mikepurvison Hacker News • Recommends
On “Designing 2D graphics in the Japanese industry”
For interested parties, here's a video that shows the Sonic waterfall in motion with various CRT-simulating shaders applied on top: link to this video
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#retroarch#crtshader#dithering
Sonic behind waterfall - RetroArch shader comparison
PenguinWeirdness
29 subscribers • 1 video on Hallway
- Recommended by 1 person: 1 on Hacker News.
- May be out of date. Uploaded 9 years ago, in an area where tools change fast.
Intermediate. Assumes working knowledge.
30K views9 years ago1 recommendation
Graphics and audioGame developmentRenderingRetro games and consoles
A brief demonstration comparing how different RetroArch CRT shaders emulate the Sega Genesis dithering effect to create transparency in Sonic the Hedgehog.
Dithering was used in Sega Genesis games to mitigate the limited color palette (maximum of 61 colors on screen) as dithered image appears to have more color. At least on the CRT screens which don't display each pixel as perfectly as modern LCD monitors. The dithering was also used as sort of transparency effect in older games, like Sonic the Hedgehog behind waterfall in this video. Luckily, we have various shaders available to emulate this effect. This video demonstrates various shaders in RetroArch, so you can compare their effects easily. Song in background is called "Sonicquarium" by the "The Cynic Project" available on OCReMix (ocremix.org/remix/OCR02631). Thank you!Why it's here
1 person recommends thisWhat people say. Recommended as a clear visual demonstration of why CRT emulation is necessary to accurately render transparency effects in retro games.
wtallison Hacker News • Mentions
On “On Emulation”
CRT emulation of some kind is sometimes necessary to accurately render effects that were intended by the original artists. For example, this waterfall transparency: link to this video Then there's the fact that a lot of early console artwork was designed to be output on a composite video cable instead of as separate RGB channels, so the crosstalk may need to be emulated to get the right color blending: link (The reduced effective spatial resolution is often more of a detriment, so plenty of games do look much better in pure crisp RGB from an emulator.)
lloekion Hacker News • Mentions
On “CRT Shaders”
…us optimized for it In many cases there is no argument to be had. link These sprites are terrible without CRT-ness (skeleton has pixels unbalanced, clearly placed for an antialiasing effect; beast is unshaded). Also, look at that waterfall, for which filters have a hard time, either inefficient or making the rest of the scene excessively blurry. link to this video For some games I think the flat pixely look is OK, e.g Zelda III, although I personally prefer the darker, smoother, less saturated look of CRT which in my mind betters conveys the grim ambience than the unfiltered cel-shaded-y one. For others, either specific bits (Chrono Trigger's overworld map) or the whole thing is plain bad. > However,…
gjsman-1000on Hacker News • Mentions
On “$60 chip fixes a longstanding Super Nintendo flaw”
Another example of this, is the waterfalls in Sonic the Hedgehog. No, it’s not meant to look like alternating blue lines on the remasters (even though that looks decent enough). In a CRT TV, that alternating pattern would have created a translucency effect after the smearing. Here’s a shader comparison which tries to properly recreate this: link to this video