> Nobody needs to be emulating the exact characteristics of a CRT to chase down some "artistic intent" that only vintage CRT's provide. While it's true that bl

> Nobody needs to be emulating the exact characteristics of a CRT to chase down some "artistic intent" that only vintage CRT's provide. While it's true that blurring is one aspect of CRTs, there are multiple different things we're talking about here. Let's get specific. This is an image of an Apple II's composite video output as seen on a naive RGB LCD. https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjM70Qt9m1uvw6oZOqpZxNy0x_Os12blzs5lDdVzm_-3KfU1moKlZs500zz6Ljxa-hPbKkgY6V1L_0yEJpsHnTCTZwegwjV8StJ_oVKBUaqOjCghaupDVJGlDUSVxnjjVBAZnbx5LANSGs/s560/Apple+DOS+3.3+August+1980+B%2526W.png https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj... This is the exact same video output displayed on a CRT (or via a CRT shader properly decoding it). https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUPl2xUM0UyrJxP8c2sUYOvcW-xhHXVN4corGHk9en6Ob3GzxWs37nln__IhOHT0owxlnhUQ6Z3owEBTDJwupPOZWW-2_Vzl7Kj5Jpdyh4M9n9Lv2xEF5NrB_Lwa-_zErg29dGRcbq5Ss/s560/Apple+DOS+3.3+August+1980+Color.png https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh... This is not just blurring. The colors aren't even there on the naive RGB image. This is because modern displays don't properly decode the pixel pattern data as specified in the RS-170A analog video standard. A CRT shader can do many things including add blur, cross-talk, noise, scanlines, etc. But it ALSO does something else - properly decode the bit patterns in the first image to add the colors in the second image. The bit pattern was put there on purpose by the original artist/dev. Not decoding it properly means the colors are wrong or missing. Admittedly, this is an extreme example. Most games shown undecoded in naive RGB still have roughly the right number of pixels, in about the right colors, and in about the right places. So people accept it. But without composite decoding, some colors will be incorrect and some shades will be missing. It's as objectively wrong as decoding surround sound improperly. I don't care if you use a shader to "Make it look more like a fuzzy-ass old screen." In fact, I'd prefer you didn't. Adding excess blurring or noise just degrades pixels I worked hard on. But please, when you play games I wrote almost 40 years ago, I ask that you properly decode the color data I painstakingly encoded by hand and tested on a variety of different displays from Amdek monitors to cheap ass old TVs. If you don't, you're not playing the games I wrote. You don't have to buy a CRT. Shaders are free - and just a few clicks away. Use a high-quality one that just properly decodes composite and doesn't add any degradation bullshit. Note: those images are borrowed from this blog, which is a good discussion of composite video color encoding on the Apple II but the same principles apply to all analog composite video sources and displays. http://nerdlypleasures.blogspot.com/2021/10/apple-ii-composite-artifact-color-ntsc.html http://nerdlypleasures.blogspot.com/2021/10/apple-ii-composi...