Please show off what crt shaders can do!

[ProfessorBraun]

Preset 2

shaders = "1"
shader0 = "D:\RetroArch\shaders\shaders_glsl\crt\shaders\crt-aperture.glsl"
filter_linear0 = "false"
wrap_mode0 = "clamp_to_border"
mipmap_input0 = "false"
alias0 = ""
float_framebuffer0 = "false"
srgb_framebuffer0 = "false"
parameters = "SHARPNESS_IMAGE;SHARPNESS_EDGES;GLOW_WIDTH;GLOW_HEIGHT;GLOW_HALATION;GLOW_DIFFUSION;MASK_COLORS;MASK_STRENGTH;MASK_SIZE;SCANLINE_SIZE_MIN;SCANLINE_SIZE_MAX;GAMMA_INPUT;GAMMA_OUTPUT;BRIGHTNESS"
SHARPNESS_IMAGE = "1.000000"
SHARPNESS_EDGES = "1.000000"
GLOW_WIDTH = "0.050000"
GLOW_HEIGHT = "0.050000"
GLOW_HALATION = "0.000000"
GLOW_DIFFUSION = "0.000000"
MASK_COLORS = "3.000000"
MASK_STRENGTH = "0.300000"
MASK_SIZE = "2.000000"
SCANLINE_SIZE_MIN = "0.500000"
SCANLINE_SIZE_MAX = "1.250000"
GAMMA_INPUT = "2.500000"
GAMMA_OUTPUT = "2.200000"
BRIGHTNESS = "1.000000"

[hunterk]

Try enclosing it in code brackets (the </> icon)

[ProfessorBraun]

Thanks!

[Nesguy]

Can you try this 2 presets on your 1080p screen and tell me how does it looks on it ?

Preset 1 looks like a pretty good approximation of a consumer-grade CRT. Looks nice at a normal backlight level on my display, although obviously you have to compromise on mask strength/accuracy to accomplish that. Preset 2 looks a little strange to me, though. Scanlines look like that on high TVL count CRTs (such as PVMs and BVMs), and you can’t really see the mask on such displays without pressing your nose to the screen. I’d probably just remove the mask in preset 2.

[ProfessorBraun]

Thanks for your feedbacks

Preset 2 looks a little strange to me

Yes I didn’t change the values ​​of the mask because I didn’t know what it would look like on another resolution than mine, so the values should be MASK_SIZE = "1.0 " , MASK_COLORS can be set to “2.0” but not required

[Linklyons]

Spent 6 hours modifying the CRT-Royale filter! It only looks good on my screen though for some reason?

Took forever to get the scan-lines just right, soft but not useless. As well as softening up the overall image with a very slight blur and washing out the colors a bit. This helps your eyes and feels how it did when I was growing up!

[hunterk]

That looks really good. Care to share your parameters?

[ProfessorBraun]

Nice pictures crt royale is a very good shader .

It only looks good on my screen though for some reason?

That’s normal ,libretro compress your image. Png pictures for crt royale can reach 7-8 mb depending resolution and games . Here’s an example with a 4k screen uploaded on libretro

And this time with non compressed picture https://ibb.co/Bw2NW40 ,and you still need to download file and open it with paint to have correct mask size and color (windows photo viewer uses profiles colors and change everything) cause it won’t looks good on browser. For the linux users i don’t know haha .See the differences ? Upload one on my link,it’s free

[Squalo]

Not trying to be realistic or anything this time. I just keep experimenting, and I’m constantly surprised with the things that can be done in RA. This is a ps1 (!) game.

And Dreamcast (!!)

[Nesguy]

I think this is probably my best attempt yet at emulating a low-res CRT in a realistic way.

-The scanlines strength has been maxed out. I’m using “sharp-bilinear-scanlines” for scanlines.

-The mask_dark setting is at 0.00

-mask_light is left at the default of 1.50. I can’t increase mask_light any further without it resulting in clipping with the aperture grille.

-tvout-tweaks signal resolution set to 480.00

-gamma corrected to 2.4

-as always, my backlight setting is at 100%

It’s still a bit dimmer than it should be compared to a CRT, but it’s pretty close, and there’s no way to match the brightness of the CRT without washing out the mask/scanlines, introducing a lot of bloom, or increasing the contrast (which results in clipping and color shifts). I’d rather just have a slightly dim image.

The below image looks absurdly dark unless viewed at full size and with the display backlight at 100%. I think it looks pretty great on my gaming display and on my iPhone screen with the backlight/brightness maxed out.

[ProfessorBraun]

Good job it looks good on my screen, and the image weighs 77.4 kb which makes it a very light preset which is good for those who have little power to emulate. Interesting fact that I observed: if we take two LCD screens (one small and one very big) that have the same characteristics (or almost equal: p) in brightness, contrast,same resolution ect but only the size of the screen varies and that we apply the same shader. The larger screen will always look brighter at a suitable distance. Maybe an optical illusion or a link with the size of the pixels I don’t know.In any case this preset is interesting

[Syh]

@ProfessorBraun It’s probably an optical illusion, my guess it has to do with emulated pixels becoming “larger” because extra screen area, causing “larger” bright areas.

Like how some of the screenshots look really dark unless they are displayed at full resolution, causing the image to display larger and brightening the image some.

[Linklyons]

I play at 2560x1440p, fullscreen with Integer Scale ON. Overscan x and y ON in the NEStopia core and also snes9x(default i believe).

Summary

beam_horiz_filter = “1.000000” beam_horiz_linear_rgb_weight = “0.920000” beam_horiz_sigma = “0.385000” beam_max_shape = “4.000000” beam_max_sigma = “0.195000” beam_min_shape = “2.000000” beam_min_sigma = “0.245000” beam_shape_power = “0.250000” beam_spot_power = “0.330000” bloom_excess = “0.000000” bloom_underestimate_levels = “0.800000” border_compress = “2.500000” border_darkness = “1.000000” border_size = “0.020000” convergence_offset_x_b = “0.000000” convergence_offset_x_g = “0.000000” convergence_offset_x_r = “0.000000” convergence_offset_y_b = “0.000000” convergence_offset_y_g = “0.000000” convergence_offset_y_r = “0.000000” crt_gamma = “2.500000” diffusion_weight = “0.000000” geom_aspect_ratio_x = “432.000000” geom_aspect_ratio_y = “329.000000” geom_mode_runtime = “0.000000” geom_overscan_x = “1.000000” geom_overscan_y = “1.000000” geom_radius = “10.000002” geom_tilt_angle_x = “0.000000” geom_tilt_angle_y = “0.000000” geom_view_dist = “2.500000” halation_weight = “0.000000” interlace_1080i = “0.000000” interlace_bff = “0.000000” lcd_gamma = “2.200000” levels_contrast = “0.796875” mask_num_triads_desired = “580.000000” mask_sample_mode_desired = “0.000000” mask_specify_num_triads = “1.000000” mask_triad_size_desired = “3.000000” mask_type = “1.000000”

mask_num_triads_desired is set to 580 for SNES and 540 for NES because for some reason when I set it to cut out overscan garbage on NES it kills the filter and it needs to be set to 540 to fix it.

I’m SUPER new to all this so forgive me.

I believe the only numbers monitor/resolution specific will be

levels_contrast = “0.796875” beam_horiz_linear_rgb_weight = “0.920000” mask_num_triads_desired = “580.000000”

if the scan lines look really broken try going up/down like 40~ on the mask_num_triads_desired setting until it lines up right. The contrast and color wash are preference and based on your monitors gamma anyway so you’ll need to lower and raise that for yourself.

Good luck!

[Nesguy]

The larger screen will always look brighter at a suitable distance

This is interesting; never noticed/thought about this before, but I think you’re right. It even seems like a windowed screenshot is dimmer than the exact same image displayed fullscreen on the same display.

I think this could have something to do with how the eye dilates in response to distance from the light source, but it probably also has something to do with a perceptual illusion.

Somewhat related: I’ve also noticed that a smaller display that is closer to you and occupies more of your visual field still seems subjectively smaller than a larger display at a greater distance that occupies less of your visual field. It’s like the brain subconsciously takes distance from the object into account when judging size and so the objectively larger display still seems larger even when it occupies less of your field of vision. This makes sense because it’s correct, but it’s also kind of weird that a display that occupies more of your field of vision can seem smaller. Brains are weird like that.

[Squalo]

More color corrections: this time, CPS1.

This is how Cadillacs & Dinosaurs has always looked emulated, on lcds at least

and this is how it should look, I think

[Nesguy]

I’m noticing some strange stuff going on with the masks in some of these shots which I’m not sure is intentional. For reference, here is what a CRT’s RGB mask looks like up close. This is a slot-mask type CRT displaying what I assume is a 480i signal, so no scanlines. If you remove the black lines separating the individual phosphors, you get an aperture grille.

Notice how the phosphors are red, blue and green and vary only in how bright they are. The color white is made up of R, G, and B all at 100%. When you’re at the right viewing distance from the screen, the light from the phosphors blends together and makes the correct color. This is another reason why proper viewing distance is critical when doing CRT emulation. With the settings shown in my previous post, you have to move back a bit for it to look right- but this makes sense since you’re emulating a lower-resolution display. It looks as rough up close as an actual low-res CRT would at that distance.

[Syh]

@Squalo Why do you do this to me, you show me pretty colors but never paint the picture?

I’m complaining about settings, lol.

[Linklyons]

the post you responded to was a response to someone else asking for the details, the original post I posted has the shader name (crt-royal) and integer scale on, resolution, and other settings that effect it like overscan all answered already. the core name is also in there (NEStopia and snes9x)

[Syh]

I apologise, I actually read both of your posts, just at different times… So I kinda spaced the first post.

Also I just want to let you know I wasn’t complaining about you or anyone else for not posting settings, etc.

I was just saying it’d be cool if everyone did this, it’d making testing other peoples set-ups easier.

EDIT: Also I removed my original post because it came off a little doucheeeeeee, lol. Again I apologise.

[Jamirus]

Yeah, color is definitely an issue on emulated CRTs as well. Until a short time ago, I thought this was mostly a thing affecting Konami (e.g. Violent Storm) and some Sega arcade stuff (e.g. E-Swat), because they look really odd on emulated screenshots and feeding that raw output to my TV without tuning gamma didn’t change that. But once you’re sensitive to it, it becomes obvious that a lot of other arcade games benefit from some adjustments in that regard. Other platforms have their own issues as well of course e.g. the whole subject about NTSC color artifacting.