Digital Foundry Retro Discussion [2025]

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This is the first DF Retro episode of 2025. This year looks very promising.

DF Retro: The NEW Grand Theft Auto 3 Dreamcast Port Is A Miracle... And It's Just The Beginning

 
This GTA discussion is best held in the Dreamcast thread where it's already a topic...
 

John didn't mention it, but in the first game, you can actually unlock all of those filters and camera angles for play during the actual missions and not just for the replays. You have to beat the game on Hard with the Heavy Traffic setting (a daunting task).
It's a shame there's no free drive mode in the first game. Any exploration you want to do has to take place inside the mission time limits, which are generally in the 2-5 minute range.
Microsoft owns Activision now. Both of these games should be added to Backwards Compatibility.
 

John didn't mention it, but in the first game, you can actually unlock all of those filters and camera angles for play during the actual missions and not just for the replays. You have to beat the game on Hard with the Heavy Traffic setting (a daunting task).
It's a shame there's no free drive mode in the first game. Any exploration you want to do has to take place inside the mission time limits, which are generally in the 2-5 minute range.
Microsoft owns Activision now. Both of these games should be added to Backwards Compatibility.
The first one blew my mind on the Xbox. It looks like a decent early Xbox 360 game. I would drive around and test the lighting and shadow effects. But nobody seemed to know or care about this game. Glad to see I wasn't crazy for thinking it was on another level.
 
so, I found some images that describe how retro games looked like on CRTs, and.... it's very different than in today's displays.

Unlike today's displays, which are typically LCD or LED technology, CRT monitors use an electron beam that scans the screen line by line, which is a display method that creates an effect that softens the edges of pixels and creates a more natural image, making graphics look better without the need for additional filters.

Developers at the time surely took advantage of CRT visual characteristics such as natural blur and interlacing to disguise the graphical limitations of the time. This intentional design makes pixels appear more rounded and colors blend more harmoniously.

I wonder if using 1080i instead of 1080p, or 4i instead of 4k would be helpful nowadays to use some kind of AA.

eNrJ6iT.jpeg


The image on the right is an aliased mess.

MZ66NFI.jpeg
 
I think this subject was brought up before.

This is one of the reasons PS1 games looked better on CRTs. The image output had a lot of dithering that was almost invisible on CRTs since it was smoothened out by the display but sticks out as a sore thumb on HDTVs. Sony knew about the dithering but also was aware of how it would look on the CRT.

2D artists were aware of how their art would look on the displays of the time. They didn't have the pixel perfect HD TVs we have today.

Today's screens really destroy what we remembered from back then. The way CRTs showed games had their special charm.

But I really wonder if there is a way to add some kind of filter that is really accurate to how they looked on the old screens. So far emulations with filters kind of work but I havent seen any that does the job perfectly
 
I think this subject was brought up before.

This is one of the reasons PS1 games looked better on CRTs. The image output had a lot of dithering that was almost invisible on CRTs since it was smoothened out by the display but sticks out as a sore thumb on HDTVs. Sony knew about the dithering but also was aware of how it would look on the CRT.

2D artists were aware of how their art would look on the displays of the time. They didn't have the pixel perfect HD TVs we have today.

Today's screens really destroy what we remembered from back then. The way CRTs showed games had their special charm.

But I really wonder if there is a way to add some kind of filter that is really accurate to how they looked on the old screens. So far emulations with filters kind of work but I havent seen any that does the job perfectly
afaik, there is a CRT simulation shader that is being worked on for OLED screens, but I can't remember the name. I've seen in in a youtube video.

Found it.


anyone familiar with CRTs knows their ability to produce "shockingly clear" moving graphics – a quality the algorithm aims to replicate.
Unlike the traditional Black Frame Insertion (BFI) method used by other CRT shaders, this new approach offers a superior experience with fewer eyestrain issues. It is especially effective for reducing motion blur in "legacy" 60fps, 60Hz content. However, there's a catch: the algorithm requires a monitor with a minimum refresh rate of 120Hz and no local dimming lag.
Blur Busters recommends 240Hz OLED displays for the best results with the algorithm, although it should also work well on 240Hz LCD displays. However, the performance is expected to be "fantastic" on 360Hz to 480Hz OLED screens. The algorithm can reduce motion blur in both real-time and slow-motion scenarios, offering a potential boost for emulators and retro gaming enthusiasts.
 
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if you use a 240Hz or 240Hz+ display, you can see how well it works in this demo webpage. If your display isnt' set to 240Hz the demo is going to look a bit messy with frequent flickering issues.

 
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