attachment file=”lanczos2-2.png”]

11/08/2015 at 23:02 #109430

davej
Participant

Last set:

[attachment file=”cubic-3.png”]

[attachment file=”lanczos2-3.png”]

In case you haven’t guessed, I’m writing a Pi2 friendly CRT shader. The aim is to get it doing 1080P@60Hz – which it does so far.

dave j

11/09/2015 at 00:06 #109436

dankcushions
Participant

they look great! can’t wait to see the final product!

I think the second (lanczos2) as it doesn’t have that sort of ghosting effect, but there’s basically nothing in it for me.

11/09/2015 at 03:00 #109447

redhalo
Participant

@davej: That shader looks great for running on a Pi at decent speeds. Are you testing it with more heavier systems, mame games perhaps? It’d be great if it could be the end all solution to getting a consistent nostalgia look to all retroarch systems.

11/09/2015 at 10:03 #109458

ronoh55
Participant

The second looks best for me as well.

11/09/2015 at 13:59 #109470

davej
Participant

[quote=109436]I think the second (lanczos2) as it doesn’t have that sort of ghosting effect, but there’s basically nothing in it for me.
[/quote]
I prefer the lanczos2 on my monitors but some games look better with the cubic on my TV. It’s easy enough for me to provide both though so I guess that’s what I’ll do.

11/09/2015 at 14:13 #109471

davej
Participant

[quote=109447] @davej: That shader looks great for running on a Pi at decent speeds. Are you testing it with more heavier systems, mame games perhaps? It’d be great if it could be the end all solution to getting a consistent nostalgia look to all retroarch systems.
[/quote]

I’m focusing entirely on the Pi2 at the moment but it should run on anything supporting OpenGL ES2. I’ll make it compatible with OpenGL 2.1 before release so it can be used with desktop GPUs.

I’ve only tried it with SNES games but it’s a Retroarch shader and so should work with emulators supported by that.

It probably won’t make a good solution for all systems. It’s been designed to work within the limits of the Pi2. Faster GPUs will be able to run more complicated shaders – and multi-pass ones which are performance killers for the Pi. It will probably be good for other mobile GPUs.

11/09/2015 at 18:40 #109480

Floob
Member

Sounds very promising. I’ll try to make a video comparing it with overlays and speedwise with other shaders.

11/09/2015 at 20:00 #109492

redhalo
Participant

[quote=109471]
I’m focusing entirely on the Pi2 at the moment but it should run on anything supporting OpenGL ES2. I’ll make it compatible with OpenGL 2.1 before release so it can be used with desktop GPUs.

I’ve only tried it with SNES games but it’s a Retroarch shader and so should work with emulators supported by that.

It probably won’t make a good solution for all systems. It’s been designed to work within the limits of the Pi2. Faster GPUs will be able to run more complicated shaders – and multi-pass ones which are performance killers for the Pi. It will probably be good for other mobile GPUs.

[/quote]
I assumed Pi2 as well. I was asking about testing on heavier retroarch cores not that I thought it wouldn’t work with them, but that the cores may already be close enough to the limits of the Pi2 that this shader would bring the fps unusably low. Although I think the SNES core may actually be one of the heavier ones already.
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