How does this CRT magic work???

[Rakoniomm]

Recently I have been pretty fascinated by the idea of how the difference between "raw pixels" when seen through the lens of CRT can completely transform the look to the point it just feels like straight up magic

it all started with this video :

the mere idea that random stray pixels can turn into strong highlight or gradient is mind blowing to me like I know the technical idea of dithering and how it makes a 3rd transitional color appear out of nowhere when the artist only has 2 but even tho I understand it on a technical level it still feels like Black voodo magic shit to me

Like the waterfall effect in Sonic The Hedgehog

even tho I played it back when it released on CRT for some reason from the countless amount of times I played it on modern TV I completely forgotten it was supposed to be transparent and my mind just accepted that the sharp pixels supposed to look like that as maybe a stylistic choice

I felt like I was living a lie all these times ヽ(`⌒´メ)ノ


but, and I saved the most crazy one for last is that... you just CAN NOT convince me that two goofy red pixels can transform into evil sexy scary eyes just like that!

regarding the last one supposedly from my understanding is that the portrait of Dracula was just a normal drawing that got "digitized" and turned it into that

my question is does anyone know what is the process artists of the past has been using to digitize normal art and fit it into fuzzy image for consoles that have very limited colors to work with?

I'm very interested in this look and want to try to emulate it (ﾉ>ω<)ﾉ :｡･:*:･ﾟ’★,｡･:*:･ﾟ’☆

 

[Retro Doomer]

Since I play on my Ps3 most of my Retro Games out of convenience so my shader options are limited
I have a old Television its in the basement though since I have to space up here for it.
So I use my sinful Flatscreen

 

[ProfessorFrog]

I can guess part of it:
1: I think the scanlines are hiding the lines between pixels. So you never see where pixels touch each other. I think what they did was align all the graphics in the game to a grid. And due to console limitations that was kind of the norm.
2: There is actually some quality loss. i think Drac's upper lip can't be seen very well in the pixel images.
3: I think just drawing the art, and being able to display it quickly on a crt/in the game would help. Adjustments could then be made to make Drac's upper lip a bit easier to read, if they wanted that.

 

[gwardojones]

I used to hate filters in emulators, but as time has gone on, I've started to wonder if I was misremembering how good games used to look when I play retro games in the present. CRT / scanline filters really show just how amazing pixel art used to be. There's still great pixel art today, don't get me wrong. But the kind of care and consideration that went into making images pop on CRT TVs back in the day is straight up incredible.

EDIT: Sorry OP. I know you're asking a question. The images you posted got me hyped.

 

[Vexicrypt]

In cases where they had to put normal images into games (not through creating pixel art) they usually just compressed the crap out of them. Kinda like with old FMV games, where you could clearly see the damage of compression. Its also about using strict color palettes from the start or removing unnecessary colors in post. At least that's how I see it.

Also everything was made and checked on CRTs to look right, so its kinda hard to emulate because that was just their natural process back then.

 

[ToMattoSauce]

I still keep my old beat-up CRT for retro games; they do look amazing. I recently finished playing Digital Devil Saga 2, and man, the difference between my flatscreen and my CRT is night and day.

 

[Sorion]

The technology is simply completely different from modern LCD display technology, instead of using a matrix of LEDs capable to light up in 16.7 million different colors, CRTs have a big tube capable of driving a beam of electrons that get shoot to a phosphor at the end of the tube, which in turn, emits light for a fraction of a second. The tube has a driver circuit that is designed to draw each line on the display from left to right, starting from the top all the way to the bottom. it's an oversimplification of how the technology works, but that's essentially how it operates.

In the name of saving video bandwidth in the world of analog transmitions, companies back in the day decided to use an interlaced video standard, meaning the image gets drawn on the screen in two seperate fields, the first one only draws the even lines and once it's done, the driver circuit starts at the top again and draws the second filed with the odd lines. That's why some older television shows had these weird horizontal lines artifacts in zones of high contrast.
In order to addapt the interlaced video format of broadcast television to homeconsoles, most consoles drew the screen using just the first filed of the interlaced video format, that's how progressive video was born, along with the iconic "scanline" look of old retro games, the scanlines are the black spots where the unused field is supposed to go.

Due to all of the characteristics that I mentioned previously, CRT technology has no "pixels" per se, it's totally analog, it just emit the information that is presented to it. The signals that carry that information are also imperfect by nature, composite video was one of the most used video standards of the CRT era, and because it was an analog singal carried through a single wire, that inevitably leads to interference, which in turn, causes color bleed, the dot crawl "checkerboard pattern", the lower definition in the details, the wrose color quality, etc, etc.
By contrast, lcd screens have clear and defined regions where the information has to go, that gives them that cleaner look that crts tend to lack, but that precision came with a price as well. That imperfect look of CRTs helped to manufacture detail that wasn't actually there, all of those little analog "accidents" caused by both the CRT itself and the analog video standards of the day, helped the technology hide the often very strict hardware limitations of the videogame consoles of the 1980's and 1990's. by contrast, the perfect digital picture exposes the pixels exactly how they are, making low resolution images appear flatter by comparison.
It's kinda like what an artist has to go through when they draw a sketch and then they have to make the lineart, if you're not careful, the sketch can end up looking better that the lineart, because the lineart requires precision and rigurus markmaking that the sketch doesn't need, therefore every mistake is going to be more visible. In other words, analog has a less defined interpretation compared with digital, and that lack of clarity can help the viewer fill the gaps, and make elements on screen appear more detailed than they actually are.
that doesn't mean sprite artis didn't have tools to make the spritework better though. many genesis games for instance used agressive dithering techniques so the composite video of the console would blend the colors on together. That helped the console to, in practice, display more simultaneous colors on screen than the hardware allowed. You kinda lose that effect if you go with higher end video standars though, like s-video or RGB. These two are also analog standars but they separate the video signal in more wires, so there's less interference, that gives them a sharper picture at the cost of the color bleeding that makes genesis games look better. So there's a bit of a debate over what video standard to use, composite video and even RF were the defacto standard back in the day so that's what videogame developers were targeting.

 

[diet_orange]

I used to hate filters in emulators, but as time has gone on, I've started to wonder if I was misremembering how good games used to look when I play retro games in the present. CRT / scanline filters really show just how amazing pixel art used to be. There's still great pixel art today, don't get me wrong. But the kind of care and consideration that went into making images pop on CRT TVs back in the day is straight up incredible.

I use a very gentle CRT filter on Kegan Fusion to the point where it's "just enough" and not too overpowering. Looks great I think

But yeah, I agree, I usually hate filters on games. Especially when it smears the pixels