v0.9.0

Magpie v0.9 Based on https://github.com/Blinue/Magpie/releases/tag/v0.9.0

Contains most of the previous presets as well as a new NNEDI3 preset.

This release requires the .NET 6.0.4 Desktop Runtime and DirectX Feature Level 11

Show Original Changelog

New Features

1. Completely rewritten new rendering engine, MagpieFX v2, see Custom Effects for syntax
2. Implements in-game OSD, currently can only be used to measure performance, will be used to change effect parameters at runtime in the future. The default shortcut Ctrl+Alt+D can be changed in the settings.
3. Drag the FPS window to adjust its position, right click on the FPS to adjust the style Provide optional frame rate display position  #341
4. The cursor function has been enhanced so that the cursor can now be moved naturally over other windows, such as the Start Menu, Xbox Game Bar and Alt+Tab windows
5. The inlineParams parameter can be specified for presets in ScaleModels.json to enable inline parameters. This can improve the performance of some effects slightly, but will require recompiling the effect each time a parameter is changed.

Example:

{
    "effect": "FSR_RCAS",
    "sharpness": 0.87,
    "inlineParams": true
}

6. "Limit Cursor in 3D Games" has been upgraded to "3D Game Mode", which when enabled will be optimized for 3D games, and in-game overlays will behave differently.
7. Adjusted zoom mode presets, removed RAVU, Lanczos no longer includes a sharpening step.

Effect Changes

1. All effects have been rewritten. For performance comparison see v0.9 Dev Channel  #254 (comment)
2. Add CatmullRom, a variant of Bicubic optimized for speed and best for downsampling
3. Add CAS_Scaling, a CAS variant that supports scaling
4. Added LCAS, a very lightweight 3D screen scaling algorithm (thanks to Tzugimaa）
5. Add MMPX, a pixel painting scaling algorithm Request to add support for MMPX pixel class scaling algorithm  #349
6. Add NNEDI3_nns16_win8x4 and NNEDI3_nns64_win8x6 suggestion to port nnedi3  #283
7. Removed Anime4K_Upscale_S_Lite, Bicubic_Lite and FSR_EASU_DX10
8. Linear renamed to Bilinear
9. AdaptiveSharpen's curveHeight parameter default value adjusted to 0.8
10. Removed scaleInLinearGamma parameter for CRT_Easymode
11. SSimDownscaler adds oversharp parameter for adjusting sharpness

System Requirements

1. Windows 10/11
2. DirectX Feature Level 11

v0.8.1

Minor optimization update based on: https://github.com/Blinue/Magpie/releases/tag/v0.8.1

Show Changelog

New Features:

1. Support custom cropping Can't crop the title bar of RPGMZ window  #268
2. Re-added Russian translation (thanks @0x4E69676874466F78 )
3. The text prompt of the tray icon now displays the current configuration information

Optimization and fixes

1. Reduced CPU usage in Graphics Capture capture mode
2. Optimized the fluency of Desktop Duplication capture mode
3. Fixed the issue that the cursor cannot move between screens under certain circumstances. Mouse cursor cannot move to monitors above the game in fullscreen  #270
4. Optimized the parameters of the CRT_Easymode effect

Release v0.8.0

Version 0.8.0 is here, based on the v0.8.0 release of https://github.com/Blinue/Magpie/. This is a 1:1 release with no code changes except for the built-in scaling presets. The original changelog includes:

Show Original Changelog

v0.8 requires installation of the .NET 6 Desktop Runtime

New Features

1. Migration of user interface to .NET 6
2. Support for cropping the title bar of UWP windows. The title bar of some UWP windows is part of the user interface, so the option to disable this feature is provided
3. Support for multiple monitors
   • Supports multiple displays with different DPI scaling
   • Support for full-screen windows spanning over multiple screens Spanning over multiple screens #219
   • The cursor can now move freely between monitors in full screen mode. At this time, using windows on other monitors will not exit the full screen state Cursor can't move freely between monitors #65
4. add new capture mode Desktop Duplication, requires OS win10 v2004 or newer 👉Comparison of existing capture modes
5. Add the function of simulating exclusive fullscreen for a distraction-free effect Simulate D3D exclusive fullscreen when zooming #245

Effect change

1. Renamed Mitchell to Bicubic, parameters are no longer compatible
2. Added NIS and NVSharpen, see v0.8 plan #202 (comment) for examples of their use
3. Add some CRT shaders, including CRT-Easymode, CRT-Geom, CRT-Hyllian, CRT-Lottes and GTU CRT emulation shader #160
4. add Anime4K_Thin_HQ and Anime4K_Upscale_GAN_x2_S
5. Add LumaSharpen and FineSharp Request to add several sharpening filters #242
6. Add FSR_EASU_DX10, which is FSR_EASU with DirectX feature level 10 support, slightly slower than the original version

Thanks to @hooke007 for maintaining a sample configuration of all the effects of Magpie gist.github.com/hooke007/818ecc88f18e229bca743b7ae48947ad

Other changes

1. Optimized the compatibility of Graphics Capture mode
2. Optimized frame rate visibility on white backgrounds (Request) Shadow for fps indicator #111
3. It is now safe to launch Magpie in other programs/scripts without setting a working path Unable to scale games when launching Magpie with 3rd party front-end launcher #236

System requirements

1. Windows 10/11
2. DirectX feature level 10
3. .NET 6 Desktop Runtime
4. MSVC 2015-2022 Runtime

Caution

1. v0.8 is the last version to support DirectX feature level 10
2. Magpie's implementation of NIS is much slower than FSR, but NVSharpen is quite fast
3. RTSS Fails to hook this version of Magpie

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)

Scaling Preset changes:

Lots of changes to the scaling presets since the last release. Changes include:

1. Inclusion of CRT presets for the retro enthusiasts: CRT Cathode, CRT Easymode, CRT Geom and CRT Hylian.
   Some Comparison of CRT shaders (Scaled to 1080p):
   • Kichikuou Rance : https://imgsli.com/ODY5MjE/0/1
   • Ikusa Megami Zero: https://imgsli.com/ODY5MjU/0/1
   • CPS1 Cadillacs and Dinosaurs: https://imgsli.com/ODcwMzk/0/1
2. Experimental Anime4kGAN shader preset. Much better in keeping details compared to ACNet and regular Anime4k. Produces crisp and sharp image with minimal detail loss.
   • White Album 2 Anime4kGAN 720p -> 1080p: https://imgsli.com/ODczODg/1/3
3. Anime4k Thinlines preset. Thins out the lines of anime artworks after upscaling. Might look better in some cases and worse in others.
   • Duel Savior 480p->1080p: https://imgsli.com/ODc2MTE/1/2
4. Anime4kGAN Restore. Filters out the noises created by the GAN shader while keeping all the nice details.
   • Kunado Kokuki 720p -> 1080p: https://imgsli.com/ODc1NTQ/1/5
   • Duel Savior 480p->1080p: https://imgsli.com/ODc2MTE/1/5
5. Anime4k 3x / 3x Light. Experimental stack of Anime4kGan + Restore + Upscale Light shaders to upscale images for high resolution displays. Should only be used for 1440p/4k displays.

For editing and configuring your own scaling presets please check out https://github.com/Z-Dante/Magpie/blob/master/docs/CustomScaleConfiguration.md

Full list of scaling presets in this release of Magpie:

Show Preset details

The following table contains the list of all the scaling presets presents in this release of Magpie. It also shows their GPU usage, Power usage and Temperature taken during a 720p -> 1080p upscaling test using the GDI API. Benchmark done one a PC running Windows 11 and using a RTX 2060 GPU. Results will differ for different configurations.

Preset Name	GPU Usage	Power Usage	Temperature
NONE	25%	18W	34°C
ACNet	38%	44W	37°C
ACNet (RCAS)	38%	44W	37°C
Anime4k	39%	43W	38°C
Anime4k Thinlines	51%	50W	38°C
Anime4kGAN (S)	37%	50W	39°C
Anime4kGAN (S) Restore Soft	53%	60W	40°C
ANime4kGAN (S) Restore VL !	73%	120W	62°C
FSRCNNXLineArt	36%	44W	40°C
FSR	24%	24W	39°C
Lanczos	35%	27W	38°C
Anime4K (Light)	36%	26W	37°C
Anime4K (Very Light)	37%	25W	37°C
ANime4k Denoise + FSR	38%	41W	39°C
CRT Hylian	20%	22W	36°C
CRT Easymode	38%	22W	36°C
CRT Geom	38%	23W	36°C
CRT Cathode	29%	26W	36°C
Anime4k 3x !	69%	143W	68°C
Anime4k 3x Light	58%	64W	47°C

* Anime4k Native and Anime4k Native light were tested at 4k. Everything else tested at 1080p; The results should be similar for 1440p too since most of these scalers scales to 1440p before downscaling to 1080p.
** The presets marked with ! are extremely heavy and not recommended for low end GPUs

v0.7.0_experimental

With v0.7.0 being officially released over at https://github.com/Blinue/Magpie/releases, I'd recommend everyone to download the latest release build from there and then just download the ScalesModels.json file and copy it to the base directory of Magpie.

I'm also including a complete build with the presets included for those interested. However, no promises about future updates. Feel free to check https://github.com/Z-Dante/Magpie/actions for the latest automated builds

New presets since the last release:

• Anime4k Light and Very Light - As the name Implies, presets for low-end hardware. Use if you're having performance issues with the other releases.
• Anime4k Restore Soft M - A version of restore with fewer ringing artifacts.
• ACNet + FSR / Anime4k + FSR - For games with having a resolution of less than half of your screen resolution. Anime4k/ACNet can only double the source resolution, so additional filters are needed for further upscaling, in this case, I used FSR.

Some pointers

RCAS	Uses the CAS filter from FSR. Higher overall contrast and sharpness
Denoise	Anime4k specific denoiser upscaler. For noisy sources. Not recommended for VNs
Restore	Anime4k specific detail enhancement module. very sharp but produces ringing artefacts.

Recommended Presets: ANime4k, ACNet (RCAS), ANime4k (RCAS)

v0.7a_d3d_experimental

An experimental build of Magpie d3d branch with some VN Specific tweaks and presets.
.7b -> Added 2 fast presets and merged from upstream

Some pointers

RCAS	Uses the CAS filter from FSR. Higher overall contrast and sharpness
Denoise	Anime4k specific denoiser upscaler. For noisy sources. Not recommended for VNs
Restore	Anime4k specific detail enhancement module. very sharp but produces ringing artefacts.
CatRom	Uses Catmull-Rom filter for downscaling instead of SSim. Not recommended.

Recommended Presets: ANime4k, ACNet (RCAS), ANime4k (RCAS)

Use the catrom variants or Anime4k + FSR if source window resolution is less than half of your screen resolution