Fresh Crisp Graphics?????

sweener2001 · Post by **sweener2001** » Thu Apr 03, 2008 10:12 am

not rubbing in the defeat or anything, just adding my own experience.

60 Hz in the labs on campus annoy the crap out of me (CRT monitors). i only really see the flicker in my periphery, or at least that's what it seems like. either way, 75 Hz does the trick for me.

Gil_Hamilton · Post by **Gil_Hamilton** » Thu Apr 03, 2008 10:28 am

sweener2001 wrote:not rubbing in the defeat or anything, just adding my own experience.

60 Hz in the labs on campus annoy the crap out of me (CRT monitors). i only really see the flicker in my periphery, or at least that's what it seems like. either way, 75 Hz does the trick for me.

Oh, god... that used to drive me nuts.
Never on TVs, just VGA monitors.

Post by **Agozer** » Thu Apr 03, 2008 5:52 pm

All TV's manufactured in PAL regions still need to support the PAL signal by default. in older TV sets, NTSC signal support is either completely absent, partial (can display NTSC signal but fails with the color signal; like my TV).

Or NTSC signal support is there, in all it's glory. PAL versions have gotten a lot better over the years, but some developers still simply don't know how or refuse to do it right. Most games nowadays have PAL/NTSC options, and most games have a squished PAL mode (not all though).

To throw out some per game examples:

*Disgaea 2 doesn't have a PAL/NTSC option, yet the opening movie and some other video extras use the NTSC signal --> No color for me.

* Ignition Entertainment usually botches the PAL conversions of King of Fighters ports. Most notable is King of Fighters XI, having corrupt graphics in several stages and the bottom black bar is bright blue, among a host of other problems, like drastic slowdown. None of these problems appear in NTSC mode.

* Wild ARMs 4, published by 505 GameStreet, freezes in two different spots when playing through the game. Again, this problem is nowhere to be seen in NTSC mode.

* In Stella Deus, there are problems with sound sync when using special attacks.

* The most common telltale sing of a half-assed port is when voices don't match the lip-sync onscreen. Many games suffer from this, including but not limited to Wild ARMs 4 and KOF Maximum Impact 2.

It seems to me that, for smaller publishers, the PAL mode in games is the "necessary but evil addon" and don't bother to test PAL mode enough to even verify that the game runs in this mode without game-breaking glitches. Like we all know, European publishers switched graphics, models and whatnot in older games, like in the PAL version of Silent Hill

ZH/Franky · Post by **ZH/Franky** » Thu Apr 03, 2008 7:50 pm

Plus, if you have a PAL game that is converted badly (sound and video slower, and borders), you can usually find a program on the NET that will let you convert the PAL back to NTSC, and if your consoles modded, you can play the game how it's meant to be played.

That's pretty much a requirements with anything before the PS2/DC/GC/XBOX if you want to play a PAL game that has been converted badly, at decent quality ..
...

Though many Euro Tv's have a "zoom" function, that usually increases the vertical resolution being displayed -- this works so well for PAL games with borders, it's as if this zoom thing was designed for such a purpose...

Gil_Hamilton · Post by **Gil_Hamilton** » Fri Apr 04, 2008 12:26 am

Franky wrote: Though many Euro Tv's have a "zoom" function, that usually increases the vertical resolution being displayed -- this works so well for PAL games with borders, it's as if this zoom thing was designed for such a purpose...

It probably WAS designed for that, given that NTSC material importation has always been fairly popular(as I understand it).

And it actually DECREASES the vertical resolution(to NTSC spec, if I had to bet). Decreasing the resolution on an axis makes each pixel larger in that axis, creating a "zoom" effect.

Hicks · Post by **Hicks** » Mon Apr 07, 2008 11:07 pm

Johan_H wrote:Dividable by 60 or 50 for NTSC or PAL games respectively.

So 120 Hz should be perfect? My monitor is capable of this @ 800x600, still way over the original snes resolution.

Anyway, can someone explain to me what happens if you play at for example, 80 Hz? Are just some frames showed twice?

whicker · Post by **whicker** » Wed Apr 09, 2008 6:07 am

Hicks wrote:
Johan_H wrote:Dividable by 60 or 50 for NTSC or PAL games respectively.
So 120 Hz should be perfect? My monitor is capable of this @ 800x600, still way over the original snes resolution.

Anyway, can someone explain to me what happens if you play at for example, 80 Hz? Are just some frames showed twice?

screen scrolling (like running at full speed in mario world) won't be super-smooth. No other noticable effect.

Gil_Hamilton · Post by **Gil_Hamilton** » Mon Apr 28, 2008 11:16 am

Franky wrote:And then there were games that were designed specifically for PAL, and PAL regions only (like Terranigma, for example).

I was looking for something and stumbled across this. And am anal enough to commit thread necromancy to correct it.

Terranigma was NOT designed for PAL.

It's an english translation of Tenchi Souzou, which you can probably guess was developed for Japanese systems using NTSC at 60Hz.

Post by **grinvader** » Mon Apr 28, 2008 5:15 pm

It also rocks.

Deathlike2 · Post by **Deathlike2** » Mon Apr 28, 2008 5:38 pm

Gil_Hamilton wrote:
Franky wrote:And then there were games that were designed specifically for PAL, and PAL regions only (like Terranigma, for example).
I was looking for something and stumbled across this. And am anal enough to commit thread necromancy to correct it.

Terranigma was NOT designed for PAL.

It's an english translation of Tenchi Souzou, which you can probably guess was developed for Japanese systems using NTSC at 60Hz.

Font wasn't a dead giveaway? Nuts!

Just because it wasn't released in the US, doesn't mean it was designed for PAL.