Perhaps i’m adding one more cosmetic functionality, last, but not least. It can nicely fix some presets without resorting to using different techniques:
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Is there any difference between the two images? The only differences I can spot are due to being a different animation frame.
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Am I understanding the Internal Resolution setting correctly? Lets say a Core is 640x480, does setting it to 2.0 effectively make that 640x480 become 640x240?
And the VGA Single/Double Scan mode setting, does that double the amount of Scanlines like my Super Fine Pitch Sony Vega seems to have? I’ve been using a Pioneer Elite plasma TV for my presets so I’m guessing 1080p just doesn’t have enough vertical pixels to make out having twice as many scanlines?
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Maybe these images make it a bit more apparent. It’s not a bad fix imo…
A game can look like 640x240, yes, but you can still use Downsampling-Y for some effect.
Yes, it reproduces scanline representation on VGA monitors and resolutions like 320x200. Looks superb with 4k, can look good with vertical display resolutions including and above 1200p.
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I bet it does. This is how HD CRT’s handled their scanlines and it always looked amazing. I suppose this explains why there are so few 480p/EDTV CRT shaders.
I’m thinking of picking up one of those 480hz 1440p monitors for use with the Blur Buster/CRT Beam Simulator shader, for 640x480 games I feel like VGA mode is a must. How do you think Double Scanlines will look on a 1440p panel? (it’s going to be so weird going from 55 inch Plasma to 27 inch OLED but of course I’ll have it set up on a desk instead)
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Hello there, first of all let me say a HUGE thank you for all the hard work developing and “delivering”, your pack I must say is one of the ‘must have’ packs for anyone who uses shaders! 
Now let me ask a couple of humble and maybe stupid questions but I have to take the “risk” and ask because this part always confuses me:
As I understand your shaders packs are available in the first post and also in the Libretro shaders repo which means that can be downloaded also from the ‘online updater’ inside RetroArch itself.
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When downloaded from here do we have to copy by overwrite the files already in the RetroArch directory or put them as a standalone pack in the shaders folder ?
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Every Time you release a new version how long does it get for the Libretro repo to get the update or is it first the Official repo (Online Updater) then you post it here in the forums or again its all at same time.!
I’ m asking because lets say I got the latest ‘Crt-Guest-Advanced’ shaders pack from here and then after that I use the updater inside Retroarch to update the shaders, do i still get that latest pack or I downgraded it without realizing it ?
- Would it be easy for you (and possibly all the shader developers) to put somehow the version information inside every updated pack actual shader folder something like eg. a file called “v2025-02-09-r1 (info)” or alternatively inside the presets themselves, just for convenience for us the end users ?
Thank you again -so much- in advance and for sharing your hard work with us, 
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Regarding 320x200 and integer (under) scaling there are 6 pixels per pixel row with 1440p, which is ok-ish. With 1080p and underscaling you get only 4, which is too few without some tricks.
Hey, i’m glad you like the shaders.
The shaders can be used in a folder like shaders_slang/crt-guest-advanced, but is a must to copy the provided folders content into shaders_slang/crt location for 3rd party presets, which rely on new versions.
It has been a while since the latest official libretro slang repository update. I’m planning a new update quite soon. Hunterk usually helps me with that. Personally i don’t want to feel restricted in posting new versions in this thread by the repo updating, so i ask for an repo update when a solid stable version is done and i don’t have any new current plans.
There has been some talking about “dummy files” in discord, and this could become something confusing since updates usually don’t clean up dummy or older obsolete files. I’ll stick to the current approach i guess, but a very good and improved version should be in the repo soon, dunno if i plan to do much changes very soon.
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Be very careful if buying a 1440p OLED display with the aim of getting accurate CRT emulation down to the subpixel level as I don’t think anyone has demonstrated any CRT Shader Mask being able to be successfully aligned and displayed correctly on a 1440p OLED panel.
Also, while a certain subset of CRT Shader Masks can align well and look well on a 4K WOLED/RWGB panel, all available Mask and Subpixel layouts will not.
In those cases and with 1440p WOLED panels you might get good enough looking CRT Emulation from normal viewing distance, however it might all fall apart if you push your nose up to the screen and attempt to look for evenly sized and spaced CRT-like RGB phosphor triads.
I can’t speak about QDOLED panels except for the author of the Sony Megatron Color Video Monitor saying that the Mask looks good except for a slight “bobble”.
In addition to that if you’re after the most accurate CRT emulation experience possible, brightness of your display is of utmost importance. While OLED displays can give an exceptional CRT-Emulation performance, they are in general not as bright as other available technologies. Also depending on how much time you spend playing RetroGames using static scanline patterns, they might cause the pixels in the rows where they appear to wear unevenly relative to the scanline gaps because they will generally appear in the same place everytime.
This can be somewhat mitigated by the use of a line shifting shader but the only one I know of, which was created by @hunterk doesn’t seem to work on all shaders.
Lastly, even if it did work, it wouldn’t protect the pillar boxes outside of the 4:3 area from uneven wear.
This information is not widely available although before the whole OLED can provide near perfect CRT emulation craze, there would have been many folks who were extremely wary of at least the burn-in risk and also the potential motion issues due to sample and hold technology.
So I’m not here to spoil your party or kill your excitement but due diligence is advised and a word to the wise is sufficient.
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Haven’t even had time to play around much with the current release, been real busy but I’m still looking forward to this.
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Quick question, for the noise setting, what is the difference between colored and luma?
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Colored inserted noise is “randomized” for each color component (RGB) separatelly, while luma noise is more or less grayscale (R=G=B).
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Always pros and cons right? I’m old, I can’t press my nose up to the screen anymore anyway. 
And there just really hasn’t been a reason to upgrade past 1080p other than HDR, and if you calibrate these last gen Plasma’s properly they do make colors pop very nearly the same way if you play an HDR movie file with MadVR.
I see 1440p integer scales 320x240 and 640x480 1 to 1, while 4K doesn’t. In general I’m more after an XBR960 look than a KV310. I’ve owned both before 2010, so I remember how sharp they each used to be. Sad they don’t make new CRTs so it’s just difficult to find ones that have retained their sharpness now.
An XBR960 would seem to my eyes to use Mask 7 and Double Scan/VGA mode. But that gives me so many artifacts on my Plasma. Horizontal lines all over what should be smooth gradients and stuff.
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All I have to say is you’d be getting this:
vs this:
At least you were warned.
Remember the Mask and Phosphors are the building blocks of the CRT’s image. You’re going to “upgrade” from your tried and tested Plasma to something that’s hopefully better all around right? Why “upgrade” to something that can’t even do the foundational stuff properly? You would have to know what is best though. There are entire threads dedicated to helping users choose the best displays for CRT Emulation.
Uhhh…I’m not so sure about this one here.
Hmmm…I don’t think modern 2,400+ nits specular highlight capable displays agree with you but I wish you all the best in your endeavours.
You would have to know what’s best for you. I can only give my perspective.
You’re complaining about your current display not being able to render all of the Masks properly and probably unknowingly (until now) are planning to upgrade to a display which can’t render all the Masks properly.
Don’t say I didn’t warn you.
It’s possible that there may be some solution to get RGB triads working on 1440p WOLED displays but I’m not sure if anyone is working on it. If you’re going 1440p OLED, maybe QDOLED might very well be a safer bet for these things so pay close attention to the panel type of the display you’re getting.
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That was a little confusing for me. ^^; I really appreciate the info you’re putting down, it’s why I’m making posts (to learn), and trust me the more info the better. I need it.
I’m just providing what perspective I have, like I said before I’m very much a beginner with these masks and I’m just trying to learn.
Stuff I’ve done to replicate my memory of the 32KV310 has all been decent enough for me, I’m not after perfection, just “Oh well! close enough.” #IshBoo.
But, I never got directly up on top of my KV-32FV310 to peep its sub pixel layout, and I don’t have one anymore to go back and forth checking like I do with my XBR960. I never realized it had double the scanlines of normal TV’s, or a mask pattern, or any of that!
So it’s all fascinating and cool to learn about. Not a situation where I’m going to gripe at someone, or say they didn’t warn me. ^^; I’m kinda honestly surprised there aren’t as many posts about trying to replicate the look of an XBR960 given how many years it was considered the holy grail of CRTs. I had two next to each other for years, but I sold the sharper one after its swan song playthrough of BotW back when that game came out to help me get the PRO-111FD.
Mainly I want to try and see the Blur Buster/CRT Beam Simulator in action though. 480hz would be a lot harder to render on 4K. Any insight on that?
…are you trying to tell me RGB triads work better on my Plasma? It’s possible I don’t even notice whatever that may be given that Plasma’s have phosphors.
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Some more insights on the ‘new’ feature i’m currently working on:
regular:
fixed:
It’s more or less an universal feature which works best if mask is at 100% strength and a mask mitigation technique (bloom, halation…) is used. I’m so far quite happy with the implementation, will probably hit the next release.
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Sounds like it’ll be a good match for my presets if that’s the case, looking forward to it. Managed to play around a bit with the current release but will stop and just wait on this one then.
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I guess i’ll post the release version soon. Quite happy with results, since it cures some situations which made me a bit cranky for years now. 
This often felt like an annoying pebble in the shoe.
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For something to have annoyed and had you cranky about it for years must mean this next release will be an important one. I already made about 5 to 10 “rough draft” presets from the latest new feature you added in so I’m definitely curious how this next new feature will add and blend into the mix of things.
I got my eyes open for this, waiting patiently lol.
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New Release Version (2025-02-14-r1):
Notable changes:
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Mitigate Mask on Edgesfunctionality/parameter added (standard, ntsc, hd, fast versions). - Edit: small update.
Download link:
https://mega.nz/file/x8RgAYqR#Ix6k_GqeYh7xYnUs20xtW7aULRnBsdEz1ZOAWbzXlCI
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Looks like a warpsharp applied over the x (?)
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