It's Squabblin' Time! guest preset edition

[Cyber]

What some people may not understand is presets which use opaque scanlines and 100% Mask Strength without too much darkness mitigation for example Bloom which decreases the opacity of the Mask will look progressively darker as the image is scaled down, for example in a thumbnail or downscaled version of a screenshot on the forums.

So in other words the darkness becomes exaggerated.

For the benefit of the uninformed (as well as others who may be have different encumbrances), I have been including notes in the vast majority of my screenshot postings which advise the viewer to view in FullScreen in the native resolution resolution of the screenshot or to zoom in until it “looks right” for those who may be viewing on lower resolution screens.

You see, some presets use every pixel available to achieve their final brightness, when downscaled, you simply have less pixels available to illuminate the screen. You can think of each pixel as a candle if you have less candles in a given area, wouldn’t you have less light being produced?

So be careful judging presets without viewing them at the native resolution.

Another thing is compression. Compression sometimes chips away at the emulated phosphors, since some presets use every bit of brightness available to them to get to their final brightness, chipping away from the phosphors can chip away at the overall brightness.

Lastly, making a video on YouTube and conveying these settings can be very tricky. There are so many different settings available for colour formats e.t.c. and most of the defaults are designed to get an acceptable image out to the masses within as little bandwidth as possible. Therefore they aren’t really catering for the type of settings that the more accurate presets (in terms of mask strength and scanline strength and bloom) require. One improper setting can make or break the brightness of the entire preset making it appear much darker than the original preset in action on an emulator. I don’t really know how many appreciate and understand that.

Other presets may have enough brightness headroom that it doesn’t take the presets below a certain threshold where it begins to look really dark. Finer Mask and Scanline details also require higher bitrates in order to be preserved than ones without Full Mask patterns.

Also, YouTube video producers, do sometimes learn from feedback as well as when they gain experience over time so over time certain aspects of their videos might tend to improve making the newer ones less likely to suffer from the mistakes which might have been encountered in the older ones.

I’m saying this because this has been my experience and I’ve tried to communicate with YouTube content creators in order to get the settings to look right (which is similar to how they look when played through the emulator).

@sonkun

Not once do I throw shots at people’s presets here that look dark and lifeless to the point it’s hard to even see what the hell is going on on the screen, I just mind my business and keep it moving.

Also, do note that my initial (still work in progress at the time) Shadow Mask Presets were deliberately low gamma in keeping with the appearance of the photo of the Old GE TV. I also posted pics of these presets on Reddit where at least one user said something that sounded very similar to this. I also do a lot of experimentation even though not everyone will agree with or like the interim results. Trying different things helps a lot in the long term.

As well as one YouTube commenter based on some older videos of my presets which he eventually rescinded once he saw newer more representative videos where the YouTube creator had started using different capture settings.

For NesGuy’s older Full Mask and Scanlines presets as well as Sony Megatron Color Video presets in action, it will be a bit unintuitive to attempt to judge or criticize them based on a GPU screenshot on the basis of a lack of brightness. This is only something that someone who doesn’t understand how these things work (or perhaps is suffering from other unspecified encumbrances) might do.

[Cyber]

@BiRaitBec

I am a 26 years old guy and i feel this is the biggest problem with retro gaming and the retro community itself.

You’re wise for 26. The thing is this, absolutely no one might be as offended if they weren’t very passionate about their various projects and contributions.

This is really the crux of the matter. (Some) of us put in hours and hours which turn into days then weeks of tweaking just to get that last bit of fuzz or blur out or that strangeness out of the preset to make it look just right.

So you can’t just come around after someone has toiled and sowed and expect to reap their satisfaction that comes with sharing that masterpiece or work of art with the world.

Would an artist give an unfinished painting to another to finish before it can be fully enjoyed by the masses? Is it wrong to feel good when people tell you you’ve done a great job and have made a positive impact on their lives?

Only someone with a different brand of integrity or one who might be lacking in compassion or empathy for others might want to unapologetically pursue a path like that, which takes away from the creator of the creation they admitted that they had so admired.

That really points to a negativity involved in the admiration of the art. A sense of,

"Wow!

“That looks soooo awesome, so beautiful!”

but

“Oh man, I wish it was me who came up with that!”

At least that’s what it can seem like. Everyone has their own version of morality spinning around in their minds.

The pressure of the pursuit of popularity can bring out all sorts of undesirable behaviour.

While this may sound harsh and it doesn’t even have to be what was going on, this is how it felt to me because I am very passionate about any and everything I do.

[BiRaitBec]

I understand that, now i don’t think someone works on shaders for popularity cause it is so much of a niche still, however lets remind ourselves that this project is to commemorate decades of technology and of games that have been thrown away with the advent of lcd and of the 6th generation of consoles, and you are on top of it, don’t lose that pursuit between your group of people. Retro gaming is toxic everywhere, and luckly here there is still a lot of knowledge and respect given to everyone, this has been just a black spot on a paper and am glad you found a way to a better mood. Always looking forward to your discoveries, knowledge and taste in future presets aswell. Cheers!

[sonkun]

Hey @hunterk can you do me a favor and move all of these posts starting from this one to a new thread?

Edit: @hunterk I KNEW you were gonna use that title again lol.

You guys can have this thread, I’m done with this topic.

[RetroGames4K]

I just saw this post, I don’t know what really happened, but please don’t fight, I think everyone has something to offer in their own way, no one is better than the other one, I’ve learned a lot with everyone’s posts here and helped me a lot, and not exclusively with one person. I think everyone has it’s own style and likes, and all CRT’s doesn’t look the same and everyone remembers the CRT’s in their own way. Just keep your good work, and keep enjoying all this thread and community. Cheers!!! Have fun… Peace

[yuzqailo]