Screenshot thread

[schru]

I have been toying with the CRT-screen-emulating shaders that are included with DOSBox SVN Daum. If any one still uses a CRT, could I have an opinion on how these two resolutions compare to the real thing in terms of appearance of the pixels, sharpness, or smoothness?

I like the fuzziness that comes with 320x200, I think it smooths out HUDs and viewmodels nicely. But did games like Duke Nukem 3D look this sharp at higher resolutions? I dislike how they made the viewmodels look and shaders such as this don't help much. Of course that would depend on the type of matrix, but I'm just wondering about how it looked generally.

Edit: Included an additional explanation at the bottom.

320x200, doublescanned:

800x600:

A few more taken at 320x200:

Spoiler

Edit: In case what I'm asking about is confusing, the reason I'm interested in such shaders is that neither the standard LCD upscaling nor actually high resolutions offered by source ports look that good. Since CRTs create the necessary number of pixels, lower resolutions look nicer on them, hence I've been looking into ways of emulating similar scaling (neither too sharp, nor blurry in an ugly way) on LCDs. DOSBox's full-screen upscaling isn't satisfactory either, but it starts to look good with shaders such as this one.

So, the basic question is, do the above screenshots, especially the 800x600 one, look roughly how actual CRT picture looks?

 

[Baron Dupek]

spekkio
Did you experienced any graphical artifacts so far? Last time I tried that game it was all nice but going to towns for barters and dealing with characters screens wasn't pleasant....

I have been toying with the CRT-screen-emulating shaders that are included with SVN Daum. If any one still uses a CRT, could I have an opinion on how these two resolutions compare to the real thing?
I like the fuzziness that comes with 320x200, I think it smooths out HUDs and viewmodels nicely. But did games like Duke Nukem 3D look this sharp at higher resolutions? I dislike how they made the viewmodels look and shaders such as this don't help much. Of course that would depend on the type of matrix, but I'm just wondering about how it looked generally.
320x200, doublescanned:
800x600:

I though these white spots were their eyes. Only now I can clearly see their red blinks...

 

[spekkio]

^
No graphical glitches so far, newshitest version of ppsspp.

 

[FeelTheRads]

I have been toying with the CRT-screen-emulating shaders that are included with DOSBox SVN Daum. If any one still uses a CRT, could I have an opinion on how these two resolutions compare to the real thing in terms of appearance of the pixels, sharpness, or smoothness?

I like the fuzziness that comes with 320x200, I think it smooths out HUDs and viewmodels nicely. But did games like Duke Nukem 3D look this sharp at higher resolutions? I dislike how they made the viewmodels look and shaders such as this don't help much. Of course that would depend on the type of matrix, but I'm just wondering about how it looked generally.

Edit: Included an additional explanation at the bottom.

320x200, doublescanned:

800x600:

A few more taken at 320x200:

Spoiler

Edit: In case what I'm asking about is confusing, the reason I'm interested in such shaders is that neither the standard LCD upscaling nor actually high resolutions offered by source ports look that good. Since CRTs create the necessary number of pixels, lower resolutions look nicer on them, hence I've been looking into ways of emulating similar scaling (neither too sharp, nor blurry in an ugly way) on LCDs. DOSBox's full-screen upscaling isn't satisfactory either, but it starts to look good with shaders such as this one.

So, the basic question is, do the above screenshots, especially the 800x600 one, look roughly how actual CRT picture looks?

I don't know what CRTs you used, but the ones I used never looked liked that. Image was sharp (if the CRT wasn't shit, in which case it was blurry), but scanlines? On CRT TVs maybe.

 

[pippin]

CRT emulators are like those "vhs" effects you often find in those vaporwave videos. Stuff made by kids who never got to experience the real thing.

 

[schru]

I don't know what CRTs you used, but the ones I used never looked liked that. Image was sharp (if the CRT wasn't shit, in which case it was blurry), but scanlines? On CRT TVs maybe.

While this particular shader was originally made for console games, I asked an acquaintance with a PC CRT monitor to take a photo of his screen and its pixels do look like they're arranged like scan lines:

Spoiler

But I suppose most of the more recent CRTs looked like this:

Spoiler

I rather like the smoothing effect of the less sharp variant. It would be nice to have a shader that would replicate something like that.

 

[FeelTheRads]

Well, yes, if you glue your eyes to the tube, they might look like that.

But at least you don't use the smoothing filters I've seen some people here use. That I don't understand. CRT filters at least, I suppose add some extra... say texture to the image. Those smoothing melting filters... I don't even

 

[Excidium II]

CRT emulators are like those "vhs" effects you often find in those vaporwave videos. Stuff made by kids who never got to experience the real thing.

CRT shaders that come with dosbox daum are very rudimentary, since it's old shader language that is single pass.

The good shaders are made by people who are more autistic about CRT/emulation than you can even begin to imagine and use multi-pass shaders so they can look p. legit. But if u want the level of accuracy they go for you need to adjust to your monitor's peculiarities.

 

[spekkio]

But at least you don't use the smoothing filters I've seen some people here use.

Well, I don't know how much of your gaming is done via emulators, but some consoles had very low internal res, which can be increased (better 3D), but not without glitches (2D sprites for example).
Unfiltered PSP game in vanilla internal res looks like this in emulator (high external res of the PC display):

IMO it's all about choosing the least shitty mode, which is highly subjective...
I went with this (3 x internal res + linear filtering):

But I'm not 100% happy with it.

In vanilla res (internal & external) game looks like this:

 

[schru]

I think CRT shaders are optimal since they give a mid ground between blurring and appropriate sharpness, adding a nice pattern if done well.

ePSXe also comes with such a shader:

The one included with SVN Daum was originally made for SNES; I suppose it looks similar to the above, perhaps it is the same. Here's what it looks like without doublescanning and with the Rec. 601 colour range enabled:

 

[Excidium II]

Those look like arse.

 

[schru]

Still preferable to just stretching them to an LCD's resolution, I think. Quake at a higher resolution, 800x600, I think (the Rec. 601 colour range compensation gives it a nice look, but it's probably only something that applied to TV sets):

 

[A horse of course]

 

[iZerw]

So, the basic question is, do the above screenshots, especially the 800x600 one, look roughly how actual CRT picture looks?

Nope. Just buy a CRT monitor. I heard there're dirty cheap these days.

 

[FeelTheRads]

But at least you don't use the smoothing filters I've seen some people here use.

Well, I don't know how much of your gaming is done via emulators, but some consoles had very low internal res, which can be increased (better 3D), but not without glitches (2D sprites for example).
Unfiltered PSP game in vanilla internal res looks like this in emulator (high external res of the PC display):

I don't know about console junk, I was talking about DOSBox.

 

[Ninja Destroyer]

Contrast - a really good artsy game with puzzle elements. Too bad it's so short.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

It's a game I would love to play - but when the developers can't even implement something as simple as allowing players to redefine their controls, one is forced to question their competence and intelligence.

 

[an Administrator]

 

[pippin]

why are you playing dirty games?

 

[an Administrator]

why are you playing dirty games?

J-Just for research purposes

 

[pippin]

do not watch the anime series after playing it

 

[Repulsive]

 

[A horse of course]

wat gaem

 

[an Administrator]

wat gaem

I will tell you in private

 

[A horse of course]

wat gaem

I will tell you in private

ok, let's go over here