The Guest-Advanced NTSC thread

[Nesguy]

Max-DR has become “RGB,” the goals are the same, though. I’ve tried to maximize the dynamic range in both my “RGB” and “NTSC” presets.

Life got a bit busy but I’ll be updating soon, hopefully!

[ynnad4]

This is posted in the beginning of thread but I would like to know if any of you knows how to get this intense -sort of- dark blue like in Mario bros. I have seen other CRT TVs playing real consoles and either NES or Genesis have this intense blue but I couldn’t manage to accomplish it. Neither with @Nesguy presets or any other from CRT guest advanced presets. But those actually get some light-blue looking (just like in this game presentation from Mario bros).

I would really appreciate the help.

[trnzaddict]

I would think that has to do with color profiles in the shader.

[Nesguy]

Which of these looks better, A or B?

A)

B)

[Cyber]

@Nesguy

Which of these looks better, A or B?

They’re close but B is a little easier on my eyes due to the increased contrast/sharpness or decreased gamma.

[hunterk]

j/k, I too prefer B.

[Cyber]

@ynnad4

f any of you knows how to get this intense -sort of- dark blue like in Mario bros.

I’ve never seen Super Mario Bros. look like that in person but you can try switching NES Colour palettes in the core options of your NES Emulator. Try Real Hardware by FireBrandX.

In addition to that use the NTSC-J colour profile in your CRT Shader.

[Cyber]

@Nesguy

it’s all connected with the NTSC shader, you can’t adjust brightness or saturation etc without it also affecting sharpness and vice versa.

One solution to this is to use HSM Mega Bezel Reflection Shader which has several independent Brightness, Sharpness and Saturation controls from different shaders all active and available at the same time.

You can even use HSM Mega Bezel without the bezel these days if that’s what you prefer.

[Cyber]

@Nesguy

Three pixel mask (BGR) looking pretty good here, I think. When using the three pixel mask (at 100%) I just crank up the brightness boosts until the scanlines disappear in highlights, then I gradually reduce the beam width until scanlines are visible again. You need to use very minimal scanlines with an SDR display and the three pixel mask, but I think it can get tolerably bright.

This is also showing off the “analog overshoot” a bit.

Besides the NES palette, I like these pics especially the sharpness and the way the mask stands out on the whites while still allowing for the transparency effects.

@Nesguy

Latest version of my NTSC preset. Better, worse, about the same?

In this one I like the Sonic pic even though it’s gone a little softer compared to the previous one. I like the added brightness though.

The SNES is a bit of a tricky one. The text looks a bit fuzzy at first glance. I think the Super Mario World intro is also a great place to adjust sharpness and gamma. That big title text outline needs to be absolutely clear with settings that still allow smoothness and blending in games which use much more shading and melding.

The NES pic isn’t as sharp as some of the ones which follow it. The vertical lines look a little grey instead of jet black. Could need a little gamma adjustment.

@Nesguy

Which of these looks better, A or B?

But B) in this post seems to nail it as far as NTSC shader preset settings and output go as far as I’ve seen.

This preset needs to be preserved as a milestone achievement. Made easily available to those interested in the community and then built upon if you so desire. . Where can we find this specific preset? I know you have your GitHub, but it would be nice if you could give this one a name, probably have it included in RetroArch, the CRT-Guest-Advanced-NTSC package or even HSM Mega Bezel Reflection Shader.

But try to let it stand out a bit and make it easier to find for others if you can. Also, some more screenshots please. Fun ones as well, not just stuff that’s intended for scientific purposes.

Merry Christmas!

[Nesguy]

I’m wondering if anyone has any theories as to why it’s so difficult to replicate the look of composite video on a CRT. I think it has something to do with pixels. A CRT had none, so the artifacts weren’t translated into pixels, which is what an NTSC shader does.

So now I’m wondering if a very high resolution where LCD pixels = CRT phosphors would, in theory, allow for a much more realistic representation of the composite video signal.

[Nesguy]

Another random thought: shouldn’t it be possible, in theory, to recreate in software exactly whatever a digital comb filter is doing?

[Jamirus]

My perception is that if you put shader effects or filters (NTSC, XBR etc.) on CRTs, they look also generally more subtle there. At least that’s true for the standard TVs I’ve seen it on. I do vaguely remember effects looking also different on my high-res VGA monitor though, but it’s been long ago. Perhaps this is simply a matter of exposement. Digitally stretching pixels can also look pretty bad on CRTs, but you can “analoguize” artifacts away through feeding it wider resolutions (or “resolutions”, whatever, speaking of emulation here ofc.).

[Nesguy]

That’s interesting! Some photos would be cool (one showing the shader on a CRT, the other on an LCD)