VERY different from the shot above, as you can see. It’s much like the difference between running, say, a SNES game on an average 90’s CRT vs. on a PVM, as in both cases, the use of a sharper display causes more prominent scanlines, the difference being that on the case of VGA stuff, it also reveals the line-doubling something fierce, which may or may not be a good thing.
That said, actual 480p content, such as Dreamcast games, could benefit quite nicely still.
Thanks, this isn’t exactly how I expected it to look
I have to see how Prince of Persia looks on my monitor with original resolution and try to take some photos later. So far, I’ve mainly taking some photos of 240p with 120 Hz modelines. Mainly drives the point home that it looks very unlike your typical consumer TV I suppose.
The following 2 video clips show my CyberLab Mega Bezel Death To Pixels (Composite - Sharp) preset combined with the built-in Blargg NTSC Composite filter in the Genesis Plus GX core.
Note: Please download (don’t use preview) and loop for optimal viewing quality and experience. They should play fine using VLC Player, MX Player and MPC-HC.
#reference "CyberLab Mega Bezel Death To Pixels Composite Pure.slangp"
HSM_FAKE_SCANLINE_ROLL = "14.000000"
halation = "2.000000"
addnoised = "1.000000"
CyberLab Mega Bezel Death To Pixels 70s Bad RF Without Curvature.slangp
#reference "CyberLab Mega Bezel Death To Pixels Composite Pure.slangp"
HSM_FAKE_SCANLINE_OPACITY = "0.000000"
halation = "1.000001"
shadowMask = "4.000000"
addnoised = "1.000000"
What I’ve noticed is that display resolution has a huge influence on how these shaders look so I have a couple alternatives that might better suit lower resolution displays.
CyberLab Mega Bezel Death To Pixels 70s Bad RF - 1080p and 1440p.slangp
#reference "CyberLab Mega Bezel Death To Pixels Composite Pure.slangp"
HSM_FAKE_SCANLINE_OPACITY = "0.000000"
halation = "0.500000"
shadowMask = "4.000000"
addnoised = "0.70000"
CyberLab Mega Bezel Death To Pixels 70s RF - 1080p and 1440p.slangp
#reference "CyberLab Mega Bezel Death To Pixels Composite Pure.slangp"
HSM_FAKE_SCANLINE_ROLL = "14.000000"
halation = "1.700000"
addnoised = "0.700000"
Note: You’ll need to have both the "CyberLab Mega Bezel Death To Pixels Composite Pure.slangp" preset and the “CyberLab Mega Bezel Death To Pixels Composite Sharp.slangp” preset saved in the same “…\Retroarch\Shaders” folder for these presets to work.
You can get those presets as well as more screenshots and video clips here:
Figured I’d try and see what I can play around with on one of the Guest shaders, so I can at least understand what each section does (and it seems to run decent on my work laptop). Usually I just pick a shader and don’t touch options. Messed with some of the halation, and added noise - similar to @Cyber 's RF shaders (I think)
That looks pretty neat! I’m sure the screenshot looks noticeably different from the live preset in motion due to the use of noise. Have you observed this as well?
Well, do keep in mind everything I’ve said thus far applies ONLY to VGA games and CGA/EGA games running in VGA compatibility mode. Most CGA and EGA games originally ran at 320x200@60Hz, and so were proper 15KHz standards (the exception being EGA’s hi-res 640x350 mode, which was 24KHz), and so were their respective monitors, so it is not at all incorrect or inaccurate to display those games with 240p shaders or custom modelines on real PC CRTs (they will look quite a bit sharper than through their original period-correct monitors, though, as those were often essentially glorified TVs with RGB input).
However, once we got into the VGA era, even though VGA hardware was backwards compatible with both CGA and EGA, due to VGA monitors no longer being able to handle 15KHz (outside uncommon triple-sync monitors that could handle 15KHz, 24KHz, and 31KHz), it was made so CGA and EGA modelines were line-doubled and displayed at 70Hz refresh rate, which may introduce judder, as you might imagine. It wasn’t accurate, but hey, it got the job done back then! This is likely how many (most?) people remember and played CGA and EGA games, as many were often packaged on those old shareware CDs that made the rounds throughout the 90’s. Complicating things further is the fact that many DOS games actually let you choose from a variety of display modes, including CGA, EGA, Hercules, VGA, MCGA, Tandy, and PCJr. Prince of Persia is one such game, so honestly, it’s pretty much fair game to display it at 200p if you are so inclined.
Oh the still shot definitely doesn’t do it justice. Seeing your 70s RF presets in action on my home laptop (which runs it way better than my work one) gave me the inspiration to try similar things as a learning experience
Just to clarify, I’m perfectly aware of all that. None of those pictured games by me above are VGA games.
The gaps in that second PoP are just so large, I never recall any game looking like that, and indeed it looks on my monitor more like the first pic. Might be just another sign of it’s last days, it certainly used to be sharper (and brighter, but part of this is due to the photo.)
If I recall correctly, that picture was off of an aperture grille 19" LG Flatron, which explains why the gaps are so large. It’s probably TOO sharp for these old games. I like the look of your monitor better, even if it’s seen better days.
That’s why I started posting video clips. I first capture to H.264 using Geforce Experience then transcode to H.265 using Handbrake. You have to be really careful with the bitrates because too low a bitrate can cause the noise to just look smeared.
My video game recording and encoding settings:
GeForce Experience
I started with the High Quality preset then clicked Custom and set bitrate to 95Mbps.
I have a couple of screenshots using @guest.r masks 7 and 8 along with the white pixel active. First I should say that screen looks brighter and whites look white instead of grey (wooh!). Mask 8 has visible RGB (and white?) while 7 just looks greyscale and bright.
I like 7 with scanlines 2 and 8 with scanlines 0.
using cool color temp and tweaks borrowed from @Nesguy
Also, I may have deconvergence on.
Yeeeah that phosphor shape and definition still leaves something to be desired IMO.
On an aperture grille CRT (careful not to say “should!”), you never have phosphors that are horizontal rectangles, they’re always vertical rectangles or tiny squares.
I’m not really seeing distinct RGB phosphors, either. Looks like subpixel artifacts to me.
I think mask 7 looks better in this situation but maybe needs more strength over bright colors so it doesn’t fade as much. Just my two cents.
Oh and deconvergence will definitely interfere with any RGB mask, especially the aperture grille ones. It’s better used with black and white masks.
Notice the presence of what looks like ringing artifacts in parts of the image. The ringing that occurs with subtractive sharpness 1.00 and horizontal sharpness 3.00 isn’t any worse, as far as I can see.
I have to see how Prince of Persia looks on my monitor with original resolution and try to take some photos later. So far, I’ve mainly taking some photos of 240p with 120 Hz modelines. Mainly drives the point home that it looks very unlike your typical consumer TV I suppose.
