Can somebody help me make a fantastic PAL-like CRT Shader?

RetroArch Additions Shaders
#1

I think some people already noticed that most of the shaders here are solely focused on re-creating the feel of an NTSC TV.

One of the most frequent options we PAL users got on some of our PS1 and PS2 Games was the ability to switch between 50HZ and 60HZ modes at the start (if our TVs supported it). I always picked the former based on personal preference.

Even the “pal-r57shell” preset doesn’t look all that great (in my eyes at least):

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I guess I just like my colours a bit washed out, and my picture sharper with 10 less frames every second (preferably with a phosphors RGB-style screen). I tried the “crt-royale-pal-r57shell” preset, but my PC is not powerful enough to run it (and we never had a TV that glowed that much).

To shorten this conversation. I need your help to make a great PAL-based CRT RGB configuration that’s light on resources. Maybe I’m complaining about nothing, but I’m pretty new to tweaking those “Shader Parameters” here.

#2

P.S. While we’re on the subject, I have a fun fact. We Europeans used the SCART Cable for our AV Channel Screen Outputs.

We had Composite too, but the SCART was more practical.

800px-SCART_Connector_Pinout_Color.svg
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Multiconnector-scart-chti
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Scartsocks

It’s like HDMI (or VGA), only bigger and bulkier.

#3

PAL had slightly higher resolution, but because the standard for games was NTSC, virtually nothing took advantage of that. And when it comes to gaming, disadvantages galore (borders + horrible slowdown). Being European too, I hated it. What is it that you like about it?

#4

Like I mentioned above, it was just a personal preference.

The colour gamma on 60HZ mode AKA NTSC was noticeably higher, the picture was blurrier, and the glowing wasn’t good for my eyes.

I don’t know what you played, but I never had slowdown or border issues with my games. I consider the entire point of these configurations is to solve problems like these on the PAL shader.

If it’s just me here who prefers the 50HZ mode AKA the PAL screen, I won’t mention it again.

If you have a better suggestion for a CRT preset configuration, I’m open to new ideas.

#5

All those things you mention here have really nothing to do with the tv standard, but the display itself and its configuration.

Yes you did, unless everything you played were those very rare PAL-optimized games. PAL was around 18% slower than NTSC and the borders had to be there because of the resolution difference. Control responsiveness and input lag were a problem too. But hey maybe those sluggish, laggy, vertically challenged games are what you remember and got used to play, and if that’s the case you might find the NTSC versions too fast. I didn’t mean to attack your personal preference :slight_smile:

I honestly advise you to start anew and get used to 60hz retrogaming though!

#6

Optimized PAL games aren’t really that rare once you enter the 32bit console age. The NTSC focus before that also mostly applies to console games, it’s different for computer retrogaming.

#7

PAL consoles running at 60hz on PAL tv’s wasn’t NTSC. It was PAL60 which looked a lot better than NTSC if you were using composite or s-video. With RGB there is no difference.

1 Like
#8

I never knew that… I always assumed they made the TVs Universally Compatible with both formats at some point in the early 2000s in order to make importing them easier.

I’ve already heard of DVB-T, but it’s getting harder to tell differences these days when most TVs are so regionally neutral, all you need to do is get a new electrical plug.

#9

Can we please help him instead of trying to convert him to NTSC? :crazy_face:

#10

Seeing as how most people prefer NTSC here anyway, I have a better idea:

Make a Shader that combines the best of both worlds.

A PAL60-style shader with all of the issues @Squalo mentioned removed, with a few noticeable highlights added in from the better parts of NTSC (I’m not sure if anything’s worth highlighting in SECAM, but feel free to mention it).

We can call it: "CRT-MPRT"

That’s short for “Multi-Parameter Recursive Televisor” (name’s a W.I.P.)