Filters and shaders!

[Ikagura]

CRT scanlines filters have never appealed to me as they drastically darken images, in contrast I have always greatly appreciated smoothing filters and use them all the time. It then seems very logical to me, as this effect was naturally present when I played with my pal consoles connected to the antenna cable of my CRT TV.

This is my only gripe about the scanlines.

I am aware that the dev never intended anyone to see the raw pixels from a modern screen but in the meantime they never expected us to play on 4K screens, with a modern gamepad or even with a better framerate via patch or even rebuilt sourceport.

Even books read on a tablet isn't how writers expect us to read their texts but here we are.

This would be a debate going further than scanlines vs raw as it's about being more of a purist or fully embracing what current technologies is allowing us to do (like savestates or remove any kind of slow down from games made on weaker hardware).

But at least we can all agree that xBRZ is a visual aberration.

 

[Yousef]

Beyond Pixel Perfect, I don't use any filters – never have, never will. They fundamentally go against what I like about playing retro games: the experience of playing them as someone would have when the game was originally released. For the same reason, I don't use save states, rewinds, fast forward, or any of that BS hullaballoo that clogs up the RetroArch in-game menu – it's not really playing the same game that someone would be on an original copy. Also, frankly, I've never seen a filter that I've liked more than the original game, anyways, no matter what console it's on.

The only place for a filter? The aquarium!

Leaked asset from the iOS port of Megaman X

 

[ATenderLad]

CRT filters can definitely enhance the experience, but I think it's easy to spend more time tweaking the settings than actually playing the game. I've definitely spent a couple hours comparing and adjusting to match the only old TV I still have, then gave myself a pat on the back and went to bed without even getting past the intro of Super Metroid.

 

[owari_da]

My favorite is Koko-aio shaders, they emulate pretty much every possible tv/monitor types, also there are special presets for megadrive(e.g. sonic/shinobi waterfalls).

 

[KrossX]

I mostly use shaders to adjust colors. This is the last one I made trying to replicate the look of my CRT on the LCD. I had both screens side by side. The courve ended up being quite similar to smoothstep, it lowers the blacks and brightens the brights, increasing range a bit. There's an attempt at a bloom effect as well.

imgur, album 1 PSX
imgur, album 2 PSX

 

[RageBurner]

Okay, here we go. It might be a long one so I apologize in advance.

First, let's get one thing out of the way, as it is something a lot of retro devs these days don't get:

Raw pixels isn't retro.

Pixel graphics without filter options is already wrong, as CRTs used aperture grilles, electron beam glow bleeding and screen curvature to smooth out the the final output; as such, round pixels should be the goal.

Secondly, scanlines cannot be the only option, that's another failing. U.S NTSC signal drew lines on screen, yes, but what is retro for a U.S citizen won't truly be retro for a person on a different region for a very simple reason: CRTs outputted things differently based on signal, and so there were different types of pixel masking going on that resulted in a different kind of smoothing. (my case, for example).

With that preface out of the way, on to the question at hand: yes I use filters, I like soft smoothing filters like XBRZ that distort the image less than older, less accurate algorithms like 2X Sai and Eagle, especially with multipass and good presets. That said, not everything will ook good this way, and pre-rendered graphics, like the DKC example above very much suffer using smoothing filters because of loss of detail.

 

[MyNameIsJeff]

Most of the time, filters just look wrong and unconvincing to me. If I'm emulating games on a modern display, I'd rather just upscale it and enjoy the raw pixels if it's a 2D game, or upscale and anti-alias it if it's a 5th or 6th gen 3D game. Luckily I have a CRT with a DVI input, so I can just output my computer to that instead. It's still not perfect, but it's looks better to me than the filters. PS2 games look gorgeous! My exception to this would be GBA emulation on a handheld or phone. I like using the LCD grid filter for those.

 

[Yankee]

Fortunately, modern technology and the hard work of passionate programmers has allowed us the blessing of being able to restore how these games were meant to be seen. Plus there's an amazing level of customization if you really want to spend the time tweaking it and chasing your perfect image.

Me, I just throw on a preset like easymode or royale and play the game.

 

[popckorn]

So what do you think about using CRTs for retro emulation and retro console gaming?
Are overlays and filters good enough replacements?

[Moderation note: the thread "CRT's Richness" were merged with this previous thread dedicated to the same subject.]

 

[DanCalibur]

Lately I'm just slapping the CRT-NewPixie shader on anything before PS2 era. It even makes those ugly PSOne prerendered backgrounds look good

 

[McWiggles]

It looks nice, but it's not really practical for a lot of people, I think. Here in Hong Kong, for example, only hugely rich people can have a place with enough space for a "man cave".

I've seen quite a few filters that replicate it quite well but it's still not quite as nice, of course. Did anyone recall that post, I can't even remember where, about a guy who was desperately looking for a place to rent because he got evicted multiple times due to the insane electricity usage from his retro CRT setup? It was an insane setup. Wish I could find that again.

 

[Shameless]

Iv been using filters for a few years now and you can get them looking near one to one if you take the time to properly set one up. Some shaders are more technical than others and you can use actual data collected on crt tv's & monitors to replicate specific models.

 

[McWiggles]

Nice! Are these set up in Retroarch? Which filters would you recommend?

 

[ATenderLad]

Browsing around on the Libretro Shader forum might help for those curious about the topic.

 

[Shameless]

Nice! Are these set up in Retroarch? Which filters would you recommend?

I mostly emulate psx games and retro pc's using there respective emulators. to get the shades i use Reshade. Reshade comes standard with a decent crt shader called CRT Royal which needs minor tweaking to get looking nice. tho this does require a ok gpu to process the shader and should work with just about any emulator that uses OpenGL, Vulkan or Direct X as renderers.

 

[popckorn]

It looks nice, but it's not really practical for a lot of people, I think. Here in Hong Kong, for example, only hugely rich people can have a place with enough space for a "man cave".

Zen Minimalism
Gotta Love
Nippon
Meow

:3

 

[Darklink]

I don't really mess with filters, shaders, or overlays. I just don't like how many of them look. And the few I've seen pictures of that I like, I'm not really willing to put in the effort for.

 

[despilks]

I just slap Guest Advanced NTSC CRT filter on top of everything. It looks good on 8 and 16bit stuff, but also works for 5th and 6th gen consoles too. The best thing about it is it comes in the form of Retroarch shader as well as a Reshade shader that can be injected into stand alone emulators.

 

[newageretrohippie]

Scanlines if they scale ok. Basically anything if it scales ok, and doesnt add latency.

i like super eagle with vertical scanlines.. that usually works pretty well. also play on native 720p, 1440p or 4k screen. much better than 1080p

 

[Astolfo2001]

My personal favorite kind of shaders have to be the curved CRT ones.
Here are my personal favorite shader preset packs:

New sonkun crt guest advanced hd presets thread

Welcome to the new crt guest advanced hd presets thread. Here I’ve taken @guest.r’s amazing crt advanced hd shader combined with @Dogway’s color grading shader and created Shadow Mask, Slot Mask and Aperture Grille crt shader presets for you all to enjoy. “A mix of basic crt attributes that...

forums.libretro.com

GitHub - frankschoeman/kyubus-shader: Kyubus Shader is a collection of Reshade and RetroArch retro CRT presets using existing shaders such as CRT-Guest, CRT-Royale and CRT-Lottes

Kyubus Shader is a collection of Reshade and RetroArch retro CRT presets using existing shaders such as CRT-Guest, CRT-Royale and CRT-Lottes - frankschoeman/kyubus-shader

github.com

 

[daratmp+wxqvs]

I like to use very subtle CRT shaders. Juuust enough to make everything feel less pixelated, but still look like raw pixel-art.
And give a slight texture to what is otherwise a flat/solid monotone-colored surface.
Megadrive: https://imgsli.com/MzMxMzcz
SNES https://imgsli.com/MzMxMzU1
GBA https://imgsli.com/MzMxMzU3
GBC https://imgsli.com/MzMxMzU2
Genesis: https://imgsli.com/MzMxNzY5


No idea if my shaders look good on anything besides a 4k 55inch TV sitting more/less than 2-3 armlengths away from it. Because thats what i tuned them for.

If i had to use an upscaling filter i would use 2xBRZ, but ANY upscaling filter creates ugly artifacts under some conditions, and that ticks me off enough to not wanna use it.

 

[Leon]

GPU-based shader simulates motion clarity of classic CRT monitors, courtesy of Blur Busters

Best known for their popular UFO Test refresh rate tool, Blur Busters have unveiled a potential game-changer in motion clarity and advanced graphics. Founder Mark Rejhon teamed...

www.techspot.com

Apparently a new CRT shader tech has been invented, we'll have to wait and see if it get's implemented in emulators or not.

 

[ATenderLad]

Apparently a new CRT shader tech has been invented, we'll have to wait and see if it get's implemented in emulators or not.

It's on Retroarch for anyone with a 120hz or better monitor to make use of it.

 

[daratmp+wxqvs]

GPU-based shader simulates motion clarity of classic CRT monitors, courtesy of Blur Busters

Best known for their popular UFO Test refresh rate tool, Blur Busters have unveiled a potential game-changer in motion clarity and advanced graphics. Founder Mark Rejhon teamed...

www.techspot.com

Apparently a new CRT shader tech has been invented, we'll have to wait and see if it get's implemented in emulators or not.

I've read a blur buster article about something like this a while ago. it was about simulating an electron-gun's beam, scanning across the screen, line by line. (and the phosphor decay)

CRT in slow-motion:

Post automatically merged: Dec 28, 2024

Ok I just tried the shader, and it doesn't improve the motion clarity more than just using black frame insertion on my 120HZ oled panel. For me it only has downsides, I can see the scanline slowly crawling across the screen and discolors everything behind it. While the motion clarity is the same as with BFI. So I will just stick with BFI.
The shader should have the benefit of less flicker as opposed to BFI, but my eyes adjust to the flicker within a few seconds so its of no use for me.

But maybe im blind, or it works better on a 240hz monitor, so try it for yourself https://github.com/blurbusters/crt-beam-simulator
be sure to turn off BFI if you have that enabled, or it will look very weird.

 

[TheREALBLUEdragon]

As someone who grew up during the 90’s (and so CRT’s were all we had), I always wanted my games to look sharper than the blurry image you tended to get from the common composite type inputs most systems used as standard.

Luckily I live in Europe and our TV’s had access to RGB SCART as a common input standard since the late eighties (as long as your console of choice supported it) so being able to see pixel edges is nothing new for us. To me, the thing that makes CRTs special for older games isn’t the scan-lines or that accursed composite blur that people seem to think is desirable now , it’s the phosphor glow.

The unique glow that CRT screens give off isn’t something that LCDs can replicate. Only the latest HDR TVs can sort of replicate the effect due to their ability to control the brightness of every individual pixel and newer emulators/scalers/FPGA devices are starting to make use of that to great effect.

My take on the whole “Developers intended their games to be blurry” argument is… I’m a firm believer in the famous phrase “death of the author”. Many of the artists who drew pixel art for old games did indeed sometimes make use of special techniques to give their games the illusion of better colour depth or higher detail than what was actually there. Some of that stuff is extremely impressive when viewed in the right conditions and it’s become a lost art form since no one has really needed to use those techniques for well over two decades now.

Is it more authentic to play CRT era games on a CRT or using new advanced CRT shaders? Yes, it is and I’m glad they exist so future generations can experience the truly ass image quality I and millions of others like myself had to put up with for years before HDTV’s finally became available and affordable for normal people.

Is it the only correct way? No. Raw pixels are just as valid as a blurry ass CRT. I choose to find beauty in sharp pixels, even if the original artists never intended me to see them. Thanks for your authorial intent developers, I’ll take it from here.

Still need a CRT for light gun games though. It’s the only reason I still have one. Kinda stuck there I guess.