New CRT shader from Guest + CRT Guest Advanced updates

It’s up to guest what to add or not, obviously, but I think it’s nice for different shaders to have different effects. Not to mention that rolling scanlines aren’t really a thing, AFAIK. I’ve only ever seen one display that might have had them, and I think that was really just an optical illusion caused by interlacing/field-swapping.

4 Likes

My shader presets which I originally started by extensively tweaking the New pixie clone preset has a very measured amount of deconvergence noise in them to achieve that same analog, organic feeling to the image that you might be describing. My most recent updates did away with the rolling scanlines and fake scanlines in favour of more accurately generated and aligned scanlines but the overall vibe and feeling is still there. They’re not too overly sharp and “digital” and they’re not too soft and blurry in my opinion.

I have several videos and screenshots but they are based on the version with the rolling and fake scanlines and need to be updated. I invite you to try them out and see if that’s the type of look you’re seeking. I have a feeling that you might like them.

My post also has several notes to help you get even more out of the presets by suggesting different core options and stuff like that. It might be worth a read.

3 Likes

The only time I saw that rolling scanlines effect was when watching TV and there was another TV on screen. And I think it happens due to camera not matching refresh of the other TV (29/24 vs 60/50hz)

6 Likes

Hey there!

Rolling scanlines are unfortunatelly not compatible with the current scanline codepath and i would have to introduce another if/else situation. But i guess they are not too hard to implement as the excellent Mega Bezel version already supports them. I’m not sure if all scanline features could be preserved. But will keep this request on the TODO list.

1 Like

Yeah the fake scanline version is not very hard because it just takes an image and does a very simple brightness modulation on top, but this has none of the scanline dynamics that are a lot of what makes Guest-DrVenom great.

The other thing I have noticed is that to have something that does not have a very strobe-like or swimming-like result as the scanlines move, You have to adjust the image image behind to be either significantly blurred (This is what the actual NewPixie does), or have some sort of Up-Rez from something like XBR or ScaleFX (This is what the Mega Bezel Newpixie Clone does).

If the image is a relatively sharp pixellated image from the core then you get what feels like strobing or swimming as the scanlines become aligned with a pixel then go in and out of alignment with a pixel.

4 Likes

I already managed to get a decent implementation over ‘real’ scanlines, but looks better with subtle settings. As pixels shouldn’t move, it’s only logical that the scanlines ‘cut’ them. No way around this with pixel enveloping scalines i guess. :wink:

New parameter is at the end of the ‘Scanline Section’.

New Release Version (2021-10-22-r1):

Notable changes:

  • Rolling scanlines added to standard and NTSC versions.

Download link:

https://mega.nz/file/BtBzVaBA#Yatx54XwGYtM5fbwiH9ADCLvE4__OnlByX87vz9MrDI

11 Likes

This. What people think of as “rolling scanlines” was just interlacing, 100%.

It’s odd how certain things have become visual vernacular for “crt” or “recorded video.”

In a movie or TV show for example, whenever they show what is supposed to be recorded footage, scanlines are often added to the image even though they wouldn’t be there in real life on a digital recording. It’s just something that visual effects people started doing to indicate to the viewer “this is recorded footage.”

Rolling scanlines are kinda like that, I think.

5 Likes

Were old recording standards/formats (VHS, Video-CD) actually displayed in 240/288p? The latter has definitely the resolution, but that doesn’t matter if the output device doesn’t handle it. The 3DO for example is even a console that output always 480i , except with a mod or on some Japanese machines with a 240p switch.

There is no analogue TV standard that uses 240 lines. AFAIK 240p is a hack of 480i found exclusively on some 8-bit and 16-bit home video game consoles.

4 Likes

Hey Guest. I just downloaded your latest release from scratch and I don’t see the NTSC preset. Is that intentional? What’s the right way to update? Thanks again for your awesome shader!

2 Likes

To update the shaders including ntsc ones you must copy the content of the .zip into the crt folder. The preset itself is in the /presets folder.

1 Like

This is what is in the zip file:

Are you only including updates in these zips?

1 Like

The package is complete, minus the ntsc preset. They can be unzipped to any folder, but the ntsc version needs the crt folder as the unzip destination in order to update.

1 Like

ok I understand now. The NTSC preset is in shaders\presets not in the zip.

2 Likes

Ok, I’ll check it out when I get a chance.

1 Like

@guest.r Big thanks!!! I will try it tonight on my Nvidia Shield. All your shaders and updates runs well always!

And I want to give thanks to @Nesguy and @sonkun for their config and share it here too!!!

Thanks to all!

3 Likes

Looking a bit around, it seems this is true for VHS (and analogue standards in general). I thought there was some sort of connection to some old MPEG-1 standard, but that was apparently just the encoding standard of the day wihich it why it was used with all those old VHS-Rips, and only directly connected to Video-CDs, where video was encoded in progressive low res and apparently also output that way by the compatible devices (like the CD-I).

2 Likes

Yes, 240p didn’t exist as an actual standard until like 2003 or something like that (around the time of the iPod Video, IIRC). What we call “240p” was called “double-strike” by Nintendo (to denote that it hits/strikes the same set of fields twice instead of switching) and “non-interlaced mode” by most other groups/companies.

5 Likes

@guest.r What settings do you suggest for the smoothest possible scanline taper when using the NTSC shader? The old 3.00/1.00 combo for horizontal/subtractive sharpness looks harsh.

2 Likes

You could lower the substractive sharpness a bit, so the edges are more soft. Ofc. the ntsc resolution scale feature can be put to good use, depending on what look you are after. It works very nice in situations you where you don’t have to blend dithering for example. There are plenty of options, including blend mode 0, which is sortoff allows standard version like horizontal sharpness tweaking.

5 Likes