VOGONS

CRT shaders for Win9x/early XP era games

Topic actions

First post, by captain_koloth

Posted on 
User metadata
Rank Newbie
Rank
Newbie

Prompted by the realization that my beloved 1999 Gateway-branded Trinitron VGA monitor won't last forever for 1600x1200 Win 9x-era gaming goodness, I've been experimenting heavily with CRT shaders in Shaderglass and Retroarch. In my ideal use case, whenever my Trinitron finally bites the dust, I can switch from my XP rig with that CRT, to using Shaderglass on my modern PC to emulate that style of CRT for when I play games of that era via GOG or whatever.

As I've experimented, though, I've discovered that essentially, the state of development and number of options for emulation of consoles and various consumer TVs and PVMs is extremely advanced and that there are endless options and guides. For emulation of relatively high-resolution VGA monitors for Win 9x/XP gaming, however.... there's kinda nothing.

You can of course modify other shaders, but you're pretty much on your own with respect to guides for ideal settings. Has anybody else experimented with this, or found any better information that I've been able to? I've been a bit frustrated as I've finally dived into this and found that all of the progress and customization and discussion is nearly 100% exclusively for console gaming and geared for 240p/480i content. There are a zillion shaders to make your SNES look like you're playing on a BVM, or to make your screen look generically fuzzy, curved, and full of artifacts, but there IS a specific look to those late 90s VGA monitors that I'm struggling to figure out how to capture with the available tools.

Reply 1 of 2, by Jo22

Posted on 
User metadata
Rank l33t++
Rank
l33t++

Interesting topic!

There are a zillion shaders to make your SNES look like you're playing on a BVM, or to make your screen look generically fuzzy, curved,
and full of artifacts, but there IS a specific look to those late 90s VGA monitors that I'm struggling to figure out how to capture with the available tools.

Indeed, and I'm also "guilty" for being part of that group! 🤣

While I do also care about Windows, it's Windows 3.1x mainly.
And the typical, infamous IBM PS/2 monitors of late 80s with the blurry image!
Those lower-end models meant for MCGA graphics, with 0,3 to 0,4mm dot pitch and 640x480 (60Hz, progr.) and 1024x768 (43 Hz, interl.) pels resolution support. More info here. Worst VGA monitor -> here.

Speaking about late 90s CRTs, how much do they differ from LCD/TFT to you?
I mean, I do have a 19" CRT (cheap Medion model) that had a pretty, "glowing" picture last time I tried.
But on a closer look-up, the pixels were clearly defined and 800x600 resolution looked as nice as on an 1600x1200 pels 20" 4:3 LCD (Siemens Nixdorf).

I mean, those late 90s VGA CRTs did equal 1980s CAD or workstation monitors in terms of specs, basically.
So there's little "filtering" involved anymore. The image of such monitors was very crisp, very detailed..
A dot pitch 0f about 0.21mm to 0.26mm is in Super VGA range in terms of quality (by late 80s or early 90s standards).
Multisync monitors usually had 0.2xmm tubes, too, at the time.

Edit: I didn't mean to down-play the importance of an HQ CRT whatsoever.
But maybe it's possible to emulate the experience by using DOSBox-X and some of the OpenGL shaders?
I tried emulating a good CRT once on my Raspberry Pi 4 using DOSBox-X.
Using some of the shaders I was able to play Frederik Pohl's Gateway in 800x600 pixel resolution (it's an SVGA DOS game with ET4k support).
The result was close to a real SVGA monitor, I think.
It was crt-pi, maybe. Not sure, I'd have to check.

https://docs.libretro.com/shader/crt/#
https://github.com/libretro/common-shaders

Edit: Or maybe it's about the lack of a glass pane, too?
I remember that the Andy Warhol exhibition used a fake Amiga monitor using an LCD and a glass pane (or polycarbonate pane, rather, not sure).
It's not like a real Commodore 1084S by any means, but "good enough" for the visitors.
The glass pane succesfully makes everything look more CRT-like, I think.
The blurriness of a real vintage video monitor can't be matched, of course.
Pixels won't be blurred same way.

https://www.warhol.org/exhibition/warhol-and-the-amiga/
https://www.iontank.com/projects/warhol-amiga

"Time, it seems, doesn't flow. For some it's fast, for some it's slow.
In what to one race is no time at all, another race can rise and fall..." - The Minstrel

//My video channel//

Go to top of page Go to top of page
Back to PC Emulation
Close window
Close window