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Scanline screenshot thread. Because 240p is all the p's I need.

Tain

Member
NUeda on shmups made a few comparison shots of Super Contra between unfiltered and a MAME HLSL configuration mimicking typical calibration for Japanese arcade displays in the 80s:

1zXsVbp.jpg
9KaL1Y7.jpg


The calibration is too extreme to me, but I think it's utterly undeniable that some amount of blur helps the image.
 

Tain

Member
Another comparison, SF2 unfiltered and using a MAME HLSL filter config mimicking early 90's Japanese arcade display calibration:

edMo3EJ.png

Ycf6qv8.jpg
 
Oh, yeah, that Street Fighter II post reminded me of this picture that I took for another thread:


I'll take more proper, TV-focused shots of Super Street Fighter II Turbo later.

Just like with my Rayman post in the page before, that is the PlayStation version running off of a PlayStation 2 with component cables.
 

Peltz

Member
NUeda on shmups made a few comparison shots of Super Contra between unfiltered and a MAME HLSL configuration mimicking typical calibration for Japanese arcade displays in the 80s:

The calibration is too extreme to me, but I think it's utterly undeniable that some amount of blur helps the image.

O_O wow


Does anyone have the ability to photograph an intact original arcade monitor for SF2 (or another popular game) so we can see a bit more of this type of calibration, but on a real original cab vs. an emulator?

Edit: And yes, you're right. Maintaining the proper look of dithering techniques while also shooting for high image quality from original hardware is a very tricky endeavor, indeed. Too much precision in some certain games can be just as bad as not enough precision with regard to image quality. Dithering is where emulator filters can beat out upscalers and many lossless RGB monitor setups. It's also why, in my humble opinion, Emu-shots belong in this thread. The more resources we have to remember the way old games are supposed to look, the better off we'll be. Most of this artwork has aged far better than our Plasmas and LCDs can illustrate on their own.
 
Another comparison, SF2 unfiltered and using a MAME HLSL filter config mimicking early 90's Japanese arcade display calibration:

edMo3EJ.png

Ycf6qv8.jpg

Yep, that's more like what I remember from arcade SF II back then. Also Final Fight Double Impact on X360 and PS3 has a nice approximation of an arcade CRT in its display options.
 

robot

Member
My RGB Twin Famicom arrives back from service today. I'm apologizing in advance for the screens I'm going to unload in this thread in the coming days.

A few more from the cab:

SFZ2A: Dramatic Battle Select (CPS2)
617ba05e7ddb11e2bfbf22000a9f1935_7.jpg


New Zealand Story (Taito PCB)
dd273e884fce11e29a5822000a9f15d4_7.jpg


SF3: Third Strike (CPS3)
08ff536c3b5a11e2877122000a1fbc4f_7.jpg


780049f2f4af11e180ba22000a1e9f90_7.jpg


a1fbdceaf30f11e1a4431231381407ca_7.jpg


Bloody Roar (PCB - ZN1?)
4ee6aaa4155011e2bb2312313810192e_7.jpg


Rally Bike (PCB)

fa37a0a0dcef11e19ed51231381000d3_7.jpg


0ca3ab0edc4f11e1ad8e22000a1e88a7_7.jpg


Twinbee Yahoo! (Konami PCB)
feb1a9f6cfba11e1ad821231381b3c05_7.jpg


07a9d41ecfb311e1bc53123138104ab5_7.jpg


Star Gladiator 2 (ZN2)
bd4082eccb8411e1b10e123138105d6b_7.jpg
 

Peltz

Member
My RGB Twin Famicom arrives back from service today. I'm apologizing in advance for the screens I'm going to unload in this thread in the coming days.

A few more from the cab:

Can you post more from the Taito cab? I love Taito's artstyle from the 80s and 90s. Anything with "Bobble" in the title from them gets bonus thumbs up from me.
 

robot

Member
Can you post more from the Taito cab? I love Taito's artstyle from the 80s and 90s. Anything with "Bobble" in the title from them gets bonus thumbs up from me.

Elevator Action Returns and New Zealand Story are the Taito PCBs I own. The original Bubble Bobble is waaaaay too expensive, though I have been meaning to pick up Bubble Symphony or Memories. I used to have Rastan but it wasn't getting played much so I sold it.

I'll take some pics of EA Returns next time I put it in the cab (these are all running on the same cabinet btw).
 
Street Fighter III New Generation with native 16:9 ratio selected in Dip Switch BIOS:

Mame
HLSL
CRT Rounded Corners Post FX Shader
Vignette

RQgb.png
 
click on these images to see the scanlines in full glory

Retroarch with crt-easymode shader. All games running in 240p:








and the crt-royale shader:




and the dmg game boy shader:

Is there really a point to posting this? Anyone on this planet can achieve that kind of graphical fidelity if they just have internet and a computer. I just personally don't see how its impressive with emulators and crt filters. Id rather see crt setups using rgb.
 

Muffdraul

Member
For some reason I have this very specific memory of going to Gamedude to pick up my imported copy of NiGHTS Into Dreams, going home, unhooking my Saturn and putting it in the car, driving over to where I was house sitting for a couple of weeks, setting up the Saturn on their HUGE Sony WEGA, and playing NiGHTS for the first time... and being annoyed because the TV was so damn big that even from like 15 feet away the scan lines were way too obvious.
 

Bancho

Member
All these are shot off my JVC 20 Monitor. All RGB


R-Type - PC Engine
IMG_5075.jpg



Final Fight - Retroarch Wii

IMG_5221.jpg


Castle Of Illusion - Mega Drive

IMG_5210.jpg

IMG_5213.jpg


Streets Of Rage 3 - Mega Drive

IMG_5204.jpg


Shatter Hand - RGB AV Famicom

IMG_5195.jpg
 

Alo81

Low Poly Gynecologist
NUeda on shmups made a few comparison shots of Super Contra between unfiltered and a MAME HLSL configuration mimicking typical calibration for Japanese arcade displays in the 80s:

1zXsVbp.jpg
9KaL1Y7.jpg


The calibration is too extreme to me, but I think it's utterly undeniable that some amount of blur helps the image.

That impact is huge.
 
It makes the pixels/polygons look less blocky and pixelated on the edges. Diagonal lines of old school games weren't designed to look like blocky "staircases". But without scanlines, that's what they look like.

Properly applied scanlines are intended to fill in the gaps between rows of pixels to "complete" the image of 240p games. Notice how the shiny spot and soft shadowing on the blue ball in the very top row of comparison shots below looks a whole lot more natural on the right picture, and a whole lot blockier/ugly in the left picture. The lack of scanlines ruins the artwork in my opinion. And many others share this opinion.
---
P.S. The biggest difference that scanlines make are on games with prerendered backgrounds like DKC on SNES and Squaresoft RPGs on PS1. Ever notice that they look like garbage on modern HD displays? Scanlines are essential to get the proper intended effect of those images.
Wow, they make a huge difference. Thanks for taking the time to put this together, I think I now 'get it!'
 

ehnox

Member
Well some Yoshi Island comparison between many consoles.

Yoshis Island ( Real GBA screen) Vertical scanlines from what I can see
QaoOuEN.jpg


3DS VC (constrast seems to be really low on 3DS VC games) Not using powersavingmode
7RfG93A.jpg


NDSi Yoshi Island DS (The DSi screen has really good colors and better constrast)
8jaUzke.jpg


SNES classic ( RGB on Sony BVM14G5U) The Winner!
maG8nBT.jpg
 

robot

Member
Contra - Famicom Version (RGB modded Twin Famicom via Framemeister)

Amazing how much cool shit the US version is missing. Cutscenes, background animations, a cool animated map. WTF Konami?

10731496_281694755352341_1411293679_n.jpg


10729355_727580787329260_650392937_n.jpg
 

Peltz

Member
Contra - Famicom Version (RGB modded Twin Famicom via Framemeister)

Amazing how much cool shit the US version is missing. Cutscenes, background animations, a cool animated map. WTF Konami?

That looks fantastic! I need that RGB mod.

Can you post one of the FDS bios screen without a disk inserted?
 

Alo81

Low Poly Gynecologist
For all the people working through emulator, are there any recommendations for Retroarch playing Aria of Sorrow, or just a great CRT shader?


This is my current set up, but if I could pull something nicer off I'd love to try it.
 

HTupolev

Member
NUeda on shmups made a few comparison shots of Super Contra between unfiltered and a MAME HLSL configuration mimicking typical calibration for Japanese arcade displays in the 80s:

1zXsVbp.jpg
9KaL1Y7.jpg


The calibration is too extreme to me, but I think it's utterly undeniable that some amount of blur helps the image.
Excellent example ever for why "pixels are little squares" is a horrible thing to say.

CRT phosphors make such astoundingly beautiful image reconstruction filters.
 

moniker

Member
Some of these are super sexy.

Does anyone know how high resolution you would need to accurately simulate a CRT aperture grill with 240p content? Is 4K enough? And which is currently the best shader out there?
 
Another comparison, SF2 unfiltered and using a MAME HLSL filter config mimicking early 90's Japanese arcade display calibration:

edMo3EJ.png

Ycf6qv8.jpg

Mate, ive tried to recreate what you did on mameui64 with HLSL shader enabled and CRT effect, but im getting over exposed image and washed out colors.

Care to share what you did or what i need to accomplish similar results to you?
Thanks
 

Peltz

Member
1505632_10100873804336010_7288515188286755810_n.jpg


10523356_10100873804331020_569731860375869451_n.jpg


10384583_10100873805842990_6347154921423418864_n.jpg


Marvel vs. Capcom PS1

10514674_10100873803837010_2517029015395969795_n.jpg


1392049_10100873803817050_7853224345624532977_n.jpg


560166_10100873803712260_8496058345512058812_n.jpg


10636086_10100873803717250_8696019055538783541_n.jpg


10014697_10100873803702280_7948770956146275215_n.jpg


Legend of Dragoon PS1

Both from my PS2 slim and RGB cable to my 14" Panasonic Studio RGB Monitor.
 
Omg, I can't stand this thread, this is really too much goodness. Why can't I in 2014 go out and buy myself a brand new Sony/Panasonic hiend crt monitor? What's gone wrong?
 

TheMoon

Member
Omg, I can't stand this thread, this is really too much goodness. Why can't I in 2014 go out and buy myself a brand new Sony/Panasonic hiend crt monitor? What's gone wrong?

There is this rare phenomenon where old tech was actually superior to new tech. It's weird how all this analog stuff wipes the floor with digital modern stuff across various mediums. Happened with vinyl, now we learn to appreciate CRTs after cursing them for years lol.
 

Peltz

Member

Very close up comparison shot: Wii U Virtual Console vs. a real SNES on an old RGB Monitor. The top setup, in my humble opinion feels very flat and too sharp in real life in comparison to the bottom. We've gained clarity but lost atmosphere with technology over the years on old games. .Keep in mind, it's very hard to take photos of CRTs so detail is lost with the bottom picture. The contrast isn't that extreme in real life.

Edit: The top part of the CRT photo, as well as the Metroid itself is probably the most accurate looking part of the picture. The bottom area isn't really fair to compare due to the low quality of the photo... it's not how it really looks in person. The contrast is too high, but I wanted to also pick up the phosphorescent glow of the CRT so I left it.

Edit 2: Even with a decent upscaler or filter, there's really no way to simulate the phosphor glow on the subtle background gradient that adds so much presence to the image in the bottom pic, but looks so flat in the top picture.
 

Yes Boss!

Member
1919666_10100873826621350_6351886227043799773_n.jpg


10425023_10100872506347190_3119802092498165142_n.jpg


Very close up comparison shot: Wii U Virtual Console vs. a real SNES on an old RGB Monitor. The top setup, in my humble opinion feels very flat and too sharp in real life in comparison to the bottom. We've gained clarity but lost atmosphere with technology over the years on old games. (Keep in mind, it's very hard to take photos of CRTs so detail is lost with the bottom picture. The contrast isn't that extreme in real life).

Wii U is a crummy way to play VC. Good in a pinch (a decent upscaler) and gamepad playback only. Classic Wii VC on a CRT or PVM with component is very nice.
 

D.Lo

Member
Akumajou Dracula X: Chi no Rondo

RGB PC Engine Duo RX
Framemeister to Panasonic Plasma.
I only use quite light scaliness, just enough to fix the image, but before the 'venetian blind' effect hits.
I also have a 14" Sony PVM, but the mini honestly looks just as good, and at 55".
 

Tain

Member
Mate, ive tried to recreate what you did on mameui64 with HLSL shader enabled and CRT effect, but im getting over exposed image and washed out colors.

Care to share what you did or what i need to accomplish similar results to you?
Thanks

Those shots aren't mine, but instead NUeda's on shmups forums. He apparently went on to make an INI creation tool that would generate nice-looking individual MAME INI files for games depending on their era, but stopped development of it.

I think your best bet would be to check out INI creation tool from his blog: http://mame-hlsl-gallery.blogspot.pt/p/blog-page.html
 
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