MiSTer FPGA DE 10 - Video Presets! Tons of new CRT Filters for MiSTer! Get that CRT Look!

While playing MiSTer FPGA cores on a CRT is an amazing experience...not everyone is hardcore (dumb) enough to keep a bunch of large CRT tv's around their house to do it! So here is the next best thing! All the Video Presets that have come to MiSTer! Shadow Masks! Scanlines! Composite filters! The retro gaming works!

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J Z, Ivan Wennerholm, Adrien Sebbane, tobemorecrazy, Mark DeRiddler, Mike Puchelinkx, Tony Escobar and H7

I asked, you answered...and I try to listen :) Of all the requests for new content on the channel one of the most frequently asked for videos is a series on the Terasic DE-10 Nano MiSTer FPGA hardware...so here it is! Retro gaming goodness.

On this episode of our MiSTer series we are going to be talking about the MiSTer video filters...specifically all the new presets that have been added in to the platform itself. Before you had to combine different filters in different areas to get that CRT look...but now some awesome people (including TrashUncle...the King of Filters!) have combined them together into video presets you can activate with the push of a button!

So get some of that retrogaming goodness on MiSTer on your LCD tv!

Questions? Comments? Just leave them below and I will do my best to answer each and every one of them!

VGE

[ericplacencio]

Great video as always! The update lets you use the buttons you mapped for L and R without having to go into the filter settings to fine tune it to your liking.

[BrickTamlandOfficial]

i like how they snuck in a little shortcut in a recent update. now if you go to the menu and highlight the shadowmask or the filter, using L or R will cycle the options so you don't have to select them one at a time. its so much faster to find the right brightness settings using the L and R buttons.

[DenkyManner]

I'm glad you emphasised getting it to look good for _you_. That is all that matters. I used to try to get filters in Mame, Reshade or Retroarch to be 'accurate' but I ended up spending all my time fiddling with that and not playing. All I want now is interpolation to fix scaling shimmer, a shader to soften, but not blur, the pixels (which can itself provide the interpolation) and basic scanlines, usually without a shadow mask. It looks nice and it's so simple I can't get lost dialling it in.

[DevilHunterWolf]

I absolutely love the way these can be fine tuned. It's a bit overwhelming at first since there's so many settings to adjust but once you get it figured out, it's wonderful. I've especially appreciated it on the PS1 core. I normally like my scanlines defined and and a sharp picture but the PS1 just looks amazing to me with less scanlines and more blur to smooth out the rough pixels. And these new global settings for filters have made it possible to apply them to arcade cores that never implemented the prior version. No shadow masks for them but it's great to have the extra options!

[mbe]

Been waiting for a video like this! Thanks VGE

[Odinoian]

That is amazing! They all look great. Personally, I've grown fond of a DS filter on a lot of retro consoles, and the Gameboys most of all, when trying my friend's MiSTer :)

[ok-xxwy]

Nice video. Shaders/filters are awesome I can spend hours messing around with them

[tecianeli]

I like using Faded Tube preset with Genesis core. It helps simulate the fake transparency effect and all the other "imperfections" of a CRT.

[MartiniGaming]

What works the best across the board for me is the pvm preset. double the sharpness on the horizontal filter, double the brightness on the vertical, and leaving shadow mask at pvm.
Looking forward to your adaptive scan lines video as others have already mentioned.

[TomVanDeusen]

my favorite filter is on the GBA core. it's the LCD one that puts a tiny white line between each pixel on a 4k TV. it does a great job breaking up the chunky pixels on my 55" set and gives it its own look, like a super advanced snes. i'm playing through the metroid games on there right now, great experience! I prefer it even over my CRT with component since the original gba was LCD in the first place.

[silentfanatic]

Really appreciate this guide, as well as the fact that you're using SMW to test it all out. That's the same game I use for this as well!

[GarmrNL]

Very helpful video, and awesome how much choice there is filter wise :-)

[AndreaBogazzi]

I strated to appreciate filters only after a bit. Using integer scaling gives the best results if you are on a 1080p monitor. I feel like the non integer scaling at 1080p has visible artifacts

[Vampier]

Adaptive scanlines will change it once again :)

[JustinCherriman]

Looking forward to the adaptive filters on MiSTer!

[larazaalatino]

hello, according to you today which is the best filter and the best settings to make the most of an LCD OR MONITOR and make it look as much as possible a CRT effect with Scalin thanks for your reply

[Yipper]

this is probably a bit much to ask, but do you think there might eventually be some kind of bloom simulation? I feel like that slight warping of the image based on the brightness levels is something that gives CRTs their look. Its usually subtle but im sure that would also be something you could dial in. Also just in general having the image be curved might be interesting.

[eric]

Any idea why the video filters would be affecting the 240p analog video output to a CRT, even with the VGA scaler and scandoubler disabled? The 5x vertical crop is happening to the CRT image too, super confused!

[amerigocosta]

I think it might be the video compression on Youtube being not kind to scanline effects but, while these presets look better than the average fake scanlines we were getting until a few years ago on emulators and the likes, at the end of the day they look what they are, namely filters. Also, I can't see any significant difference between VGA monitor preset on and off. Of course I don't blame you, as demonstrating these things on Youtube is pretty much not viable due to compression, I think. Personally on modern panels I prefer an unfiltered pixellated look and that's all. I'll be missing a lot the glow, imperfect geometry and composite artifacts of my trusty CRT when it will eventually die, but life will go on. Oh well. And yes, despite having easily access to all sorts of RGB cables, I think composite has a certain crappy charm I personally appreciate.

[wornout_joystick]

If I’m already using a vga monitor does the “vga monitor” filter really do anything?