Mega Bezel Reflection Shader! - Feedback and Updates

[Dennis1]

The amount of options of the HSM shader are very satisfying

I managed to get it very close to a true Sony Trinitron CRT TV.

This is a screenshot of my 4K OLED displaying a tweaked HSM shader preset:

This is what a standard Preset without tweaks of the HSM Shader looks like:

As you guys can see, there is plenty of room to perfect the shader even further.

And this is a Screenshot of a real Sony Trinitron CRT, just look how small the difference is between a tweaked HSM shader and the CRT:

The setting in the shader menu called “HSM_POST_CRT_BRIGHTNESS” is pure gold, as this can let the individual phosphors really glow and shine, similar to the real ones.

I hope you will test my tweaked preset with a 4K Display out and post some feedback

Download: https://www.file-upload.net/download-14755468/TweakedHSM.slangp.html

[Cyber]

@Dennis1

The setting in the shader menu called “HSM_POST_CRT_BRIGHTNESS” is pure gold, as this can let the individual phosphors really glow and shine, similar to the real ones.

I hope you will test my tweaked preset with a 4K Display out and post some feedback

Download: https://www.file-upload.net/download-14755468/TweakedHSM.slangp.html

Thanks a lot and great work! Keep it up! I’ll take your preset for a spin when I get a chance! Perhaps this is the exact setting I’ve been looking for to brightness match my old new presets with my old ones without messing things up!

@Dennis1

4K OLED

You’re really rubbing it in now. My 4K OLED stopped working last week. I’m actually getting by with my 4K IPS TV though. It has it’s perks and my presets look great even on this one!

[Dennis1]

In the preset text file it is called “HSM_POST_CRT_BRIGHTNESS” but if you go from Retroarch into the menu it is only called “CRT Brightness”. I think this is a kind of contrast enhancer, which brightens up the bright elements in the picture.

Next thing I will try are the HDR settings of my TV. Maybe the TV can light up the bright pixels of the image more and make it look even more authentic.

I hope you have warranty on the OLED to get it repaired or exchanged.

[Cyber]

@Dennis1

I hope you have warranty on the OLED to get it repaired or exchanged.

It’s an LG 55OLEDE6P I bought it in February 2017. It was going real strong with no issues until a lightning strike affected that and my receiver sometime last year I believe. It took out both HDMI ports on the Receiver end and the TV end and ever since then I used to get a random flicker of colour every once in a while. Then on the morning of November 13th, the screen just refused to come on.

I’m going to take my time and try to repair it myself. That’s a unique model in that it’s one of the best and last TV’s to watch 3D content on. I really wouldn’t want an exchange if it’s not going to be 3D capable. Once it’s not the panel that’s bad it should be repairable but I’m not losing any sleep over it. I just remember it every time I’m looking at an options menu with lots of dark elements and remember how perfect the pixels/phosphors looked. lol

[Dennis1]

Good luck with the repair mate !

[Cyber]

Here are some screenshots of my newest CyberLab Mega Bezel Death To Pixels PVM Edition Presets in action!

4K Screenshots:

Arcade - Sharp (Old)

Arcade - Sharp PVM Edition (21-11-21)

Arcade - Sharp PVM Edition (New 22-11-21 - Red cast fixed)

Arcade - Sharp (Old)

Arcade - Sharp PVM Edition (New)

Composite - Sharp (Old)

Composite - Sharp PVM Edition (New)

Composite - Sharp PVM Edition @ 1080p (New)

You can get these shader presets here:

CyberLab Mega Bezel Death To Pixels Shader Preset Pack

This is a moment some have been waiting for. By popular request, I’m moving my CyberLab Mega Bezel Death To Pixels Shader Preset Pack to it’s new home in it’s own thread! In commemoration of this significant milestone, I’ve included 2 updated versions of my venerable CyberLab Mega Bezel Death To Pixels (Composite - Sharp) and (Arcade - Sharp) presets! In my opinion these latest versions are some of my best work to date but they couldn’t have arrived without all the lessons learnt from all the o…

[Dennis1]

Here you can see what the CRT Brightness setting does. The bright parts (here the white Text and the sword of Leonardo) glow stronger without the Blooming / halo effect which the other settings in the shader cause and I can see on your example here too.

This is your Arcade sharp preset in comparison:

Open the pictures in a new tab and enlarge them to see the difference in the brightness.

I have set it to 200 instead of the default value of 100. The phosphor dots just pop more with increased values.

[HyperspaceMadness]

@Dennis1

The amount of options of the HSM shader are very satisfying

I managed to get it very close to a true Sony Trinitron CRT TV.

Very cool! Thanks for sharing all your examples! The fantastic tunability of the crt effect is all @guest.r’s doing as the amazing GDV shader that the Mega Bezel levarages was written by him .

@Dennis1

The setting in the shader menu called “HSM_POST_CRT_BRIGHTNESS” is pure gold, as this can let the individual phosphors really glow and shine, similar to the real ones.

The post crt brightness is just adjusting the image after the crt shader has done it’s magic. It really just multiplies the rgb by the parameter value. I agree it’s a nice way to turn ub the brightness after you tune all the crt attributes.

Perhaps I should rename it in the parameters to Post CRT Brightness to be a bit clearer.

[Dennis1]

You and guest.r did really an amazing job to combine the reflection bezel and the shader attributes. And you are right, the CRT brightness setting does brighten not only the whites, but the overall image (RGB values). It really helps to get more pop out of it without making the picture looking off.

What I really hope for is external shader support via Reshade. I know that CRT Royale for example is available for Reshade, but this shader here is IMHO even better. Many Emulators I would like to use are Standalone and not implemented in Retroarch and if in the future this shader would be usable, would be perfect. But I don’t know if it’s possible to program it for Reshade etc. - you guys know better than me

[Duimon]

@Dennis1

What I really hope for is external shader support via Reshade.

You won’t get the refection bezel in Reshade, but there is a Guest Advance floating around in the ether.

I've ported Guest-Dr-Venom to ReShade!

I even got permission from @guest.r to share it with you guys. UPDATE (28 March, 2021) - Added CRT-Guest-Advanced! UPDATE (17 June, 2020) - A new more complete version of the shader that includes the Luminance and both the Blur passes. Without those Blur passes the Bloom is washed out in the old version! (Copy and save it as a .fx text file) /* CRT - Guest - Dr. Venom Copyright (C) 2018-2020 guest(r) - [email protected] Incorporates many good ideas and suggestions from Dr. Venom. This…

I don’t think it has all of the newest features, but it is pretty amazing. It was updated in March and Guest Advance was added.

[Dennis1]

Wow, I have not read about this till now. That is really cool and the bezel is not essential. As soon as I have a bit time I will try the reshade version out. Thank you Duimon !

PCSX2 (Playstation 2), Duckstation (Playstation 1) and Redream (Dreamcast) are my favourite emulators beside Mame and the other 2D consoles. They need popin’ Phosphors

[Duimon]

@Dennis1

That is really cool and the bezel is not essential.

I think that might be fairly subjective. I personally can’t imageing going back to standalone emulators after having the Mega Bezel experience. My new HTPC will use only Retroarch.

I can say that I truly enjoy using Reshade on some of the classics that people have managed to get running in modern versions of Windows.

My favorites right now are the first two Tomb Raider games with the Rage3D patches etc.

Tomb Raider at 1080 with Reshade is like a brand new game.

[Dennis1]

I’m also a big fan of Tomb Raider and will have to try it out with Reshade and the patches. Can you post a screenshot how it looks with Reshade ?

[Duimon]

This is using the CRT-Geom shader, and some other bits for effects. (Like screen vignette.)

You will get moire unless you view it at full size.

[Dennis1]

Looks good! What I’m missing are the individual Trinitron Phosphors, which may smooth out the picture even further. But maybe you don’t like them or are not available in Reshade.

[Duimon]

@Dennis1

the individual Trinitron Phosphors

This is using CRT-Geom, if you use the Guest ADV you may be able to get what you wish for.

[Hari-82]

Duckstation and flycast core in retroarch are really working well, I don’t think standalones in those 2 are necessary…unlike pcsx2 where the standalone version is still the better choice at the moment…

[Dennis1]

That is perfect. I will try out Tomb Raider via Duckstation in RA. Thanks for the tip.

[Tromzy]

Maybe you can try OpenLara, it exists as a Retroarch core.

[mr_blastman]

I tried this, thanks. Neat. Something feels a little off, though, with how interlacing is handled. When scenes are still I see a fair bit of excessive “smoothing” going on compared with my old standby from the Analog Shader Pack v. 3 - Nanao Soft. The second oddity is how the image is “broken” into blurred scanlines in areas of movement. Super Contra is a good example of where I have observed this with the machine gun fire and becomes very apparent by level 2. Using Nanao Soft in pre-slang Retroarch, however, there is no such issue, yet that shader heavily relies on interlacing as well.

I grew up with CRT televisions and there was no such issue with motion. There was never any “separation into scanline blur zones.” What did exist, though, is a pseudo-faux smoothing around the edges of objects and zones due to the blur of the alternating scanlines from the interlacing–that I could always see. Maybe this is due to how I have retroarch running? I’ll have to try some tweaks that I had to do with my dos exclusive 32 bit version to ensure the refresh rate was at a stable 60 fps.