New CRT shader from Guest + CRT Guest Advanced updates

Thanks I’m gonna try this right now ! :yum:

Edit: I had to adjust a few values ​​and I like the result, good advice :+1:

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Thank you very much for your response. I’ve been using the latest version of MegaBezel, which includes your scanline version with the “rolling_scan” function. I’m not very familiar with the technical part you mentioned, but the effect (or defect?) it creates on the edges of each graphic and letter, and even a bit of flickering, immediately transports me to a sense of nostalgia, which is what I’m looking for and how I remember my old TV. Without that effect, I feel like my custom presets lose a lot of realism. I’ve tried using other shaders that produce scanlines and include the rolling function, but they don’t compare to yours. It’s the highest quality I’ve come across.

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Hi, thanks for your marvelous shader. I’m newbie in tweaking and encounter a problem of halo/bloom whitch trail behind sprites . I 'm using the “crt guest advanced HD” shader. It s visible on black background like the first stage of aldynes on supergraphx for exemple. I try to tweak magic glow and bloom to mini but it s still visible. Could you please indicate me the tweak to delete this effect please? If I choose the another shader version “crt guest advanced fast (or fatest)” with default settings, this effect isn t visible. I wonder whitch setting caused this effect between the 2 versions. Thanks for your help. Regards

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Hey! Thanks for stopping by! :smiley: Afterglow strenght parameter is to be set to 0.0, then the trails will be gone.

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thank you so much, the glow are gone :grinning: perfect shader thank you regards

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New Release Version (2024-10-27-r1):

Notable changes:

  • After some consideration, rolling scanlines are back with a tad different implementation. Some scanline settings and mask combos might produce strange side-effects, but should work in general. Implemented in standard, NTSC and HD versions.
  • Mask Zoom parameter range increase.

Download link:

https://mega.nz/file/AsZHBAQb#hYz9VBk1G-b511vDF_slRcLBG2cnhwArr8HRvZjp4u4

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Hi, could you please remember us what is the benefit / usage of the rolling scanlines ? Thanks

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It’s one of the less standard effects with crt shaders, but stil present. But i suggest to try it out first hand.

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Ok thanks I will try when I comeback home Regards

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Nice. This update gives me a reason to go tinker with my 4k Shadow Mask presets again.

Edit: @guest.r I think these are good Shadow Mask settings for 4k:

For this image I used the crt mask settings mask 6, size 4, zoom -6 and (transform to) Shadow Mask 1.00.

I think these are the 4k Shadow Mask settings I’ve been needing all this time. I think I’m gonna use them for my next update.

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Yeah, 4 * 3 - 6 = 6, so an even number for mask width, which is a condition for a decent shadow mask.

Just mention it, CRT Mask Zoom Sharpen works very well with this mask settings, maybe you want to tweak this aspect also.

Also a decent setting is with mask 12, size 2, mask zoom -8. But you already got a great combo.

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Nice. Always good to have new options, I don’t think I tried that combination yet.

I’ve actually just started using a bit of that since my last pack, it seems to work the best with Shadow Mask presets. I notice that setting brings some pixel details out in backgrounds especially in darker areas.

Your shader is so customizable it’s almost insane the possibilities you can pull off. I’ll play around in the lab a bit more then start to get my new pack ready. I’m not tweaking much so this shouldn’t take too long, gonna be a small update just like yours lol.

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Higher values ​​for internal resolution combined with horizontal blur sigma at 0.10 can give good results. I did some tests on PSP games and it looks quite good.

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I was actually playing with that very setting last night. I raised internal resolution to about 0.30 on my presets messing around, it helps smooth things out a bit more. Even .10 makes a nice subtle difference.

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@ProfessorBraun, some nice glowing in there. :smiley:

Otherwise, the Internal Resolution parameter is really nice when the core’s internal resolution is increased. Personally i don’t use other filtering tweaks to hard, since it’s usually right on spot.

For some enhanced looks with the PPSSPP core it’s quite easy to setup anti-aliased scanlines using Internal Resolution parameter and altering some Interlacing params.

My favorites are 3x res + xbrz texture filtering. :face_with_monocle:

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Hey thanks, yeah magic glow is very nice ! :boom: I use it on several presets.

Unfortunately when I increase the resolution in PPSSPP it immediately crashes and if I disable cropping it works for a while, than it crashes. But since I like the original resolution it’s not a problem. :grin:

I also use AF 16x on PPSSPP.

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Hey @guest.r is it possible at all to somehow make it where so that chroma scaling 2-phase can be turned up to 4 while having the taps as low as 6 without it breaking its effect to blend dithering?

Ever since I started sharpening up my presets I can’t help but wonder if such a feature could ever be possible. From what I see you get the absolute best image with 2-phase games with that combination. For example in my presets I have the taps setting lowered to 6 with 2phase chroma scaling at 1.60. The reason I chose that number is cause once I start going higher the first thing I noticed is that vertical line blended dithering begins to start breaking so to avoid that I leave it at that safe number.

Here’s taps at 6, chroma scaling ar 1.60:

Here’s now taps at 6,chroma scaling at 4:

The image looks so much cleaner and colors pop more with a higher chroma scaling, only downside is that it breaks that red blended checkerboard dithering in the back.

Is there anyway at all to have it keep that blended dithering with taps at 6 and chroma scaling maxed out?

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It’s a some sort of contradiction to still have grid or line patterns with different chroma values blended with a very narrow chroma spread.

This basically only works if chroma values are very close (same colored) i.e. black-white-gray, darker and lighter checkerboards of the same hue…

Doesn’t work in cases where dithering alters different color types (like red-black).

The best option in this situation for crispest colors is to throw in a de-dithering pre-shader. Another alternative is to grade the colors to be a bit more vivid.

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I kind of knew the answer would basically come down to “no” lol, I had to try though. I even thought of another bizarre idea where the “mixed phase” mode could be rearranged to where it basically goes into 3phase mode but with the chroma scaling 3phase effect deactivated and 2phase mode activated only, giving the ultimate look where you get the popful colors that only 3phase gives but then you have the checkerboard and vertical dithering effect from 2phase and this mode would only activate when 2phase content is being displayed and it strictly switches over to 3phase mode with 2phase mode completely deactivated when 3phase content is being displayed, sounds crazy right lol.

I kind of dabbed in this idea previously but it was just with trying to crank saturation up in grade, wasn’t really giving fruitful results. I haven’t tried retweaking tints and other settings though, I guess I could try exploring that method.

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New Release Version (2024-12-05-r1):

Notable changes:

  • New functionality added with NTSC shaders to better preserve ‘edge’ colors. Use with care. :wink:
  • A bit better blending with low-taps values.

Download link:

https://mega.nz/file/MlQWWaQZ#G1kWkuJnPJJ68_jUXoa7nzXuQEMK9dgHpmeJDPN7hTQ

14 Likes