Personally, I really don’t like xbrz. Just look at the character selection screen in Marvel Super Heroes vs Street Fighter: the diagonal lines of the grid are terrible.
Maybe it could be more suitable for 3D content, but for 3D content I think that the combo shader+supersampling is the ideal, if it doesn’t screw the scanlines.
Hi Sonkun, first of all thank you for your work and contribution. I’m speaking as a noob, I don’t want to say wrong things, but I wanted to suggest you use the Super XBR, I tried it with the Super XBR GDV and the results, personally, are spectacular. Please give it a try, it’s not a bad idea in my opinion. Thank you with all my heart.
@Fab yeah I see what you mean, it went from structured looking pixel blocks to some weird squiggly pixel line that looked like it was done in photoshop or something. I’m definitely against altering the pixels from their original look in anyway, if there’s an upscaler shader that can keep the pixels 1 for 1 and just “smooth” it out a bit I would probably be more for it.
@ROBMARK85 Thank you for showing support to my presets, I’ve seen you around the forum getting your feet wet in topics learning the ropes of these shaders and how to use them. I don’t think I’ve tried Super XBR yet but like I said up above it has to be a shader that keeps the pixels looking authentic and not change them up too much
Hi Sonkun, I’m trying to understand something about the “shaders” world and its mechanisms, driven by passion and necessity, since I’m looking for my “definitive solution” tailored on modest hardware (since I have a family, Computer funds have drastically decreased 
). I am admired by the ability, knowledge and professionalism that so many of you make available to us mere mortals with your advice and your work. My proposal was motivated by the fact that the Super XBR makes the edges of things more defined, and from what I have seen with the Super XBR CRT I have not seen huge pixel distortion. Of course, this is a layman’s opinion, and I could probably be fooled. However I follow your work and I keep an eye on you, I like it and I thank you for what you do. It’s just a pity that I don’t have a 4K to fully enjoy your presets, at 1080p the slotmasks are a bit “limited” due to the resolution. Thanks always for your work.
I appreciate the kind words, I will also try out the Super XBR shader and report back with my findings with comparison pics, that mvsf pic will be a good example to use so I’ll use that character select screen to compare. I too am new in this field of upscaling shaders so I’m just experimenting with the different shaders available.
To tell you the truth I actually like how the slot mask looks more in 1080p than 4k, it looks more “grungy” and I like that look. One thing I like with the 4k version is that you can see the “blue” from the rgb pixels in its entirety so it looks more accurate, 1080p the “blue” isn’t as visible as the “red” and “green” but it’s there if you look.
I think then we enter the realm of personal taste and personal memory, since it’s been ages since I’ve seen a CRT in action firsthand, and I discovered that there were so many types of screens and technologies that it made me lose my mind. In any case, I am awaiting your new tests and am following you with great interest, and thanks again for what you do.
I tried super xbr and got the same result as before so I ended up ditching that shader for scalefx, that seems to be the best upscaling shader I’ve seen so far as it tries to keep sprites close to their original look depending on how you tweak it.
Here’s my regular preset:
My preset with scalefx default settings:
Scalefx with the “scalefx threshold” parameter turned down to .25:
Scalefx with the “scalefx threshold” parameter turned down to .01:
Bringing that parameter down to .01 seems to try to keep the pixels in their regular form while smoothing out certain areas, guess it all comes down to a trade off of smoothness vs original pixels depending on how you tweak it.
Couple more examples.
My preset:
Scalefx default settings:
My preset:
Scalefx with the “scalefx threshold” parameter turned down to .14:
My preset:
Scalefx default settings:
Try it out right here: https://www.mediafire.com/file/re4cept51753lpk/sonkun-guest-hd-scalefx-rgb-test.zip/file
Hi Sonkun, what a show your work is, I’m liking what I see and trying it you convinced me and showed in the field how ScaleFX is a better interpolation system than the classic Super XBR, it has fewer artifacts and forcing, albeit heavier. Please also include ScaleFX in your presets because the result, especially for us who have 1080p as a resolution, is really, really beautiful. Heartfelt thanks for what you do and sorry for earlier, I’m Italian and help me with Google translate, I made a mistake in copying the answer and I reported it in my language. However with this touch you are perfect for me, if you include it as an alternative option personally you would make me happy.
It’s all good no worries, it happens. Yeah I think ScaleFX is definitely the best out of all the upscaler shaders and definitely better than Super XBR. As far as making “upscaled” presets to include in my pack, it’s definitely doable, not sure if I’d want to include it though. I’m more of a purist when it comes to sprites and even though I use shaders, they don’t alter the sprites in a way that’s not true to it’s original look. I will admit I’m curious to add ScaleFX to my composite and svideo presets just to see what it would look like.
Here’s another example
My preset:
ScaleFX with the threshold parameter turned down to .01:
Both Simon and the zombie’s clothing look really “clean” (and looks cool as hell) even with that parameter almost disabled. It looks nice especially in motion but it definitely takes something away from the pure pixel look, can’t put my finger exactly on what it is.
I understand and respect your thinking: the work, the effort, the ideas and the name behind this work is yours, and what you do and the fact that you share it is already so much. But let me tell you that, in my opinion, the alternative of your presets with ScaleFX would be a way of proposing a sort of “Remaster” but with an always vintage style and somehow respectful of the style of the past. This is what I perceived using the test work you did, it’s what I personally look for, and in my opinion you would make someone happier. Surely you please me 
It was some trial and error along the way, I’m still learning new tricks but I’ve definitely come a long way from when I first started sharing presets in the “show off” thread before moving to my home thread here. It’s all thanks to the amazing work of guest.r, dogway for his “grade” shader and some of the members here that gave me pointers along the way to help me tweak these presets.
As far as including a “upscaled” version, I’ll see the next time I ever do another shader pack update. Like I said I’m more of a purist when it comes to these pixels, including a upscaled bonus folder wouldn’t hurt either tho. Guess time will tell.
Hi, Is there some special steps for this test filter? because I can’t load it.
Hello and welcome to the forum. For those test presets, unzip them then simply drop the 3 files right into your shaders folder, not the “shaders_slang” or “shaders_glsl” one then load them up from right there, should work then.
Can someone please explain to me, what is the difference between 10, 11 and 12 CRT mask variants?
Mask in it’s basic representation is a pattern of pixel weights, which repeats horizontally.
I know it has been posted before, but how about a mask list so I can get it on paper?
Thank you! Which one do you think is the best to use on a 1080p monitor?
Mask 6, classic RGB, for the best subpixel fidelity.
Thank you I will try it. 
New Version Release (02/11/2023)
Changes Made
Uses guests latest Version (2023-02-11-r1) shader update.
Switched over from “crt-guest-advanced-hd” to the standard “crt-guest-advanced” shader to take full advantage of the newly added “magic glow” settings that has recently been added to the standard and ntsc guest shaders. (To take advantage of these new settings you must grab guest.r’s lateset shader pack which I will post in the first page). Thread title will no longer have “hd” in it.
Introducing brand new “RF” ntsc 2-phase/3-phase cable type presets to the family bringing the total presets up from 32 to 48 to choose from. @ynnad4 you might like this part of the update, it’s noisy with that rainbow banding just how you like it lol.
Sample pics:
Retweaked composite 2-phase presets swapping the previous rainbow banding/artifacts to the new rf presets, 2-phase composite presets now uses the standard 2-phase effects found in shaders such as “crt-guest-advanced-ntsc” or “ntsc-adaptive” shader. For previous composite ntsc 2-phase rainbow banding effects go into the parameters and change both “A Value” and “B Value” to 0.00.
Retweaked scanline settings to give a courser mask to the Slot Mask along with slightly thicker scanlines. Also now uses the new “mask gamma” setting to display a slightly sharper mask overall.
Changed Slot Mask Height setting from 4 to 3 in 4k presets, also defaulted both “scanline saturation/ mask falloff” and “scanline falloff” settings to their original values giving the overall image a better look. 4k presets now look GLORIOUS.
Switched up the order of presets in the list. Previously it was neutral, j, u then pal. Now it’s neutral, u, j then pal to follow the same order as how it’s listed in the shader parameters under the “Phosphor” settings.
To sum everything up basically we’re going from this (previous shader pack settings):
to this:
Grab the new pack in the first post.
