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akgunter edited this page Dec 10, 2022 · 4 revisions

Basic Configuration

The neat thing about crt-royale-reshade is that it’s extremely configurable, so you can make it work right for almost any game.
The worst thing about crt-royale-reshade is that it has a lot of settings you have to configure. Otherwise it looks wonky for almost every game.

Here’s a process you can follow that’ll get it 99% of the way there.

  1. If your game has letter-boxing, start by configuring the content box. This is particularly important to get right for retro games with pixel art.

  2. Configure the Phosphor Mask first.

    1. Choose the Mask Type that you like.

    2. Set the Mask Triad Width that looks good.

      • Probably 3.0 for 1080p, 6.0 for 1440p, and 9.0 for 2160p.

  3. Configure the Scanlines second.

    1. Choose your Scanline Thickness.

    2. Choose your Beam Shape, probably Linear or Gaussian.

    3. Enable Interlacing if you like. You might have to tweak your Scanline Thickness.

    4. Pick a Deinterlacing mode if you like.

  4. Configure Colors and Effects.

    1. Use Levels Contrast to alter the contrast. Higher values will make bright areas pop more.

    2. Use Halation and Diffusion to make the image more fuzzy, like the screen is thick glass.

    3. Use Bloom Underestimation to make bright regions fuzzy and blur together.

    4. Use Bloom Excess to make less-bright regions fuzzy and blur together too.

  5. Configure the Screen Geometry

    1. Choose the Geom Mode to change the shape of the glass.

    2. Decrease the Geom Radius to distort the image more.

And with that, you’re done. The rest of the options are nitpicky. Feel free to ignore them if you’re tired of configs.

Configuring the Content Box

Many games, particularly emulated ones, don’t actually fill the entire screen. Some are bizarre and have UI elements that get captured by ReShade alongside the game’s content. If this bothers you, then you can use the Content Box to tell crt-royale-reshade exactly where the game is on the screen. As a bonus, this can improve performance by letting the shader ignore a chunk of the screen.

  1. Set CONTENT_BOX_VISIBLE to 1 to draw the Content Box on the screen. This disables the rest of the shader, so you can see clearly.

  2. Toggle CONTENT_BOX_INSCRIBED whenever you want to swap between drawing the box inside or outside the game’s edge.

  3. Tune CONTENT_HEIGHT until the box aligns with the top and bottom edges of the game. Don’t stress about getting it pixel-perfect if you don’t want to.

    • If the game is vertically off-center, then use CONTENT_CENTER_Y to adjust for that.

  4. Now you can set CONTENT_WIDTH.

    • Option 1: Tune it manually like you did with CONTENT_HEIGHT.

    • Option 2: Set it programmatically if you know the aspect ratio of your game. E.g. CONTENT_HEIGHT * 4.0 / 3.0 if your game uses a 4:3 aspect ratio.

    • If the game is horizontally off-center, then use CONTENT_CENTER_X to adjust for that.

  5. Set CONTENT_BOX_VISIBLE to 0 to re-enable the main shader.

Manual Installation

  1. Go to the Releases page. Pick the version you want. Click the "Source Code (zip)" link.

  2. Unzip the .zip file somewhere.

  3. Move the resulting folder to your ReShade isntallation’s reshade-shaders folder. You should end up with a file at path .\reshade-shaders\Shaders\crt-royale.fx

Install with ReShade Installer

  1. Progress through the ReShade installer as you normally would, and pause when you get to the "Select Packages to Install" screen.

  2. Go to the Releases page. Pick the version you want.

  3. Copy the link to the "Source Code (zip)" you want.

  4. Paste the link to the .zip into the text box that reads "Enter ZIP download link to custom repository here".

  5. Click the "Add" button and make sure it’s selected in the list of packages.

  6. Complete the ReShade installation.

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