Retro games and older vhs or dvd video content can look so much better on a CRT TV.
If you want to emulate the look and feel of a CRT monitor for any game or video, then ShaderGlass is for you.
ShaderGlass is a very easy to use overlay that can float above any content in your Windows environment, and instantly make it look like a CRT TV. It uses the same shaders as used in the emulator RetroArch but comes hassle-free as a standalone app. So whatever game or wherever your video is playing, you can just scale and move ShaderGlass to cover the content and off you go!
The results look fantastic. Here’s an example in the menu of DOS game Network Q RAC Rally, and the arcade version of Killer Instinct.
Download ShaderGlass here (or use my mirror).
Here’s more info about the project and developer https://mausimus.itch.io/shaderglass + Github.
Tips to have the best CRT experience
The portable program has a a lot of options and different filters. So feel free to play around with them.
- Change the pixel size to match with your content. When scaled correctly, this can have a very big impact on your image quality (like the RAC Rally screenshot)
- Go fullscreen with ctrl-shift-g
- go to ‘shader –> choose‘ to select your style. I would strongly recommend a slightly ‘curved screen’ filter, since it better resembles that old-school CRT-vibe.
There are hundreds of “shaders” to choose from, some more extreme than others. You can even make it look like you’re watching an old VHS Tape…
These are some recommendations in the folder CRT:- crt-hyllian-curvature
- crt-mattias
- … Just browse through them and see which one(s) you prefer!
- You can also overlay videos, either from your own library or from sites like Youtube. It’s especially nice to enjoy older TV-shows like this.
- If possible… try using ShaderGlass on a 4K OLED Screen, this will give you the most lifelike effect!
- Good to know is that some shaders are designed to upscale certain content. So you can try some of those if necessary.
I hope this tip helped you. Enjoy re-watching your old video content & reliving some retrogames!
