Muito obrigado @FinalBoss!
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These are all from my latest CyberLab Megatron miniLED Death To Pixels 4K HDR Shader Preset Pack!
HDR Screenshot viewing tips:
Windows PC users, calibrate your display for HDR using the tools provided by Windows.
Mobile and other users, brighten your screen and zoom in until it looks good.
These screenshots are a tribute to @guest.r, @MajorPainTheCactus, @Hyllian, @Dogway and all other shader developers who made this possible!
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Hey @Cyber I am very impressed by your CRT-Royale presets, they will be my only shaders from now on for all my platforms! Thank you!
Just to clarify a couple of things, I see in your Github that you recommend 4b/3 (except for NES where you recommend 8b/7).
Is this because otherwise it would cause issues or not look good? One of the reason I love these shaders is that they work perfectly also when games are upscaled to 4k and for some platforms like PSX, Dreamcast there’s a lot of games with perfectly working widescreen cheats/hacks and I like to enjoy old games in 16/9 when possible.
Apart from 16/9, I also like to play some SNES games in 8/7 or some Mega Drive games in 10/7.
I tested the 4k presets yesterday, and couldn’t see any issues when pixel peeping, it seemed to remain perfect and not stretching the CRT shader even when going from 1/1 to 16/9.
But I am not an expert at all.
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Another quick question what makes a preset SNES & PSX, different from let’s say an N64 preset? Which one would you recommend for platforms that don’t have a dedicated preset?
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A last one, is it possible to add bezels to the shader when saving a preset?
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Thanks very much. I’m glad you’re enjoying them.
Can you show me where exactly you saw this, because I can’t recall. This is from a quick browse of the CRT-Royale Preset Pack GitHub.
If you see a recommendation for a particular aspect ratio to be used, it’s most likely because I noticed some rendering issues on my setup with certain specific things like power bars most of the time.
The settings I suggested might have been what I used to eliminate or mitigate the problem.
However do note that I’m constantly learning, experimenting and evolving my setup and sometimes the conditions which made suggestions like that necessary might have been self inflicted due to a lack of knowledge of all the inner workings of core settings or other interactions.
For example in some cores, there are cropping or Auto cropping settings, then their are overscan cropping settings in the Settings–»Video–»Scaling. Both groups of settings can interact and interfere with one another and sometimes skew things like aspect ratios.
So you can take those suggestions with a pinch of salt and just allow what you feel is best for you be your guide.
In other instances for example with my W420M presets, I often didn’t like the final look of the Shadow Mask presets unless X and Y scaling was set to certain specific values or there were uneven scanlines if the vertical scale (resolution) was below a certain threshold.
I almost always prefer integer scaling as I easily notice the uneven or unevenly sized scanlines which are inserted as part and parcel when non-Integer scaling is used.
I was also doing some experiments with shrinking the screen because I found the images to be a little more pleasant when downloaded slighty.
In my latest preset pack, I noticed some limitations with Custom Aspect Ratios with games which use multiple resolutions and sometimes eyeballing circles fixes some games but breaks the aspect ratio of others within a particular core.
So now I’m back to the drawing board where aspect ratios and Scaling settings are concerned.
I think most of your questions can be answered if you read through the first post of this thread and others if you browse through and look for my “Pro tips” and “Updates”.
Let me see if I can summarize.
There are differences in Gamma and video output circuitry among different consoles so how can you use one setting or preset to emulate these differences?
Shaders even have fixes for palettes for specific systems and more. To me a CRT shader’s purpose is not just to emulate a type of screen. I use them try to account for the differences in screen types, mask type, video input and output signals as well as video output and encoding circuit and these can vary from TV to TV and console/system to console/system.
You can probably start with my Turbo Duo presets or just experiment or use one from another platform of the same era or generation.
Not sure if this is possible using CRT-Royale. Maybe you might have to use RetroArch’s built-in overlay system or use a shader that supports bezels/overlays like Uborder, Mega Bezel Reflection Shader or Kokoaio.
Hope covered most of what you were looking for. Do enjoy the presets!
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Thank you so much for taking the time to reply with so many details, you can ignore the nes aspect ratio bit, I got confused I think.
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Although SNES’s 256/224 native resolution would give you an aspect ratio of 8/7 if left 1:1, when output on a CRT it is stretched horizontally to 4:3. You can think of it as a sort of anamorphic implementation.
If you’re playing SNES games at 8:7 aspect ratio, you’re doing it wrong…err…well at least…inaccurately.
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Really? Don’t some things look better in 8:7 than 4:3? I only play in 4:3
Yeah Zelda link to the past is a good example, link is a bit less fat in 8/7.
With emulators you can set aspect ratio how you wish however if you want to mimic the look of the actual original hardware on an real CRT, you can take a read of the following.
Display modalities
The system outputs a standard resolution of 256 x 224 pixels at ~60 Hz (NTSC) [9]. The European PAL variant outputs 256 × 240 pixels at ~50 Hz instead (to abide by the PAL specification). Be as it may, most games don’t use the extra pixels and show a letterbox (black lines) instead.
Now, here’s the tricky part, traditional TVs have an aspect ratio of 4:3. Yet, if you do the math, the Super Nintendo’s output resolution has an aspect ratio of 8:7 . Consequently, after beaming the picture on the TV, it will look horizontally stretched , as if it were a 292 x 224 pixels frame instead (in the case of the NTSC variant) [10]. To put it in another way, you could say pixels on the Super Nintendo have an aspect ratio of 8:7 instead of being ‘perfectly squared’.
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I see it this way: Games like Link To The Past or Super Mario World 2 should be displayed in 4:3 because that’s what we got in Japan/US - that’s how those games were played, the normal way they looked.
Games like The Lion King, The Lost Vikings, or Zombies Ate My Neighbors that you played on the Sega Genesis without being stretched? Play those in 8:7 so they’re not stretched either. (though out of the three I listed, you should really only be playing Zombies Ate My Neighbors on the Super NES since they’re better on the … Sega Genesis)
Hi @Cyber,
First of all, let me say that I really enjoy your shaders. I do have some questions though! I’m currently using the Computer-Monitor-Sharp shader. I’m playing on an OLED nLG C2 TV and I’ve noticed that the games can’t go completely black. I’m guessing you are emulating the glow of an CRT, but I’m wondering if that is something that I can change in the parameters without butchering the overall image. I’ve taken a screenshot of what I mean:
As you can see, the game’s image is much more gray than the black borders around it (I’ve disabled the bezel). It feels like I might not be taking full advantage of my OLED tv because of it. I’m wondering if you can provide some insight!
It looks completely black on my miniLED TV under bright lighting but I was able to see very very slightly raised black on my AMOLED phone but only after zooming in, raising the brightness and looking very carefully.
Perhaps your TV’s Black Level is set to Auto instead of Low? LG is always playing around with Black Levels between firmware updates.
Other than that, are you sure you’re using Mega Bezel Reflection Shader v1.14.0?
Not necessarily the glow but CRT’s didn’t have true black levels like an OLED TV.
Your OLED TV’s job is to accurately display the content fed into it. I wouldn’t say that you may not be taking full advantage of it because it’s not displaying something in the way that you like but rather is displaying it accurately to the source.
With that said, I probably haven’t used those particular presets in a very very long time. So I’ll load it up and take a look at the output as well as any parameters which may affect black levels just to make sure.
I reiterate though, be sure that you’re using Mega Bezel Reflection Shader v1.14.0 with version 1.14.0 of my CyberLab Mega Bezel Death To Pixels Shader Preset Pack not version 1.17.2.
I also invite and encourage you to try many other presets and preset packs I have created, for example my Mega Bezel HDR Ready Presets and also, my CyberLab Neo-GX presets, then there are my Uborder, Sony Megatron and miniLED preset packs.
You’re missing out on a lot if you don’t sample the variety and especially the new stuff
miniLED or W420M doesn’t mean you need miniLED TV to enjoy and appreciate the preset. They just refer to what type of display they were created on not necessarily exclusively for.
Incorrect Mega Bezel 1.17.2 output:
Correct Mega Bezel Reflection Shader v1.14.0 output:
From the first post as well as the readme.txt:
Yes, but you’re going to have to work with me especially since I don’t really use my presets on my cellphone that much so not much testing has been or is being done in that regard.
I have 4 shader preset packs which use the Sony Megatron Color Video Monitor shader so it might help if you also state which preset pack you got which shader preset pack from and use the entire filename for ease of identification.
- CyberLab Megatron NX Death To Pixels 4K HDR Shader Preset Pack
- CyberLab Megatron NX W420M Death To Pixels 4K Shader Preset Pack
- CyberLab Megatron miniLED Death To Pixels 4K HDR Shader Preset Pack
- CyberLab Megatron Death To Pixels 4K HDR Shader Preset Pack
For mobile I currently only use my first CyberLab Megatron Death To Pixels 4K HDR Shader Preset Pack as the presets in that one tend to be lighter on resources which make them more suitable for my device. The NES_N64_Saturn presets are only 3 passes so they’re very light on resources.
I don’t have much experience dealing with those uneven scanlines at 1080p but what I’ve observed from my testing at 4K is that custom integer scaling/aspect ratio can work wonders.
For each combination of console/emulator core, CRT Mask Type, TVL and possibly scanline settings there are vertical scaling settings that work best and other that look less than perfect.
I’ve not been able to use all of the scaling settings on the older version of RetroArch I was using before and I’ve now switched over to a newer one and still trying to get familiar with it, but definitely try to adjust the scaling either upward or downward slightly and see if it makes a difference.
For 1080p Aperture Grille presets might be the most flexible.
If you provide more information about the preset used so I can test it, I’ll be happy to share my findings but my device might choke with those presets though.
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OK, so I’m using the Death to Pixels 4K HDR shader, the bottom one in that list without NX on it.
The preset I’m using specifically is: CyberLab Megatron 4K HDR Game SNES Sharp Fine.slangp. The only changes I make when configuring it is switching HDR off, and setting it to 1080p. Everything else is stock.
I have also used Cyberlab Megatron 4K HDR Game NES Composite Slot Mask.slangp, again with the only above settings changed. This is the result that it gives me.
So far none of the shaders themselves have given me any performance issues, at least.
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Thanks for the added detail. What core are you using?
I see it looks like there’s a bit of black border on the top and bottom.
Some Cores have auto aspect ratio. You can experiment with it on or off and also the overscan settings in the Settings–»Video–»Scaling Menu but what should ultimately resolve this is finding the Integer Scaling/Aspect Ratio sweet spot for this preset. So just make sure Integer Scaling is set to On and also set integer scale Overscale to X + Y and you can experiment with Smart, Overscale or underscale and it might give you the results you’re looking for automatically or you can manually set a Custom Aspect ratio and adjust the X and Y values until the uneven scanlines disappear. You can try positive values first and if that doesn’t work or you run out of space to scale upward, then try lower values.
You can let me know if it works, other than that you can try a different CRT Mask Type and/or a higher TVL.
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The is Snes9x, haven’t tried any others.
For aspect ratio I have been using 8:7 with integer, I’ve been using underscale as I didn’t want to crop any of the image if I can avoid it. I may have been being an idiot though. Will X+Y make a difference? I’ve only been running it off Y, or whatever the default is…
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Don’t use 8:7 with SNES please. Although the system technically outputs an 8:7 resolution, on a real CRT that image is always stretched horizontally to 4:3 producing non-square pixels.
I doubt that.
X+Y can help things to be better aligned in the horizontal direction as well, for example the CRT Mask. Particularly the Shadow Mask Presets, they sometimes benefit from horizontal integer scaling, producing less moiré patterns.
Since my W420M Presets where I experimented heavily with Custom Aspect Ratios to get the Shadow Mask Presets looking good, I’ve stuck with some of the things I learned.
This may be the only way to maintain the proper aspect ratio when adjusting the vertical scale to arbitrary levels but I just stick with integer scale on X + Y and try to get it as close as possible. At least that’s what I’m doing these days.
I play on a large screen but I’ve noticed that bigger isn’t always better when it comes to image quality and all elements of the CRT emulation aligning and coming together,
Certain scale factors will look better than others, and those sweet spots are a joy to experience. Take a look at the presets where I’ve included recommended CAR values and you’ll see what I’m talking about or just do some experimentation on your own.
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