They’re my latest CyberLab Neo GX presets and they come in Shadow (Dot) Mask, Slot Mask and Aperture Grill (CyberTron) variations.
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Absolutely amazing work, I’m quite impressed how good everything looks!
Thank you for constantly putting out gold Cyber!
I’m enjoying playing around with the settings, changing random stuff and learning what each setting does what.
I’ve noticed that the picture looks a bit dark in the CyberTron presets, and I’m doubting it could be because of the way the scanlines might be working to produce such a good picture. But I thought to ask if this is still the way it’s meant to look compared to the other 4k regular presets.
Also, since I’m on the topic of experimenting; I really like the way the scanlines look, and I want it to appear as full as possible on my TV. The way I enlarge the picture is via the 16:9/Full…etc Aspect Ratio setting, I choose full, would this be the best setting to enlarge the picture while keeping scanlines integrity?
Thank you so much : D
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Sorry I wanted to edit my original post but I think the Edit button has a timer or something : P
Here’s an example, with Post CRT Brightness set to max (5.00/5.00), and the original without any edits, which is set to (2.08/5.00)
Wondering if this is the best way to simply increase the brightness without ruining the preset.
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Thanks for the compliment.
You’re welcome.
If you look at my post above and possibly all the other recent posts I made previewing my Dot, Slot and CyberTron presets, you’ll notice that there are differences in brightness between the three types of presets.
You can easily spot the differences by looking at the reflections. This is something that I’m aware of and it’s not intentional.
If you did or didn’t notice, I put out at least 4 or 5 updates in quick succession since I released my new CyberLab Neo GX presets. Some of these were stealth updates. If you look at the most recent update, you’ll notice that one of the changes involves Adjusted Brightness in NES Neo GX presets.
The reason for this is that the Slot Mask and CyberTron presets were really after thoughts and by products of my Shadow Mask Neo GX presets and they arrived by me changing the Mask Settings but nothing else.
When I do an “overhaul” it usually involves experimenting with different approaches, techniques and settings which I’ve seen some value in pursuing.
It may be possible that a group of presets might look different from an older set. That’s okay by me because it adds variety to the preset pack and once things are within a certain acceptable range my eyes and brain tend to adjust and ignore the relative differences between presets.
In general I might take a while between new sets of presets as well as doing overhauls but once I get the initial stuff out, I tend to start playing my favorite games using them as well as sharing screenshots.
It is during this phase that the real testing begins as I start to notice things in some games that I may not have noticed in others and this is the time when I begin to get user feedback as well.
So, with new techniques, approaches and experimentation with new settings come new knowledge, learning and realizations.
What I’ve learned is that my Shadow Mask presets (and others depending on how they’re implemented) can have greater brightness potential than Slot Mask and Aperture Grill presets. This is because the only separation between the phosphors is the scanlines. This is because the black wires between the dots in the Mask which exist in a real Shadow Mask display are not drawn. While there is the most black in the Slot Mask structure and a little black in the seperator between triads in the Aperture Grill mask.
So all else being equal, Shadow Mask (Dot) will be brighter than Aperture Grill (CyberTron) which will be brighter than Slot Mask.
You can try out my latest NES Neo GX presets and observe for yourself. Compared to presets in the past my Neo GX presets might generally look different in the gamma and saturation department because I’m looking for a different and new look. If I did everything the same or calibrated everything the same then I might end up making the same preset I’ve made before.
I won’t look at the example at the moment because I’m still in tweaking mode and I wouldn’t want to be influenced by it.
There are a few things you can do, you can use another preset that has the brightness you desire because if you tweak the brightness manually you may end up just recreating something that’s already in the pack.
You can hold on a bit and see where my brightness tweaks and adjustments take my new Neo GX presets. The Arcade Shadow Mask Neo GX presets are staying right there because that’s exactly the way I want them to look, unless I encounter a particular situation where they look off and may require some additional tweaking.
Due to all of the above that I’ve indicated to you, my Slot Mask and CyberTron Neo GX presets might undergo further tweaking to reduce the inconsistency in the brightness between them and the Shadow Mask Neo GX presets.
Hmmm…there are probably at least 10 different settings which affect brightness in some way.
Right now, I’m sticking to Gamma_C and BrightBoost. In the past I’ve adjusted Gamma In, Gamma Out and Post CRT-Brightness and have never touched BrightBoost.
You really have to be careful when adjusting brightness to avoid clipping, revealing flaws in the darker areas that might have been masked and making things look washed out. When you interfere with one setting, you might eventually have to interfere with another to compensate.
I’d increase the Integer Scale Offset, which is what my Neo GX MK MAXX preset does. That is actually essential for the scanlines to be rendered properly in some games using my Shadow Mask presets.
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That was quite informative, thank you so much. Appreciate you sharing your directions and your methodologies as well. Yes, I just checked out the Shadow Mask presets and they indeed look brighter, I also understood the reasoning why it looks different, this is quite interesting to be honest.
Your constant tips and helpful contributions in helping people is always inspiring in this and other threads as well. Thank you so much and keep up the amazing work!
I’ll always look forward to every update you produce cause your work introduced me to RetroArk : P
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Tap on image then zoom in for best viewing. Desktop users, right click then Open in New Tab, then press F11 for FullScreen. Non 4K users, zoom in until it looks correct.
Dot
Slot
CyberTron
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Based on my observations, when all else was equal except Mask settings, my new CyberLab Shadow Mask Neo GX presets were brighter than my CyberLab CyberTron Neo GX presets and my CyberLab CyberTron Neo GX presets were brighter than my CyberLab Slot Mask Neo GX presets.
I immediately sought to rectify this and initially revisited my NES Neo GX presets individually.
For my next attempt at brightness normalization, I took a couple different approaches. I was satisfied with my CyberLab Arcade Shadow Mask Neo GX preset so using that as my control/reference point, I set out to normalize my CyberLab Arcade CyberTron and Slot Mask Neo GX presets.
The results are as follows:
You might want to take a look at this @Winter47th.
Slot A
CyberTron A
Dot (Control)
Slot B
CyberTron B
Dot (Control)
CyberTron A
CyberTron B
Slot A
Slot B
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I’m loving this : P
It’s always a pleasure seeing the progress you’re making with your presets, and the knowledge you’re willing to share as to reasonings and methodologies.
Gotta say this breaths new -old- life into my retrogames.
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Glad you’re enjoying my work! By the way, are you using a 4K W-OLED display? If not, you might be able to get an even better experience by switching the Mask Layout setting from 1 to 0. 1 is for W-OLED and BGR displays and 0 is for RGB displays.
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Yes I do it’s an LG CX and it’s W-OLED according to RTings.
Mask 1 vs Mask 0
The end of the hair strand on the bottom right when activating Mask 0 seem to be sharper (It’s always the hairs lol)
Thanks for the tips Cyber!
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For your TV, Mask Layout 1 is correct when using my presets although you’re free to use whichever you prefer of course even if it’s “wrong”.
On our OLED TV’s it may not seem to make much of a difference from a distance but if you go close to the screen and look at the Mask, only Mask Layout 1 will display the phosphors correctly.
My IV_OLED presets as well as my 1080p_Optimized presets already have Mask Layout 1 enabled as well as all of my new Neo GX presets.
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They’re doing wonders for pre-rendered backgrounds, really makes me appreciate the art, and your work as well as the community’s is making such eye candies shine again
Oh I can see the github got updated 3 hours ago, time to eat 
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CyberLab_PSX_CyberTron_Neo-GX.slangp
Tap on image then zoom in for best viewing. Desktop users, right click then Open in New Tab, then press F11 for FullScreen. Non 4K users, zoom in until it looks correct.
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I’m loving this, it’s like putting color to my nostalgia
Masterful work as always thank you so much!
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Thanks for the words of encouragement.
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Hey @Cyber , I’m using the latest CyberLab prest and HSM Shader pack releases. Some presets do not load. Any idea ?
[WARN] [Shaders]: Could not read shader preset in #reference line: "D:\EMULADORES\RetroArch\shaders\Mega_Bezel_Packs\CyberLab\MBZ__0__Smooth-Advance_Full_Reflections\1080p_Optimized_Presets\CyberLab__RGB-Sharp__1080p__PVM-Edition__ADV".
[INFO]
[WARN] [Shaders]: Could not read root preset: "D:\EMULADORES\RetroArch\shaders\Mega_Bezel_Packs\CyberLab\MBZ__0__Smooth-Advance_Full_Reflections\1080p_Optimized_Presets\CyberLab__Composite_IV_OLED__1080p__PVM-Edition__ADV.slangp".
[ERROR] [Vulkan]: Failed to create preset: "D:\EMULADORES\RetroArch\shaders\Mega_Bezel_Packs\CyberLab\MBZ__0__Smooth-Advance_Full_Reflections\1080p_Optimized_Presets\CyberLab__Composite_IV_OLED__1080p__PVM-Edition__ADV.slangp".
[ERROR] [Vulkan]: Failed to create filter chain: "D:\EMULADORES\RetroArch\shaders\Mega_Bezel_Packs\CyberLab\MBZ__0__Smooth-Advance_Full_Reflections\1080p_Optimized_Presets\CyberLab__Composite_IV_OLED__1080p__PVM-Edition__ADV.slangp". Falling back to stock.
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