New CRT shader from Guest + CRT Guest Advanced updates

[Cyber]

@PU786

But something like Phosphor Persistence I feel needs to be combined with the interlacing Trigger so it only becomes enabled with Interlacing itself.

I disagree. From an actual CRT simulation perspective, Phosphor persistence takes place Regardless of if the signal is interlaced or not. From my artistic perspective, these features need to be tweaked so that they can improve the emulation experience in a tasteful, non-distracting manner.

@PU786

I don’t need these trails behind sprites.

Seeing is believing. That’s all I have to say. I don’t like ugly trails all over the place either but I have both Phosphor-Persistence and AfterGlow enabled in my presets. They aren’t turned up to 11 though, more like a subtle, 0.1 or 0.2 here and there and they do make a huge difference when it comes to sprite flickering.

This is to sprite flickering what NTSC blending is to dithering based transparencies.

@PU786

Not yet in 120hz land IMHO.

Good thing @kokoko3k said his feature even works at 60Hz!

@kokoko3k

but that setting is to reduce flicker and experimental; at 60hz is more effective,

[PU786]

That 120hz thing was about phosphor persistence, not adaptive strobe. Like with the current trails even with full BFI, are still blurry enough to need to emulate it.

Your artistic perspective is legitimate, I agree and respect it. But the option is what’s best as people’s tastes are as varying as the colors in the rainbow.

[kokoko3k]

@PU786

When running back and forth across the bottom of the first level in Sega’s Lion King, I only observe the green leafs in the background being clear with that option disabled. However it’s still leagues beyond the other subframe options, very tweakable to look correct per game.

It is indeed experimental and can look completely unacceptable on some pixel patterns, leading to bad evident flickering, i could even remove it, who knows.

Indeed it should be set on a per game basis, but on 60hz there’s little room left for improvement anyway.

[Cyber]

@kokoko3k

It is indeed experimental and can look completely unacceptable on some pixel patterns, leading to bad evident flickering, i could even remove it, who knows.

If you’re talking about the “Use Only On Moving Areas” option for adaptive-strobe-koko, I haven’t seen any downside or artifacts. Why would you be thinking about removing it?

I’m in the process of adding it as a baseline feature of my presets, with the fullscreen option being available for those who have systems which are powerful enough or setup in such a way that they have solid enough frame pacing that they avoid the odd distracting bright frame, flickering here or there.

@PU786 I hope you would also appreciate that in these types of forums, user feedback and opinions might carry more weight than one might expect. So one could state an opinion on something that they would like changed, removed or made conditional and if the developer sees no opposition to or feedback which might express a different take on the idea then they might be more than inclined to offer a change.

So it’s important to state one’s views on matters of these sorts.

[PU786]

Tis why I feel comfortable making the posts I’ve been making here yes. I really do appreciate it because this place is very chill and feedback friendly.

I do a lot more reading here than posting.

[kokoko3k]

@Cyber

If you’re talking about the “Use Only On Moving Areas” option for adaptive-strobe-koko, I haven’t seen any downside or artifacts. Why would you be thinking about removing it?

Yes, but I was speaking of 60hz.

If it works good on 120hz (maximum, supported “temporal resolution”, (in theory, since I cannot even afford more due to gpu power)), then I’ll leave it there; question is if it is really worth it, since the simpler path should be the choice for anything from 120hz up imho.

Again, we’re hijacking this thread, sorry @guest.r

[Drakim42]

Is there a single setting to raise the brightness? I’m using mask 6, BGR mask layout, and NTSC Artifacting/Fringing set to 0 when not required for dithering. Brightness is fine when using mask 0, but it’s rather dark with mask 6. Please let me know if there are better recommended settings. (1080p OLED, crt-guest-advanced-ntsc)

[guest.r]

There are more parameters, which increase brightness. Just look under [ BRIGHTNESS SETTINGS ] for:

• Gamma correct
• Complementary Gamma correct
• Bright Boost Dark Pixels
• Bright Boost Bright Pixels

There are even more brightness settings at the beginning:

• Brightness Adjustment
• Gamma Correct Adjustment

These two also influence scanline dynamics, because brightness is adjusted before scanline calculations.

At the end of parameter section there is

• Post Brightness

Which adjusts brightness at the end of the shader effects.

There are other means to influence brightness, like mask strength controls etc. so this shouldn’t be a challenge too hard.

[Drakim42]

Much appreciated clarification, and thanks for the hard work on CRT Guest Advanced and its variants! ∠(‘-‘ )

[guest.r]

New Release Version (2026-07-21-r1):

Notable changes:

• Parameter for 3D Curvature effect added
• Small Afterglow tail tweak

Download Link:

https://mega.nz/file/QsZhHK6B#PftyITPsS9R7FqtBLMQuVz3O-QonyfMaMZIljOSrQWc

[guest.r]

New Release Version (2026-07-23-r1):

Notable changes:

• 3D Curvature effect slight tweak
• PAL shaders pal pass 1 removed, since it was there only for the (hypothetical) temporal delay line effect. Now all texture bindings in remaining passes are Source based, which makes separate usage much simpler.
• PAL Delay Line extra parameter option added (replaces removed temporal delay line effect).
• All 6 mask layouts are included now through a new parameter: GBR, RGB, BRG | GRB, RBG, BGR.
• Slot mask setup honors a simple fact that known slot mask CRT TVs used the exact RGB sequence. So the shader slot mask sequence always starts with ‘R’ regardless of mask layout sequence or shift.

Download Link:

https://mega.nz/file/k9ZwlQLS#MOC9RbHMJMBLEXP0-qd1TrgwPj-3MvAnSWjX9wFRV2w

[Namah]

Hey Guest, in a future version, will it be possible to add a reflection effect to the screen to improve the curvature simulation and the feeling of being in front of a CRT screen, like MAME does with HLSL?

[Cyber]

@Namah

in a future version

In the meantime you can use Mega Bezel or uBorder.

[Karellen]

Hi everyone! Does anyone have any recommendations for settings to achieve a convincing PVM look? I know I could just use CyberLab’s presets, and I actually do when possible. However, I’m currently using ShaderGlass with a few standalone emulators that don’t support RetroArch shaders, so I’m looking for settings that can get me as close as possible to a good PVM appearance, preferably with the highest TVL possible for a 55-inch 4K TV (OLED C5). Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

[Cyber]

@Karellen

I’m currently using ShaderGlass

ShaderGlass supports RetroArch Shaders. There’s also the WindowCast Core which you can use to capture any window and run it through RetroArch’s shader pipeline.

There’s also good ole Reshade.

[guest.r]

Sony PVM look should be quite doable, especially on a 4k display. I’m posting a 1440p screenie, TVL on 2160p should be quite higher.

Here are the parameters for crt-guest-advanced.slangp:

bloom = "0.700000"
bloom_dist = "1.000000"
bmask1 = "-0.200000"
gamma_c2 = "1.300000"
clips = "0.250000"
gsl = "2.000000"
scanline1 = "3.000000"
scanline2 = "14.000000"
beam_min = "2.500000"
beam_max = "1.500000"
scans = "2.000000"
h_sharp = "4.000001"
s_sharp = "1.000000"
smart_ei = "0.250000"
shadowMask = "6.000000"
maskstr = "1.000000"
maskboost = "1.250000"
mask_gamma = "1.700001"
mclip = "0.300000"
pr_scan = "1.000000"
edgemask = "0.400000"
deconrr = "0.750000"
deconrb = "-0.500000"
deconrry = "1.000000"
deconrby = "-0.500000"
decons = "1.500000"

The setup is a bit conservative, but it’s a base for anything more personalized.

[Karellen]

Yeah, I noticed that ShaderGlass supports RetroArch shaders. Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to get satisfying HDR results with it, so I decided to stick with Guest Advanced instead.

Now I’m just trying to figure out how to configure Guest Advanced to achieve a high-TVL PVM look. With Megatron, it was so easy to just set it to something like 800–1000 TVL and it looked great.

If anyone has recommendations for Guest Advanced settings that get close to that kind of high-end PVM appearance, I’d really appreciate it.

[Karellen]

I’m playing Shadow Hearts, and I absolutely loved the result. It looks gorgeous. Thanks for the setup!

Out of curiosity, what would you consider a non-conservative setup?

[guest.r]

Thanks for trying the setup. A less conservative setup could go by reducing mask strength (to provide an even more high TVL feel) or using more dense masks (like 0, 5 or 9).

It could also add more scanline saturation, combined with stronger (de)convergence. The look could also be shifted a bit towards the BVM area.

I had to resort to web screenshots for a PVM look, there were different models and screen sizes involved, so the parameter combo looks more like a middle ground.

[Karellen]

I hope I’m not taking too much of your time with all these questions. Since you mentioned that “the look could also be shifted a bit towards the BVM area,” I was wondering if you have any suggestions for a setup that’s specifically aimed at achieving a convincing BVM look. I’d be really interested to hear what settings you would use.

This is mostly out of curiosity, but more broadly, what do you think current CRT shaders are still missing to make them truly convincing? Are there any characteristics of real CRTs that you feel today’s shaders still don’t capture accurately?