New sonkun crt guest advanced hd presets thread

[sonkun]

I think I’ve gotten a little closer to achieving a cleaner looking composite image. So I decided to take the guest hd shader and combine it with the new ntsc adaptive shader and came up with some interesting results.

Here’s my previous composite preset using guest ntsc from my recent sample pack:

Here’s with guest hd combined with ntsc adaptive:

Here’s another another comparison shot.

Previous preset:

New preset:

Other composite screenies:

Try the presets out here: https://www.mediafire.com/file/l5a4og9w1x1y4gg/sonkun-crt-guest-advanced-composite-preset-samples-08-20-2024.zip/file

Copy and place presets in the shaders folder not shaders_slang.

In those Castlevania shots the colors pop a bit more and I can see a bit more detail in dark background pixels. I think I might stick with this look going forward, let’s see what you guys think.

[bactino]

good jobs

[DukeSkinny]

I feel that the blues of the wooden planks in the first comparison shot are more properly blended with the old preset. The ones on the left look especially sus with the new one.

[sonkun]

You might be right. I like the fact I can actually SEE the patterns on those planks now. One thing I do notice more now is a slight “halo-ish” glow around pixel edges, I think they’ve always been there even on my older presets but it seems they’re more revealed now with this combination.

[c9f5fdda06]

Nice work, sonkun I can see that the picture is brighter and more colorful – it’s a pleasant change.

[sonkun]

Thank you I appreciate it. I was about to get started putting together a full pack for release but something told me to go back and tweak again. That’s when I remembered a long time ago I did this same combination but this was long before guest.r added in the “taps” settings to the ntsc shader. Now with those taps settings combined with the vibrance of guest advanced hd this is the result.

That Ecco shot above is something I’ve always wanted to do, a full blended dithering image while still being vibrant plus remaining sharp/smooth. I’ve been on a mission to try and make my rgb and composite presets “twins” of each other looking just alike except one deals with full blended dithering while the other doesn’t and this combination brings me one step closer to that. My s-video presets came close to that since I added in the “sgenpt-mixmultpass” shader pass to deal with checkerboard dithering as a “bonus” but it doesn’t deal with vertical line dithering “Sonic waterfall”.

This new composite look is definitely a new phase for me, I’m kind of excited to unleash it to the world soon lol. Hopefully I can try and find a way to reduce that “halo” around certain pixels then it would be perfect.

[Superdonkeyjack]

I can’t wait to see your RF presets.

[sonkun]

They should come out looking clean as well. I put together a quick fix for that “halo” effect by just rearranging two settings, change FSharpen - Sharpen Strength to 1.00 and FSharpen - Sharpen Contrast/Ringing to 0.25.

With that you’ll go from this:

To this:

You do lose a bit of color “popness” but I guess it’s an acceptable trade off to get rid of that effect. If that effect doesn’t bother as much then I guess raising FSharpen - Sharpen Strength to about 1.50 or somewhere between there would bring some of that color popness back. I may settle on about 1.20 or 1.30 or just leave it at 1.00 to play it safe.

Another alternative is FSharpen - Sharpen Strength at 5.00 and - Sharpen Contrast/Ringing at 0.01. I’m not sure which gives better results as far as color popness, I’d have to test it out on different games but I’ll end up using one or the other for the full release it seems.

[Superdonkeyjack]

Looks amazing. I can’t wait.

[sonkun]

Thanks. I’m trying to see if I can find another way to get rid of that “ring halo” effect while keeping the image looking like my initial post, I love how the colors popped there. I lost a small but good amount of that vibrance just to reduce that halo effect, I’m not sure what other method could possibly work though.

[RetroGames4K]

The first image looks better to me. Your settings are really good.

[sonkun]

Thank you. Man I feel the same way, for the past day or two I’ve been trying out different methods to try and keep that look but get rid of the ringing effect around pixels but everything I’ve came up with had some other detrimental effect elsewhere. I think I pushed guest ntsc passed its limits to a level it shouldn’t be at lol. I ended up settling for the “FSharpen - Sharpen Strength to 1.00 and FSharpen - Sharpen Contrast/Ringing to 0.25” switch up and now reworking my 4k presets.

Speaking of 4k presets if anyone that strictly uses the 4k presets wants to try the new look I’m working on try loading up a 4k preset from one of the sample packs above then change these settings in the parameters:

Scanline Type: 1.00, Increased Bright Scanline Beam: 1.00, Mask gamma: 2.00 (or 2.20 or 2.40)

Settings 2 im also experimenting with:

Scanline Type: -1.00, Increased Bright Scanline Beam: 1.00, Mask gamma: 2.40 (default setting)

With those settings I’m trying to get 4k to look like my 1080p presets since I like how those look the most. After I’m done messing with 4k I’ll probably tweak the warm/cool presets then start getting everything ready for a full release.

4k screenies

Slot Mask:

Super-Metroid-Japan-USA-240824-150311 hosted at ImgBB

Aperture Grille:

Super-Metroid-Japan-USA-240824-150347 hosted at ImgBB

Shadow Mask:

Super-Metroid-Japan-USA-240824-150449 hosted at ImgBB

[sonkun]

@guest.r So I was today years old when I found out there was another Slot Mask settings combination I could use at 4k resolution:

Crt mask: 10.00, Crt mask size: 2.00, Crt mask zoom: -2.00, Slot mask width: 8.00, Slot mask height: 4.00

Works for both Slot Mask

xmcota-240825-180707 hosted at ImgBB

And Aperture Grille

xmcota-240825-180801 hosted at ImgBB

With those settings I can also set the “mask gamma” to 1.00 as well. Using mask 12 with mask gamma at 1.00 and mask zoom at -1.00 gives me this weird “greenish” color tint on the image, with this alternative combination the colors look the way I expect them too. Might end up using these settings don’t know, still messing about.

Now I wonder if there’s a alternative Shadow Mask combination I can use with mask 10 at 4k resolution besides the one I’m currently using with the settings crt mask - 6.00, mask size - 4.00, mask zoom - -4.00.

[Cyber]

@sonkun

So I was today years old when I found out there was another Slot Mask settings combination I could use at 4k resolution:

Crt mask: 10.00, Crt mask size: 2.00, Crt mask zoom: -2.00, Slot mask width: 8.00, Slot mask height: 4.00

This is also a good way to get rid of moire patterns in many cases, especially due to curvature and insufficient resolution.

What it does is it raises the TVL and helps the “phosphors” to be better aligned especially with the edges of text and graphical elements.

I actually measured and counted the triads in the arcade version (or it could have been the SNES version on a JVC D-Series) of (Super) Ghouls and Ghosts and Mask 10 at 4K was actually more authentic than Mask 12 at 4K when it came to matching the triad size of the actual screen.

It’s what formed the basis of my Le’Sarsh_4K_Optimized presets as well as my Fine presets and how I was able to have no issues with moire whatsoever when using my CyberLab Special Edition Presets which feature bezels of a similar size to some of Duimon’s TV presets.

I’m pretty sure I shared this info in the forums a while ago.

You can take a look here:

Please show off what crt shaders can do!

turboxray PCE hires_slideshow_1.pce using CyberLab_Turbo_Duo_S-Video_Slot_Mask_IV_OLED_NTSC_II.slangp (1080p Optimized) + CFRS_Mini_TV.slangp (1080p Optimized @ 4K) [hires_slideshow_1-230704-124733] For proper viewing do not use preview. Download before playing. Requires 4K display for full fidelity. Click on the link below to download: turboxray PCE hires_slideshow_1.pce using CyberLab_Turbo_Duo_S-Video_Slot_Mask_IV_OLED_NTSC_II.slangp (1080p Optimized) + CFRS_Mini_TV Credits: Title them…

Please show off what crt shaders can do!

turboxray PCE hires_slideshow_1.pce using CyberLab_Turbo_Duo_Composite_Slot_Mask_IV_OLED_NTSC + CFRS_Mega_TV.slangp [hires_slideshow_1-230704-151754] For proper viewing do not use preview. Download before playing. Requires 4K display for full fidelity. Click on the link below to download: turboxray PCE hires_slideshow_1.pce using CyberLab_Turbo_Duo_Composite_Slot_Mask_IV_OLED_NTSC + CFRS_Mega_TV Credits: Title theme for Blazing Lazers (also known as Gunhed) for the TurboGrafx-16, composed…

[guest.r]

Yes, mask zoom seems to work very nicely with mask 10 with size 2. I would only endorse setting slotmask width on auto, because it works with mask zoom on-the-fly and the presets are much easier to tweak.

A very good alternative is also mask 6, as well as with mask size increased as with mask zoom.

[sonkun]

@guest.r

A very good alternative is also mask 6, as well as with mask size increased as with mask zoom.

I also discovered the mask 6 settings yesterday as well, forgot to mention it. I never knew there were multiple combinations to achieve results. Those mask 10 settings make the colors pop at 4k for Slot Mask and Aperture, I’m definitely going with those settings. The last one I’m dealing with now is Shadow Mask.

I discovered some new settings last night for Shadow at 4k using mask 10, I believe size 4 and I also believe mask zoom at -2. I’m not home atm to confirm my memory. For some reason I’m having a hard time getting the colors to look close to how it looks with Slot/Aperture. I’ll have to play around some more when I get home.

At least I’m almost done tweaking. Once I finish with 4k Shadow settings then I’ll probably play with warm/cool presets to see if I wanna change those up then it’s time to release this baby.

[sonkun]

New Version Release (08-31-2024)

Changes Made

• Uses guest.r shader version 2024-09-07-r1.

• Tweaked a bunch of tint color settings within the “grade” shader to give the overall image a new look. The contrast setting that use to give Linux users a black screen has been disabled. Increased saturation by a bit.

• All previous “rf megadrive/composite megadrive rainbow” presets have been replaced with a new setup. Now you can find them under just the standard rf presets and composite “rainbow-artifacts” presets bringing the total number of presets per folder down from 63 to 45.

• NTSC rf and composite presets that used the “guest-advanced-ntsc” shader have been replaced with “guest-advanced-hd” now combined with the updated “ntsc-adaptive” shader (brings the colors out a bit more).

• 4k presets have new crt mask settings (they look better now).

• Changed interlace mode on all presets (no more “shaking” screens on interlaced games). Also increased the “vertical filter range” setting in s-video/rgb presets to help smooth out interlaced games/content (Marvel vs Capcom 2 etc).

• Switched up curvature screen settings.

• Rearranged and toned down brightness/glow/halation settings (still get a bright image though).

• Random small changes to deconvergence and rf noise settings.

All images are from the composite preset except Donkey Kong, The King of Fighters 98 and Marvel Vs Capcom, those use the RGB preset:

Grab the pack in the first post.

This update has been a long time coming. This time around I wanted a bit more of saturated image compared to my last pack, overall just wanted to try something new so I hope you all enjoy the new look.

[bactino]

Good Jobs Nice u-normal-rf

[sonkun]

Thank you. I tried to make it look clean and sh*tty looking at the same time lol. Definitely has a lot of chroma scaling/bleeding going on there.

[ynnad4]

hey there, hello again buddy. Thanks to keep up the work into this project.

Is this a new feature being part from NTSC adaptive? I thought it was a new bug but never have seen this behavior before. The Rainbow is only reaching till the top of mountains like you can see in this picture.

This is the RF warm preset i think.