If you wish to use another media player, look at their documentation on how to install GLSL shaders and modify the shader accordingly if needed.
- Install mpv.
- Download the .glsl shader files here
- Copy the .glsl files to
%AppData%\mpv\shaders
for Windows or~/.config/mpv/shaders
for Linux. - If
mpv.conf
does not exist in%AppData%\mpv\
or~/.config/mpv
, create an empty file and follow these instructions to optimize your configuration. - For Anime4K v3.0, instead of activating a single shader, you should use a combination of shaders. Add one of the following lines to
mpv.conf
to enable the shaders:
Note for Unix based OSes, ";" separators must be replaced with ":" as stated in the mpv manual.
Here's a few shader combinations as a recommended starting point:
For 480/720p videos:
- Remain as faithful to the original while enhancing details:
glsl-shaders="~~/shaders/Anime4K_3.0_Upscale_CNN_L_x2_Denoise.glsl;~~/shaders/Anime4K_3.0_Auto_Downscale_Pre_x4.glsl;~~/shaders/Anime4K_3.0_Upscale_CNN_M_x2_Deblur.glsl"
- Improve perceptual quality:
glsl-shaders="~~/shaders/Anime4K_3.0_Upscale_CNN_L_x2_Denoise.glsl;~~/shaders/Anime4K_3.0_Auto_Downscale_Pre_x4.glsl;~~/shaders/Anime4K_3.0_DarkLines_HQ.glsl;~~/shaders/Anime4K_3.0_ThinLines_HQ.glsl;~~/shaders/Anime4K_3.0_Upscale_CNN_M_x2_Deblur.glsl"
- Improve perceptual quality + deblur:
glsl-shaders="~~/shaders/Anime4K_3.0_Upscale_CNN_L_x2_Denoise.glsl;~~/shaders/Anime4K_3.0_Auto_Downscale_Pre_x4.glsl;~~/shaders/Anime4K_3.0_Deblur_DoG.glsl;~~/shaders/Anime4K_3.0_DarkLines_HQ.glsl;~~/shaders/Anime4K_3.0_ThinLines_HQ.glsl;~~/shaders/Anime4K_3.0_Upscale_CNN_M_x2_Deblur.glsl"
For 1080p videos:
- Remain as faithful to the original while enhancing details:
glsl-shaders="~~/shaders/Anime4K_3.0_Denoise_Bilateral_Mode.glsl;~~/shaders/Anime4K_3.0_Upscale_CNN_M_x2_Deblur.glsl"
- Improve perceptual quality:
glsl-shaders="~~/shaders/Anime4K_3.0_Denoise_Bilateral_Mode.glsl;~~/shaders/Anime4K_3.0_DarkLines_HQ.glsl;~~/shaders/Anime4K_3.0_ThinLines_HQ.glsl;~~/shaders/Anime4K_3.0_Upscale_CNN_M_x2_Deblur.glsl"
- Improve perceptual quality + deblur:
glsl-shaders="~~/shaders/Anime4K_3.0_Denoise_Bilateral_Mode.glsl;~~/shaders/Anime4K_3.0_Deblur_DoG.glsl;~~/shaders/Anime4K_3.0_DarkLines_HQ.glsl;~~/shaders/Anime4K_3.0_ThinLines_HQ.glsl;~~/shaders/Anime4K_3.0_Upscale_CNN_M_x2_Deblur.glsl"
The file name might vary depending on the version, rename it accordingly. You can also replace the upscalers variant (M, L, UL) for better speed or quality. But please note that MPV does not allow the same shader to be activated twice, so if you want to use the same shader twice, you must make a copy of the file and rename one of them.
Note: Due to some unknown cause (or intentional behaviour?) in mpv, using the exact same upscaling shaders variant twice or more causes the first pass to slow down significantly. Performance loss is especially noticeable at higher resolutions.
Alternatively add the following bindings to your input.conf
to toggle the shader on or off at runtime using Ctrl+1, Ctrl+2, etc.
Ctrl-0 will disable all the shaders. The order presented here is the same as above.
CTRL+1 change-list glsl-shaders set "~~/shaders/Anime4K_3.0_Upscale_CNN_L_x2_Denoise.glsl;~~/shaders/Anime4K_3.0_Auto_Downscale_Pre_x4.glsl;~~/shaders/Anime4K_3.0_Upscale_CNN_M_x2_Deblur.glsl"
CTRL+2 change-list glsl-shaders set "~~/shaders/Anime4K_3.0_Upscale_CNN_L_x2_Denoise.glsl;~~/shaders/Anime4K_3.0_Auto_Downscale_Pre_x4.glsl;~~/shaders/Anime4K_3.0_DarkLines_HQ.glsl;~~/shaders/Anime4K_3.0_ThinLines_HQ.glsl;~~/shaders/Anime4K_3.0_Upscale_CNN_M_x2_Deblur.glsl"
CTRL+3 change-list glsl-shaders set "~~/shaders/Anime4K_3.0_Upscale_CNN_L_x2_Denoise.glsl;~~/shaders/Anime4K_3.0_Auto_Downscale_Pre_x4.glsl;~~/shaders/Anime4K_3.0_Deblur_DoG.glsl;~~/shaders/Anime4K_3.0_DarkLines_HQ.glsl;~~/shaders/Anime4K_3.0_ThinLines_HQ.glsl;~~/shaders/Anime4K_3.0_Upscale_CNN_M_x2_Deblur.glsl"
CTRL+4 change-list glsl-shaders set "~~/shaders/Anime4K_3.0_Denoise_Bilateral_Mode.glsl;~~/shaders/Anime4K_3.0_Upscale_CNN_M_x2_Deblur.glsl"
CTRL+5 change-list glsl-shaders set "~~/shaders/Anime4K_3.0_Denoise_Bilateral_Mode.glsl;~~/shaders/Anime4K_3.0_DarkLines_HQ.glsl;~~/shaders/Anime4K_3.0_ThinLines_HQ.glsl;~~/shaders/Anime4K_3.0_Upscale_CNN_M_x2_Deblur.glsl"
CTRL+6 change-list glsl-shaders set "~~/shaders/Anime4K_3.0_Denoise_Bilateral_Mode.glsl;~~/shaders/Anime4K_3.0_Deblur_DoG.glsl;~~/shaders/Anime4K_3.0_DarkLines_HQ.glsl;~~/shaders/Anime4K_3.0_ThinLines_HQ.glsl;~~/shaders/Anime4K_3.0_Upscale_CNN_M_x2_Deblur.glsl"
CTRL+0 change-list glsl-shaders clr ""
Note: If you wish to use the Upscale_Original and/or Deblur_Original shaders, make sure your mpv version is v0.31 if you are using Windows and must use the D3D11 API, as there is a GLSL bug in v0.32, see #66. Linux users are not affected. Windows users on the OpenGL or Vulkan API are not affected.