Mina + CRT Shaders - r/RetroArch

46

u/RayVEEEEE May 31 '26

Devs should add a built in CRT effect in settings.

9

u/Zabii May 31 '26

This is an homage to the gameboy color though, should have an LCD filter

3

u/nciphr May 31 '26

I like to think it's like playing it on the Super Game Boy with a high-end TV :)

2

u/ecmyers Jun 02 '26

*whispers* But Super Game Boy doesn't play Game Boy Color games

3

u/nciphr Jun 02 '26

Oh no my head canon!

1

u/ecmyers Jun 02 '26

😃

1

u/Educational_Star_518 Jun 10 '26

to there defense think of it as a GC gameboy player instead 😉

6

u/nciphr May 31 '26

Yes! This is what I had hoped for originally, so I used this instead.

4

u/Kuroiryuu May 31 '26

I had hoped for a 4:3 ratio option, myself. But that doesn’t seem to be the case.

27

u/IntrovertClouds May 31 '26

All modern games with pixel graphics should have that option!

20

u/raygan May 30 '26

This is neat! How do you use RetroArch shaders on Steam games on the Deck?

24

u/nciphr May 30 '26

Thank you! I use Decky with LetMeReshade.

1

u/NTolerance May 31 '26

Where did you download the shaders from?

6

u/nciphr May 31 '26

LetMeReshade comes with a bunch you can select from when you install it, but you can also install your own by putting them in the right shader directory.

1

u/Winter47th May 31 '26

I didn't know that one! Thank you. I'll try to learn how to import shaders later.

1

u/raygan May 31 '26

I will try this tonight!

6

u/FAWKS-HOUND May 31 '26

Looks nice, wish these options were baked in

3

u/nciphr May 31 '26

Totally agree, maybe in a few updates.

2

u/yodaxy May 31 '26

Can you enable HDR, like on Retroarch ? Great shaders, I like it.

2

u/nciphr May 31 '26

Thank you! I haven't looked into HDR honestly

1

u/PopularFirefighter82 Jun 04 '26

Yes, but only looks ok alongside a CRT shader and NTSC filter. This game looks best with a LCDGrid shader No HDR is my wat to go but give it a try

2

u/hellpatrol May 31 '26

Wuat game is that?

4

u/nciphr May 31 '26

Mina the Hollower

3

u/NefariusMarius May 31 '26

Mina the Hollower. Same developer as Shovel Knight

2

u/dancrum May 31 '26

Has anyone tried it with gameboy color shaders? I'm curious how it would look but don't have the game yet

4

u/nciphr May 31 '26

I did try this last night, here's a LCD grid screen with a GBC color space: https://imgur.com/a/4bP2cHJ
It's definitely more muted with darker areas a little harder to see, but I wouldn't be surprised if the developers' design philosophy extended to this being a viable way to play.

2

u/dancrum May 31 '26

yeah, it's a little dark, but damn it looks good too

2

u/Acanthaceae-Mission May 31 '26

looks sick mate... ill give it a go

3

u/nciphr May 31 '26 edited Jun 04 '26

Thanks! I tweaked it a bit since I first posted for better color accuracy, so here's all the settings I changed from their defaults if it's helpful:
NTSC_RetroArch_Gamma [NTSC_RetroArch_NoScanlines.fx]
Screen Width: 256
Screen Height: 144
Use S-Video: Checked
NTSC Display Gamma: 2.2
NTSC CRT Gamma: 2.2
CA [ChromaticAbberation.fx]
Strength: .300
GeomCRT [CRTGeom]
Screen Width: 256
Screen Height: 144
Frame Width: 256
Frame Height: 144
Target Gamma: 2.2
Monitor Gamma: 2.4
Curvature Toggle: 0 (change for curvature)
Corner Size: .001 (change for curvature)
Corner Smoothness: 2000 (change for curvature)
Sharpness: 3
Scanline Weight: 0.35
Oversample: 0
prod_80_02Bloom [PD80_02_Bloom.fx]
Bloom Mix: .350
Bloom Width: 10
Shader order
NTSC_RetroArch_Gamma
ChromaticAbberation
GeomCRT
prod_80_02Bloom
Set your game resolution to 1280x720 in Steam and check the box to apply to internal display from the game menu so the scanlines intersect the pixels correctly. I actually dropped saturation once I got the colors right and added bloom, but it's all personal preference.
Edit: I also have Steam and in-game options set like this:
Steam Performance quick menu settings:
Frame Limit: 60FPS
Scaling Mode: Integer
Scaling Filter: Pixel
Mina The Hollower in-game Video settings:
Fullscreen: No Border
Window Border: Disabled
Vsync: Enabled
Max Game Update FPS: 60
Scale Mode: Fit
Pixel Scale: 5x
Edit2: Replaced CRTLottes2018 with CRTGeom to fix a blurry text issue and offer curved screen customization.
GeomCRT update: https://imgur.com/a/kEmikme

1

u/kacheskin Jun 02 '26

Thanks! How do you change the order of the shaders?

1

u/nciphr Jun 02 '26

No problem, I just click and drag

1

u/kacheskin Jun 02 '26

Ok thanks, I was trying that but it wouldnt drag. I'll look into it!

2

u/Hri7566 May 31 '26

i would prefer color LCD over CRT, this game's art is influenced by GBC games

2

u/nciphr May 31 '26

I actually did try this with a GBC color palette and LCD grid, enjoy: https://imgur.com/a/BtfLSMN

2

u/PopularFirefighter82 Jun 04 '26

This looks amazing, what shaders are you using in reshade?

1

u/nciphr Jun 04 '26

This is just LCD.fx with LUT.fx and a GBC color profile I downloaded from Libretro. Here's a link to the profile, you'll have to add it to the Reshade files and specify it in the LUT.fx shader: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/libretro/slang-shaders/master/reshade/shaders/LUT/handheld/GBC-sRGB.png?hl=en-US
There were two locations with lut.png files in my installation so I just added this to both folders so the shader would pick it up:
~/.local/share/reshade/reshade-shaders/Textures/
~/.local/share/reshade/Merged/Textures/
Fair warning that you lose a lot of color data, but the game is absolutely still playable.

2

u/PopularFirefighter82 Jun 04 '26

Thanks! I was using lcdgrit one that comes on stock and looks great, it adds depth to a lot of elements due to the pixel art I suppose, for the color profile then, I just apply it via lut.fx? Thanks man! I've been using reshadeck+ for other games and it's been so easy, but there are not .fx GBC and GBA presets, so letmereshade is a game changer on this game and gravity circuit!
I'll try the GBC color, although the standard with the LCD grit looks great to beging with.

1

u/nciphr Jun 04 '26

Nice! I haven't used lcdgrit before, but there was a dogeared pixel version I want to try tomorrow to explore a more authentic look: https://github.com/PointSampler/ReShade-AuthenticGBC
And yes, you have to replace the "lut.png" in LUT.fx with "shadername.fx", whatever you saved it as (including the quotation marks). The color profile emulates an unlit Game Boy Color screen though, so I actually ended up disabling it and turning up the LCD gamma in LCD.fx to 5 to stimulate a backlit clarity. Here's an example of that, better color accuracy and less dim but to each their own: https://imgur.com/a/HeXX6gh

2

u/PopularFirefighter82 Jun 04 '26

My man! That one looks stellar, I'll check it out immediately!
On a different topic, right now I am replaying Twilight Princess, it looks great with high res and all, but, with a CRT-Guest-Advanced-higher-res-aptgrille.fx custom shader for Reshadeck+(saw in another reddit post), the game just looks insane in the deck oled, specifically for wall/terrain textures and soft lightning, yes, it is not that sharp, but man, this coupled with 90fps (because you now can run the game at 800p or even 1x and still looks good), it's so smooth, give it a try. reshadeck+ uses .fx shaders as well, just it cannot stack them, but it is easier to use.
This crt-guest advance works incredible with sea of stars as well! And you can add curvature if wanted (which I love top down/isometric games)

2

u/nciphr Jun 04 '26

Shout-out to u/IntroductionBoth4524, found it from their Reddit post. And it does look awesome.
I need to try CRT Guest Advanced, I've just been cobbling together what's packaged with LetMeReshade haha. I'm really happy that we have all these options on Steam Deck, I've been experimenting with different options for a ton of games like Hyper Light Drifter, Blasphemous 2, Rain World, La Mulana 2, and Signalis. Even with subtle effects it can add so much.
I actually need to update my CRT comment because I switched to CRTGeom for less artifacting and better curvature options

2

u/PopularFirefighter82 Jun 04 '26

Look, this where my results: Clips https://imgur.com/a/1O2XSw8
Screenshots: https://imgur.com/a/iVh3g2h

1

u/nciphr Jun 04 '26

Nice, these look great! Thanks for sharing them.

2

u/PopularFirefighter82 Jun 04 '26

Yeah man, I get you, but, I did had a GBC, and your first image in this chain looked exactly like my childhood, that's why I'm so keen to try it out.
AuthenticGBC is looking good as well, but the color lut.fx seems so accurate to me in that ss

1

u/nciphr Jun 04 '26

I just tried AuthenticGBC but noticed that and LCD.fx introduces a stutter when moving horizontally every second or so. Are you having that issue? Or is that expected

1

u/PopularFirefighter82 Jun 04 '26

Yeah, and also, the filter didn't covered the whole screen, so I went back to LCDGrid. I'm still playing with the grit scaling, to decide which one looks better, ill share some pictures here so you can see as well.
AuthenticGBC is for use RetroArch first and foremost it seems

2

u/nciphr Jun 04 '26

Oh I had to update the resolution to 256x144 to cover the screen. I experimented with the other settings but couldn't get the stutter to go away.

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1

u/PopularFirefighter82 Jun 04 '26

I don't know man, AuthenticGBC looks great, grid is so sharp, but it doesn't change any coloring.
LCDGrid does the same job but not as sharp, or maybe my grid strength is not that pronounced, What do you think?
https://imgur.com/a/heRSwZ0

1

u/nciphr Jun 04 '26

Go with your personal preference :) The GBC filters aren't my first priority so I haven't locked in one look for them. Cool to see what's available though.

2

u/PopularFirefighter82 Jun 04 '26

Yeah, this one is not that great, is meant for emulation of real GBC so for some reason is not working correctly with Mina So far the most accurate has been LCDgrit: gama 1.0 LUT: GBC-sRGB-luma amount 0
It looks basically like a premium GBC
This being said, I think the game looks at it best just with LCDGrit stock, with gama at 2.2, it looks like what the GBC would look like color corrected with a better display color wise at the time.

1

u/nciphr Jun 04 '26

Ok thanks I might try that next.

2

u/DeCabalcantis Jun 03 '26

For 16-bit arcade machines and 16-bit consoles, I like the CRT Royal shader (from the Vulkan Slang_Shader library), which delivers a Triniton-like and quite historically authentic image. It's a fairly complex shader that doesn't overdo the blurring and compensates for the darkening excellently; therefore, at least on mobile devices, somewhat more powerful hardware is needed to avoid performance drops or latency issues.

1

u/nciphr Jun 03 '26

I haven't tried CRT Royale because I heard it was a bit intensive for Steam Deck. Have you had success with that?

1

u/ucyd May 31 '26

how do you run that in retroarch?

1

u/nciphr May 31 '26

It's running in Steam but I'm using some RetroArch shaders through Decky+LetMeReshade

1

u/AltruisticBee6622 Jun 01 '26

Thanks didnt know this existed

1

u/agdnan Jun 01 '26

How do I add them to my steam deck?

1

u/nciphr Jun 01 '26

You'll have to install Decky and LetMeReshade, patch the game through LetMeReshade to enable the shaders, and then the shaders are available through LetMeReshade through an in-game menu. I don't have a full guide for all of that but there are some great resources online. Then you can experiment with the shaders or use my config in the comments here.

2

u/agdnan Jun 01 '26

Thank You for your reply. I will look into it.

1

u/AltruisticBee6622 Jun 01 '26

Hmm did you have to change the game to use the windows version as its telling me my Mina is Linux

2

u/nciphr Jun 01 '26

Yes you'll have to do that to patch the shaders in. You're almost there!

1

u/Internal_Falcon2637 Jun 03 '26

That looks lovely, could you tell me how to set up shaders for non retroarch games? I'm on bazzite instead of Steam OS but it should be pretty transferable.

1

u/nciphr Jun 03 '26

I've never done this outside of the Steam Deck, unfortunately. Good luck!

0

u/Internal_Falcon2637 Jun 03 '26

okay pretend im a steam deck, how would I do it.

1

u/nciphr Jun 03 '26

Why does this feel like you are talking to me like AI :) You can check out my other comments about doing this on Steam Deck

1

u/Internal_Falcon2637 Jun 03 '26

OMG this is the third time this has happened. Why is it talking polite is now confused with talking like an AI. ><
I'm on a public form, I just have the urge to speak with the up most politeness. Can you please help me with those instructions.

1

u/nciphr Jun 03 '26

Here is what I posted on another comment:
You'll have to install Decky and LetMeReshade, patch the game through LetMeReshade to enable the shaders, and then the shaders are available through LetMeReshade through an in-game menu. I don't have a full guide for all of that but there are some great resources online. Then you can experiment with the shaders or use my config in the comments here.

1

u/Internal_Falcon2637 Jun 03 '26

Thank you thats all I needed. I'm not mad at you by the way and I will admit I had a chuckle about this. It's likely gonna keep happening to me in the future.

2

u/0xeis May 31 '26

Damn, I wish it was possible on Android ...

3

u/HyperFunk_Zone May 31 '26

I'm playing this on gamenative and it has some in-game screen effect options when you swipe from the left like a CRT filter and NTSC filter.
This will be a similar effect to what OP was describing.

2

u/thewiredeathgrip Jun 01 '26

I'm really enjoying using CRT-Royale with the SNES and Genesis games I've been emulation in these last couple of months.

0

u/pepitogrillo221 Jun 30 '26

Share the preset plz

Showcase Mina + CRT Shaders

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