PS1:De-dithering Patch

Dithering is a technique used in many retro games to bypass limits of how many colors a game system can display or to fake transparency effects. It works by relying on composite signals and/or CRT televisions natural blurring to blur two pixels next to each other into one pixel. Because of it's reliance on composite and CRT blur, using component YPbPr/RGB on CRTs or using any signal on a LCD/LED TV can result in being able to see the checkerboarding.

In the case of the PS1, there is a single flag set per-texture or per-game which will overlay any texture or the entire screen with a checkerboard pattern which blurs all pixels slightly. While some textures actually have dithering baked in, the ones that don't can have the dither effect turned off, vastly changing the look of some games.

A good write-up on dithering and comparisons can be found on Chris McOvell's site.

These patches must be done on a game-by-game basis and the effect is different for each game. Some games — like Driver — may look too bright since the full-screen dither effect darkened the screen considerably.

Method 1: Patching Games

1. Download and extract Cr4zymanz0r's PS1 de-dither patcher.
2. Drag a PS1 .iso or .bin file onto Patch_PS1_dither.bat. Do not drag any .cue files onto the tool.
3. The game will automatically be patched and saved as PatchedISO.bin. Rename it to whatever you like or the same as your original ISO.

Method 2: Cheat Codes

There are some cheat codes created that disable dithering in games using a cheat device such as a Game Shark or Action Replay. A handful of codes are listed on this website.

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Tutorial and comparison:

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