Scaling filters for C&C 95 and RA1

[Zjorz]

1080p and higher monitors are becoming really common, and it's clear RA1 and C&C 95 don't scale well to these resolutions.

What is currently the optimal way to upscale these games and get the sharpest result for 1080p and 4k?

Is it possible to use scalers similar to the ones for dosbox?

[FunkyFr3sh]

12 minutes ago, Zjorz said:

1080p and higher monitors are becoming really common, and it's clear RA1 and C&C 95 don't scale well to these resolutions.

What is currently the optimal way to upscale these games and get the sharpest result for 1080p and 4k?

Is it possible to use scalers similar to the ones for dosbox?

I was looking into xBRZ recently, will probably add a OpenGL shader version of it cause it's cool. For GDI I will probably not add anything, it's just too slow on the CPU

 

Original: https://imgur.com/0cEbu

scaled xBRZ: https://imgur.com/5de2q

 

 

What's currently the best thing do to depends on what resolution you like to play, you could try 960x540 and scale that to 1920x1080 with GDI

[Zjorz]

Great to hear you are looking into the options of scalers. This will really make the game future proof in the long term.  For myself I want to upscale both games to 1080p, so looking for the best setting for that.

Btw, I came across this example for dune 2 upscaling. Check the post "HD graphics for Dune Legacy" Posted on Sep 4, 2016: http://dunelegacy.sourceforge.net/website/news.html

Would this be an option for the C&C95/RA1?

[FunkyFr3sh]

35 minutes ago, Zjorz said:

Great to hear you are looking into the options of scalers. This will really make the game future proof in the long term.  For myself I want to upscale both games to 1080p, so looking for the best setting for that.

Btw, I came across this example for dune 2 upscaling. Check the post "HD graphics for Dune Legacy" Posted on Sep 4, 2016: http://dunelegacy.sourceforge.net/website/news.html

Would this be an option for the C&C95/RA1?

wont be possible for us to do it that way, we have to scale the whole thing up in real time. That's the reason why I want to use OpenGL (scaling it on the GPU). But it may look similar or even better, it depends on what scaling method looks the best for the C&C games. I'm gonna try a few and pick the best ones.

 

For 1920x1080: try 960x540 and scale that to 1920x1080 with GDI

That's the only thing you can do now go get a sharp picture, we don't have any fancy scaling methods yet. I could add one quick, would only take a few mins with GDI, but it's too slow for online games... May work fine for singleplayer though.

You can try it out on your own if you can't wait for the OpenGL version https://github.com/CnCNet/cnc-ddraw

[Zjorz]

18 hours ago, FunkyFr3sh said:

For 1920x1080: try 960x540 and scale that to 1920x1080 with GDI

Used this with the "nearest" filter and the result has been great! Maybe worth including this as a preset for the config tool?

[FunkyFr3sh]

27 minutes ago, Zjorz said:

Used this with the "nearest" filter and the result has been great! Maybe worth including this as a preset for the config tool?

The latest config tools do most of it already automatically, all you have to do is clicking on the resolution box and then backspace to delete, enter any custom res such as 960x540 and it will scale it up automatically. I thought about adding such half-native resolutions to the list, but haven't done it yet.

 

If you have an older installation, get the latest config tools from here https://forums.cncnet.org/topic/7782-new-cnc-ddraw-release-red-alert-1-cc95/

[Zjorz]

I have the newest config and ddraw version mixed with the neyerguds singleplayer version. Will post feedback in the other topic after playtesting the campaign

[FunkyFr3sh]

I made a few test  pictures...

Hint: click on the first one and then browse through them using the arrows

[FunkyFr3sh]

@Zjorz

 

first test version is done! Still need to optimize it and do some tweaks to get all shaders working, but most should be working already (those that require linear=true are not working, nor do the multi-pass ones work)

https://forums.cncnet.org/topic/7782-new-cnc-ddraw-release-red-alert-1-cc95/

 

You can download more shaders here  https://github.com/libretro/glsl-shaders

Don't forget to set the shader path in ddraw.ini: shader=*.glsl

 

It's not smart yet, if you use a 2x shader then make sure you set Width/Height in ddraw.ini to 2x of your game res manually. 

e.g. if you play in 640x400, set width=1280 and height=800

 

renderer=opengl must be set in ddraw.ini, it wont work with gdi

 

 

Video with xBRZ freescale http://cnc.cloudns.pro/Test/index.php?video=RedAlert_xbrz-freescale_shader_test.mp4

Note: It's a bit laggy, I have a terrible intel GPU and xBRZ is the most heavy one I tested so far. I guess it will work fine on any semi-good gpu though. If not, then try a less demanding shader instead.

[[CC] RaVaGe]

@FunkyFr3sh could i use this to add shaders to YR?

For example adaptive sharpening, with anti-aliasing and dithering for prettier graphics?

[FunkyFr3sh]

34 minutes ago, FReQuEnZy said:

@FunkyFr3sh could i use this to add shaders to YR?

For example adaptive sharpening, with anti-aliasing and dithering for prettier graphics?

cnc-ddraw doesn't work with YR, it's only for C&C1, Red Alert 1 and a few other non C&C games. I might add it to ts-ddraw later though

[[CC] RaVaGe]

4 minutes ago, FunkyFr3sh said:

I might add it to ts-ddraw later though

Thanks for the fast reply.