New Release Version (2022-05-26-r1):
Notable changes:
Download link:
https://mega.nz/file/BwIiWDYb#FdtQ_aB_vmj9ieJVwPt16eVego50YE1EGWZYHJi_6WM
Btw, just in case people didn’t know. the -hd preset can also do some blending to take the unpleasant edge off sharp dithering patterns. Obviously it won’t do NTSC colors. But if that’s what you want (original colors rather than NTSC artifacting,) it seems it’s a viable alternative.
Set “internal resolution” to “1.40” for this to work. Example:
Yes, it has a more advanced filter implemented. I added the same horizontal filter to the ntsc-fast version and it works great with the new sharpness features. It has to be set by a couple of parameters, but brings very nice results.
Did you do something to the color code with the latest NTSC shader? I think it looks better, but maybe it’s my imagination?
Now that I’m looking at blend mode 1, I’m not sure what the problem is? Looks like the pixels are blended correctly? My eyes are definitely playing tricks on me - I keep seeing gaps between the blended pixels that aren’t really there; zooming in confirms it: the pixels are merged. There may be a weird optical illusion occurring with the waterfall.
preview of my updated high tvl NTSC preset.
It’s quite close to this shot taken on a PVM, minus the rainbow effect. While the rainbows may be authentic to the hardware, I think it is completely reasonable to assume that this is an effect that was NOT intended by the artists.
Are there reasons we wouldn’t want this kind of filter with the regular NTSC version?
I have already implemented a test version, but all existing presets would have to be tweaked again. Some ‘difficult’ decisions are also to be made about the blend modes: keep or use the new approach, including the new sharpness features.
That’s why i went with the ntsc-fast version first, see how it goes.
Yeah that makes sense, thanks for the answer and good luck with the difficult decisions 
I did some luma clamping to prevent clipping, hoping for beneficial results. 
The colors should look a bit more saturated now, which is especially important with 2-phase coding.
Default setting changed a bit, a added an portion of ‘sharpness and ringing’ for better contrast. Maybe older values play better for you though.
Hey! Looks like you’ve outdone yourself! At least that’s what it looks like to me!
Adaptive sharpening now works better than anything for me! It makes everything more crystal clear than the other options before, and the dither is much more uniform!!
Look at the eyes on the face in Sonic’s life counter and the “Koshiro” text on the SoR screen, it seems the sharpening makes the text more readable and eliminates unwanted dither artifacts! Sharpness is better in so many ways!!
(left: before, right: after)
PR = “0.000000”
PG = “0.000000”
PB = “0.000000”
AS = “0.000000”
sat = “0.000000”
contr = “0.200000”
quality = “-1.000000”
ntsc_phase = “2.000000”
cust_artifacting = “1.100000”
ntsc_sharp = “-8.000000”
ntsc_slimit = “0.600000”
blendMode = “2.000000”
GAMMA_INPUT = “2.699999”
glow = “0.000000”
bloom = “1.000000”
gamma_c = “1.280000”
gsl = “1.000000”
scanline1 = “9.000000”
h_sharp = “0.900001”
s_sharp = “1.500000”
ring = “0.200000”
shadowMask = “6.000000”
maskstr = “0.900000”
masksize = “2.000000”
mask_gamma = “5.000000”
mclip = “0.350000”
gamma_out = “2.100000”
post_br = “1.150000”
New Release Version (2022-05-27-r1):
Notable changes:
Download link:
https://mega.nz/file/l1YUSB5a#n08PiHZCk1g_JeK6xmZrJj9Otag6hYbVg-3S5nNQrEM
Sharpness is getting better! It looks like black magic!
The thickness of the vertical bars is different, a little thinner, but if that was necessary to get that sharpness, then it’s not a problem. It really is crystal clear even with dither blending and rainbow effect!
New Release Version (2022-05-27-r3):
Notable changes:
Download link:
https://mega.nz/file/E941hKKT#8DiuaOb2bMQZi-q1s7amj-Shu5mxfMwBCFVU4U-Jrfc
The new adaptive sharpness feature is a major improvement. Everything that needs to be blurred is still adequately blurred but the overall perceived sharpness is now greatly enhanced. I was going to post before-after screenshots but decided not to do it because the unsharpened one actually looked better in a zoomed-in closeup. But from one-foot away or at any normal viewing distance I would definitely turn it on 
Best to use the newest versions. Ntsc shaders are very interesting as they ‘react’ differently with different games/gfx. patterns, especially with 2-phase games. Screenshots can also be deceiving as they can show only ‘one side of the coin’.
With the new sharpness feature it’s somewhat important to redo the filtering settings, i endorse the use of the fast version as it has a newer filter implemented, which is better for the ntsc pre-shaders.
Example pic:
Would it be possible to make a select key for the ntsc shader? I still think the old version is good, and I would like to use both, depending on the system it would be interesting to alternate, the new one is good for details and the old one has a smoother blend. Well it would be interesting to use the new sharpening in the old ntsc shader.
New Release Version (2022-05-28-r1):
Notable changes:
Download link:
https://mega.nz/file/g14ChCqY#uqgqnoEMmLEdv_hQ6XFRFgtGcw6dmEn1emH24O5OBZc
It’s still considered as a test release, some features could have caught a bug.
A word or two about the blend modes. The main motivation was that old filtering would do at least a decent job or would be useful to a degree, also considering substractive sharpness. This problem is now sorted by a new filter and the new options in the ntsc shaders.
I used to put fast-sharpen as the last pass but now I can’t do it anymore as it seems to conflict with the re-added custom-fast-sharpen. Can I edit my ntsc preset in a way so the last fast-sharpen pass would work normally and independently?
Sonic waterfall looks great, SMB text looks horrible though. 
(I disabled Sega Luma Fix for the SMB shot)
Have you tweaked the new filter? Old presets aren’t viable regarding filtering parameters any more. The ntsc preset also changed, it’s important to copy the presets also.
Sure, you can replace custom fast-sharpen with the stock shader. Alternative would be to rename the parameters in either of sharpening shaders.
Thanks! I’m still trying the new options
Is it possible if I wanted to set up the new filtering parameters (horizontal filter range and blur sigma?) so it looks more like the blend mode 1.0?
Edit: I think I like the default values. Just wanted to know if it’s doable 
