Yeah that makes sense, thanks for the answer and good luck with the difficult decisions 
4 Likes
I did some luma clamping to prevent clipping, hoping for beneficial results. 
The colors should look a bit more saturated now, which is especially important with 2-phase coding.
Default setting changed a bit, a added an portion of ‘sharpness and ringing’ for better contrast. Maybe older values play better for you though.
5 Likes
Hey! Looks like you’ve outdone yourself! At least that’s what it looks like to me!
Adaptive sharpening now works better than anything for me! It makes everything more crystal clear than the other options before, and the dither is much more uniform!!
Look at the eyes on the face in Sonic’s life counter and the “Koshiro” text on the SoR screen, it seems the sharpening makes the text more readable and eliminates unwanted dither artifacts! Sharpness is better in so many ways!!
(left: before, right: after)
PR = “0.000000”
PG = “0.000000”
PB = “0.000000”
AS = “0.000000”
sat = “0.000000”
contr = “0.200000”
quality = “-1.000000”
ntsc_phase = “2.000000”
cust_artifacting = “1.100000”
ntsc_sharp = “-8.000000”
ntsc_slimit = “0.600000”
blendMode = “2.000000”
GAMMA_INPUT = “2.699999”
glow = “0.000000”
bloom = “1.000000”
gamma_c = “1.280000”
gsl = “1.000000”
scanline1 = “9.000000”
h_sharp = “0.900001”
s_sharp = “1.500000”
ring = “0.200000”
shadowMask = “6.000000”
maskstr = “0.900000”
masksize = “2.000000”
mask_gamma = “5.000000”
mclip = “0.350000”
gamma_out = “2.100000”
post_br = “1.150000”
2 Likes
New Release Version (2022-05-27-r1):
Notable changes:
- adaptive sharpness feature added to ntsc options (release highlight)
- adaptive sharpness altered to preserve much more details (and it’s an option), looks really nice
- edit: small brightness fix
Download link:
https://mega.nz/file/l1YUSB5a#n08PiHZCk1g_JeK6xmZrJj9Otag6hYbVg-3S5nNQrEM
11 Likes
Sharpness is getting better! It looks like black magic!
The thickness of the vertical bars is different, a little thinner, but if that was necessary to get that sharpness, then it’s not a problem. It really is crystal clear even with dither blending and rainbow effect!
2 Likes
New Release Version (2022-05-27-r3):
Notable changes:
- adaptive sharpness feature added to ntsc options (release highlight)
- adaptive sharpness altered to preserve much more details (and it’s an option), looks really nice
- edit: small brightness fix
- edit2: improved quality, cleanups, qol changes
- edit3: new version, some sharpen fringing/luma artifacts removed, better overall appearance
Download link:
https://mega.nz/file/E941hKKT#8DiuaOb2bMQZi-q1s7amj-Shu5mxfMwBCFVU4U-Jrfc
14 Likes
The new adaptive sharpness feature is a major improvement. Everything that needs to be blurred is still adequately blurred but the overall perceived sharpness is now greatly enhanced. I was going to post before-after screenshots but decided not to do it because the unsharpened one actually looked better in a zoomed-in closeup. But from one-foot away or at any normal viewing distance I would definitely turn it on 
3 Likes
Best to use the newest versions. Ntsc shaders are very interesting as they ‘react’ differently with different games/gfx. patterns, especially with 2-phase games. Screenshots can also be deceiving as they can show only ‘one side of the coin’.
With the new sharpness feature it’s somewhat important to redo the filtering settings, i endorse the use of the fast version as it has a newer filter implemented, which is better for the ntsc pre-shaders.
Example pic:
6 Likes
Would it be possible to make a select key for the ntsc shader? I still think the old version is good, and I would like to use both, depending on the system it would be interesting to alternate, the new one is good for details and the old one has a smoother blend. Well it would be interesting to use the new sharpening in the old ntsc shader.
2 Likes
New Release Version (2022-05-28-r1):
Notable changes:
- increased sharpness quality, now fringing is supported with ordinary sharpness
- old sharpness controls are back…(@Red-gehog)
- TATE mode is not supported any more with ntsc presets. It never worked correctly though as it would require special ntsc shaders. Probably at some later point a separate vertical version will be made
- ntsc preset got a new filter with different parameters. It’s more capable, but is to setup differently
- blend modes are removed due new sharpness and filtering options (old mode 2.0 is now default)
- the ntsc preset is notably faster now
- ntsc preset now works by default with interlacing modes
Download link:
https://mega.nz/file/g14ChCqY#uqgqnoEMmLEdv_hQ6XFRFgtGcw6dmEn1emH24O5OBZc
It’s still considered as a test release, some features could have caught a bug.
A word or two about the blend modes. The main motivation was that old filtering would do at least a decent job or would be useful to a degree, also considering substractive sharpness. This problem is now sorted by a new filter and the new options in the ntsc shaders.
8 Likes
I used to put fast-sharpen as the last pass but now I can’t do it anymore as it seems to conflict with the re-added custom-fast-sharpen. Can I edit my ntsc preset in a way so the last fast-sharpen pass would work normally and independently?
1 Like
Sonic waterfall looks great, SMB text looks horrible though. 
(I disabled Sega Luma Fix for the SMB shot)
3 Likes
Have you tweaked the new filter? Old presets aren’t viable regarding filtering parameters any more. The ntsc preset also changed, it’s important to copy the presets also.
Sure, you can replace custom fast-sharpen with the stock shader. Alternative would be to rename the parameters in either of sharpening shaders.
3 Likes
Thanks! I’m still trying the new options
Is it possible if I wanted to set up the new filtering parameters (horizontal filter range and blur sigma?) so it looks more like the blend mode 1.0?
Edit: I think I like the default values. Just wanted to know if it’s doable 
2 Likes
Well this is interesting. I look forward to trying this out but my first question off the top is how do I simulate Blend Mode 0 with these new options?
2 Likes
New Release Version (2022-05-28-r2):
Notable changes:
- NTSC blend mode 0.0 added
- small tweaks the the ntsc shaders
- ntsc-fast preset changed, shader files need an update
Download link:
https://mega.nz/file/QpZzhSob#8BzPM7JC0g1_umYzjgxvepIw-xJeeclocMnD0AdX8G4
Thanks for the feedback all, it’s appreciated. Blend mode 0.0 was easy to add, no extra pass is needed and it looks very nice. I guess this will make transits of existing presets much easier.
Old blend mode 1.0 is a compromise to get better filtering with 1x horizontal original size input. You can get much better results now, even with high-res content. But you can get similar results if you don’t use substractive sharpness.
9 Likes
That’s perfect. I see a new shader pack update right around the corner with this
2 Likes
Oh this is really good! Balancing adaptive sharpen with fast Genesis blending is so much better! For smaller resolutions such as 8 bit or even portable, only adaptive sharpening is enough! I think this is useful to better simulate different video outputs from consoles! Thanks!
3 Likes
Another thing I noticed, the ntsc shader now seems to balance things out, it preserves the dither a lot more while showing detail. I think it’s very balanced!
contr = “0.200000”
quality = “-1.000000”
ntsc_phase = “2.000000”
cust_artifacting = “1.100000”
ntsc_sharp = “-10.000000”
ntsc_slimit = “1.000000”
CONTR = “0.000000”
GAMMA_INPUT = “2.750000”
HSHARPNESS = “1.250000”
SIGMA_HOR = “0.750000”
S_SHARP = “2.000000”
HSHARP = “2.000000”
HARNG = “0.100000”
glow = “0.000000”
bloom = “0.400000”
gamma_c = “1.300000”
brightboost = “1.899999”
gsl = “1.000000”
scanline1 = “9.000000”
shadowMask = “6.000000”
maskstr = “0.800000”
masksize = “2.000000”
mask_gamma = “5.000000”
gamma_out = “2.100000”
post_br = “1.300000”
2 Likes
Nevertheless, support for xbr…etc shaders will be added soon to the ntsc shaders, the new filter can handle even increased pixel ranges.