Do you mean scanline dark way down?
I definitely agree that raising scanline bright and lowering scanline dark will cause problems with most games (clipping, eye strain, difficulty seeing detail in dark areas), so you may be right about needing a new shader, but guest-dr-venom is the best one we currently have. It’s possible that Royale or guest-sm might be more dynamic; still haven’t gotten around to testing those yet.
@Nesguy Yes, I edited my post to be more coherent. Any amount of added bloom kills things on the bright end. If you have time try out my edits on the venom shader. From the few games I have tested it keeps the dynamic range with introducing to much banding.
shaders = "10"
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parameters = "TNTC;CP;CS;WP;wp_saturation;SW;AR;PR;AG;PG;AB;PB;sat;lsmooth;GAMMA_INPUT;TAPSH;GLOW_FALLOFF_H;TAPSV;GLOW_FALLOFF_V;TATE;IOS;OS;BLOOM;brightboost;brightboost1;gsl;scanline1;scanline2;beam_min;beam_max;beam_size;h_sharp;s_sharp;csize;bsize;warpX;warpY;glow;shadowMask;masksize;vertmask;slotmask;slotwidth;double_slot;slotms;mcut;maskDark;maskLight;CGWG;gamma_out;spike;inter;interm;bloom;scans"
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SamplerLUT1_linear = "true"
SamplerLUT1_wrap_mode = "clamp_to_border"
SamplerLUT1_mipmap = "false"
SamplerLUT2 = "shaders_slang/crt/shaders/guest/lut/sony_trinitron2.png"
SamplerLUT2_linear = "true"
SamplerLUT2_wrap_mode = "clamp_to_border"
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SamplerLUT3_linear = "true"
SamplerLUT3_wrap_mode = "clamp_to_border"
SamplerLUT3_mipmap = "false"Will definitely check this out sometime this evening. I notice you have scanline type set to 0, is that correct?
Yes. After testing, the other values cause to much banding. For example Super Mario World or almost any arcade vertical shooter.
Mask type 5 will cause banding, and only scanline type 2 comes close to matching the beam width variation on an actual CRT (I demonstrated all of this a while back in the CRT shader thread, but good luck finding it now, lol). I recommend one of the following:
Here’s what color bars look like with my suggested settings; as you can see, there’s no banding. I’m not sure how to replicate the problem you’re describing. Can you try my posted settings and provide a screenshot showing the issue?
Maybe it has to do with how he is scaling the image?
@Syh You are correct. I always forget something. On some systems integer scaling makes the image quite small but it does fix the banding. There is always a trade off.
@Nesguy I am curious the difference between scanline 0 and 2. The beam on scanline type 0 width’s look the same as 2 if you maximize the scanline dark, light and scanline beam shape high, low on scanline. The biggest difference seems to be in the color and that type 0 gives more dynamic range.
@Syh good catch.
Try vertical scale 5x and a custom width for the horizontal to get a 4:3 ratio (1494 x 1120, for example). This crops the image somewhat but still displays the entire “CRT safe area,” which is the area meant to be displayed by CRTs (all CRTs cropped the image by varying amounts).
I’ll have to look into type 0 some more tomorrow, but I did try playing around with scanline bright and scanline dark some. Also got MAME working but I seriously need to go to bed now 
Try these changes to my settings.
-scanline dark 1.35
-scanline bright 0.65
@BendBombBoom I was asking because some integer scales will cause what I’m going to refer to as pseudo-banding. (Banding that doesn’t actually exist and is entirely an optical illusion). In some cases the banding is completely real and the scale just makes it more noticeable/prominent.
Resized this image to 320*240, opened in retroarch image viewer, adjusted gamma etc to be able to tell the bright shades and i can clearly see the clouds in most shaders.
https://www.deviantart.com/ah-teen/art/CRT-Calibration-Chart-38169353
Have you tried Fudoh’s 240p test suite? I’m just wondering if there’s any significant difference at all between this image and the gray ramp in test suite.
Also, it would be really helpful if you’d post a screenshot of Outrun demonstrating your results and post your shader settings.
Man, I have no idea what you guys are talking about lol.
Banding is when two shades in a gradient almost merge, I think you guys are talking about uneven scanlines though, which has more to do with aliasing (what I call pseudo-aliasing when the scanlines are actually perfect).
It would be helpful if people posted screenshots of problems that they’re having.
I know what band is, and I’m not having banding issues, lol.
I was giving possible reasons for booms banding issues.
I just don’t get how integer scaling could affect that. Do you have an example?
I had the best results when using crt-geom with image-adjustment before that, so i could adjust contrast and brightness (lower contrast of course). Later i will try to upload a screenshot, because for some reason if i try to take screenshots in vulkan i get a crash from retroarch (nvidia GTX 1070). Only in windowed mode (print screen), some shaders able to take screenshots though.
It’s not so much that it would cause it but if the image is bigger it can be more noticeable if that makes any sense.
@Nesguy Ya, I’m mixing up the terms. I get uneven scanlines without NO interger scaling and scanline type 2 and a lot less with 0. I’ll post some picks if I get something that I think is working well with dynamic range.
this is guest.r shader with Lottes mask GAMMA_INPUT = “2.600000” beam_min = “2.100000” beam_max = “0.900000” maskDark = “0.750000” maskLight = “1.850000” gamma_out = “2.200000”
tested also on my Wii (mame2000) on Trinitron CRT, the clouds are much more visible in this screenshot than the CRT, they are barely visible there
@DariusG that’s one way to go about it but I think it’s preferable to leave gamma alone.
@BendBombBoom I think type 0 is designed for non-integer scaling, maybe. I know that scanlines at non-integer scales is something Guest was particularly interested in addressing. I still recommend type 2 because it’s the most realistic and the beam width variation gives greater depth to the image. At 1080p I recommend 1494x1120 or 1600x1200 or 1600x1120 depending on the game/system. It crops the image but everything meant to be displayed is still displayed.
@rafan let me know what you think of the screenshot below and if it meets your approval I’ll update my suggested settings.
Okay, so I finally got MAME working
Here are my original settings after adjusting scanline dark to 1.30 and scanline bright to 0.70. I didn’t want to exaggerate things too much, just wanted all the detail in the clouds to be visible.
color bars, just for kicks:
Previously, adjusting the scanline bright/dark parameters resulted in clipping; I’m not sure what I’m doing differently now but clipping is no longer an issue, as you can see.
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SamplerLUT1_mipmap = "false"
SamplerLUT2 = "shaders_slang/crt/shaders/guest/lut/sony_trinitron2.png"
SamplerLUT2_linear = "true"
SamplerLUT2_wrap_mode = "clamp_to_border"
SamplerLUT2_mipmap = "false"
SamplerLUT3 = "shaders_slang/crt/shaders/guest/lut/other1.png"
SamplerLUT3_linear = "true"
SamplerLUT3_wrap_mode = "clamp_to_border"
SamplerLUT3_mipmap = "false"
This is an interesting observation.
crt-mathias with image-adjustment before, clouds are barely visible just like my CRT
crt-geom with image-adjustment before