New sonkun crt guest advanced hd presets thread

[sonkun]

Put the “Internal Resolution” setting to 1.00 in the “Interlacing Options” area:

That one setting right there basically.

On another note I finally got my hands on this 1440p monitor and I’m testing out different Shadow Mask settings, I want to make the “dots” a bit smaller similar to my 4k and even 1080p presets. I’m not sure if I should stay on mask 10 or use mask 6 like I’ve used on the 4k presets.

I’m just trying to figure out all the different mask zoom etc combination settings I can use with mask 6 and 10 for 1440p at the moment.

So far I tried mask 6, size 2, zoom -2 Shadow mask 1, that one already looks like a good contender:

Might actually just use these settings depending on how other combinations look. @Specialt1212 this is how I want 1440p Shadow Mask to look on your phone at that 1440 resolution that you used the other day, or something like that.

Edit: Maybe these settings are better? mask 10, size 2, zoom -4, Shadow mask 1:

[sonkun]

After testing things a bit further with the new 1440p presets I decided to delete my latest preset pack that I just put out (11-06-2024) and revert back to my previous pack (10-29-2024) with those 1440p presets that I’ve already been using. Seems I actually had the right settings all along even the previous Shadow Mask preset settings.

I noticed I wasn’t properly seeing the RGB subpixels clearly with the new 1440p presets like I can with the previous presets, the RGB subpixel colors looked more “compressed” as I’ve gone back and forth comparing the new presets with the previous ones and for that reason I have decided to revert back to the way they originally were.

If anyone grabbed that pack that I just released (11-06-2024) please delete it and re download my previous one. Sorry for the inconvenience.

[sonkun]

Someone on discord mentioned my old scalefx presets, made me curious since I haven’t used scalefx on my presets in months and haven’t tried it since I gave my presets a makeover:

Just messing around I guess.

If you want to try it I suggest using the scalefx version from the guest folder, you can find it in crt>shaders>guest>pre-scale-presets then choose “scalefx-horizontal”. With that scalefx version you’ll get fullspeed performance as if you were using my presets without it. Also disable the switchres shader in the parameters since it’ll now be under scalefx and not above it in the shader chain which causes a static “flicker” effect on the screen. Or just edit the switcres shader on top for everything to look as intended.

[Specialt1212]

Sorry for the delay, I only check the forums about once a month. I finally decided to take the plunge and purchase a Odin2 Portal on indiegogo. If I’m not mistaken they should ship in late December / early January so once I get the device I’ll test your shaders out and report back here. Thanks for all your hard work!

[sonkun]

Nice. I did quick search on it:

Was curious to what resolution it displays, should be interesting to see how my presets will look on it so I’ll be looking forward to your tests when it arrives.

[sonkun]

Here’s something for the holidays. Thought I’d go ahead and make a small sample pack of some upscaled presets. I ended up going with xbr-lv3 instead of scalefx, I was liking the results a bit better on that shader. I included presets for just composite and rgb in all 3 mask types in 1080p, 1440p and 4k:

Try the sample pack here:

https://www.mediafire.com/file/d1338otz6ssg9q5/sonkun-guest-advanced-hd-upscaled-presets-samples-11-25-2024.zip/file

After extracting the pack copy and paste presets of choice directly into just the shaders folder not shaders_slang.

[sonkun]

Ok round 2 of my upscaling preset experiments, still using the xbr-lv3 upscaler shader. In my pack above I noticed on the composite presets the outlines on sprites looked too thick, a simple fix for that was changing the scaling on the first ntsc pass in the shader chain.

Now it went from looking like this:

To this:

More composite screenies:

Try out the pack here:

https://www.mediafire.com/file/n44s6r2yj7gmrwy/sonkun-guest-advanced-hd-upscaled-presets-samples-II-11-26-2024.zip/file

Just like above after extracting the pack copy and paste presets of choice directly into just the shaders folder not shaders_slang.

[sonkun]

Ok here’s round 3 of me experimenting with these upscaling shaders. This time we’re going in a slightly different direction using the ddt-xbr-lv1 shader. It seems to work a bit different compared to the xbr-lv3 shader that I used in the previous two packs as it looks to “clean” up the pixel edges more than “smooth” them out. The results are that pixels look closer to their original look but with the edges cleaned up giving a really clean looking image overall. Let’s compare.

Here’s xbr-lv3:

Ddt-xbr-lv1:

Here’s my standard rgb preset:

Ddt-xbr-lv1 looks more like my rgb preset but “cleaned up”.

More examples in the same order:

Here’s an example just comparing xbr-lv3 with ddt-xbr-lv1

With xbr-lv3 Mario’s eye has this weird slanted that connects to his mustache, although the over image looks smoother those are not how the pixels originally look. With ddt-xbr-lv1 the pixels look like their original look with the edges cleaned up to bring out that black outline more.

Another example:

Xbr-lv3 looks more smooth, ddt-xbr-lv1 looks more original.

Try the pack out here:

https://www.mediafire.com/file/sz1830gfxd7k1vv/sonkun-guest-advanced-hd-upscaled-presets-samples-III-v2-11-27-2024.zip/file

Copy and place presets in the shaders folder not shaders_slang.

These presets are a little more gpu intensive as well.

Edit: Just replaced with “version 2”, these should be faster now.

[guest.r]

Just a reminder, if mask mitigation is sponsored by magic glow, then an important factor is also the “Fine Glow/M.Glow Sampling”, which does lookups on a denser pixel grid, also acknowledging pre-scaling.

Ideally we would use FineSampling = 3.0 with a 3x pre-scaler. To compensate for sampling radius in this example, sigma values are to be multiplied by 3 as well as as Glow Radius.

Fine sampling was introduced with glow passes also to endorse magic glow mask mitigation setups which also include pre-scaling.

[sonkun]

Thank you. I’m learning all sorts of new information both here and on discord just because I randomly decided to go back into the lab and I’m loving it lol. By the way I just swapped out the link above with a new version 2. I changed the y2 scale from “viewport” to “source” and that gave the presets a performance boost. Also this ddt-xbr-lv1 shader is scaled at x1 compared to x3 that xbr-lv3 was on.

[sonkun]

New Version Release (12-03-2024-v5)

Changes Made

• Still uses guest.r shader version 2024-10-27-r1.

• Adjusted sharpness on all presets

• Adjusted glow on all presets to go with new sharpness settings.

Kind of a small update nothing too major, wanted to shave a little bit off the pixel edges for a bit of a sharper look.

Basically we’re going from this:

To this:

Download the new pack in the first post.

Edit: Changed up the glow settings, didn’t like how they looked on the initial release, grab the new pack under “v2”.

Edit 2: Adjusted sharpness again as well. v3 now up.

Edit 3: Changed “Fine Glow/M.Glow Sampling” from 5 to 3 on all rf/composite presets, helps to “smooth” out pixels out a bit better. “v4” now up.

Edit 4: Fixed a sharpness regression in the rf/composite/rainbow presets where artifacts were being produced. Thanks @JosepMC for pointing that out. v5 now up.

[JosepMC]

The thicker outlines is appreciated, but rf/composite seems worse in this release in my opinion. Looks weirdly “smoothed”/“HD” and doesn’t blend as nicely as before.

It also introduces some artifacts in the outlines for games like Super Mario Bros.

[sonkun]

Are those images from v3? I just recently put up a v4 version hoping to smooth the rf/composite presets out a bit more. It’s true that I’m aiming for a sharper look, trying to balance and hit that sweet spot right between the two. That Mario shot from the rf preset? If so I believe those artifacts always been there, probably not as noticeable in the old release because everything was more “blurred” together.

I don’t notice a difference with rf after I changed the “fsharpen” setting from 5 down to .50. At 5 the artifacts are still there but bringing it down to .50 seems to make the artifacts expand out more making it more noticeable:

[JosepMC]

They are from v4, I saw your update before posting. All the pictures are shadow-mask/normal/composite-rainbow-artifacts. Here’s how SMB looked to me in the pack from 11-06-2024.

[sonkun]

Ok had to go back and take some comparison shots. Also I discarded that 11-06 release and went back to the 10-29 one, forgot the reason why tho.

But anywho here’s composite from 10-29:

Composite from this current release:

And here’s me applying back the old glow settings from 10-29 to the new release:

Do you think that’s a better look?

Also rf in the old release looked just as garbage, artifacts not as pronounced but was still there:

Old version:

Current version:

Edit: Ah you said rainbow. Yeah I see it now.

Hmm, I’ll have to see what’s causing that. Might be what’s also causing the rf issue.

Edit 2: Just like I figured, it was that ntsc Fsharpen setting. When I put it back to 5.00 the way I previously had it it goes away:

Now that I found the culprit I guess I can just revert that setting and put up a new release, gonna do that for both composites RF too. Does everything else look ok/better to you?

Edit 3: New v5 version up with sharpness fix.

[bactino]

I never noticed that there was a rainbow mode in the super cool pack thanks for your work

[sonkun]

You’re welcome and thank you I appreciate it, it looks even cooler with your overlay, good stuff there. I decided to retweak sharpness settings on a whim wasn’t really planned out or anything but the idea started when I started messing around with those upscaler shaders again. Not sure if people will like the change or prefer the previous look, guess time will tell.

[sonkun]

New Version Release (12-06-2024-v2)

Changes Made

• Uses guest.r shader version 2024-12-05-r1.

• Uses the brand new setting “NTSC Preserve ‘Edge’ Colors” setting on composite and composite rainbow presets (Composite colors look more vibrant and pixel edges look more “full”. You must download the latest guest.r shader for this setting to take effect, link and guide for manual installation in first post).

This is another small update but this one new setting has changed the game for the ntsc adapter shader forever. It’s now possible to get one of the cleanest looking composite images to date, composite has never looked better.

Here’s my previous composite preset:

Here’s how it looks now with the new setting:

Take a look at the character sprites to see the difference. Previously it was never possible to get the ntsc adapter shader to look this way before without breaking the blended dithering effect.

More composite screenies:

Download link in the first post.

@guest.r I can’t thank you enough for making my wish a reality. Your shader will forever be legendary for changing the way I and many others retro game.

Edit: Tweaked the Fine Glow/Magic Glow Sampling setting on S-Video and RGB presets from 5 to 3, helps to soften the image up just a little. You can grab the new pack with that change under “v2” in the same spot as always.

[Superdonkeyjack]

So, the V2 is much better than the original one?

[sonkun]

It’s pretty much the same. I just decided to use the same glow settings that I applied to the composite presets to keep everything looking uniformed. The way I had the glow settings on RGB on the first release made the overall image look a bit too sharp. The “glow sampling” setting was set to 5, I set it to 3 which helps “smooths” the image out just a tiny bit more, that’s pretty much all what “v2” is. I guess you can say it’s better that way.