Is there anyway we can get the Mask Stagger Back?
I’m not sure if I can get my exact -4.50 Shadow Mask using Mask 6, Size 3 at 4K using the current simplified parameters?
This is what I use for my CyberLab Neo-GX Shadow Mask presets.
Can you assist if it is actually possible?
Just set the value to 0.5. Or, since the fractional part of 4.5 is 0.5, the preset is compatible with the newest version regarding “shadow masking”. I guess i won’t change things back to custom stagger values, since there were really no known phosphor layouts of this “hybrid” aperture&shadowmask sort.
Can you check out this PR and make sure it looks good to you?
@guest.r have you ever thought of making a PC CRT Monitor preset for both shader and reshade using shadowmask and 1080p+
all shaders are based on TV’s but none outside the Amiga ones are based on CRT PC Monitors, something of it for Dosbox and reshade would be nice seeing that staging is a thing and dosbox ECE is dead
It’s very easy to do a PC VGA preset. Just use a shadow mask and VGA double-scan option.
This is a good start, but there are also many good options for mask mitigation using base full-strength masks.
I don’t do much dos emulation so I might be wrong but from my tests @1080p to get things to stay “tidy” and having a good screen size is better to use integer overscale:
This is set to VGA in the install and in the core options and VGA double scan in the shaders parameters:
Integer overscale on
Integer scale off
As I said I don’t do much dos emulation lately so I might be missing some settings or knowledge. Also in the example above I used mask 7 but I think mask 10 can be similar.
Yes, it seems you need at least 6x scale for VGA doublescan to work correctly. Also, for 1080p, arguably mask 0,5, or 7 transformed to shadow mask are better choices than higher pixel masks, unless you’re emulating an untypical high pitch display. Many pc monitors from the 90s on also had aperture grille masks, so you might as well just leave it at that if you prefer it.
Just update the slang shaders in Retroarch updater and look in the shaders_slang/crt folder for presets.
Hello, it’s a long time i didn’t come !! Your shader is really awesome.
i upgrade to the last version.
Before i get use to mix with xbrz freescale (replace stock.slang on shader 0) This method doesn’t work anymore.
what is the new method to add edge smoothing on your shader?
Thank in advance.
Hey!
This method still works very well, you just got to set a scaling factor from 1x to something bigger.
If you use “VGA” in dosbox, you don’t need double-scan in the shader. It’s already double-scanned by dosbox. If you use “SVGA” in dosbox, then you need double-scan in the shader for games that are 240p or 200p. For 640p or 600p games, you never want double scan in the shader regardless of VGA or SVGA.
My IPS monitor finally died and I replaced it with an OLED (RWBG pixel layout.) All my shader presets now look like crap xD
Damn.
That’s a reasonable concern, new subpixel layouts are really surreal. I’m sticking to IPS atm, can’t really comment on what works with new arrangements.
Dunno about Mini LED…
Switch Mask Layout to BGR (1). Problem solved.
Post some screenshots. If you have a different display with a different layout, you’ll have to have different settings.
Take a read here and see how far things have come with shaders on WRGB panels.
This is also a great opportunity to try out my shader preset packs which were primarily designed on a WRGB OLED and see what all the fuss is about and pickup a few tips along the way as well.
In my experience (27" 2560x1440 RWBG) all this does is make it look wrong, with weird spacing of the mask and slots and incorrect phosphor layout. Really not a solution and shouldn’t be presented as such, maybe just a “try it to see if you hate it less?”
You sure it’s a RWBG and not the newer “Gen 2.5” RGWB? https://tftcentral.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/current_panels_2.jpg
I’m really [very impatiently] waiting for the “Gen 3.5” and it’s killing me how long they drag this incremental shit out. https://tftcentral.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/future_panels.jpg I bet they’ll even find a way to justify not including a good BFI or rolling refresh and G-Sync Pulsar, the bastards.
Please elaborate as you’re being a bit vague. Perhaps some photos of what you’re describing might bring a little more light to what you’re referring to.
Do note that different resolutions may require different Mask and TVL settings as well. That is a given so don’t expect Mask 12 to look good at 1440p just because it does at 4K, instead you can try Mask 10 at 1440p if you want to maintain a similar TVL/look. The height of the Slot might also have to be adjusted.
Also, with these things beauty is in the eye of the beholder. You seem to have a pet peeve with anything other than RGB in that exact order, please correct me if I’m wrong? In that case, then many other panel/display types would look very “wrong” as well.
Unless you can prove me wrong, I stand by my advice to @RealNC. No need to come across so aggressively in your criticism as if to check me and stop me in my tracks. That’s the wrong approach in my opinion as not everyone shares your views on the matter and I’m coming from a positive place of trying to assist. So lose a bit of the 'tude and take it down a bit.
It’s not like this is the first time I’ve heard something like this and please correct me if I’m wrong, did it come from you before?
So instead of trying to lambaste my suggestion, why not come up with a solution? Why not pioneer something, make something new, uncover something that wasn’t noticed before. At the end of the day, we use what display technology we have and we try to enjoy it as best as we could…at least some of us do.
As far as I know, @RealNC did not state the resolution of their display.
If it is in fact 1440p then that’s good as we can now try to see what can be gotten out of it. I just thought that they were unhappy with the way their presets looked and probably didn’t know or realize yet that WRGB subpixels align perfectly with Mask Layout 1 and not 0.
Yeah, it is you again. Get over yourself man. This is the thread for CRT-Guest-Advanced. This shader includes a feature called Mask Layout. It’s there for a reason. Why don’t you beg Guest to remove it while you’re at it because it’s not the correct, pure, pristine phosphor order?
Before it was learned that Mask Layout 1 aligned so well with WRGB OLED panels, folks were recommending B&W Masks for those displays and lamenting how horrible OLED was for “accurate” CRT Shader emulation. Now look at where we are? Even in die hard CRT circles, people are extolling the benefits of OLED displays as a possible alternative to their CRTs.
Do you remember how it was before Sony Megatron Color Video Monitor got that RWBG (OLED) layout? So I’m glad people like myself and others got to get things looking a lot better and a lot more like how we wanted things to look as opposed to things remaining how they were. It’s called progress and it’s an improvement. It’s not 100% perfect or identical but not everyone thinks it needs to be.
Please don’t get upset and unload a wall of text on me just because I disagree with your suggestion.
The solution is to just use the regular layout and accept that it’s not quite as good as it would be on a display with a regular structure. Or for the people developing the shaders to get access to multiple displays with which to develop the shaders on.
Presumably for those LCDs that for whatever reason have a rotated panel. Certainly not for RWBG OLEDs, as that would require its own layout given the issues that can be seen on both of the current ones.
Mask 10 RGB and BGR:
Mask 6 RGB and BGR:
Mask 10 RGB and BGR with blooms engaging the white subpixel:
Mask 6 RGB and BGR with blooms engaging the white subpixel:
There are obviously issues with both, but to my eye and at various distances the regular RGB one ends up looking more normal/usable than the BGR. And I’m not going to go check now but I remember noticing the same thing on my 55" C9 with the same layout at 4K as well. But either way, having the CRT phosphors laid out as RBG throws off the color dynamics on a lot of sprites/textures and makes the presentation inauthentic to the point where you might not want to be using a CRT shader anyway.
Maybe it would require some kind of different subpixel processing to achieve a better spacing? I don’t really know, I’m sure it could be improved if the people who knew what they were doing had these displays and a macro lens to play around with. But I’m really not too concerned, it looks fine as it is for most uses. Plus I’m sure it’s better on the newer Gen 2.5 RGWB panels, and the Gen 3.5 RGB ones should be coming out within a couple of years and then it wouldn’t matter anyway.
But hey, thanks for getting me to waste my afternoon. 
Proceeds to unload a wall of text just because I disagreed with the way you disagreed with my suggestion.
This is funny. Hey, I’m all about constructive discussion. I just didn’t appreciate your approach and I said what I had to say and made my point and addressed a number of things in the process.
I don’t know what some people’s issue is with “too many words/walls of text” as if it is some crime or sin. I roll my own way. So it doesn’t matter.
Listen, I’m really glad that I actually got you to finally contribute to finding a solution to this seemingly long standing issue. Posting those subpixel shots is very useful. This is exactly where things started at 4K resolution before the correct mask layout was stumbled upon possibly by accident.
I don’t have a 1440p OLED display to test these with and I probably could have just ran my 4K one at 1440p without scaling if it was working.
All hope is not lost though. I remember when @guest.r made a change to the shader to better align the BGR Mask Layout and it completely broke the subpixel alignment at 4K on my OLED TV and he was kind enough to quickly revert this change.
This makes me think that it’s suitability for WRGB OLED (at least at 4K) was possibly coincidental.
The starting subpixel is also a factor by the way and Guest-CRT-Advanced’s BGR is actually RBG so it’s not equivalent to Sony Megatron Color Video Monitor’s BGR.
Assuming 4K WRGB OLED Panel and a 1440p OLED Panel are identical at the subpixel level, I think it might be possible to have improved alignment.
Subpixel layout looks exactly the same as any other WRGB OLED Panel to me.
One thing I just remembered @DevonCM did you know that if you took a 4K WOLED display and use CRT-Guest-Advanced’s Mask Layout 1 (or Sony Megatron Color Video Monitor’s RWBG (OLED) Subpixel Layout and you rotated your display 180° then used Windows Display settings to correctly orient your desktop, you could have perfect RGB “Phosphor” order on an OLED!
Now I don’t know what’s going on at 1440p but maybe with enough interest the same can probably be done at that resolution.
Of course when you rotate your display everything will now be upside down until you allow Windows to rotate things 180° as well.
RTINGS even recommends this method as a way to get improved text clarity.
I’m not sure if anyone has tried to figure out why Guest’s Mask Layout 1 works but we do know that since the White Subpixel is always Off if we’re using Full Strength Masks with no additional bloom or anything, that creates a natural wider gap between the Red Subpixel and the Blue Subpixel. So you’ll have Red Gap (left by white subpixel) Blue Green or depending on which subpixel you start on that can be Blue Green Red Gap (left by white subpixel). Rotate that 180° and it becomes Gap (left by white subpixel) Red Green Blue Gap (left by white subpixel) or depending on where you start Red Green Blue Gap (left by white subpixel).
@MajorPainTheCactus probably did good job breaking it down here:
This is something interesting @hunterk said regarding non RGB layout masks at 1440p. Could be useful for those who wish to improve the WRGB OLED experience at that resolution:
This is factually incorrect and needs to be qualified. If you’re having issues with Mask Layouts on 1440p WOLED displays then say that but CRT-Guest-Advanced’s Mask Layout 1 works perfectly with 4K WOLED Displays and also BGR LCD Displays, while Sony Megatron Color Video Monitor’s RWBG (OLED) - Display Subpixel Layout works perfectly with 4K WOLED Displays.
Your 1440p WOLED issue with not being able to achieve proper subpixel alignment here is different. 4K WOLED has been “solved” for some years now.
