CyberLab Death To Pixels Shader Preset Packs

Yep, I was thinking the exact same when he originally explained what he had done. I had to go in and test that myself right after.

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Here is my version of Cyberā€™s Soqueroeu preset:

#reference "Mega_Bezel_Community/Soqueroeu-TV-Backgrounds_V2.0-main/presets/TV-Console/Nintendo_NES.slangp"

scangammaoffset = "2.500000"

g_hue_degrees = "-10.000000"
wp_temperature = "6300.000000"



GDV_DECONVERGENCE_ON = "0.000000"



g_sat = "0.020000"



post_br = "100.0000"

h_sharp = "15.000000"
s_sharp = "1.500000"

GAMMA_INPUT = "2.400000"
gamma_out = "2.400000"


bloom = "0.100000"
halation = "0.000000"



scan_falloff = "0.250000"


g_crtgamut = "1.000000"


scans = "0.000000"
GDV_NOISE_ON = "0.000000"

glow = "0.000000"

masksize = "2.000000"



gsl = "2.000000"
scanline1 = "9.000000"
scanline2 = "9.000000"
beam_min = "1.350000"
beam_max = "1.300000"

shadowMask = "7.000000"
maskstr = "1.000000"


addnoised = "0.180000"
noiseresd = "1.000000"


HSM_NON_INTEGER_SCALE = "61.570278"
HSM_CURVATURE_2D_SCALE_LONG_AXIS = "10.000000"
HSM_CURVATURE_2D_SCALE_SHORT_AXIS = "5.000000"
HSM_BZL_USE_INDEPENDENT_SCALE = "1.000000"
HSM_BZL_INDEPENDENT_SCALE = "60.570343"
HSM_BZL_USE_INDEPENDENT_CURVATURE = "1.000000"
3 Likes

This is an example of what can be achieved with the settings @Tromzy posted based on some of his tweaks and my suggestions.

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Greetings @trnzaddict, you can use my preset pack in the first post of this thread in the interim if youā€™re interested. You might actually get a good experience using them. The presets it contains donā€™t require HDR, 120Hz nor BFI to look good.

I started developing them on a 4K LG OLED TV but now use a 4K LED TV.

Take a look at these videos of my CyberLab__Composite-Pure__Soqueroeu-TV_Special_Edition__STD preset in action!

CyberLab__Composite-Pure__Soqueroeu-TV_Special_Edition__STD - Video 1 - Sonic The Hedgehog

CyberLab__Composite-Pure__Soqueroeu-TV_Special_Edition__STD - Video 2 - Sonic The Hedgehog

CyberLab__Composite-Pure__Soqueroeu-TV_Special_Edition__STD - Video 3 - Ys IV - The Dawn of Ys

CyberLab__Composite-Pure__Soqueroeu-TV_Special_Edition__STD - Video 4 - Super Star Soldier

CyberLab__Composite-Pure__Soqueroeu-TV_Special_Edition__STD - Video 5 - Sonic The Hedgehog

CyberLab__Composite-Pure__Soqueroeu-TV_Special_Edition__STD - Video 6 - Gate of Thunder

You can use MPC-HC, MX Player or VLC Player to view the videos.

@Nesguy It doesnā€™t use ScaleFX (nor XBR), neither MDAPT, Blargg NTSC, GTU, GDV NTSC, nor SGENPT-MIX or excessive blurring techniques). It uses full strength mask and scanline type 2 with no requirement for HDR!

In its current implementation it doesnā€™t seem to blend all of the jailbar dithering effects perfectly for example in Sonic The Hedgehog Act 2 but I think it does an excellent job with with the waterfalls in Act 1.

I have a feeling that the reduced scale caused by my use of @soqueroeuā€™s excellent TV Backgrounds might be helping things a bit.

For me, this represents basically what I originally set out to accomplish. It brings me very close to the same feelings I used to experience playing Lords of Thunder, Gate of Thunder, Shadow of The Beast and Ys Book I & II on my TurboDuo on a Commodore 1702 way back in 1995!

There are some subtle nuances created by the combination of the mask and scanline patterns that Iā€™m seeing around the pixels in Gate of Thunder that makes this preset really stand out in my opinion. Iā€™m not sure if itā€™s something that I noticed back in the day but it does look pleasing at least to my eyes.

Thanks to @guest.r, @HyperspaceMadness, @soqueroeu, @Duimon and the rest of the Mega Bezel Team for making this possible!

5 Likes

It took a bit to tweak it to my memory, but this is what I eventually came up with:

#reference "Mega_Bezel_Community/CyberLab/MBZ__1__Advance_Full_Reflections/1080p_Optimized_Presets/CyberLab__Composite-Sharp__1080p__PVM-Edition__ADV.slangp"
post_br = "308.000000"
HSM_TUBE_DIFFUSE_IMAGE_ON = "1.000000"
HSM_TUBE_DIFFUSE_IMAGE_COLORIZE_ON = "1.000000"
HSM_TUBE_STATIC_REFLECTION_IMAGE_OPACITY = "10.500002"
signalResolution = "160.000000"
signalResolutionI = "83.000000"
signalResolutionQ = "25.000000"
CP = "5.000000"
TNTC = "3.000000"
glow = "0.350000"
bloom = "0.300000"
halation = "0.425000"
blendMode = "2.000000"
gsl = "2.000000"
beam_max = "1.000000"
rolling_scan = "-1.000000"
h_sharp = "5.199976"
s_sharp = "0.500000"
barspeed = "200.000000"
barintensity = "0.080000"
shadowMask = "1.000000"
deconrr = "1.250000"
deconrg = "2.000000"
deconrb = "-2.250000"
deconrry = "-2.000000"
deconrgy = "-2.000000"
deconrby = "1.000000"
decons = "2.000002"
deconsmooth = "0.500000"
GDV_NOISE_ON = "1.000000"
addnoised = "0.500000"
1 Like

Very good! Iā€™m glad youā€™re enjoying my presets, however in the latest HSM Mega Bezel Reflection Shader the post_br brightness range has been charged from 100 to 500 to 1 to 5 so in order to get correct results you need to divide any old values by 100. Try setting it to 3.08 instead.

This setting has been renamed. See below or the HSM Mega Bezel Reflection Shader threadā€™s first post.

This is a very low value and will result in lots of blur. It can work if you want to blend the dither patterns in Sega Genesis games like the waterfalls in Sonic The Hedgehog but there are many other ways to accomplish this without resorting to such extreme techniques.

If you do use such a low signal resolution a coarser (larger) mask size might help to conceal some of the blur.

Itā€™s good to see that youā€™re playing around with the settings though. You can let me know if you need any assistance in getting the look and feel that youā€™re going for.

One more thing. If youā€™re using GDV (formerly Deconvergence) Noise, that canā€™t be properly captured in screenshots so in order to convey a more representative image, you might want to switch it off temporarily before taking screenshots. You can use video clips to show off that effect though but your capture settings have to be on point.

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Thanks! Iā€™ll make sure to update those when I update the shader

Iā€™m know itā€™s super blurry, but it matches the memory of the crappy dying 20 year old TV mixed with a cheap rf modulator that I used to have in my bedroom when I was a little kid.

I do switch between presets depending on the game

Hmmā€¦ Iā€™ll take a look into that

Ah, ok. I didnā€™t realize, Iā€™ll keep that in mind

So, basically, Iā€™m looking to replicate a crappy consumer crt from the late 60s early 70s as it would have been when it was dying in the mid 90s from lack of care

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I totally understand. I used to do stuff like that. I might bring them back sometime in the not too distant future now that Iā€™m really satisfied with my higher quality offerings.

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the videos look all wrong in VLC player for some reason.

Honestly, the best way to judge these things (outside of loading up a game with the preset applied) is with a close up photo with the subpixels in focus.

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They are 4K videos, I donā€™t know if thatā€™s why. They look decent enough on my phone which has a 1080 x 2400 display. Unless your ā€œwrongā€ is equivalent to my ā€œdecent enoughā€.

If playing back on your desktop, then maybe you can try MPC-HC instead (the new one available on video-help.com). I personally use that with madVR because I donā€™t like to compromise on my video upscaling, downscaling and rendering.

I have already taken some close ups of a slightly older version based on your original request. I believe I replied to and tagged you in those.

If you have access to a 4K screen, then by all means, load up the preset and take a look for yourself.

See here:

and here:

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I absolutely love your higher quality presets, and for games I never did as a child I 100% use them. But for those handful of games I had as a child, I want that grungy, smeared image. I, personally, am super excited to see what you come up with.

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Thanks for the positive energy and support! I always say, if these things benefit you then be sure to spread the word so that they may reach and benefit others as well!

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@Cyber

Wow, was that really cool!! :star_struck:

Are they all the same preset? The second video with Sonic seemed more pleasant to me.

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Thanks!

Yes, they were all made with my CyberLab__Composite-Pure__Soqueroeu-TV_Special_Edition__STD preset and of course your magnificent TV-Backgrounds!

I have a couple more to upload so stay tuned. They might probably look best on a 4K Display though.

3 Likes

Yeah!

A little bit of noise and a little bit of convergence makes Guest Dr. Venom Shader much more natural:

4 Likes

Hereā€™s some OpenLara with CyberLab__RGB-Sharp__1440p__PVM-Edition__ADV.slangp preset:

https://imgur.com/a/G2KVb14

(Make sure to open them full size)

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This is a really decent modification of Blargg NTSC Filter.

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Iā€™d like to try this as Iā€™m still not completely satisfied with the existing NTSC shaders/filters. All of them are far blurrier than any CRT Iā€™ve seen via composite, for some reason.

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I havenā€™t used it since I originally tried it some months ago but depending on what youā€™re looking for you can try my CyberLab__Composite-Pure__ADV or CyberLab__Composite-Pure__1080p__ADV presets in conjunction with the original core included or the above modified Blargg NTSC RGB/SECAM filter for a really nice post processing effect that goes well with the sharpness of the Composite-Pure preset. Without Blargg RGB, Composite-Pure is sharp and well defined. With Blargg RGB/SECAM it add some nice subtle processing to the edges and colours that take away some of the edge without adding any perceivable blur.

Composite-Pure is the only preset I use for NES games. I like it both with and without the Blargg filter applied. It does something strange with the resolution/aspect ratio though. The edges of the width of the viewport seems to shrink by a few pixels when itā€™s enabled.

I would remind you that itā€™s your desire for sharp, unmolested pixels that led me to create the original Composite-Pure preset some months ago.

I had tried your presets in the Mega Bezel Experimental folder and was really impressed and borrowed some of the scanline tweaks and applied my own processing, then proceeded to beat Ninja Gaiden 2 probably for the first time in over 20 years!

This new Composite-Pure is a complete overhaul though. The old one wasnā€™t so ā€œPureā€ after all in comparison. It exhibited that out of focus, blurry quality that so many seem to mistake for an NTSC Composite signal that I now canā€™t bear to look at since it might give me eyestrain as my eyes struggle to focus on the text and other fine details.

Since your last critique of (but not due to it) the Ys looking like Vs in Super Mario World, Iā€™ve also overhauled my CyberLab__Composite-Sharp__PVM-Edition preset, which is my go to for 16-bit games.

Iā€™ve learned how to tame the beast that is ScaleFX to limit itā€™s effect, while still applying a very gentle improvement in the aliasing department.

You should give it a try. That example with the Ys looking like Vs was not how the old version would have looked if the user was using my settings and recommendations though, which calls for the use of 512 x 224 Resolution in games that look better with less smoothing like Super Mario World and Super Mario Kart. I use the Higan core which has that setting but it turns out that the BSNES does not. Running the higher resolution also limits the strength of ScaleFX.

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