New sonkun crt guest advanced hd presets thread

[Cyber]

You can read more about the OLED subpixels and mask layouts here:

OLED subpixels. How do they work?

Right, so it should fetch a higher resale value if you sell it to buy that new TV! Lol I could be wrong but weren’t older (or at least some) LG OLED panels WOLED with WRGB layout with all white OLEDs in the back layer shining through an RGB filter as described here? If so, then one of those models might be a nice alternative except that they most definitely won’t have 120hz input and BFI. What’s the difference between RGB, RGBW, and WRGB pixels? This explains something @Nesguy has been say…

But definitely check your display driver settings and verify that you’re outputting RGB444 Full and that there’s no chroma subsampling taking place.

If you’re running high refresh rate, perhaps it might have caused chroma subsampling to be enabled.

I’m not too familiar with Sony TVs but you also want to ensure that no additional scaling, stretching or processing is being performed by the TV. So you might need to try PC or Game Mode if your TV has such options.

[sonkun]

While we’re on the subject of OLED I wanted to ask, assuming you’ve tried my shader pack, does the white sub pixels brighten my presets up? I’ve tweaked so many brightness settings but that’s for it to look bright on a regular 4k display. I would love to see a side by side test of my presets being run on a 4k oled and a non oled 4k display just to see the differences

[Cyber]

@sonkun

does the white sub pixels brighten my presets up?

I think the white subpixel tries to do it’s job automatically and probably as transparently as possible I guess. This is still a new area for us when it comes to better understanding how these OLED Subpixels work.

It literally was only yesterday that some early thoughts and observations about if the white subpixel was active during RGB triad emulation were expressed.

You can take a read of those last few posts in the Sony Megatron Color Video Monitor thread.

I would think that if your presets look suffiently bright on a “regular” LCD display that they would also be sufficiently bright on an OLED display. These things can vary considerably with differences in calibration between different displays.

So it really depends on how the user’s TV is setup and how your display is setup.

What I can say is that based on my observation and testing, my presets translate really well across many different display types in terms of brightness and colour consistency.

I especially love how they look on higher PPI displays as well. So I would expect that users of smaller 27" to 42" 4K displays might be in for a real treat even with the low TVLs I like to go for compared to what I’m used to seeing on a 55" TV.

You might have to find a way to try your presets on a variety of displays in person that would be great.

[sonkun]

@Cyber

I would think that if your presets look suffiently bright on a “regular” LCD display that they would also be sufficiently bright on an OLED display.

Yes more than likely, I was just wondering if the white sub pixels made them even brighter lol. I hope not and that my presets look the same regardless of the display tech it’s being used on. I guess I’ll either wait for someone to come in and report such a claim or find a way to try my presets out on a oled myself.

[Cyber]

@sonkun

I was just wondering if the white sub pixels made them even brighter

I doubt that very much. Most LCD display’s backlights can generally easily get brighter than the average OLED display’s. The white subpixel is actually a sort of hack solution to allow OLED TVs to sort of catch up a bit. Due to the fact that the pixels themselves are the only source of light and the fact that they are prone to wear especially the harder and hotter they’re driven, OLED TVs tend to be not as bright as other display technologies.

So if anything your presets might end up looking slightly darker on the average OLED TV, if put side by side.

This may not necessarily be a problem as the exceptional black levels and resulting superior contrast more than makes up for it so stuff should still be relatively easy to look at including the details.

Listen, I can almost assure you, that once you go OLED, even for these things, you’ll never want to go back.

[tigerstyle]

Did some more testing. Confirmed pc is outputting RGB444. Nothing I can figure out mitigates the issue with column F using Sonkun’s presets unfortunately. I also still have not been able to replicate the issue from scratch in guest advanced. So for now I’m resolved to try to tweak guest advanced to my own liking, maybe try to get as close as I can to Sonkun’s look as I can as I do really like it. Entering his setting to guest advanced doesn’t really come close for whatever reason so I’m gonna have to improvise. Thank you everyone for your input, it’s been very interesting.

Also @Cyber, I was mistaken it WAS mask 0 that makes everything green for me. Mask 1 looks alright. I did have a question about something I read in on the posts you’ve linked to.

New CRT shader from Guest + CRT Guest Advanced updates

I think the real advantage is that the triads simply look more like triads using Mask 12 on an OLED TV. Besides the seemingly unavoidable extra black vertical line, what really kills the effect for me is the almost overlapping appearance between the rightmost blue subpixel stripe and the leftmost red subpixel stripe. It makes the blue subpixel appear a bit undernourished compared to the red and green ones. The improved separation created by Mask 12 allows the Blue subpixel to finally flex its …

Given your recent recommendation for mask 1, have you found what you’ve said in the linked post about mask 12 to be incorrect? Apologies if I misunderstand things, I’m not very knowledgeable about any of this XP

[Cyber]

@tigerstyle

Nothing I can figure out mitigates the issue with column F using Sonkun’s presets unfortunately.

Hmmm…sounds like a strange one.

@tigerstyle

I also still have not been able to replicate the issue from scratch in guest advanced.

Maybe that’s a clue that it’s not related in anyway to CRT-Guest-Advance so maybe it can be isolated to one of the other shaders being used, then the parameter causing it might be able to be pinpointed.

@tigerstyle

Given your recent recommendation for mask 1, have you found what you’ve said in the linked post about mask 12 to be incorrect? Apologies if I misunderstand things, I’m not very knowledgeable about any of this XP

You seem to be confusing Mask Layout 1 and Mask Type 12. Everything I said in that post still stands true today. That was basically the moment when I realized that Mask Layout 1 (BGR) was the correct (best) Mask Layout for WRGB OLED TV.

Before that B&W Masks were being recommended for OLED TVs.

[tigerstyle]

@Cyber

You seem to be confusing Mask Layout 1 and Mask Type 12. Everything I said in that post still stands true today. That was basically the moment when I realized that Mask Layout 1 (BGR) was the correct (best) Mask Layout for WRGB OLED TV.

Oh duh, thanks for pointing that out! Yes I have been using mask layout 1 so that’s not an issue.

@tigerstyle

Nothing I can figure out mitigates the issue with column F using Sonkun’s presets unfortunately.

Anyway I think I HAVE figured out what’s causing the issue and that’s how Sonkun has raised scanline gamma to 12. Normally you can only raise it to 5 but this can be worked around but altering the .slangp file itself. Any value above 5 seems to introduce the issue for me. Unfortunately, that high value is also I believe a key to the look Sonkun has dialed in and why the scanlines look so good. It just doesn’t look as good with a lower value imo. So the question is whether I choose to live with the glitchy looking bright colors (which may not be that noticeable in games, I haven’t tested much) or use a lower scanline gamma which overall doesn’t look as cool, unless we can find a way to have the best of both.

The other question is whether this is truly an OLED specific issue. If others could load up the 240pTestSuite (I’m using the snes version) and check the color bars on their display with Sonkun’s preset and see if row F looks strange to others as well, I’d be very interested.

[Nesguy]

Given that different displays have different specs (resolution, brightness, color accuracy, subpixel layouts, etc), it’s really hard to make a one-size-fits all preset. Even the same display may have different settings making for a very different viewing experience. I think presets can only be used as a starting point, and must be fine-tuned to the display being used.

[sonkun]

@Cyber

So if anything your presets might end up looking slightly darker on the average OLED TV, if put side by side.

I guess that can be fixed with some brightness setting on the oled, I have zero experience with a oled.

@Nesguy

Given that different displays have different specs (resolution, brightness, color accuracy, subpixel layouts, etc), it’s really hard to make a one-size-fits all preset. Even the same display may have different settings making for a very different viewing experience. I think presets can only be used as a starting point, and must be fine-tuned to the display being used.

Yeah everything can’t be perfect. At least I tried to provide as many options, mask types, color profile types etc as I could. To me this is my magnum opus preset release, I think I deserve a small break from tweaking at the moment. Gonna let this pack make its rounds and just relax and play some games for a bit… unless guest releases some new feature in his shader that I’m forced to take advantage of lol.

[Cyber]

@sonkun

I guess that can be fixed with some brightness setting on the oled,

Or it may not need fixing at all since the added contrast and deep blacks might make up for it. The presets we use which include bloom don’t push the brightness limits of any display technology like a shader like Sony Megatron Color Video Monitor would or presets like @Nesguy’s would so I don’t think it’s anything to worry about.

From what I’ve seen of your recent presets, the brightness looks pretty normal, for example in the recent RetroCrisis videos, on my OLED TV.

[sonkun]

@Cyber

Or it may not need fixing at all since the added contrast and deep blacks might make up for it.

Even better, my aim with my presets has always been “set it and forget it” but I understand if a user may still tweak a setting here or there to their liking.

@Cyber

From what I’ve seen of your recent presets, the brightness looks pretty normal, for example in the recent RetroCrisis videos, on my OLED TV.

That’s good information to know. Since those videos he posted I raised the brightness/glow a bit more but I assume things will still look good enough when he makes a new video with my presets (that guy loves my presets lol).

[tigerstyle]

I can also confirm that brightness is not at all a problem with your presets on my OLED tv

[infernic]

Good evening, I just realized that my Galaxy Tab S8 have aspect ratio 16:10 and resolution 2560 x 1600p. Is it good to just use 1440p presets or do I have to change something? Thanks in advance.

[sonkun]

That resolution is closest to 1440p so yeah I say try that one for sure.

[sonkun]

New Version Release (03/10/2023)

Changes Made

• Still uses guests latest version ( 2023-02-25-r1) shader update.

• Retweaked all ntsc presets mainly the standard 2-phase composite preset. I wanted a more basic dithering blending for things like the Sonic waterfall so now we’re going from this:

Previous standard composite ntsc 2-phase

to this:

New standard composite ntsc 2-phase version

Looks better on certain pc cores this way as well since I’ve lowered the rainbow effect.

Grab the new pack in the first post.

And for those who haven’t seen it yet, Youtuber Retro Crisis has made a 3rd video now showcasing my lateset preset pack. You can check it out here:

Sonkun's CRT Shaders for RetroArch - Aperture Grill, Slot & Shadow Mask

Edit as of 03/12/2023

I put up another pack, restored “interlacing scanlines” from 0 back to default .20. Was an issue where the screen gets too bright on interlaced content. Should look normal again. New link can be grabbed in the same spot.

[ROBMARK85]

Hi @Sonkun - I wanted to share a thought with you: so far I’ve got my evaluations wrong (like for example my search for a clean image trying to use ScaleFX). I wanted to give another chance to your “standard” presets and I realized my mistakes: your work with slotmask is beautiful and authentic. Thanks again for your work, your patience, your infinite availability and for sharing. I just have to play hard. Thank you.

[sonkun]

I appreciate it and my presets will always be here ready to welcome you back with open arms. Yeah standard is the way for me, gotta respect that natural pixel look, the scalefx presets are a nice bonus though, if it wasn’t for you they wouldn’t even be there at all so thank you as well for putting in the request.

As far as being “authentic” I look at them somewhat that way, I always say my presets are more “a mix of basic crt attributes that invokes a nostalgic vibe with a modern twist.” I like how that sounds, I should use that as a caption in my first post haha.

By the way I’m already working on my next update, hd presets are returning, guest adding magic glow to the hd shader almost turned me into a kid on christmas day. I’ve already put together my first sample rgb preset that I’ll probably post up later today for you guys to try out.

[ROBMARK85]

My change of mind was born when my brother-in-law had pulled out his old CRT - and the effect of your shader is very close - maybe that CRT had a bad calibration but in my eyes it was fantastic. I love the slotmask and your version looks great in 1080p. I wanted to ask you two questions. The first is : what is the difference between the guest advance and the HD version ? The second is: tomorrow in your projects you will also work on something for Computer (I come from MS-DOS and it would be nice to use your work) and handled them ? Thanks again for your work, now I’m rediscovering the Darkstalkers saga and with your shader it’s beautiful

[ROBMARK85]

The Capcom Fighting Collection is a beginner’s job, your work is light years ahead.