MiSTer FPGA Forum

Please use this thread to post your favorite shadow masks and the settings you use.
if possible, include a before and after so that people can see what the shadow masks, in combination with any other internal filters, are doing to the image

ill start it off with a personal shadow mask filter i designed.
it is a simple styled scanline with grille look (like a PVM) which ive found very nice

noting, the shadow mask was created specifically for people looking to use a fill screen option or integer scaling at .25.
my approach to making the shadow mask was to create a mask that had the appearance of scanlines and a CRT grille, regardless of integer scaling. for those of you who have messed around with scanlines on a non-integer scaled image, you have noticed the appearance of uneven scanlines. my shadow mask aims to remedy that with perfectly spaced scanlines regardless of scaling

Video output 1080p
Comp Blend H 75%
Gamma 115

Unfiltered
Faux Scanline w Grille Odd
Faux Scanline w Grille Even

I just tried this. It almost looks like a real CRT. Good work my guy. You have any other neat combinations to try?

It looks awesome!

For some reason I missed this… is this something available across the board or is it just for some cores/consoles?

My go-to combination right now is 1080p (5x vertical crop), TrashUncle's Triniton_Simple_bright shadow mask, and the 120% brightness soft scanlines at 40% intensity.

Here are some closeups from Gun Smoke (NES):

No shadow mask / scanlines (ignore the interference patterns, they're not visible in person).


Shadow mask + scanlines

Robgus wrote: ↑Fri Dec 10, 2021 9:24 am It looks awesome!

For some reason I missed this… is this something available across the board or is it just for some cores/consoles?

It's just for the biggest consoles right now, though plan is to roll it out everywhere once the feature is finalized.

Really like the effect of OPs fake scanlines.

For integer scaling with real scanlines, I settled on Tonuric Masks/Filters/1x/Mirrored/KYMC, though to be honest, the effect is way too suble to notice unless pixel peeping.
Anyway it works well at 1440p with 6x scaling and CRT Simulation Svideo scanlines. I also really like Thin RGB lines as shadow mask, but it sometimes causes a bit of interference with my display, resulting in uneven colors.

FoxbatStargazer wrote: ↑Fri Dec 10, 2021 3:03 pm

Robgus wrote: ↑Fri Dec 10, 2021 9:24 am It looks awesome!

For some reason I missed this… is this something available across the board or is it just for some cores/consoles?

It's just for the biggest consoles right now, though plan is to roll it out everywhere once the feature is finalized.

Awesome, thanks! Is there a list somewhere over which consoles that has shadow masks enabled? I’m hoping that it will come to some old arcade cores

Hi guys my favouite has been...triniton_simple_bright, but this has be removed since i did my update_all yesterday!

i am using a LCD Dell 2007FPB 20 Inch which seems to be one of the best LCD's to use with Mister in all the reviews ive seen, any suggestions as too what be a good general option or combination for this using the Shadow Mask?

Not the best at using the settings as im quite new to all this when i comes to scaling and other options, so any other Shadow Mask settings or combinations to use would be great to hear.

Thanx

The most faithful (i.e. "correct by the numbers") mask I've encountered among the tenths, is @LamerDeluxe's Realistic->Slot->Slot Bright. However, it doesn't yet take into account different resolutions, nor does it use luminosity coefficients. The result is that it looks overlayed on the display, much like most of the other respected efforts, which have an "embroidery" effect.

The most appropriate filters IMO, which strive not to be "correct", but to give instead an overall convincing illusion/feel of a consumer CRT on a TFT panel during play, are Jovec's @Asteld's simple, no frills masks.

lamarax wrote: ↑Sun Jan 09, 2022 8:51 pm The most faithful (i.e. "correct by the numbers") mask I've encountered among the tenths, is @LamerDeluxe's Realistic->Slot->Slot Bright. However, it doesn't yet take into account different resolutions, nor does it use luminosity coefficients. The result is that it looks overlayed on the dispay, much like most of the other respected efforts, which have an "embroidery" effect.

That is a recent addition, glad you like it. What do you mean with luminosity coefficients? You are right about resolutions, I've been making these patterns for my 1080p display and haven't tested with other resolutions. I think it is a good candidate for trying the new multi-resolution functionality the patterns now have. I'll see what I can do.

I also just added some more dot patterns, I like the effect of DotMedium, though I don't have an actual dot mask display to compare it with.

Been enjoying Tonuric's Gameboy Color Light LCD look, looks great to me on Genesis. I just wish the GBC/GBA core was updated so the so I could use it on an actual handheld, haha.

I'm really looking forward to the Lynx core receiving shadow mask support.

LamerDeluxe wrote: ↑Mon Jan 10, 2022 11:05 am I'm really looking forward to the Lynx core receiving shadow mask support.

Yes for sure the Atari Lynx had some awesome games! Can't wait for Shadow Mask to be added to it!

There haven't been any handheld test cores with the new Shadow Mask alignment logic yet. [For LCD masks, the positions need to be pixel perfect to create the correct effect.] So fingers crossed everything comes together perfectly day one.

Thanks to @theypsilon, we now have the ability to use exclusion tags regarding what gets downloaded with each update.

After today's spontaneous "reorganization" of the ludicrously bloated stitchwork showcase Shadow_Masks folder, and the arbitrary "deprecation" of the only filters I care about (namely Jovec's), my downloader.ini now looks like this:
I'm just leaving this here for anyone else frustrated.

For the record, you can find my masks on this github repo.

A big reorganisation is coming up, but I'm still working out some bugs for the script I'm using to generate these. I will make sure my masks ultimately work on Mister though, even if they don't end up being added to the official repo. (It just so happens I really like the masks I've created )

I'm not entirely sure what the deal is for the new 'official' masks, since the discussion has apparently been going on on Discord. It all should be alright at some point in the future.

The deprecation of the Asteld/Jovec masks were not done out of any prejudice. We moved to a new attribution and categorization policy and asked creators to update their masks accordingly. Those who haven't done so yet: have been moved to the Deprecation folder.

In all fairness to Asteld: he only had a week's notice. Everyone else heard about the changes around the start of the month; when it was discussed on Discord.

tonurics wrote: ↑Thu Jan 20, 2022 9:28 pm The deprecation of the Asteld/Jovec masks were not done out of any prejudice. We moved to a new attribution and categorization policy and asked creators to update their masks accordingly. Those who haven't done so yet: have been moved to the Deprecation folder.

In all fairness to Asteld: he only had a week's notice. Everyone else heard about the changes around the start of the month; when it was discussed on Discord.

Hey buddy, you don't get to delete the work of others, capiche?
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Here's what I've managed to salvage:
Keep that safe, because apparently it's gonna get worse.