What Video Settings are Really Good?

Apizao118 · Post by **Apizao118** » Wed Mar 15, 2006 11:41 pm

Currently I really like H2qx but it seems to not look look on certain games. I would like to know what you guys have your video set on for games. (I don't know why, but the sai2x and super eagle look kind of blurry)

Deathlike2 · Post by **Deathlike2** » Wed Mar 15, 2006 11:48 pm

It is completely subjective. However, the performance characteristics of some of the filters are generally a more important issue to look at.

Note: Super2xsai is a combination of Sai2x+SuperEagle...

Edit: I forgot to mention that interpolation, Super2xsai, 2xsai, Supereagle are all blur filters...

Jipcy · Post by **Jipcy** » Thu Mar 16, 2006 1:02 am

Interpolation looks good on a wide variety of games (if you're OK with the blurriness).

The HQ2X filter looks best on games that are already fairly blocky. It looks pretty sucky on games like Donkey Kong Country.

Just experiment with the different settings.

paulguy · Post by **paulguy** » Thu Mar 16, 2006 1:18 am

whatever happened to that pixel shader-based filter? i tink it'd be a good addition considering hq3x/4x don't work in linux and it's faster and works on any res.

franpa · Post by **franpa** » Thu Mar 16, 2006 3:22 am

any resoloution with a min of 640x480, no filters except for scan lines, no interpolation unless you like blurry, no vsync or triplebuffer, and make the resoloution a ds one.

Deathlike2 · Post by **Deathlike2** » Thu Mar 16, 2006 3:36 am

franpa_9 wrote:any resoloution with a min of 640x480, no filters except for scan lines, no interpolation unless you like blurry, no vsync or triplebuffer, and make the resoloution a ds one.

Triple Buffering and Vsync are very useful... the official 1.42 docs explain their purpose well...

Clements · Post by **Clements** » Thu Mar 16, 2006 3:43 pm

Use no scanlines if you live in a PAL region, since PAL TVs have no visible horizontal scanlines unlike NTSC TVs.

kieran_ · Post by **kieran_** » Thu Mar 16, 2006 6:14 pm

Vsync, 60hz and no frame skipping are a must for me. Screen tearing makes me sick.

I have to run at 640*480. Every other option has that automatic DirectDraw bluriness.

Post by **Agozer** » Thu Mar 16, 2006 7:59 pm

herzog wrote:.
I have to run at 640*480. Every other option has that automatic DirectDraw bluriness.

You could disable DirectDraw acceleration in DxDiag and use some other resolution.

kieran_ · Post by **kieran_** » Thu Mar 16, 2006 8:21 pm

Agozer wrote:
herzog wrote:.
I have to run at 640*480. Every other option has that automatic DirectDraw bluriness.
You could disable DirectDraw acceleration in DxDiag and use some other resolution.

I tried it. ZSNES crashes. I can't remember if there were any error messages. I don't think there were, just the usual "REPORT THIS TO MICROSOFT" shag.

creaothceann · Post by **creaothceann** » Thu Mar 16, 2006 8:28 pm

herzog wrote:Vsync

Triple Buffering doesn't work?

kieran_ · Post by **kieran_** » Thu Mar 16, 2006 8:30 pm

creaothceann wrote:
herzog wrote:Vsync
Triple Buffering doesn't work?

I figured that they did the same thing... right? Matching the frame rate with the monitors refresh rate...?
Does Triple Buffering stop tearing without having to switch to 60hz or something? I'm confused.

creaothceann · Post by **creaothceann** » Thu Mar 16, 2006 8:39 pm

It's the same, except that it allows applications to render the next frame in advance, which might boost frame rates on slower systems.
It's also not available in ZSNES' windowed modes, though that might be a restriction of DirectX, or generally not a sensible thing to do.

Deathlike2 · Post by **Deathlike2** » Thu Mar 16, 2006 8:51 pm

herzog wrote:
creaothceann wrote:
herzog wrote:Vsync
Triple Buffering doesn't work?
I figured that they did the same thing... right? Matching the frame rate with the monitors refresh rate...?
Does Triple Buffering stop tearing without having to switch to 60hz or something? I'm confused.

Vsync is supposed to stop tearing. Triple buffering as creaothceann described can help performance, but more useful for frame rate stability. It is most useful when combined with vsync.

Blasingame · Post by **Blasingame** » Fri Mar 17, 2006 12:03 am

I use the 25% scanlines and interpolation with the Hi Res mode 7 cause it EMULATES it being on the TV.

l3v3l · Post by **l3v3l** » Fri Mar 17, 2006 8:46 am

for me it's super 2x sai, hi-res mode 7, triple buffering, 1024x768 ds full...

Deathlike2 · Post by **Deathlike2** » Fri Mar 17, 2006 8:59 am

For your reference.. Hires Mode 7 doesn't allow other filtering (while rendering in Mode 7) at all... although for some strange reason it is doing absolutely nothing when scanlines are applied.

kieran_ · Post by **kieran_** » Fri Mar 17, 2006 11:31 am

I tried disabling "DDraw Acceleration" and ZSNES worked fine, though the frame rate dropped quite often. It was still playable.

blackmyst · Post by **blackmyst** » Fri Mar 17, 2006 1:46 pm

I find that vsync often doesn't do its job very well, that's why I prefer triple buffering. As far as I know TB is just vsync with extra buffers anyway. So I don't think you can combine them.

Blasingame wrote:I use the 25% scanlines and interpolation with the Hi Res mode 7 cause it EMULATES it being on the TV.

High res mode 7 emulates nothing. They just put in there because they can, but it has nothing to do with how a real SNES looks. As for interpolation+scanlines, blarrgh's filter has made this obsolete as far as TV emulation goes.

Deathlike2 · Post by **Deathlike2** » Fri Mar 17, 2006 11:10 pm

Wikipedia's article on Triple buffer (and a little about it when combined with v-sync):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triple_buffering

blackmyst wrote:High res mode 7 emulates nothing. They just put in there because they can, but it has nothing to do with how a real SNES looks. As for interpolation+scanlines, blarrgh's filter has made this obsolete as far as TV emulation goes.

Exactly, though we can't toggle the filter just yet.

rich4rd · Post by **rich4rd** » Sun Mar 19, 2006 11:42 pm

512 x 448 DR win HQ2X

But thats coz I use a laptop, and I sit pretty close to the screen.

Apizao118 · Post by **Apizao118** » Mon Mar 20, 2006 12:30 am

So what exactly does Vsync and triple buffer do?

Post by **Agozer** » Mon Mar 20, 2006 12:51 am

Apizao118 wrote:So what exactly does Vsync and triple buffer do?

They reduce the tearing of screen when the screen scrolls.

Aerdan · Post by **Aerdan** » Mon Mar 20, 2006 1:20 am

1280x960 + the new NTSC filter. May switch it out for HQ4x, though, as it doesn't seem to be doing much.

Though, I noticed that the new NTSC filter + HQ4x is a bit sluggish on my 1.54GHz machine...

byuu · Post by **byuu** » Mon Mar 20, 2006 1:40 am

(Triple buffering is) also not available in ZSNES' windowed modes, though that might be a restriction of DirectX, or generally not a sensible thing to do.

The Windows interface is rendered using GDI, which directly draws to the screen. With triple buffering, you use page flipping, which essentially means you switch to a different area of video memory (screen) while your monitor is preparing to draw the next frame. GDI will be completely erased by doing this, hence you can't do it.

Direct3D lets you use "triple buffering" in windowed mode, but it isn't really triple buffering, it's just multiple surfaces that are rendered during vblank (well, most likely).