**No, this isn’t a double post**
Scanlines or No Scanlines?
I’ve been messing around with different ways to present these screenshots since I started posting here, and lately that’s been focused on the ever-taboo /Should I use Scanlines or No Scanlines?/.
There’s really no correct answer, obviously. It’s a subjective debate over whether or not something looks good; “to each their own,” and all that. Still, I can’t figure what looks best, and each time I post something I wonder if I really made it look the best it possibly could. Every decision I make in the process of this blog goes under this lens, and because I lack confidence in general, that question of “but is it the best I could do?” lingers with each post.
This is a crazy-man’s introduction for something as silly as wanting to talk about these three screenshots I’ve posted above.
I recently discovered a program called ShaderGlass, available on Steam for free, that does a pretty convincing job of emulating CRTs in a way that previous filters and overlays - often for use in retro game programs like Retroarch. I struggle with describing how this app functions so all I will say that it’s really cool, and can be used beyond my still screenshots with video and as a filter for live streams. It’s easy to use and offers a good variety of customization options.
The screenshot I shared today and the first of the 3 posted here was made use ShaderGlass, which then needed to be recropped, etc and blah blah blah. The second image was made using a scanline filter in the drawing program I use for editing screenshots. The third screenshot is unfiltered, perfect pixels (I think is the commonly used phrase at least). They’re all perfectly fine and I’ll leave it to you to decide which look is your favorite. I think it’s a fun form of expression in a relatively limited medium, and I’ll be experimenting with all of these as I make my screenshots.
Let me know what you think! If you have a favorite, or if you’d like to see me revisit old screens with a new glow or… whatever!
Thanks for reading,
blip
