Well I made a quick setup to see how it looked without curvature, I only left a 25% curvature on I still prefer with curvature, but I will keep tunning the sharpness and curvature.
This is the last version of Mega Bezel and Retroarch.
I meant that the ntsc filtering options, the horizontal filtering is at 15.00 and substractive sharpness 1.50 are maxed out.
Thank you. As I said in other occasions, any suggestion is welcome, and as a proverb says:
For lack of guidance a nation falls, but victory is won through many advisers.
I’m glad to hear this because I’m not sure if proper working CRTs were blurry at all even when viewed from a distance. I’m very sensitive to blur as my eyes struggle to focus once something appears even slightly out of focus.
I’m glad my comments are appreciated and welcomed.
Maybe you can tweak it so that you can notice it if you’re looking for it but you don’t normally notice it because it doesn’t distort enough to stand out. Remember we’re trying to simulate depth on a flat screen, so the methods will be less than perfect and have some side effects. I think on a real CRT the perceived amount of curvature seen might have probably varied a bit depending on the veiwing perspective/angle. The more off axis, the more curved it appeared but it wouldn’t have been a uniform curve if off axis and viewing straight on might have revealed the least noticeable curvature.
This is just a theory and idea though. I look forward to seeing what you eventually come up with.
I managed to get something working on the latest git version but not the release versions. Some of the controls seem to give some very unusual and unexpected results (particularly certain combinations of Horizontal Filtering and Subtractive Sharpness) compared to how they functioned in previous versions. At max Horizontal and Subtractive Sharpness things are supposed to look extremely harsh unless they were being tamed by some other filter. Possibly the NTSC Resolution.
I’m comparing this to the behaviour of these settings in previous versions of the shader using the base presets that used them.
I’ll wait until the dust is settled though because I would assume that it’s still a work in progress.
The main thing is that I was able to get things as sharp as I wanted with the new it version so that augers well for the upcoming releases regardless of how I got there.
My settings also defaulted to 15, 1.50 so maybe that’s what’s in the base preset.
You’re welcome. I’ll leave you with one as well, “No good deed goes unpunished.”
So sometimes we might have the best of intentions but it doesn’t always get received or interpreted that way by all and what could have been great ends up a disaster.
So congratulations again on your new thread and contributions to the Retro-Gaming community!
No, you are right, my crt looks sharper, the thing is this shader has many options, that when you think you have got it, there are other options I never touched, and then you realise that you can tweak it better, and after being hours tweaking, it gets a point when you need a rest because you don’t see clear until next day after a break . Even my Sanyo CRT scalines look sharper and more prominent than in this shader, maybe because it’s limited, or because I don’t know how to tweak it better yet. But every time passes my configuration gets better, (Thanks to the community of course). I will post side by side, and I will do snapshots of my CRT the best I Can, so you can give me advice how to make it better or at least the closest you know…
My CRT looks curve, but per example scanlines look straight, it doesn’t curve at all, but the glass screen does, so you feel curve of the screen, but not the image, so that’s weird. I will post that with a screenshot too as soon as I can.
This is exactly what I have been saying for a very long time now. There’s no “fishbowl” effect to be seen on most CRTs I grew up with in the 80’s to 2000’s. Maybe those who grew up or had CRTs from the 60’s to the 70’s might have had a different experience.
In any case the CRT Shader’s Curvature algorithm curves the screen on the X & Y axes to be displayed 2 dimensionally, whereas on a real CRT the curvature might have actually been on the Z axis so there’s a huge difference there.
Scanlines can be tweaked further. You can customize the spacing, shape e.t.c.
That’s probably why my “old” Aperture Grill presets still look so impactful when I load them even when compared to my current Slot Mask presets.
I did a lot of scanline tweaking on those.
Just be careful with the Fast Sharpen (or any other sharpening/blur filter) because sometimes they can negatively impact the outlines on pixel graphics in a way that actually reduces contrast so you can pay attention to if your black lines get less prominent when making sharpness adjustments.
I grew up too, but some arcade CRT’s did have fish bowl effect, and wasn’t sharp enough and darker colours and with artifacts also old home TV’s, but from mid 90’s in advance didn’t have that effect. And I remember most without blurry. Starting with Master system, Mega Drive, Snes and beyond… But Street Fighter in the arcade’s had those artifacts and glare lens and all that in some places, not all of course.
I still prefer with curvature, but I will keep tunning the sharpness and curvature.
