Please show off what crt shaders can do!

Obsolete · 9 August 2025 09:23

Hey there!

Tweaked some shader for Win98 SVGA on the awesome DOSBox-Pure fork, and found the new VGA doublescan setting in the resolution section of CRT-Guest was working quite nicely with 480p content (despite not being its intended use I guess, XD).

It also seems that JINC2 and the slight NTSC blurring is doing quite well with those old fog of war checkerboard patterns of the 2D games of that era. So almost 30 year later I can now play Diablo with transparency effects… Which is really cool as I’m a bit disappointed with the remasters and enhanced versions of those games being way too much zoomed out for modern resolutions.

Shader available here for 4K if you want to try it : https://mega.nz/file/aIYhGC7B#zA_8SjQOYr3Pt5pIk-XahYinBv40f78k6J2m-vQXFY0 But you can tweak the mask size to fit your resolution or liking.

Here’s a comparison with raw pixels on the left and a translucent wall.

It also works with the GOAT…

Also, related to my previous post, here’s a 3D video of the PS2 copter arcade game City Crisis modded for 3DTV or VR. Youtube app can also display the video for red cyan 3D glasses, or in normal 2D. The upload is fresh, 4K is still processing, so give it some time if you want to watch that with a headset and YoutubeVR.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Dy-LwR79k4

RetroGames4K · 11 August 2025 15:01

Also I’m tweaking my last brighter preset, so the image looks more natural…

oldpainless · 17 August 2025 08:05

RetroGames4K · 17 August 2025 23:29

PU786 · 18 August 2025 01:19

Can anyone (or any shaders) explain why I don’t remember the gray pixels in Diddy Kong’s sprite back in 1995?

kokoko3k · 25 August 2025 08:05

koko-aio/Presets-ng/Monitor-Screen_Hmask-Screen_SlotMask_Taller_Brightest.slangp

Cyber · 27 August 2025 20:31

Interesting, I like the relative evenness of the alignment between the slot mask and the scanlines.

However this is a Magenta-Green Mask. It’s supposed to show as RGB on the display once used correctly, isn’t it?

Can you post some photos of the screen to show if it actually looks RGB in person?

Cyber · 27 August 2025 20:33

Maybe you were too busy trying to beat the game to go sniffing around at RGB phosphor triads and pixels to notice something like that.

How many photos of the screen or screenshots do you remember taking or looking at back in 1995?

Cyber · 27 August 2025 21:07

CyberLab Megatron miniLED 4K HDR Game BFI Turbo Duo_DC 3D Comb Filter Shadow Mask Epic.slangp

CAR9x8x

bactino · 28 August 2025 16:36

@Cyber
#reference "shaders_slang/crt/crt-guest-advanced-ntsc.slangp"
CP = "4.000000"
TNTC = "1.000000"
WP = "0.000000"
contr = "0.000000"
BP = "0.000000"
vigstr = "0.200000"
vigdef = "1.000000"
cust_artifacting = "0.200000"
cust_fringing = "0.200000"
ntsc_scale = "1.500000"
ntsc_sat = "1.200000"
ntsc_bright = "1.000000"
ntsc_gamma = "1.200000"
ntsc_taps = "16.000000"
ntsc_charp = "6.500000"
ntsc_charp3 = "5.500000"
ntsc_cscale = "1.700000"
ntsc_cscale1 = "1.450000"
ntsc_sharp = "-2.000000"
CSHARPEN = "1.000000"
gamma_out = "2.400000"
info02 = "1.000000"
intres = "1.000000"
m_glow = "1.500000"
FINE_GLOW = "2.000000"
FINE_BLOOM = "2.000000"
mask_bloom = "0.500000"
halation = "0.130000"
gamma_c = "0.800000"
gamma_c2 = "1.250000"
gsl = "1.000000"
tds = "1.000000"
warpX = "0.040000"
warpY = "0.050000"
csize = "0.020000"
bsize1 = "0.010000"
shadowMask = "6.000000"
maskstr = "0.850000"
maskboost = "1.500000"
mask_gamma = "2.500000"
slotmask = "0.500000"
slotmask1 = "1.000000"
smask_mit = "0.500000"
bmask = "0.030000"
mclip = "0.100000"
maskmid = "0.500000"
edgemask = "0.100000"
dctypex = "0.750000"
dctypey = "0.750000"
deconrr = "0.200000"
deconrg = "-0.200000"
deconrb = "0.200000"
deconrry = "-0.200000"
deconrgy = "0.200000"
deconrby = "-0.200000"
decons = "1.500000"
post_br = "1.000000"

Amélioration:

#reference "shaders_slang/crt/crt-guest-advanced-ntsc.slangp"
CP = "4.000000"
TNTC = "1.000000"
WP = "0.150000"
contr = "0.000000"
BP = "0.000000"
vigstr = "0.200000"
vigdef = "1.000000"
cust_artifacting = "0.200000"
cust_fringing = "0.200000"
ntsc_scale = "1.500000"
ntsc_sat = "1.300000"
ntsc_bright = "1.000000"
ntsc_gamma = "1.200000"
ntsc_taps = "16.000000"
ntsc_charp = "5.000000"
ntsc_charp3 = "4.500000"
ntsc_cscale = "1.700000"
ntsc_cscale1 = "1.450000"
ntsc_sharp = "-2.000000"
CSHARPEN = "1.000000"
gamma_out = "2.200000"
info02 = "1.000000"
intres = "1.000000"
m_glow = "1.200000"
FINE_GLOW = "1.500000"
FINE_BLOOM = "1.500000"
mask_bloom = "0.500000"
halation = "0.200000"
gamma_c = "0.850000"
gamma_c2 = "1.200000"
gsl = "1.000000"
tds = "1.000000"
warpX = "0.030000"
warpY = "0.040000"
csize = "0.025000"
bsize1 = "0.010000"
shadowMask = "6.000000"
maskstr = "0.700000"
maskboost = "1.300000"
mask_gamma = "2.100000"
slotmask = "0.350000"
slotmask1 = "1.000000"
smask_mit = "0.500000"
bmask = "0.050000"
mclip = "0.100000"
maskmid = "0.500000"
edgemask = "0.100000"
dctypex = "0.750000"
dctypey = "0.750000"
deconrr = "0.200000"
deconrg = "-0.200000"
deconrb = "0.200000"
deconrry = "-0.200000"
deconrgy = "0.200000"
deconrby = "-0.200000"
decons = "2.000000"
post_br = "1.000000"

Cyber · 29 August 2025 21:19

Thanks @bactino , if possible and you have a camera wth pro/manual controls/mode. You can set the Shutter Speed to 1/60 or 1/30 (for NTSC), lower the ISO to 100 - 150 and go close to the screen and capture something white or grey. That should allow the subpixels/phosphors to be revealed clearly.

Those pics look decent from a normal viewing distance but I still can’t see what is happening with the green and magenta at the subpixel level.

Obsolete · 30 August 2025 21:37

Hey there!

This week I’ve played a bit on my oldest computer, an obsolete potato of a 12 yo Athlon X2 with a Radeon HD7770 I use as a seedbox with a Ubuntu install as old as the metal it’s on. For some reason the proper AMD driver is not installed anymore and I didnt even bother to reinstall it yet. So using Retroarch with shaders like CRT-Royale was way too demanding to the point of making the whole PC freeze. And I was stuck with OpenGL. No Vulkan.

So here I am with a tweaked glslp preset. Its goal is to upscale VGA or SVGA, with Jinc2-sharp dedithering, ScaleFX edge-smoothing, and a lightning fast yet still great looking Hyllian3D, bringing the grain back. Always loved those Hyllian shaders, thanks you so much for them!

Here’s the preset and a screenshot on 1440p but you can adjust the Y-res multiplier and the Mask size in the shader’s parameters to your liking or your resolution. https://mega.nz/file/iMID1K4Y#iuyfwj40xJkRFyMz0UGXgPqBWp1hmvB6mRkgIh-6Teg

And here’s a side by side raw vs wet comparison, specially showcasing the dedithering effect on the horse’s shadow.

oldpainless · 8 September 2025 13:56

kokoko3k · 8 September 2025 18:00

I think you should really start making a repo with 4k presets man.

md2mcb · 9 September 2025 18:19

Really gorgeous. Nice work.

Obsolete · 13 September 2025 18:33

Hey there!

This week I revisited 1991’s Civilization, a childhood game I only managed to beat now that I’m old and wize enough in all that concerns videogames. And finally read that 200 pages manual… That game who taught me all I know about history, and so I’m glad to relive the accurate rise of the Aztec civilization who reached for the stars in 1931 and left us on earth since then. I managed to take a screenshot of their glorious capitol city, Tenochtitlan, and its renowned suspended gardens, its great wall, Hoover dam and J.S. Bach Cathedral. Those guys truly were ahead of their times.

Here’s the shader preset I used in 4K, CRT-Guest with JINC2 and ScaleFX prepended:

https://mega.nz/file/uZ4DmCyA#UzbhXt_3PHYrXqvRsvNOdceiabenGO7qugdYLqVrXA0

And here it is in movement showcasing the very “Star Trek” like intro of the game, running with the awesome munt emulating a Roland MT32 sound module in DOSBoxPure. And the Alpha Centauri ending, because that’s the game’s sequel I’m gonna play next (and one of my favourite games in the 4X genre, with Age of Wonders and Endless Legend).

https://youtu.be/L5QC3ShZE9Y

Nesguy · 13 September 2025 22:09

I played the hell out of that game on my middle school’s computers, along with SimCity 2000

md2mcb · 13 September 2025 22:54

Congratulations. It’s really nice when games have some creativity and present new scenarios. I imagine you must have had a hell of a good time beating it.

DariusG · 13 September 2025 23:04

Had a “side copy” on an Amiga 500, unable to save, so i was leaving the machine on during sleep and continue the next morning lol. Civilization is the game i have spend the most time playing, probably many thousands of hours, nowadays playing the DOS version of course. Brilliant game. A whole world in a couple of disks

Cyber · 15 September 2025 09:42

Best viewed in fullscreen or zoomed in, in HDR mode or on a screen with bright settings for the full effect. You can download the .jxr files as well for proper HDR viewing.

CyberLab Megatron miniLED 4K HDR Game BFI Turbo Duo_DC 3D Comb Filter Shadow Mask Epic CAR9x8x.slangp

.jxr image file with HDR image as well as SDR image with HDR to SDR tonemapping