'Shaders' setting is always missing from the Retroarch quick menu

by Zoomer Tue 30 Jan - 12:29

Hi everyone.

I see that 'Shaders' setting in the Retroarch quick menu is always missing since, I believe, its visibility is being overwritten in the Retoarch's config file each time Retroarch is launched by RetroBAT.

I can activate it by going into the Retroarch's settings, but this will last only until the next relaunch.

I checked the json files for Retroarch located in the configgen folder and there's the "quick_menu_show_shaders":"true" line. Still, there's no such a menu in the Retroarch. Have I missed something in the wiki about configuring the emulators?

I know the reasons this was done. And I'd totally get behind the idea of everything being configured through the ES. However, some of the more advanced shaders (like CRT royale) have a whole load of settings which can be fine-tuned on the fly. Some of them are pretty important and one might want to adjust it on a play-by-play session (like a brightness or contrast dial, that's quickly available on a consumer CRT/monitor). RetroBAT does not currently have facilities for those (and I doubt it ever will, I don't think the overlay menu to replace the Retroarch one is planned or is even possible?).

Could you kindly suggest a workaround for that? I'd really like this particular setting to always be there.

Thanks in advance!

The Retrobat is the latest available v6 public beta 3 release.

Edit: I also want to point out that I know about the procedure of adding custom tuned shader presets and setting them on a per-system or per-game basis. That's not my point. I'd like to have this setting available so that I can create and save those very presets and then later I can apply them via RetroBAT menus.

by **getupor** Tue 30 Jan - 13:09

Hi again Zoomer.

I will try to be exhaustiv, in that way you can mix what you know, and how RetroBat handle this.

First, the philophy. RetroBat is created firstly for the beginners, people who want to play even if they don't know Retroarch, and all his features. So all is piloted by Retrobat, who leads ES, who give instructions to all other emulators, Retroarch includes. That's why it's necessary to do the changes in Retrobat, in order that commandline are operated. If changes are done in emulators, settings will be withdraw on the next game start, as ES will give his instructions.

In order to avoid user to do some mistakes, and break all by doing some changes, we have hide some components.

But for people who knows what they are doing, it's still possible to activate this features again.

For that, go on "Games Settings"

'Shaders' setting is always missing from the Retroarch quick menu 2024-014

then set "User interface" to > Full

'Shaders' setting is always missing from the Retroarch quick menu 2024-013

by **getupor** Tue 30 Jan - 13:12

In the case you don't see it allready, don't forget on beta V6 to have a look on "Updates and download" category, to see some addings

'Shaders' setting is always missing from the Retroarch quick menu 2024-015

by Zoomer Tue 30 Jan - 14:03

getupor, thanks so much for such a detailed answer! Smile

Woo-hoo! That's where this setting is! I knew it was somewhere, and I did use it before, but some time ago I wiped the RetroBAT config to start anew, and couldn't find it. I even thought I've imagined it, haha.

Now I can knock myself out with tuning those precious custom shader presets, hooray!

Indeed, I do like what you are doing, guys. Retroarch is like a multipurpose food processor with some features really getting in the way, at the same time lacking in the library organization/presentation department. So the RetroBAT's team approach does resonate with me!

And yes, I've noticed the Cyberlab's CRT Royale presets and downloaded them right away, thanks! In fact, that's the sole reason I began searching for 'shaders' option so that I can tune those presets to my specific TV resolution and to tinker with them. Laughing

by **getupor** Tue 30 Jan - 14:16

We have add the most known shaderset, and with basis and standard preset that people can choose the version they prefer. It's hard to choose for everybody.
But if you have some suggestion for this point, or maybe preset settings, let us know Wink

by Zoomer Tue 30 Jan - 15:01

Yeah, there are tons of those shaders now with different philosophies, goals and target hardware, so indeed to each its own.

I mainly favor crt-guest-advanced shader preset as it has the most settings available for quick tune, making it quite versatile for multiple systems. It also has quite an active thread on libretro forums.

What's most important specifically for me is that it has nice "post brightness" filter which boosts the luminosity of the image at the very late stage in the pipeline: a good crutch for a non-hdr picture, compensating the dimness brought by enabling scanlines. I really like it. It's demanding hardware-wise, yes, but the requirements are still modest by today's standards.

Cyberlab's presets unfortunately remove a lot of options from the 'shaders' menu as I just found out. So I'll probably bring back guest's shaders back to RetroBAT and tune them according to my tastes.

For example, I like to simulate a RF-output for Famicom (and older systems) - which I grew up with. OTOH, I really need those composite NTSC shenanigans for a Genesis system to get those phantom colors. And a pretty clear s-video picture for SNES (no dot crawl). So I mainly have RF, Composite, S-Video and RGB scart presets based on guest's shader preset. I decrease the NTSC resolution for Genesis (the most reliable way to get the phantom colors, I think?), and increase the post brightness to somewhere around 1.10-1.15 value to approximate the brightness/vibrance of my old Sony Trinitron TV. I also play with deinterlacing settings as needed.

Ah, nostalgia. The senseless and merciless force, haha.

by **getupor** Tue 30 Jan - 15:14

For the Cyberlab, you have also for some of them to activate some filter (describe on the preset).
This option is also available from within Retrobat if needed Wink