Another monitor question (green this time!)

[bleeper]

Well I got hold of a GT-65 so I can 'enjoy' games as a I remember them 20+ years ago 

However (maybe it's because I've used emulators recently) this screen seems a bit bright and lacking in contrast?

As an example: on emulators the background is black and the text / graphics a bright green. On the GT65 I have in front of me, the background is more of a dark green.

With CONTRAST on full, and BRIGHTNESS on zero, blacks are still a medium shade of green.

I can never really get an image where there are blacks and bright greens on screen at the same time, if that makes sense?

[Bryce]

That sounds completely normal. Black on a green screen was never really black.

Bryce.

[bleeper]

Thanks, good to know.

I thought it might be, but I have nothing to compare it to , except a 'perfect' emulator of course...

My wife thought I was mad to be playing with the CPCs again, and even more mad that I want to suffer green screen. But she's quite happy to play Trivial Pursuit, complete with 25 year old questions! 

[Bryce]

Welcome to the club, I think most of our wives/girlfriends are of that opinion, maybe they should start a discussion group to talk about it

Bryce.

[Gryzor]

Those green shades have been engraved to my mind... After reading your post I want to fire a green configuration up and load Ghosts'n'Goblins! Here, at work!!

But, yes. Just like B&W TVs didn't really have black, but really dark greys, so the green monitor, too, only has shades of green. Part of its magic

But, it makes me wonder - can some emulator guy in here modify the code so that we get a screen with near-blacks? It'd be interesting to see...

[Devilmarkus]

This greenie thing is, why I decided to code new palette for emulated green screen.
In fact on a real green screen the image is completely different to emulated one.

I made it more authentic:

[Bryce]

Looks good, but the brightness on the "Real" inset monitor seems very high in my opinion. You'll end up with the word "Ready" permanently etched onto the surface of your retina!

Bryce.

[Devilmarkus]

Looks good, but the brightness on the "Real" inset monitor seems very high in my opinion. You'll end up with the word "Ready" permanently etched onto the surface of your retina!

Did you ever take a photo of a green monitor?
It always looks too bright
Or you need to reduce brightness
This is only demonstrating the new palette...

[bleeper]

Devilmarkus, that pallette looks great! A much more authentic green-screen experience

[Bryce]

No, I must admit, I've never tried, but a photographer friend of mine told me that they always spray the screen (only on CRTs) with Hairspray to reduce reflection and sharpen the picture. I considered trying this once, but then decided it would be way too much work removing the sticky gunk afterwards and decided to leave the photography to people who knew how to take pictures properly (I don't belong to this group)

Bryce.

[Devilmarkus]

For the coders here my greenscreen palette:

Code Select Expand

    protected static final int[] green = {
        0x14580F, 0x165C11, 0x1A6115, 0x1C6417,
        0x1E6819, 0x226D1D, 0x277421, 0x297723,
        0x2D7C27, 0x33852C, 0x36892F, 0x3A8F33,
        0x3C9335, 0x409738, 0x439C3B, 0x48A440,
        0x4BA742, 0x4EAC45, 0x54B44B, 0x57B94E,
        0x5BBE51, 0x5DC153, 0x60C656, 0x64CB59,
        0x68D15D, 0x69D25E, 0x6AD45F,
        0x3F9637, 0x297723, 0x6CD761, 0x165C12,
        0x58BA4E
    };

Values are RGB values: 0xRRGGBB
Ordered from INK 0 to INK 31
(not hardware ordered like in JEMU!)