You’ll never catch me using filters like these voluntarily. Inject those crisp pixels straight into my vein.
You're Emulating Retro Games Wrong (you need CRT Shaders)
Submitted 5 months ago by DdCno1@beehaw.org to gaming@beehaw.org
Comments
Poopfeast420@discuss.tchncs.de 5 months ago
ReallyActuallyFrankenstein@lemmynsfw.com 5 months ago
I was a crisp pixel diehard for like 20 years even despite growing up with CRT, because I remember in the 80s-00s trying hard to get the clearest picture (RF->SRGB->S-video->Composite) and it felt like, “what’s clearer than exact pixels?”
And then I tried a good CRT filter that emulates not just scanlines and noise, but subpixel effects, and it really changed my mind. The graphics really were designed to be displayed with those analog “imperfections,” and if you lived in that era, you kind of took for granted the things that worked well with the natural CRT blur while pursuing image clarity. Bringing back the CRT effects was a revelation.
Like, even handheld emulation filters that mimic how those particular LCD screens functioned often give a better experience since game designers took that into account.
I don’t know if someone growing up with only emulated square LCD memories would feel the same, and I’ll always take pixely LCD over bad CRT emulation, but I’d suggest to give it a try with good filters.
yozul@beehaw.org 5 months ago
Square pixels are a filter just as much as CRT filters are. In fact, they distort the image even more. Even leaving aside all the things that just don’t work right in square pixel land, turning every pixel into a square messes up the aspect ratio of a lot of old consoles. Everything ends up squished and stretched because it wasn’t designed for square pixels. You can call that distorted funhouse mirror version of old video game art “crisp” if you want, but in reality it’s just the cheapest and worst filter.
Thevenin@beehaw.org 5 months ago
I strongly disagree with the premise that there’s a “wrong” way to play retro games. Don’t gatekeep. Imagine if people told you not to listen to Pink Floyd unless it’s on vinyl. It would be lost media.
That said, CRTs present images fundamentally differently than LCD displays, and a lot of developers took advantage of those idiosyncrasies. There are scanlines everywhere. CRT phosphors aren’t square, and appear smaller when darker. Bright pixels can “bleed” into nearby pixels, particularly when using composite signals.
Before LCDs, many (not all) pixel artists used this to their advantage, basically harnessing the imperfections of analog TV to provide equivalents to anti-aliasing, bloom, extra color depth, and even transparency. Some particularly famous examples came from Sega Genesis games. This video goes into good depth on the whys and hows, and there are some solid examples of the outcomes here.
I’ve attached examples below (hopefully they upload). If you like the raw pixel art, then no harm done. Enjoy! But if you like the way CRTs interpreted and filtered those signals, you owe it to yourself to look up some shaders for your favorite emulator.
(Zero Tolerance, 1994, on the Genesis/Mega Drive)
(Sonic the Hedgehog 2, 1992, on the Genesis/Mega Drive)
thingsiplay@beehaw.org 5 months ago
I strongly disagree with the premise that there’s a “wrong” way to play retro games.
I understand your sentiment here and you are right too. What I think is, that the wording on this title here is misunderstood. Emulating (old) games without Shaders is not faithful or accurate in the looks. It looks “vastly” different and thus means it looks “wrong”. I interpret the “wrong” in the title as “not faithful”, instead as “bad”, like this: You’re Probably Emulating Retro Games Not Faithful (you need CRT Shaders for the oldschool look)
Thevenin@beehaw.org 5 months ago
Yeah, the video really isn’t making the point its title suggests. I think we’re all just primed to expect gatekeeping in video games at this point.
samus12345@lemm.ee 5 months ago
mtlvmpr@sopuli.xyz 5 months ago
My aim was never to emulate but to play. Blur filters are something that I won’t be using.
jarfil@beehaw.org 5 months ago
The good ones aren’t “blur”, they’re “subpixel rearrange”.
It takes about 4x4 square pixels to emulate the subpixels of a single round one… just like it takes about 4x4 round pixels to emulate the subpixels of a square one.
mtlvmpr@sopuli.xyz 5 months ago
But do they still look like blur? That’s the only thing that matters. Ray tracing is also cool but if my frames die because of it, it gets disbled.
HEXN3T@lemmy.blahaj.zone 5 months ago
The benefit of CRTs is most apparent in pre-rendered backgrounds (See Final Fantasy, Resident Evil). These backgrounds look incredible with shaders, and, indeed, on real displays.
Good looks stay good.
turbulentMagma@lemm.ee 5 months ago
No, I don’t need it.
TachyonTele@lemm.ee 5 months ago
If there was a good crt shader I’d love to use it. Haven’t seen any good ones yet.
DdCno1@beehaw.org 5 months ago
Now I’m curious what your criteria are. Do none of the shaders shown in the video appeal to you? To me at least, they look remarkably close to several types of old CRT TVs that I remember.
TachyonTele@lemm.ee 5 months ago
I only know of filters in emulators I’ve used for nes, super nes, Genesis, gb advance, dolphan, duckstation, and whatever other emulators over the years.
None of them have had a crt shader that’s good.
Thevenin@beehaw.org 5 months ago
If you’re using Retroarch, I’ve found this overview useful. …game.blog/…/showcase-for-retroarch-shaders-2024/
TachyonTele@lemm.ee 5 months ago
I don’t use retroarch. I’ve been idly looking for how to transfer shaders to other emulators, but so far no success.
yozul@beehaw.org 5 months ago
There is no world in which anyone ever designed a game for anything more powerful than a Gameboy where they expected people to see it as a seemless grid of squares so big you can see them from across the room. That’s just not a real thing outside of badly designed modern “retro” graphics. There’s a reason for that. Seemless square grid is ugly. Like, disgustingly hideous. I do not understand why anyone would ever want to subject their eyeballs to the atrocity that is giant square pixels. If you want to do that to yourself then I can’t stop you. There’s no accounting for taste and all that, but just know that I think less of you for it.
Varyag@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 months ago
Real. Ever since I spent some time setting up good CRT shaders, playing retro games feels a lot cooler. They just give the best feeling and look pretty nice with them on. Sometimes for fun, I leave the shader on for regular Windows usage.
samus12345@lemm.ee 5 months ago
If people like using them, more power to them, but as someone who grew up playing on CRTs, if I could have had crisp pixels instead back in the day, I would totally have chosen that.
Twerp10@reddthat.com 5 months ago
Wow gatekeep much?
Bronzebeard@lemm.ee 5 months ago
Yes, you’re all doing it wrong…by doing it at all.
DdCno1@beehaw.org 5 months ago
Original hardware, especially CRTs, is increasingly difficult to find and getting more expensive and less reliable by the day (both of my N64 are completely dead right now - just from sitting unused in a dry cupboard for a few years).
Love it or hate it, this is the future of retro gaming.
Toribor@corndog.social 5 months ago
Okay.
KickMeElmo@sopuli.xyz 5 months ago
Honestly, I hate the CRT aesthetic. I grew up with CRTs. Leaving them behind for LCDs was one of the greatest transitions of growing up. By all means, enjoy them if you do, but I don’t.
thingsiplay@beehaw.org 5 months ago
It’s not just the look of it, but the art and games were designed with the limitations of CRT in mind. Not all games off course. An example is the transparency effect on Genesis / Mega Drive:
Image Image
thingsiplay@beehaw.org 5 months ago
Shaders are not only useful for CRT emulation, but also to get the look of handhelds:
Image
MetaStatistical@lemmy.zip 5 months ago
Getting the settings right for video is critically important, too. Scaling needs to be done with the nearest neighbor pixel method, not more modern blends.