Sony Megatron Colour Video Monitor

[Azurfel]

@soqueroeu

I can use 4K Display Resolution on a 1080p monitor and have similar results to what 1080p resolution gives me, if I also choose a higher TLV. Is this behavior expected?

Expected behavior. The selected TVL will be (approximately) correct if Display’s Resolution matches your actual resolution. Lowering the Display’s Resolution setting doubles the approximate TVL, increasing the Display’s Resolution setting halves it.

@soqueroeu

But one thing caught my attention the most. Should I or should I not use an integrated scale, in the Retroarch settings (Settings/Video/Scaling/Integer Scale)?

You should use Integer Scaling as your default. There are exceptions where you will want to use custom scaling values, but they are rare unless bsnes is your SupFam core of choice.

@soqueroeu

You can also try other combinations, but it seems like the horizontal lines will always be there, in most cases.

Those are scanlines. You could get rid of them by editing a saved preset to read

scale_type_yX = "source"
scale_yX = "9.000000"

under “shaderX = “shaders_slang/hdr/shaders/crt-sony-megatron-source-pass.slang”” for 4K (scale_yX = “4.000000” for 1080p), but i would sincerely question why you are using a CRT shader at that point.

Also, i would strongly recommend you try prepending an NTSC shader for at least gen 1-4 console games. For gen 5+ console games (PS1/Saturn/N64/etc.), that clean RGB/monitor look has more of a place, but before that an NTSC shader generally gives the image a softer, more “finished” look in my opinion, tho it can look kind of blurry rather than soft at 1080p compared to 4K.

[Jamirus]

Those lines in the first shot may indeed be because of the non-integer scaling. Looks quite severe though. The last time I noted this Major Pain said he had trouble seeing it with low resolution content like NES, but here are two parts from shots I took with integer on and off with the Viewsonic sdr preset at 1080p and resized x2, the lines are not quite even in the second example

The downside with integer scaling may be that you have larger borders, this depends on the core/content . You can try integer + integer overscale option, in most cases it should not cut off too much for consoles like NES.

There should be no difference between 600/800/1000 TVL at 1080p. This is because the TVL is calculated from the pixel size of the mask, but the minimum is 2 pixels. Therefore the best you can have is 1080/2 = 540 which is the actual number. If you choose 300 TVL it will use 4pix mask = 270 TVL. To get a 3 pix mask, choose 4k resolution and 800 TVL setting.

[soqueroeu]

Thanks to @Azurfel and @Jamirus for their contributions.

@Azurfel

Those are scanlines. You could get rid of them by editing a saved preset to read

scale_type_yX = "source"
scale_yX = "9.000000"

under “shaderX = “shaders_slang/hdr/shaders/crt-sony-megatron-source-pass.slang”” for 4K (scale_yX = “4.000000” for 1080p)

I don’t know if I understood this instruction correctly. Sorry. I saved a preset with the modifications I made and added these parameters and nothing changed. Would it be this?

@Azurfel

but i would sincerely question why you are using a CRT shader at that point.

Again, I don’t think I understand. Shouldn’t I use a crt type shader?

@Azurfel

an NTSC shader generally gives the image a softer, more “finished

Regarding this, I need to confess: I never liked the blurry look of NTSC shaders. I don’t understand why many people like to use them, other than for the nostalgia factor, because, even in the past, they no longer seemed good to me. Unless I don’t know how to use it correctly, If you could send me a preset ready for me to test, it might also help me understand what you are trying to show me.

@Jamirus

You can try integer + integer overscale option

This solves. Great!

Thank you very much!

[soqueroeu]

@Cyber

I also have some setup instructions in the readme file of my preset pack.

Hey, @Cyber, hich of your presets use the HDR/Megatron code?

[Cyber]

@soqueroeu

hich of your presets use the HDR/Megatron code?

None of my presets use any of Sony Megatron Color Video Monitor’s “code” but I do have presets I have customized for use with Sony Megatron Color Video Monitor.

@Cyber

Introducing…my latest and possibly greatest Shader Preset Pack in terms of pure image quality and accuracy…

CyberLab Megatron Death To Pixels 4K HDR Shader Preset Pack!

To experience the future of CRT Shader Software Technology Now!

Click the link below to download

CyberLab Megatron Death To Pixels 4K HDR Shader Preset Pack 30-10-23

Installation:

To install these presets copy the “Shaders” folder into the “…\RetroArch” folder.

These presets REQUIRE CRT-Guest-Advanced-NTSC version 08.21.2023 in order to look as intended.

It can be downloaded at the following location.

New Release Version (2023-08-21-r1): Notable changes: “Clip Saturated Color Beams” effect small tweak. ‘Negative’ mask bloom implementation improvement. Edit: small update Download link: https://mega.nz/file/gg5GgarK#L6eHasLkZICrXLbH0y1nddWQpyoQwaNfgIdPPx1vZwQ

This thread is about two shaders, namely crt-guest-sm and crt-guest-advanced. The first part of the thread is about crt-guest-sm, it’s latest versions are available in the official libretro repositories. The end of the thread contains updates and feedback on my continued development of the later crt-guest-advanced (former crt-guest-dr-venom(2)) - slang shaders. The latest crt-guest-advanced versions and presets are now in the official libretro shaders/shaders_slang/crt/ folder. Anyway, get th…

Also, they have been designed with Sony Megatron v5.7 in mind. Due to the ever changing nature of these things, I suggest you backup your Sony Megatron Shader Folder (or all of them for that matter before updating your shaders). This will ensure that you can get back the look you had before if things change significantly on the Shader side.

[Cyber]

Is there any reason why HDR would work properly in Windows using an Intel IGP but refuse to even show up as an option in RetroArch?

I’m posting this here for some more visibility. Maybe someone here can test and confirm if Sony Megatron Color Video Monitor works on their Intel IGP in HDR mode.

HDR with Intel UHD graphics?

I’m using a small mini-pc with Intel UHD graphics with an LG monitor that does support HDR, and I’m able to enable HDR in the Windows display preferences, but I’m not seeing HDR available in the Video settings within RetroArch. WIth the Nvidia cards I’ve used in the past, it always was present and I don’t recall having to do anything special to enable it. I’ve tried with the Vulkan and D3D drivers in RetroArch but it didn’t make any difference. Does HDR only work with Radeon/Nvidia chipsets/d…

[soqueroeu]

Tanks a lot @Cyber. Im gonna look that!

[soqueroeu]

Retroarch doesn’t take screnshot in HDR mode? I have black screen shots !

[Thecasperlife]

Is there a way to apply a curved screen effect with these shaders?

[Theoldnation]

i wanna know something, every single config, has already gave me a pink tint over all the image with megatron, i wanna know why?

[rancid]

That would actually be fantastic, I tried as well utilizing other shaders but it ended up messing up the overall look.

[Cyber]

@soqueroeu

Retroarch doesn’t take screnshot in HDR mode?

Maybe you can try this method instead:

CyberLab Death To Pixels Shader Preset Packs

Here are the first HDR Screenshots of CyberLab Megatron 4K HDR Game SNES S-Video Smooth.slangp in action! https://mega.nz/file/FExXyKbQ#HBKrAf5FTLU8fng-bjOIXjMU6rlYm9etJu28RKEmAsw https://mega.nz/file/wZhQxIZS#FSJ4CNdmLSflMfMoCmhAcjf2q9w6FA1WUhVY8gIb5HM I used nVIDIA Shadow Play to take these but there are other methods available.

[Thecasperlife]

For anyone having trouble using LG OLED panels, specifically in regards to brightness, I figured out the optimal settings to get a very bright and vivid picture even with black frame insertion on.

Windows 11: Turn on HDR and Auto HDR. I also like to use the SDR-HDR slider and crank it to the max but this is not necessary, I just like using windows in HDR. Make sure to calibrate using the windows HDR calibration app.

Retroarch: Driver: Vulkan (VERY important, if you have it set to GL then HDR won’t work. D3D12 also works but not on all cores (for example can’t use GlideN64 with D3D12). Video: Integer scaling on. I also like to use integer scale overscale, as this makes the picture bigger without sacrificing much of the image. And obviously HDR ON.

Shader settings (I like the Megatron default shader) Paper white: 800 (by default, this is set to 200. This was what had the biggest effect on brightness for me) Peak brightness: 800 —I have an LG C1. If you have a newer panel you can probably set both of those numbers to 1000 or higher, based off the the maxCLL for your panel which you can find on multiple websites such as RTrings— Under CRT settings I bring down saturation, brightness, and contrast to 0 (if not already done so by default) Sub pixel layout: WRGB. Gamma: adjust to taste (I like 2.4). You can also play around with TVL and beam size settings.

That fixed the brightness for me, and actually the picture is very bright even in a decently lit room.

LG OLED settings: Especially If you’re interested in better motion clarity. For black frame insertion you can either use retroarch internal BFI under latency settings, or you can use OLED motion pro. It doesn’t really matter what picture mode you’re in as long as you have peak brightness set to maximum. I leave brightness (black level) at 50, and for temperature I set it to warm50. Dynamic tone mapping: On (in most settings this is brighter, sometimes HGiG looks better, you can play around with this and see what you like better)

Hope this helps anyone else! This shader is so good, especially with BFI, that I find I really don’t have to use my RGB modded trinitrons any longer as especially from afar I really can’t tell a difference/they are really close.

If anyone figures out how to append a curved CRT effect to the shader, let me know.

[Cyber]

@Thecasperlife

If anyone figures out how to append a curved CRT effect to the shader, let me know.

Wow! What a profound post! I think you might find this interesting:

Mega Bezel Reflection Shader! - Feedback and Updates

[Mega_Bezel_Logo] Mega Bezel is updated to V1.15.0_2023-11-25 Changes: Updated to Guest Advanced crt-guest-advanced-2023-11-24-release1 Updated to latest Grade Grade Color Temperature set to 7200 Removed Viewport Scaling on Final pass, should fix HDR for the Megatron presets , @c9f5fdda06 & @soqueroeu could you let me know if this works for you? Fixed the first Sharpen Parameters in the list Made the LCD Preset a more reasonable brightness, it was really overly bright before Removed Auto Ma…

[tigerstyle]

Mupen64 currently does not support vulkan. Does this mean there’s no way to use this shader in HDR mode for N64? Love the shader btw. Works great with every other console I’ve tried.

[Thecasperlife]

Under core options for mupen64 plus, replace GlideN64 with Parallel-RDP. You should then be able to use Vulkan.

[Cyber]

@tigerstyle

Mupen64 currently does not support vulkan. Does this mean there’s no way to use this shader in HDR mode for N64?

From the first post.

@MajorPainTheCactus

Select D3D11, D3D12, Vulkan or GLCore Driver

[tigerstyle]

thx I’ll give these a shot when I’m able

[Dreetto]

This shader is great, but I’m having some problems configuring it.

Maybe I’m wrong, but is it normal that when using Shadow Mask with a 1000 TLV, color bleeds appear in the image?

Attached is a screenshot of Super Bomberman 3, in the top bar where it should look green, it has red stripes.

[Dennis1]

You mean “magenta” or “pink / rose” tint, right?

This is a Problem others and me have mentioned before. I hope there will be a solution in the future for this, as the shader is just awesome beside this annoying color shift.