MRMOTRON

MRMOTRON is a Blender based process that aims to replicate the "feel" of vintage liquid crystal displays.

The first iteration of MRMOTRON, the DMG, aims to emulate the particular look of 80s and 90s monochromatic, front-lit, four-shade displays.

MRMOTRON Color is the version of the MRMOTRON process that aims to replicate the feel of front-lit (or unlit) reflective color LCDs.

MRMOTRON is made to be as easy to use as possible, even for people new to Blender, the .blend scene includes a canvas and camera setup and the only thing necessary to make it work is to plug in an image, set the input and rendering resolutions, and render the result!

I made some easy-to-follow instructions for using MRMOTRON, view them here!

It was created for and leverages the functions of Blender's Eevee render engine; the LCD shader material itself will work with Cycles, too.

The idea behind MRMOTRON was to provide a way to easily visualize the appearance of art, games and other visual content on what is as close to an "authentic"-feeling, "physical" display as possible. It can also be used for creating unique-looking art, promoting retro handheld games, or just being able to easily check what your photos or art would look like if displayed on a vintage liquid crystal display!

MRMOTRON accepts any "standard" image texture format that Blender can read, including image formats such as .png and .jpg, as well as video formats like .mp4 and .mov among others.  

Rendering animations requires a few more steps, such as setting the length of the rendered animation, but is indeed possible.

Almost all of the controls are within a single geometry nodes panel, allowing easy configuration of environment light, display front-light and, optionally, animated ambient lights and camera movement (for that nostalgic "trying to play videogames in the back seat of a car at night" feel!).

Other controls include modifying the input image gamma, hue, saturation etc., as well as tweaking the output image by tuning the "contrast wheel" and setting the background and pixel color tints. The shell, power LED, frame and logo colors can also be freely customized.

The input images are automatically quantized to a four color palette, and optional dithering can be applied for smoother color transitions. There's also a basic "remapping" node to help scale the input image down to the display size.

The DMG features an option to emulate matrix charge bleed effect, where vertical columns of pixels get darker the more populated dark pixels there are in a column.

The process can easily be further reconfigured and customized if needed.

Please note that due to the process using some newer geometry nodes and the (at the time of development) new, "realtime" compositor effects, it was developed and tested on Blender version 4.0.2, and it requires at least this version of Blender to run properly. It will probably run in earlier versions of Blender, but to ensure everything works as it should, please use it with Blender version 4.0.2 or newer.

Note: as MRMOTRON is Blender material shader- and geometry nodes-based, this process works completely within Blender and can't be used outside of it (e.g. as a shader in various game engines). It is not an add-on, does not require installation, and does not need any other add-ons to function, and it does not provide any new functionality to Blender. It is a process composed of material shader and geometry nodes, combined with a "canvas" setup, and distributed as a .blend file.

The MRMOTRON "Basic" version includes the process in a .blend scene, with a basic canvas and configuration options.

The MRMOTRON "Deluxe" version includes the process in a .blend scene, with several more advanced customization options, detailed mock-up of the display with a glass cover and a pre-set animated lighting setup.

Note: the "Basic" version of MRMOTRON DMG is and always will be free. The "Deluxe" version of MRMOTRON DMG is slightly more complex, with extra options, as a paid extra (along with MRMOTRON Color) for people who want to support my work, or want to use the process commercially.

There's two more "flavors" of MRMOTRON planned:

• MRMOTRON Advance is the version that emulates newer, back-lit LCDs;
• MRMOTRON Original is the version based upon the prototype of the process that was meant to emulate simple, 1-bit displays.

They should all feature particular properties and controls to modify due to the differences in how they display images.

*Update* MRMOTRON Color added!

MRMOTRON Color is the version of the MRMOTRON process that aims to replicate the feel of front-lit (or unlit) reflective color LCDs. It is included with the "Deluxe" version of MRMOTRON DMG.

There are some "Color"-specific controls, including mixing in original input colors (effectively improving the display quality, but deviating from the authentic "vintage" look), a black outline around the display and a whimsical alternate logo :)

MRMOTRON Color was developed and tested on Blender version 4.1.1, and it requires at least this version of Blender to run properly. It will probably run in earlier versions of Blender, but to ensure everything works as it should, please use it with Blender version 4.1.1 or newer.

Licensing:

"Basic" version license: MRMOTRON DMG "Basic" version can be used in non-commercial projects of any kind, excluding those relating to or containing non-fungible tokens ("NFT") or crypto- or blockchain-related projects, as well as those relating to AI use, AI promotion and AI model training. You can modify it to suit your needs. You may not redistribute, or resell it, even if modified. Credit is not necessary, but very much appreciated.

"Deluxe" version license: MRMOTRON "Deluxe" version (DMG and Color) can be used in both non-commercial and commercial projects of any kind, excluding those relating to or containing non-fungible tokens ("NFT") or crypto- or blockchain-related projects, as well as those relating to AI use, AI promotion and AI model training. You can modify it to suit your needs. You may not redistribute, or resell it, even if modified. Credit is not necessary, but very much appreciated.

I'd love to see what you create using MRMOTRON! I'm on Twitter, Mastodon and Bluesky so feel free to show me your work there!