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Analog VHS — Introduction

Analog VHS turns any camera into a worn tape deck, a broadcast monitor or a haunted camcorder. One AnalogVhsEffect component reads an AnalogVhsProfile asset — seven independent modules rendered in four fullscreen passes shared by Built-in, URP and HDRP — so swapping looks at runtime is just swapping an asset reference.

Real composite bandwidth limiting, not a blur filter

The CRT module stores luma at half resolution and re-sharpens it with an unsharp mask, and chroma at roughly 1/16 resolution with a horizontal delay — the actual mechanism behind composite-video color bleed, adapted from a from-scratch Shadertoy-style study of how a real VHS/CRT signal degrades.

What ships in the package​

Unity6000.0 or newer
Render pipelinesBuilt-in, URP 17+, HDRP 17+
Modules7 — Pixelation, Color, Noise, Jitter, Signal & Grade, CRT Screen, Phosphor Trail
Presets14, from a clean VCR to full signal chaos
SetupOne-click pipeline diagnose-and-apply tool
DependenciesNone — the shared shader library has no pipeline package includes

Highlights​

  • Seven independent modules, one profile asset — each with its own master toggle, so a look is just a AnalogVhsProfile ScriptableObject you can create, tune and ship.
  • Analog-horror toolkit — rolling tracking loss that slides the picture above it sideways and dissolves the line into static, per-line hue phase error, wavy scanline distortion and head-switch darkening.
  • CRT screen model — barrel curvature with a black border, an RGB phosphor stripe mask, full-frame flicker and a TV-style vignette that stays live even while bandwidth limiting itself is switched off.
  • Pipeline-independent core — Built-in via OnRenderImage, URP via a RenderGraph Renderer Feature, HDRP via a Custom Pass, all driving the same shared HLSL library.
  • One-click pipeline setup — Tools > Deepwave > Analog VHS > Setup Current Pipeline diagnoses the active pipeline and open scene, then wires up the renderer feature or custom pass volume, assigns a default profile and converts materials authored for another pipeline.
  • Tools overview — see Analog VHS alongside Deepwave's other Unity packages
  • The package's own QuickGuide.html (included with the Package Manager install) covers every module, all 14 presets and the full C# API in detail.