JVC CRT TV Overlays 1080p

John.Merrit · 15 January 2017 03:46

This is my own personal attempt to recreate my old JVC CRT TV as a Retroarch overlay, in the best way I possibly can in 1080p.

Using a DSLR 24 megapixel camera, mounted on a tripod, (mostly so I’m not caught in the reflection) I have managed to capture the TV as best I could. Including the TV’s vertical scanlines, which are quite visible with the TV facing the light. The TV is cropped, removing small front speaker grill, on/off switch, etc… at the bottom. This gives as much screen space as possible without losing the TV itself. There are also various backgrounds, some are just a bit of fun, as well as a plain black background for anyone that wants it.

There are 5 in total.

JVC-TV - Is the JVC TV with a simple small modern-look, bright-room background.
JVC-TV-2 - Is the same as above but with a couple of added indoor plants. JVC-TV-3 - Is again the same as the first, but with a less detailed, less reflective screen. JVC-TV-4 - Is a simple modern room with a games library in the background, and a indoor plant - mostly to hide the mirroring I did with the games library. JVC-TV-5 - Is just the TV and a black background.

The overlay is 1080p only. And should work with Integer Scale ON, and Aspect 4:3, without any need to move the image to fit. I recommend the superb "Presenting the old school analog TV pack…version 2! " from Solid12345. Thread can be found here…

http://libretro.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3998

I would then recommend the Composite shader with the following settings.

Shader Options shader #2 - cbod-v1-pass1 - Set Filter to Nearest. This slightly sharpens the image without the slight side-effects of using the actual sharpen function.

Shader Parameters (Current) NTSC CRT Gamma - 3.00 warpX - 0.01 warpY - 0.03 brightness - 1.00 Luminance - 1.00 Red Channel - 1.00 Green Channel - 1.00 Blue Channel - 1.00

The above settings are purely upto you and your tastes/monitor. Play around with them until you are happy with what you see. I use a 1080p LED Acer, and tried to copy the real hardware (A Sega Megadrive) running on the real JVC TV.

The main zip is here.

http://www.filefactory.com/file/ulixvifdq51/JVC-TV-Overlays-1080p.zip

And some 1080p PNG test images are here, Retroarach running the Sega Megadrive core - genesis_plus_gx_libretro

http://www.filefactory.com/file/2qac24mwzb1t/retroarch%202015-09-22%2001-02-38-41.png http://www.filefactory.com/file/7gza0vut3itd/retroarch%202015-09-22%2001-03-57-51.png http://www.filefactory.com/file/ewymt3iy9l5/retroarch%202015-09-22%2001-04-59-33.png

Any feedback most welcome.

Spaceman · 15 January 2017 06:24

Brilliant Job. Really great thanks. Exactly what I’ve been searching for.

Bjomesphat · 15 January 2017 06:25

These are really cool!

You may want to consider doing at least one without a reflection. The gimmick is neat, but I could see the novelty wearing off fast. Especially if it’s night, or you’re in a room without windows.

John.Merrit · 15 January 2017 06:25

Bjomesphat, I plan on doing just that. The hard part is doing a screen effect without a refection because a CRT has a glass screen which reflects everything in the scene, especially the camera. I will be doing a night version with ambient lighting soon, just need to get it right. Thanks for the comments.

Bjomesphat · 15 January 2017 06:25

Looking forward to it.

John.Merrit · 15 January 2017 06:25

Rather than clutter-up the main post, here is a quick test for a night overlay. Not had a lot of time, so this is just a few omni lights to give it a bit of ambience. Would have liked darker shadows but kept running into banding problems. Removed all reflections since the reflected omni lights were a little too distracting.

http://www.filefactory.com/file/2rks4ivvpcr1/borders-night.zip

Quick pic http://www.filefactory.com/file/347e4sne2mm3/retroarch%202015-09-23%2022-57-00-54.png

John.Merrit · 15 January 2017 06:31

Just a quick edit. Made a old-style Arcade Machine overlay using a generic MAME artwork (all credits go to the original author), plus some arcade machine artwork I found online. Everything else is my own work.

This is just for fun but, this tries to mimic a ageing arcade monitor complete with baked-in vignette effect, blue-tint crt effect, curved glass effect, slight reflection, slight rainbow artifacts, dust/dirt behind screen. This is 1080p only, and meant for Horizontal 4:3 MAME games only. Other aspects may fit such as 5:4, etc…

Just put the overlay in your Retroarch/overlay/borders folder.

Included is the shader settings I use,if anyone wants to try. These require quite a decent PC. Just put this file in Retroarch/shaders. Edit the cgp file in a text editor and change all lines with the following

D:\Emulators\RetroArch\shaders\crt\shaders

Just change the location to your own location.This is using the crt-easymode-halation shader. Once edited, just load it in the Retroarch/settings/shaders area.

Main File http://www.filefactory.com/file/601gnhuxguxb/Retroarch_overlay.zip

Any feedback most welcome. Lastly, I would adjust the overlay’s opacity to suit taste. I use 75%. Full 100% would look like a really old monitor, and probably a bit too hard to see.

Just made a small update. The Arcade monitor now has a bit more colour, and a bit better definition. I have also made a fullscreen TV out of a fairly low-res old CRT TV I found online.

@hunterk, thanks for the comments.

hunterk · 15 January 2017 06:31

Man, those pics look great. Good work

solid12345 · 15 January 2017 06:32

Agreed, these are looking great, very much improved from the 1st version!

John.Merrit · 15 January 2017 06:32

solid12345, thanks. Looks ok with your 2.5 shaders.

Tried to do a Space Invaders Arcade Machine, but 1080p is just too restrictive for screen real estate. Had to make a few sacrifices. If anyone’s interested, here are the files. Aspect used was Core Provided, and Integer Scale ON.

http://www.filefactory.com/file/68aie8cjn247/Retroarch_Invaders.zip

A couple of pics. http://www.filefactory.com/file/389rkdjf0v9r/retroarch%202015-10-24%2003-12-11-20.png http://www.filefactory.com/file/3v99bxbyc8p5/zoomed1.png

solid12345 · 15 January 2017 06:32

[QUOTE=John.Merrit;29823]solid12345, thanks. Looks ok with your 2.5 shaders.

Tried to do a Space Invaders Arcade Machine, but 1080p is just too restrictive for screen real estate. [/QUOTE]

This is why i love 16:10 monitors which I use, you get that extra vertical height which is critical for 4:3 emulation.

John.Merrit · 15 January 2017 06:36

Just a quick bump, if anyone’s interested. I have made some arcade machine tests. These are a bit extreme, in that, I have made the machines to look worn, with scratches, smudges, glass reflection from room lighting.

hunterk · 15 January 2017 06:36

It’s definitely a strong effect, but I gotta say: it looks quite realistic.

John.Merrit · 15 January 2017 06:36

Thanks, hunterk.

Completely redone Space Invaders, working from a good quality arcade machine close-up.

http://www.filefactory.com/file/3bdsjmo7rty9/retroarch%202015-11-10%2000-10-49-52.png http://www.filefactory.com/file/4b7knt8dzbkz/retroarch%202015-11-10%2000-11-04-41.png http://www.filefactory.com/file/5jihkci02hkx/retroarch%202015-11-10%2000-10-34-07.png http://www.filefactory.com/file/7aevdh5fd8s5/retroarch%202015-11-10%2000-11-00-12.png

Again, due to the real hardware being over 35 years old, I tried to mimic the ageing in the overlay. As soon as I have both ageing-look and non ageing look finished, I will upload them.

Made a brief video. No sound, due to Retroarch already hogging my CPU and GPU, so Fraps was already struggling. Video quality is poor, time was not on my side so had to use a simple quick encoder + Youtube’s encoders then butcher it anyway.

John.Merrit · 15 January 2017 06:39

Quick bump. Reworked many arcade machines to look more like the real thing. Multi-layered overlays layered up with hd res layers of wells gardner monitor with correct aspect, monitor mounted bezel, glass screen, glass reflection and scratches effect, vignette effects, glass bezel artwork, cab sides, etc… Some test shots from Bomb Jack, Asteroids, Starwars Stand-up machine.

DuoDynamo · 15 January 2017 06:41

Any chance you could do a glare-less version of your JVC TV border (and/or perhaps brighten up the screen a little on the spotlight version? That’s by far my favorite one in terms of environment, but it makes the game screen way too dark for my taste)? Also, if you could use something other than FileFactory to host your stuff I’d be very grateful. That hourly limit takes more than just one hour to go away on my end for some reason.

Loving your stuff, man. You’re doing the work of God.

John.Merrit · 15 January 2017 06:41

DuoDynamo, thanks, will do. Would you test a TV overlay for me ? I have been trying to get a overlay thats almost pixel-perfect for 4:3 resolutions, (SNES, NES,Megadrive,etc…) it’s 1080p only, at leastuntil I go 1440p next year.

Sorry about Filefactory. I personally hate it, ghastly interface and occasionally slow, but I stupidly paid for a year’s membership so I wanted to get my money’s worth.

How about mediafire ?

I will do a glare-less version and upload that later today. Included are a few configs (just remember to change the location of your roms), and some shaders - not required, but made for glare/reflection overlay.

Link for JVC TV No Glare. Don’t use any of those shaders above or you will have a very dark image for those systems.

NewYears1978 · 15 January 2017 06:43

I am new to Retroarch and I must say i Love what you’ve done.

Nice to get that retro nostalgic feel when playing instead of weird enhanced and fullscreen stuff.

Question, does anyone run PSX and if so do you also use a setup for it? I am used to playing in ePSXe but trying to get Mednafen set up looking nice has been harder than setting up SNES/NES etc. Can’t decide if I should go fullscreenor use a border/overlay for it also. Thanks in advance!

Lastly, I can’t seem to get my aspect ratio right, it is always much smaller than the TV. I am on 1920x1080 and I put 4:3 which was too small, then I tried custom integer 4:3 and that was even smaller! I can’t figure out what I am doing wrong. See pics:

Custom Integer 4:3 http://i573.photobucket.com/albums/ss171/NewYears1978/43custom_zps7uicis8d.jpg Regular 4:3 http://i573.photobucket.com/albums/ss171/NewYears1978/43_zpsprfqt5k0.jpg

(There’s a little extra black on the bottom because Crono Trigger has that by default…but you can see how its not filling the overlay)

John.Merrit · 15 January 2017 06:43

NewYears1978, Try this config.

I have included my own PSOne config, should just drop in your current setup - provided you’re on one of the newer nightly. Just change this line in the file “Sony Playstation.cfg” to your own ISO location.

Line 108 - rgui_browser_directory = “D:\ISOs\Playstation”

I’ve included a few overlays, and my own shader config I use for PSOne. Feel free to test them to see if that helps. You should get every PSOne game filling the entire screen.

NewYears1978 · 15 January 2017 06:43

Thanks for that, looks great

Maybe you can help me figure out HOW TO get configs to auto load? I have had SO much trouble setting up the per core config stuff…any changes I make while a core is loaded seems to always mess up my main config…I have really started to get annoyed.

I tried using overrides but I guess I Don’t understand. I put a folder in my config folder “Nestopia UE” and then "Nestopia UE.cfg in there but it doesn’t load. I tried using the default cfg names but someone told me to use the actual name…but I can’t get either to work…not sure what I am doing wrong.

Edit: Okay I finally got the override to working naming it “Nestopia” so that brings a next question, how do I know the proper name of the folder to use for overrides when it doesn’t match any of the listed names (in retroarch it’s called Nestopia UE for instance"