im trying to understand the how bloom and glow and magic glow differ exactly. like, i can see a difference in effect but i cant put my finger what each is doing exactly.
also there isnt an up to date readme or guide anywhere is there? i feel silly having a lot of questions other people seem to just already understand.
speaking of masks, is there are a way (option) to make the RGB mask (5 & 6) act like black-white (7 & 8) based on how flat area are? which mean in edges or details (especially if it has different colors) will be 100% mask 5 or 6 and in full flat area will be 100% (or even 90% is fine) black-white (7 or 8)
Ordinary Glow is mostly manifested on very dark background, with a wider spread compared with bloom.
Bloom passes contribute their effect to Bloom, Halation and Mask Bloom. These are mask mitigation techniques, for example set mask strengths to full and then add one of those effects or more of themā¦
Magic Glow is exclusive with ordinary Glow, it falls back to Glow shader passes (number of TAPS, sigma), it can be used similar to ordinary Glow, contrast enhancer or a mask mitigation technique, depends, what you have in mind. You can also add haloing effects to pixels, make the image bloomyā¦
Default parameter setup of Magic Glow is contrast enhancement, just saying.
Quite a while ago i tried some different mask effects on the same image and it didnāt feel appealing. One of the viable ways to use different mask āsetupsā on an image is that masks comply with curvature (currently they donāt), but this is more or less a 4k thingie and lower TVL bound.
Suitable is relative, because of the type of look you are going for. The size of the host display matters too. Mask 12 without zoom will actually result in a somewhat coarse pitch even on 4k.
In the context of realism, it roughly should match something like a 4k laptop emulating a small TV.
If you use the 2 pixel masks (like 0) on a big 4k TV, it would be something like an unusually large, low pitch PC monitor. It wouldnāt bother with thinking about this too much if you donāt have specific matches in mind and just experiment a bit.
This is what I gathered from the post?
| # | Resolution | TVL | Mask | Width | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | 1080p | RGB | High | Aperture | low width | |
| 1 | Slot | |||||
| 2 | 1080p | RGB | Low | Aperture | ||
| 3 | ||||||
| 4 | ||||||
| 5 | 1080p | RGB | High | Aperture | ||
| 6 | 1080p | RGB | Low | Aperture | ||
| 7 | 1080p | Black-white | High | Aperture | ||
| 8 | 1080p | Black-white | Low | Aperture | ||
| 9 | 1080p | RGB | High | Aperture | ||
| 10 | Aperture | RGBX | ||||
| 11 | Aperture | |||||
| 12 | 4k | Aperture | RRGGBBX | 7-width | ||
| 13 | Aperture | 6-width |
Thanks for the template, @yuzqailo. 
I made some changes and added some info.
| # | Resolution | TVL | Mask | Width | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | 1080p | RGB | High | Aperture | Mag-Green | 2-width |
| 1 | 1080p+ | RGB | Med | Slot | RGB | 3-width |
| 2 | 1080p+ | RGB | Med | Aperture | RGB | 3-width |
| 3 | 1440p | RGB | Low | Shadowmask-low profile | RRGGBB | 6-width |
| 4 | 4k | RGB | Low | Shadowmask | RRGGBB | 6-width |
| 5 | 1080p | RGB | High | Aperture | Mag-Green | 2-width |
| 6 | 1080p+ | RGB | Med | Aperture | RGB | 3-width |
| 7 | 1080p | Black-white | High | Aperture | BW | 2-width |
| 8 | 1080p+ | Black-white | Med | Aperture | BWW | 3-width |
| 9 | 1080p+ | RGB | High | Aperture | Mag-Green-X | 3-width |
| 10 | 1440p | RGB | Med-Low | Aperture | RGBX | 4-width |
| 11 | 4k | RGB interpolated | Med-Low | Aperture | 4-width | |
| 12 | 4k | RGB | Low | Aperture | RRGGBBX | 7-width |
| 13 | 4k | RGB interpolated | Low | Aperture | 6-width |
I add that TVL for Aperture is defined here by dividing Resolution by Width. Suitability for Slot and Shadowmasks is a bit trickier because of the variable heights/mask transform parameter, the content res and on how scanlines are set makes a huge difference.
For example, on my 1504p laptop I use 3- width aperture masks for slot with height 2 for 240p, but that doesnāt really work for 480p (scaling factor is just 3, so 1.5 relative to height). I set slot height to 3 and have mild/ no scanlines only in that case (more realistic anyway).
a white pixel takes exactly one triad to draw if the signal strength is irrelevant, so you can calculate theoretical TVLs from this. E.g., for RRGGBBX at 4k: 2160 pixels / 7 pixels for the mask = ~308 TVL
Iām currently happy that itās commonly accepted that the mask width defined in shaders correlates with TVL. 
It looks great on a big screen TV from a relatively far viewing distance though. Although if comparing phosphors vs pixels on many CRT displays including arcade displays the phosphors might not align as well with the edges of the pixels on many graphical elements compared to a slightly higher TVL mask.
Wonder if anyone has done some testing on the BRAVIA 8 WOLED TV. I know it uses some LG panel of RWBG layout. This is the structure according to RTINGS: https://i.rtings.com/assets/products/n0kSjgfE/sony-bravia-8-oled/pixels-large.jpg?format=auto
What would you like to know?
It uses LG Displayās RWBG WOLED Panel so Mask 12 Size 1 with BGR Mask Layout 1 in CRT-Guest Advanced should give you properly spaced triads.
There are many folks who use RWBG OLED panels who have passed through these forums and I have shared more than just a few presets made using an LG RWBG WOLED Display.
I think thatās what Iād like to know for starters, thank you!
Didnāt get my TV to look great using my old presets of CRT Guest, but once I have some free time Iāll have a look at your presets for RWBG or try customizing my own based on the info you gave me. Cheers
Having lots of fun with magic glow, bloom, halation, etc. Still trying to figure out what sorta look like best haha. I like a sorta soft glowy look but i also wanna preserve some of the crisp contrast of my OLED tv. Trying to avoid the appearance of LED backlight blooming on black backgrounds. Itās a difficult balance. Also problematic is text. I might like the glow effect on an image but then text might appear distractingly smeary. Iāll have to play around with it more but does anyone have any tips or tricks with this stuff to share?
Hey! Donāt forget to also include bloom and (magic)glow pass settings, can make a big difference.
Iām also a fan of the dual_filter_bloom shaders in blurs folder, which can be appended to most crt shaders.
Currently iām trying some PSX games with increased internal resolution + NTSC version of crt-guest-advanced. Some less pronounced features can give very good results without much tweaking.
Composite video is so essential for PSX/N64ā¦
I like the lower TVL mask for composite video, too. Hides a lot of stuff you donāt want to see. Itās almost like composite video and consumer-grade CRTs were made for each other.
It is. And itās a shame itās so hard to go and set those emulators up to display the graphics how they were actually displayed. Both PSX/N64 emulation defaults to smoothing out all the dithering and little quirks of the OG graphics.
Which, yes that at least makes them look like we remember them. And makes them look nicer for the new generations coming in to experience them. But also itās not honest. I feel. ;p
Frankly, thatās it. I had lots of in-person gaming-related interactions with younger folks and they almost always have an initial shock with retrogaming, even if theyāre genuinely interested. The general style, looks, progression, mechanics, difficulty and feeling of those games are already different enough for youngsters, and if you also throw in a vastly unique display simulation to them it will certainly be a ādouble shockā.
With that in mind, I canāt really blame emudevs for trying to āsmooth outā first impressions, at the expense of the (fewer) old-enough players. Personally, as long as both options are readily available, I donāt mind. Still, it would be nice to have some kind of encouragement for the new players to try out a more classic look, even if just as a curiosity.
