S4W - Scanlines for Windows
A downloadable tool for Windows
About the tool :
S4W - Scanlines for Windows is a real-time CRT shader tool that hooks directly into the rendering pipeline of PC games and emulators, or runs as a fullscreen overlay on top of any window. Works in exclusive fullscreen, no borderless workarounds required. No added frame latency, effects are applied inside the game's own render pass, not on top of it.
No locked profiles. No forced presets. Every parameter of every effect, adjustable live while the game runs. Save your own presets when you're happy with the result.
Scanlines with adjustable thickness and gap, choose vertical, horizontal or both. Screen curvature, bloom, phosphor persistence, VHS, grain, flicker, vignette and full image correction are all rendered on the GPU, frame by frame, on actual frame data. No more PNG files (bezels excluded), no performance hit.
Designed for minimal system resource usage, and built to be as simple and intuitive as possible to use.
Current Tested games/app list
Uses :
This tool was initially developed for PC games / Neo retro games but can also be applied in various scenarios including:
- Emulators
- Frontends
- Arcade Cabinets
- Watching movies using VLC media player (All effects supported)
Open Source :
S4W is open source, and you're welcome to contribute to its development.
Discord :
Join the beta Team !
From my own tests, S4W works with virtually every game I've tried. That said, some titles may resist and that's exactly why I need your help!
Reporting which games work and which don't directly helps improve compatibility for everyone.
Join the Discord server to follow this project, report a game, discuss, ask anything, submit new features or help us push it to the next level.
Tutorial :
⭐Enjoying S4W ?⭐
Please rate it and leave a comment, it helps a lot to increase visibility and grow the project.
Thanks in advance ❤️
Download
Click download now to get access to the following files:
Development log
- S4W 1.2 is OUT !13 days ago
- Windows 11 SupportMar 11, 2024
- S4W 1.1 UPDATE IS AVAILABLENov 16, 2022
- 1.1 Beta is OutJul 21, 2022
Comments
Log in with itch.io to leave a comment.
This is now an app that will stay in my lineup to watch tv with. I dunno why but some movies look so good with vertical lines IMO.
Hey Thank you! Love hearing that. Glad you enjoy it, thanks for the feedback!
This is awesome! I have sought out a program like this for years!
Could you upload a version that unlocks the opacity down to 1% ? The only gripe i can have since i am able to make my own filters this is awesome!
Hello! The new v1.2 is out and it's way beyond what you asked for. Everything has been reworked from scratch and it now uses a full shader system.
Hope you like it and sorry for the late reply
Awesome! I will try it. I see already that the File size is really a lot smaller!
Yes! No more scanline PNG files, way lighter now 😄
is there a program like this, but for the monitor itself? i'm not interested in retro game stuff, i just want scanlines and interference for gods sake
you can display scanlines on your monitor with our tool, but no interferences.
makes sense, but how would this be any different to shaderglass?
minimal utilization of system resources for old computers. Feel free to use what it's better for you mate
I love this. Haven't tried automating with my emulators yet, but the overlay effect and ability to combine two effects looks fantastic. Any tips for creating my own overlays? Would illustrator be my best bet?
Hello friend, thanks very much for theses kind words. Any daw of your choice like photoshop will do the job for sure. if you need help or have more questions feel free to ask me in the discord server. cheers
Exactly what I was searshing for my bartop with a small laptop. Easy to use with many emulators to have the same scanlines on all my games.
Exactement ce que je cherchais pour mon bartop avec un petit ordinateur portable. Facile à utiliser avec de nombreux émulateurs pour avoir les mêmes scanlines sur tous mes jeux.
thanks for your feeback, it's very appreciated and glad you enjoy S4W
I think the same, S4W its wonderful.
glad you like it mate thank you
I can't download it! Some error appears like corrupted files! Could you fix that?
hi, sorry for my very late reply. did you manage to download it?
can you explain a bit more your issue ? what browser are you using?
Thanks so much for this tool
It doesn't close fully sometimes on my pc and it seems to be without the option to minimize to the toolbar, but otherwise it's great for sitting close to a large monitor.
Hello, you mean the tool remain in the task manager ? We worked to solve this issue but thanks for reporting. Start minimized is planned for the next release :)
Thanks for your feedback
After applying a screen filter, the gui disappears and the app then sits in the taskbar minimised at the bottom of the screen. I can't maximise S4W to bring up the gui again when I need to change the effect or close the program.
As I can't maximise it, after using S4W I need to force close it using Control Alt Del (task manager). I can right click to ''close window'' to remove the minimised S4W that is stuck on the taskbar, and although this makes it disappear it still runs in the background as a process. I wasn't sure if it was a bug or just my computer.
To be able to have the program minimised next to the clock and date after applying an effect though would be good in future, with it's gui easily brought up (perhaps by using a keyboard shortcut). Thanks!
i think you missed something. when scanlines are applied , press escape to be back to the GUI. Or you can bind another key instead escape. this will stop the effect and you'll see the GUI back. (see the picture below) you should check full tutorial we made on youtube. come on discord if needed
Also we did shortcuts to change effect directly when the overlay is actived. just look for "DEFAULT SHORTCUTS.jpg" inside s4w folder. you also can rebind these shortcuts if needed.
Hope that will help :)
I think when I initially saw 'disable overlay hotkey' I didn't realise it might bring up the gui. I may have misinterpreted it as Disabling 'Overlay Hotkey' (so the hotkey doesn't work), rather than Disabling 'Overlay' hotkey (only disabling the overlay, bringing back the gui).
Perhaps you could have 'Disable overlay' as shown above, but with the 'Hotkey' text centred next to the custom button (shown as 'Delete' above). eg 'Hotkey (GUI): Delete'. Perhaps the Delete hotkey above (or Escape as it is by default) could resemble an actual keyboard key, but of course that might take up a lot of time and isn't necessary :)
I suppose the only minor issue is not being able to maximise from the taskbar straight after applying a filter, and instead having to use the hotkey, but I'm guessing due to the way the tool works with the screen, this may not be possible. Thanks for the help!
You're welcome,
thanks for your feeback. i'm glad that everything is working well for you now.
we're gonna explore what you mean. Thanks for suggesting
Great update thank you !
Thanks very much for your feedback.
This is so cool! Do you think this is something that could be applied to video as well?
Hi, thank you. This will take effect to your desktop on windows so yes, you'll can watch youtube or video aswell. next update 1.1 is coming in few days with new features :)
Absolutely fantastic! Bezels would be great, also 4k support. Keep up the good work!
thank you !! we try to go in this direction :)
Next Update 1.1 ???
Hi All,
Looking to add one more layer, this will give you the possibility to add a Bezel /CRT overlay in foreground (Layer1) and Scanlines in Background (Layer 2)
Who is interested in ?
thank you, it's very useful for all pixel arts games, the render is very pretty !
Long road to S4W !