Please show off what crt shaders can do!

[Cyber]

@RetroGames4K

Realistic vs realistic + mask bloom

If only there was a third option that sat right in the middle. I think the primaries look a bit dark in the first screenshot, even if trying to emulate real CRT Phosphors.

Not sure if that’s how it looks on your CRT. I’d lean just slightly to the brighter side even if that were the case.

Do remember that Bright Boost does not affect the Mask and there’s also Gamma C and Post CRT Brightness.

Mask Bloom tends to always dilute the Mask. If I had your CRT screen I’d probably be trying to see if any of that dilutuon also takes place when viewing light colours on the CRT or if its something that only takes place in overexposed or out of focus photos of CRT screens.

[kokoko3k]

Technically, bloom has to by nature as it happens in the eye or camera.
Point is how much your eye needs to adapt to the strong light, but in the meantime all is whitened.

It is hard to be conscious of it, there would be the need of another camera pointed to the pupuil

I think it makes sense when you want to emulate a bright crt on a dull lcd only; btw in koko-aio, I’ve set that time to about 1sec by default;

[RetroGames4K]

@Cyber

Do remember that Bright Boost does not affect the Mask and there’s also Gamma C and Post CRT Brightness.

Thanks for the tip, I wasn’t using Mask Boost, I though it did affect. I raised Mask boost, and looks really good. Thanks. Here’s an example: Bare mask + no mask bloom, vs bare mask + 0,05 Mask bloom.

[RetroGames4K]

Also a Snes pic. I think this time this is a balanced one, with only bare mask without bloom, mask bloom, halation, etc. Only with mask boost and post brightness. What do you think? You can zoom in to see the strong masks…

[guest.r]

My 300 nits display isn’t bright enough for a proper experience, but it might look better on an OLED with double brightness etc.

Brightness loss from masks at full strength and scanlines is about 80% here.

Using too much of brightness boosters and post brightness clips the colors though. I suggest some mask mitigation (maks bloom…) nevertheless, if it’s too bright or inconvenient for an user he might still lower the values.

[RetroGames4K]

@guest.r

Using too much of brightness boosters and post brightness clips the colors though. I suggest some mask mitigation (maks bloom…) nevertheless, if it’s too bright or inconvenient for an user he might s

Yes, I see, I like Mask bloom though, but is it posible to you to implement in the shader negative values?, So it doesn’t expose the black gaps of th slotmask?

[guest.r]

It’s possible, yes. Nice idea…

Meanwhile you can try ordinary mask mitigation (lower mask strength) and set slotmask strengths to full. It’s also a good test case to see how it would look with “negative” mask bloom.

[RetroGames4K]

@guest.r

Meanwhile you can try ordinary mask mitigation (lower mask strength) and set slotmask strengths to full. It’s also a good test case to see how it would look with “negative” mask bloom.

I already use slot mask mitigation, it’s set to 0,10, is that the ordinary one? I will try to lower mask strenght then, but how much shall I lower it down? More or less …

[guest.r]

If you use mask bloom you can leave slotmask at full strenghts, that’s the idea. Otherwise just tweak the parameters untill you really like the settings.

[RetroGames4K]

This is how it looks adding mask bloom 0.15 + bloom distribution 2.75, that’s why I asked about negative values so the blacks would look better. Masks all are at full strength.

[RetroGames4K]

[guest.r]

@RetroGames4K

This is how it looks adding mask bloom 0.15 + bloom distribution 2.75, that’s why I asked about negative values so the blacks would look better. Masks all are at full strength.

You might be doing it the wrong way. Bloom distribution is better set to 1.0 or similar, because greater values eat away masks at lower brightness sections.

The idea behind mask mitigation (mask bloom…) is to increase brightness of brighter colors by allowing it. For less brighter colors gamma correct or brightboost dark colors should do a much nicer job because the mask strenght will be near 100% and you will still get good contrast.

This is almost the only way to have normal brightness, contrast, strong mask appearance and no clipping on an normal desktop display, calibrated for gaming and every day use.

[RetroGames4K]

@guest.r

The idea behind mask mitigation (mask bloom…) is to increase brightness of brighter colors by allowing it. For less brighter colors gamma correct or brightboost dark colors should do a much nicer job because the mask strenght will be near 100% and you will still get good contrast.

Thanks for the tip. Does it look better now?

[Cyber]

CyberLab_Arcade_Shadow_Mask_Smooth_Neo-GX_Ultra

Tap on image then zoom in for best viewing. Desktop users, right click then Open in New Tab, then press F11 for FullScreen. Non 4K users, zoom in until it looks correct.

[guest.r]

@RetroGames4K

hanks for the tip. Does it look better now?

It looks better, indeed. But it really depends from the display brightness. Personally i would add like 0.05 to mask bloom and +0.10 to post brightness.

[RetroGames4K]

Done it! Looks really good, thanks.

[Cyber]

Great job man! The integrity of the mask has been preserved!

[RetroGames4K]

@Cyber

Great job man! The integrity of the mask has been preserved!

Thanks to you and @guest.r for the tips and help! I was struggling with brightness and bloom mask. Now I will upload the setting on my thread, and I hope you enjoy it!! Soon i will update 4K too.

[RetroGames4K]

Already added the 1080p settings on my thread, this time the pack is only with settings. I decided not to include the whole Retroarch.

[DariusG]

Some screens on an old Redmi Note 3 pro (the snapdragon version)