Originally posted by: LudwigKoopa
Unless you plan on going back and forth between emulation with slight amounts of lag and a "lag-less" CRT, you shouldn't have an issue because your brain and reactions will adjust accordingly. When playing a game normally on a CRT, you see a visual cue that prompts you to press the buttons. This isn't instantaneous, you have to process that information for a fraction of a second. So when someone makes a frame-perfect input, they don't do that when their eyes/brain notice that exact frame, but frames slightly before so their finger can react accordingly. You're aware of that window between seeing and reacting.
With the lag present the same thing happens only with a larger window. If you switch from CRT only to emulation only(with minimum lag), you will adjust over time to that larger window and be able to perform the correct inputs. Anyone used to playing on a CRT with have significant issues with extra lag at first, especially with games that depend on fast reactions. Most players will not have trouble using the emulator and performing how they would on a CRT once they allow themselves to adjust.
I'm not an expert at all, but that's how I see it working and forgive me if someone already pointed that out.
Let's say your reaction window is "R".
Let's say the total latency is "L".
When you are playing without latency (console + CRT) and a cue arrives, that is baseline available time to react:
T -- the baseline time it takes for the image to appear and you to see it
T + R -- the baseline reaction from you, the player
When you are playing WITH latency (emulator or LCD, or some combination) and a cue arrives:
T + L -- the time it takes for the image to appear and you to see it with latency
T + L + R -- the baseline reaction from you the player
It gets even worse if you have additional INPUT latency (like with bluetooth).
The only way you can compensate for that and overcome the injection of "L" is to anticipate what is coming and act SOONER than is possible from in-game cues (i.e. you are guessing what is coming and acting ahead of time).
If the window to react is "R", then WITH latency your window is actually reduced to "R" - "L", meaning latency makes your reaction window SMALLER, not larger.
If the "window" got larger, latency would be a good thing, which it definitely is not.