New CRT shader from Guest + CRT Guest Advanced updates

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
6 Likes

Thanks for the template, @yuzqailo. :sunglasses: 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
22 Likes

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 doesn’t 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).

3 Likes

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

2 Likes

I’m currently happy that it’s commonly accepted that the mask width defined in shaders correlates with TVL. :wink:

2 Likes

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.

Just to add to what @guest.r and @yuzqailo posted:

3 Likes

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

1 Like

What would you like to know?

It uses LG Display’s 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.

2 Likes

I think that’s what I’d like to know for starters, thank you!

Didn’t get my TV to look great using my old presets of CRT Guest, but once I have some free time I’ll have a look at your presets for RWBG or try customizing my own based on the info you gave me. Cheers

2 Likes

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. It’s a difficult balance. Also problematic is text. I might like the glow effect on an image but then text might appear distractingly smeary. I’ll have to play around with it more but does anyone have any tips or tricks with this stuff to share?

2 Likes
1 Like

Hey! Don’t forget to also include bloom and (magic)glow pass settings, can make a big difference. I’m also a fan of the dual_filter_bloom shaders in blurs folder, which can be appended to most crt shaders.

2 Likes

Currently i’m 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.

12 Likes

Composite video is so essential for PSX/N64…

I like the lower TVL mask for composite video, too. Hides a lot of stuff you don’t want to see. It’s almost like composite video and consumer-grade CRTs were made for each other.

3 Likes

It is. And it’s a shame it’s 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 it’s not honest. I feel. ;p

2 Likes

Frankly, that’s 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 they’re 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 “double shock”.

With that in mind, I can’t really blame emudevs for trying to “smooth out” first impressions, at the expense of the (fewer) old-enough players. Personally, as long as both options are readily available, I don’t 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.

2 Likes

Elegantly written. Respect.

2 Likes

At the beginning of modern emulation, like 20, 25 or more years ago, those remembering pete’s plugins, ePSXe, 2xSaI, HQnX etc. would say enhancement were the way to go. The main difference regarding actual state is that all was displayed on crt tube monitors and the user could viably choose from a set from availible (fullscreen) resolutions. Totally different experience. How it happened, i like FF7 Cloud’s hair a bit more defined now, please take no offence. :smiley:

3 Likes

No yeah of course not! ^^ I myself enjoyed some Ocarina Master Quest at 1280x960 on those monitors.

A huge upgrade over actual N64 hardware. I think people go through emulation phases. I had my naked pixels phase with Genecyst and Nesticle back in the day.

2 Likes

New Release Version (2025-09-14-r1):

Notable changes:

  • ntcs: small optimizations and cleanups
  • ntsc: mixed phase mode 5 added, preserves chromatic effects of 3-phase mode better
  • ntsc: number of TAPS increased to 48, viable for 2-phase and chroma bleeding
  • ntsc: smart dithering deblur mode added, doesn’t deblur blended dithering
  • ntsc: Speedup with increased internal Resolution options added, removes ntsc horizontal shader bottleneck greatly, can be also used with pre-scalers for performance reasons. Total speedup can be up-to-2x. A word of wisdom, some edge-smoothing presets scale to viewport resolutions, which is a great deal especially for guest-advanced-ntsc. Now the speedup mode can be used, there are also included faster pre-scaler presets with the shader pack.
  • ntsc: speedup mode is not neccessarily cool for ordinary resolution usages, just to mention it.
  • ntsc: some testing and feedback is welcome.

Download link:

https://mega.nz/file/x85zDZ6R#fEq4VBlQWHgcTM6NyfwHGlCGWoCcgejIkEWoIpXiyDM

9 Likes