OBS Retro Effects

Bringing the Totally Rad 80s and 90s back to life.
  Note While we only release new versions of Retro Effects after testing
  it on local hardware, there are bugs and issues that will slip
  through. If you happen to run into any issues, please open an issue
  and we will work to resolve it.

Introduction

Retro Effects is an OBS plug-in that provides several filters to
simulate retro hardware (e.g.- CRTs, NTSC Signals, etc…) giving your OBS
sources an authentic retro look/feel. Retro effects provides the
following filters.

-   Chromatic Aberration
-   Frame Skip
-   Interlace
-   Posterize
-   Dither
-   CRT
-   NTSC
-   Cathode Boot
-   Matrix Rain
-   Retro Codec
-   VHS
-   Bloom
-   Scanlines
-   Digital Glitch
-   Analog Glitch
-   Conclusion

Chromatic Aberration

This filter provides the abilility to shift the red, green, and blue
color channels, either manually using the Manual type, or by simulating
lens CA using the Lens type.

In Manual mode, each color channel can be individually shifted by a user
specified distance and direction.

In Lens mode, color channels are shifted radially from the source’s
center by a user specified per-channel amount.

[chromatic aberration filter preview]

Frame Skip

The frame skip filter allows the user to replicate skipped frames or
lower framerates. It provides a single slider to specify the number of
frames skipped between frame renders.

[frame skip filter preview]

Interlace

Interlacing is a technique where alternating lines of an image are
displayed in two sequential fields, creating a complete frame that
refreshes half of the lines at a time, commonly used in older television
broadcasts. This leads to characteristic combing artifacts that are seen
when converting interlaced video to modern progressive scan displays.

The interlacing filter allows the user to specify the interlace line
thickness, brightness reduction of the alternating field lines, and
alpha reduction of the alternating field lines.

[interlace filter preview]

Posterize

Posterizing is a process to reduce the number of colors in an image to
create a simplified, graphic-like effect, often resembling a poster or
comic book style.

Users have the ability to adjust the number of color levels used in the
posterization process as well as options for how color palette sampling
is handled. Options for sampling include the original image colors, a
user specified 2-color gradient, or the horizontal center line of any
OBS source or scene.

[posterize filter preview]

Dither

Send your video back to Windows 3.1 with the dithering filter. Dithering
is a technique used on lower bit-depth displays to smooth transitions
between different colors or shades by adding noise or patterns, thereby
reducing the appearance of banding or color stepping.

The dithering filter provides the user with both ordered and unordered
dithering algorithms that emulate graphics from early windows and mac
computers. Options include the ordered dithering pattern used, dither
size, colors per channel, monochromatic or color dithering, pixel
resampling/rounding, and pre-dither contrast and gamma adjustments.

[dither filter preview]

CRT

The CRT Filter simulates various effects/artifacts as seen on older
Cathode Ray Tube displays. Taste the static.

This filter provides 24 different phosphor mask layouts, and the ability
to change the mask intensity. Also provides phosphor bloom with
adjustable bloom size and threshold, CRT Geometry including corner
radius, barrel distortion, and vignetting, and black and white level
color correction.

[crt filter preview]

NTSC

NTSC is a video broadcast standard used in North America and parts of
South America and Asia, defining how color and monochrome video signals
are transmitted and displayed on analog televisions. NTSC comes with its
fair share of issues, leading to some calling it “Never The Same Color.”

The NTSC filter simulates encoding and decoding a source introducing
adjustable artifacts commonly experienced on older analog TVs. User
adjustable parameters include:

-   Tuning Offset: simulates errors in tuning in an NTSC signal
-   Luma noise: adds static noise to the NTSC luma signal
-   Luma banding: adjustable size, strength and luma band/ring count.
-   Chroma bleed size, steps and strength
-   Brightness and saturation adjustment performed in the same way as
    done on an analog TV.

[ntsc filter preview]

Cathode Boot

When turning a CRT on and off, a characteristic vertical and horizontal
collapse effect is commonly seen.

The CRT Boot filter provides the user with a progress slider (animatable
with the move value plugin) that simulates CRT horizontal and vertical
collapse. The user can adjust geometry through the horizontal thickness,
vertical thickness, and glow parameters. Additionally the horizontal and
vertical collapse as well as final fadout timing can be modified.

[cathode boot filter preview]

Matrix Rain

You are now in The Matrix! The matrix rain filter uses the luminosity of
a source, and animates the Matrix asthetic as seen in the iconic movie
franchise of the same name.

It might not teach the user Kung-Fu but it will definitely make them say
“Woahh!” by giving plenty of options to make the perfect rain effect,
including:

-   Several built-in character/font sets, and the ability to generate
    your own.
-   Character scaling
-   Noise shift to horizontally shift the rain
-   Option to use source colors for the rain particles, or a user
    specified font and background color
-   Black- and White-level adjustment to increase/decrease contrast.
-   Minimum fade value for rain trails
-   Active rain character brightness
-   Rain Trail fade distance
-   Rain drop speed
-   Charcater bloom radius, threshold, and intensity.
-   If you’ve read this far, you realize it is not just a movie file
    running in the background.

[matrix rain filter preview]

Retro Codec

Video conference like its 1995 and you’ve got a sweet new Connectix
QuickCam! The Retro Codec filter simulates RPZA video codec in all its
blocky, noisy, dithered glory.

User adjustable parameters include pixel scale, colors per channel,
quality, keyframe interval, and custom thresholds.

[retro codec filter preview]

VHS

Be kind, please rewind. The VHS filter emulates many artifacts seen when
playing VHS tapes including tape wrinkle, frame jitter, pop lines, and
head switching noise. It gives the user many tweakable options: - Frame
Jitter: min/max size, min/max period, min/max random interval. - Tape
Wrinkle: Ocurrence probability, wrinkle size, duration. - Pop Lines:
amount - Head Swithing Noise: Primary noise thickness, amount, Secondary
noise thickness, horizontal offset, and amount.

[vhs filter preview]

Bloom

When is too bright not bright enough? When you want the bloom! The bloom
filter will blow out those pesky highlights to give that Glam Cam feel
to any OBS source.

Glamourous adjustments include bloom intensity, size, and threshold, a
application to luminance, individual color channels, or a custom mix of
channels.

[bloom filter preview]

Scanlines

Bring your video back to the terminal displays of old with the scanline
filter. Adds animated scanlines to your source, with more adjustable
parameters than a DEC VT101 Terminal:

-   Scanline profile types including sine wave, square, sawtooth,
    smoothstep, or triangular.
-   Scanline period
-   Speed
-   Intensity

[scanlines filter preview]

Digital Glitch

D-d-d-d-digital glitch. Channel your innner Max Headroom and experience
the glitchiness of the digital world. The digital glitch filter emulates
artifacts seen in corrupted video formats, including random block
displacement and color drift.

User changable fields include: - Block Geometry: maximum displacement,
width and height range, interval range. - Color Drift: maximum drift
distance, height range, interval range.

[digital gitch filter preview]

Analog Glitch

This broadcast has been interrupted by analog glitch! Unlike the block
digital glitch effect, analog glitch shifts and adds noise to your
source in a smooth/contiunous way, much like noisy broadcasts back in
the days of analog.

Adjust to your hearts content: - Maximum random displacement - Primary
Wave speed, scale, and threshold - Secondary Wave speed, scale,
threshold, and influence - Interference magnitude, line magnitude, and
interference alpha - Color drift maximum distance - Desaturation Amount

Conclusion

Grab the retro effects plugin today (as seen on TV) and party like its
1999.
