OK, hmm screenshot of the mask? As well maybe I could take more clearer pictures but I don’t remember the settings to do such in my camera
Hmm. It’s something in grade causing this. The only 4 new settings that I’ve added in this time around within the grade shader are Black Level, Black-Red Tint, Black-Green Tint and Black Blue Tint. Maybe try defaulting those 1 by 1 to see if anything happens. I’m trying to diagnose the issue first if it’s actually a setting causing the issue like the contrast setting did previously.
Try defaulting all 4 of those. If it’s those 4 I’ll put out another pack right away and get rid of those settings.
A normal screenshot (F8 key) would be OK, it displays minute details on what is going on on the screen.
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this is a base problem at original preset level, i think it might not have nothing to do with your prreset in this case sonkun, it might be my screen res or something
2 Likes
New Release Version (2024-09-15-r1):
Notable changes:
- NTSC shaders optimizations, cleanup.
- Improvements on NTSC coloring/rainbowing implementation.
- Two new NTSC coloring/rainbowing modes.
- Low-tap count behavior improved (NTSC).
- Internal resolution option added to NTSC shaders, similar to the HD feature.
- NTSC Sharpen changes to the ‘positive’ mode, now both modes dissolve dithering patterns, positive mode preserves more details. Use resolution scaling feature if missing the ‘old positive mode’.
- Pre-scaler presets included in the ‘guest’ folder. They are optimized for prepending to crt presets. Usually regular scaler presets scale to viewport, which can be very slow and also excessive.
- Most existing presets shouldn’t be affected (@sonkun), some testing is welcome anyway.
Download link:
https://mega.nz/file/tk4xFBCL#-3qo6saKm86uIAT9uF4jipKzvEX1uL3aOSSQVT6EWns
9 Likes
Example of tuned NTSC aperture preset, using new features:
- horizontal pre-scaler
- 8-taps
- rainbowing
- positive NTSC sharpen
12 Likes
it looks good. But what am I saying… every update is good!
1 Like
Nice. I knew that last update wasn’t going to be the final one. So right off the bat loading this update up with my go-to test game Sonic 1 I notice 2 things, first was that I noticed a speed increase, no more jankiness and dropping of frames, it’s full speed again using my rainbow presets. The second thing I noticed loading up one of my composite presets were these vertical lines in the water that wasn’t there previously:
I seemed to track it down to the “ntsc gamma correct” setting. It’s more severe after turning it up to 0.12:
After disabling it they dissapear:
I see the new rainbow options as well. Off first glance setting 1 seems to be the new iteration that you introduced in the previous update, setting 2 seems to be the older original iteration you first introduced and setting 3 seems to be a slightly different iteration of setting 1. Not sure which one I’ll end up sticking with at the moment but it’s nice to have more options to choose from.
3 Likes
Any chances to incorporate Noise options from PlainOldPants, please ?
2 Likes
Thanks for testing, seems like a regression indeed. I will give it my best later this day…
Edit:can you test this version?
https://mega.nz/file/Y5pCGJTT#wYFExF6r2V6eZ0W5P7CEvZzwXNTCrxt-d2P-sW5Vxm0
2 Likes
I’ll try it right now give me a sec
Edit: @guest.r Well that was a quick fix, no more vertical lines in the water:
3 Likes
New Release Version (2024-09-16-r1):
Notable changes:
- NTSC shaders optimizations, cleanup.
- Improvements on NTSC coloring/rainbowing implementation.
- Two new NTSC coloring/rainbowing modes.
- Low-tap count behavior improved (NTSC).
- Internal resolution option added to NTSC shaders, similar to the HD feature.
- NTSC Sharpen changes to the ‘positive’ mode, now both modes dissolve dithering patterns, positive mode preserves more details. Use resolution scaling feature if missing the ‘old positive mode’.
- Pre-scaler presets included in the ‘guest’ folder. They are optimized for prepending to crt presets. Usually regular scaler presets scale to viewport, which can be very slow and also excessive.
- Edit: luma fix with gamma corrections and adaptive sharpen (thanks @sonkun for testings).
- Edit2: clamping bug fix
Download link:
https://mega.nz/file/wtJ1wYaa#9aSsJVQdgw_gxZiZ7eI6Qt8aFqQ9JMCt-WUuhZ4irnQ
7 Likes
No problem, glad I was able to help and thank you for the fast new release. I also smell a new sonkun pack in the making to go along with this update. Gonna take this to the lab and see if I can squeeze out a little more sharpness in my composite presets and further check out the new rainbow options.
4 Likes
Ok so upon trying out the new “positive” ntsc sharpness at a value of 10.00 with Sonic I noticed something strange, whenever I move Sonic forward or back and then stop a very small amount of pixels seem to “glitch” for just a few seconds. I only notice it in this small white area between his nose and eyes:
I tried to capture video footage of it:
This also happens if I load up the standard guest ntsc shader and change ntsc sharpness to 10.00 as well. That also doesn’t happen at all at -10.00.
2 Likes
Thanks for a keen eye and more testing. It seems it’s a precision error involved, but looks like it’s getting fixed. Found some more stuff to fix, so it’s getting there… 
2 Likes
Glad I could help. When you’re in the lab for hours at a time I guess even these small kind of things become noticeable and sticks out like a sore thumb when you’re constantly in and out of the parameter settings lol. I’ll be around to test any test packs you may have.
2 Likes
New Release Version (2024-09-16-r2):
Notable changes:
- NTSC shaders optimizations, cleanup.
- Improvements on NTSC coloring/rainbowing implementation.
- Two new NTSC coloring/rainbowing modes.
- Low-tap count behavior improved (NTSC).
- Internal resolution option added to NTSC shaders, similar to the HD feature.
- NTSC Sharpen changes to the ‘positive’ mode, now both modes dissolve dithering patterns, positive mode preserves more details. Use resolution scaling feature if missing the ‘old positive mode’.
- Pre-scaler presets included in the ‘guest’ folder. They are optimized for prepending to crt presets. Usually regular scaler presets scale to viewport, which can be very slow and also excessive.
- Edit: luma fix with gamma corrections and adaptive sharpen (thanks @sonkun for testings).
- Edit2: clamping bug fix.
- Edit r2: ‘glowing nose’ problem mitigation/fix, some code improvements.
Download link:
https://mega.nz/file/YwoGyZjY#5CnIna_bBCob553IvmhQtdoNu0hXSi5vg4cfipdSVys
7 Likes
Yup, tested it right away and that problem is gone. Ok I’m gonna continue playing around and report back if I find anything.
Edit: @guest.r On another note I’m noticing the difference between negative ntsc sharpness and the new positive ntsc sharpness. With negative values small details get blurred a bit more, here’s my current preset using -10.00 ntsc sharpness:
Here’s with 10.00 sharpness:
With positive values the details like Sonic’s nose (the little white dots on it) stand out a bit more along with the details on the bricks on the wall and the fire lamp/fire itself.
Same thing with 3-phase games. Current preset with -10.00 ntsc sharpness:
Positive ntsc sharpness:
Notice the outer left and right long vertical black line on the “Round 1-1” board.
It’s very intricate and minor, some may not even notice the difference but it definitely helps if you’re going for a more sharpened look.
2 Likes
Thanks for some good test cases. Personally, i was always getting mad at the FF5 menu text with 3-phase. 
But that’s really more a chroma issue. Adaptive sharpen currently works on luma only, but i guess it’s a good idea to try it with chroma too some day. 
Also a good solution would be tu run a multi-pass pattern checking shaders, very similar to the top dedithering solutions. I have narrowed it down to quite efficient lines of code, which still dissolve bars and checkerboards.
Dunno if it’s reasonable to look for complex solutions within these ntsc shaders, i guess there might be some possibilities left for improvements on the simple side, if something reasonable and decent shows up, i will sure update the shaders.
I also wanted to explain how lowering the number of taps also works as the chroma bleeding parameter would increase.
If number of taps is 16 out of total 32 (2-phase) then base bleeding value is already like 2.0, 4.0 becomes 8.0 etc. There is no need to crank 8 taps to 4.0, as it’s considered an extreme value and similar (like 16.0). This might only work with merge or s-video ‘presets’, just to mention it as the artifacted side effects are already mitigated as far it can go.
3 Likes