Looks great!
What shader is the vertical one, I noticed it has vertical scanlines.
2 Likes
I tried not to do too many screenshots this time.
Here’s some changes to my normal preset, after some tinkering around after seeing @Nesguy’s newest preset. Trying something sharper what I normally do, and little less dark. Playing around with deconvergence more, kinda liking what I have going on with it. Using grade to do some color management. Usually the moire in the image is nonexistent even when sitting still, I’m also usually using very light static/film grain that is fairly tiny in scale.
View at full screen and zoom or download to see what I mean about the moire, at 100% backlight I can only see it if I’m looking for the pattern, personally.
4 Likes
I don’t notice curvature-related moire in a still image. Once the screen starts scrolling it’s moire city, though.
I don’t really care for curvature anyway; I remember spending hours in the service menus trying to get all the lines straight on my CRTs to no avail and curvature just reminds me of that hell.
I also don’t recall any CRTs having such extreme curvature as that, but whatever floats your boat.
Is this Royale? I think I’ve more or less optimized guest-dr-venom; might be Royale’s turn next. De-convergence sounds like fun.
1 Like
This is Champloo-DX right? Can you post your preset!
1 Like
Nah, this is my nonsense guest-dr-venom venom chain, lol. I’m using x/y radial deconvergence on this.
I have to update in my repo, and update the champloo-dx-gr preset as well, so it’ll be a few day before I post the repo. Things to fix and update, lol.
3 Likes
Haven’t heard of it; how do I get it?
1 Like
I’ll post a link to my repo probably around this weekend as I need to do some more work and update my repo.
2 Likes
So my idea for vertical games was to simply rotate the virtual display and use my current 240p chain. It turned out to not be as simple as I thought. Also, I’m having a bit of a hard time getting perfectly lined up vertical scanlines and good ARs. 4:3 (3:4 actually, since the image is rotated) seems to be a good enough compromise.
So what I ended up doing:
FBA core options (.opt): fba-vertical-mode = “enabled”
Overrides (.cfg): screen_orientation = “1”
Image Adjustments shader: ia_FLIP_HORZ = “1.000000” ia_FLIP_VERT = “1.000000”
That should get you vertical scanlines with any crt shader on a non-rotated monitor 
What I now need in order for it to look exactly like a rotated version of my horizontal 240p settings is make the image 960x1280. I will try that next and come back with results. That should fix my distorted scanlines/mask.
@Syh - desmume_screens_layout = “right/left” (or left/right, depending on game)
Also, regarding your settings, I agree with Nesguy in that the curvature is a bit exaggerated. Also, that big-ish mask combined with the scanlines produces a grid that is made up of little squares and looks more like a portable system LCD than a CRT. I use a bit of grain too, makes the image more organic indeed!
@Nesguy - great images, basically flawless in fact. Don’t you feel you get a lot of pop/depth with the mask?
4 Likes
I’ll mess with the mask some and see what I can do. I could make the curvature a little less pronounced.
Yup, I think that coarse mask is way better!
1 Like
One of the things I’ve noticed about a few presets and shaders is that when removing the gamma of original core image some are using 2.2 and some are using 2.4. Is there a ‘correct’ value here?
2 Likes
BT 1886 is supposed to represent the gamma curve of CRT tvs.
BT 1886 is similar to 2.4.
Since the standard gamma for PCs is SRGB and it approximates 2.2, most people want their 2.2 monitor to look like it is 2.4.
BT.1886 is not valuable just because it is a standard, however. It offers several clear advantages over previous practice. First, BT.1886 more closely mimics the behavior of CRTs than previous power functions, and therefore better ensures consistent viewing on different display technologies.
per industry leaders portrait displays.
2 Likes
@HyperspaceMadness @c9f5fdda06 (tagging @Dogway and @Nesguy also as they might find the article of value also)
From what I understand CRT gamma is supposed to be 2.2. Displaymate has a very interesting article about CRT versus other display technologies, with some valuable measurements also.
http://www.displaymate.com/ShootOut_Part_1.htm
Gamma measurement of the Sony monitor is in part 2. It’s measured as the “ideal” value of 2.2.
Interesting btw how they relabel some analog controls:
The Functional Names of User Controls
In Parts I and II we have discussed the functionality and confusing names given to display controls. Below is a summary.
Brightness Control:
It doesn’t control brightness, it actually controls the display’s black-level. Its true functional name is: Black-Level Control . Note: on many LCD displays the Brightness Control does instead control the intensity of the backlight, so its name is actually functionally correct there. This variation, of course, adds to the overall level of control confusion.
Contrast Control:
It doesn’t control the display’s contrast because it proportionally increases or decreases the entire gray-scale, so none of the brightness ratios change. Technically it varies the video gain. It actually controls the display’s overall brightness. Its true functional name is: Brightness Control.
Gamma Control:
If it really controls the Gamma, which is the logarithmic slope of the gray-scale, the functional name for this control is: Contrast Control . Every display should have one in order to allow the image to be properly adjusted. Control name confusion is one reason why almost all displays and projectors are missing this essential control - most people think they already have a Contrast Control due to the mislabeling of the functional Brightness Control.
After 75 years of misuse it’s not too likely that this will be straightened out any time soon, but we thought you might just want to know how things should have been named.
6 Likes
Thanks for the call, probably you already read my post here. There are many names for the same thing one of those I find quite interesting is the luma range (or dynamic range 
) , in avisynth we call it TV/PC range, in broadcasting it’s called Studio/Full Swing or even Broadcast Safe or SMPTE legal, nvidia calls it full/limited range, papers call it quantization, or sometimes compression or expansion. It’s necessary to know all of them to interpret the functions properly.
In color grading, black level and brightness are called Lift and Gain respectively or as a popular grading forum name LiftGammaGain.
In respect to gamma, the specification is 2.22 but I think consumer sets were adjusted more to 2.40 with a cooler probably D75 temperature. But it would be nice to find measurements of non calibrated CRT TV sets. As @hunterk pointed out in this post it might be possible that developers designed the palettes against a consumer calibrated set and not standard ones.
4 Likes
Thanks! I think our tastes have been converging a bit lately, lol. I find very little to object to in that second shot. Scanlines could be a bit more pronounced over highlights for my taste; I think that would add even more pop to highlights (the black adjacent to the highlights increases the contrast). I don’t really care for curvature but that has more to do with what it looks like in motion; in a still image it’s fine.
Yeah, the mask definitely adds depth. Adding dark lines/dots/etc to the image is going to increase depth, dynamic range and contrast at the expense of brightness. The key is finding the right balance between depth and brightness while avoiding clipping. The final touch is to add a bit of bloom, which spices things up a bit and keeps things bright with normal backlight settings. With Dogway’s grading shader you can expand the dynamic range even further (seriously, check it out if you haven’t yet).
I’m guessing this is Easymode halation? I’d like to try that mask but I slightly prefer gaussian blur to fixed algorithms. They both have pros/cons, though.
2 Likes
Looks great with the brightness maxed out. How’s the motion blur with the built-in BFI? Some displays handle this better than others.
What shader is that?
1 Like
BFI with my LG C9 is great! The shader is guest’s, of course . The ability to change the gamut and CRT profile are the reasons why I mostly use his. In this case I did a conversion from DCI-P3 to srgb and monitor profile 2.
2 Likes
The C9 is a great gaming display, and the only OLED I recommend getting at this point. Has around 6ms input lag at 120fps, IIRC.
I’m guessing there’s still not enough brightness for full-strength masks, though. Which mask is that? 5-7 do weird things to gamma that I don’t like. I think the guest-dr-venom slotmask is probably the best option for 4K (of the guest-dr-venom masks) because it has parameters to adjust the size and width of the pattern. There are also some aperture grille variants not included with guest-dr-venom that work well at 4K, check out the mask shader snippet from hunterk for those.
Also check out Dogway’s grading shader, can’t say enough good things about it.