Trying to get as closer as possible to my Amiga's 1081 monitor crisp RGB output! Filters are good but still trying to get there. My question: do you think it's better to lower our monitor resolution instead of using the default maximum setting?
For example, Simon the Sorcerer 2 is 320x200. I assume it would be best to use a whole multiple resolution, right? The lowest (and only) multiple my 1680x1050 monitor will go is 1280x800. Did a quick test and it generally feels very nice, everything is bigger and less... digital.
Assuming this is a good thing to do, perhaps it'd be nice for ScummVM to have an option to detect this and switch resolutions automatically? (and back to Windows' resolution when the game is over)
I'll also put here a forum request: if you could please add a "search titles only" option.
I assume you are using an LCD monitor, since CRTs are quite rare nowadays.
It's important to understand that LCD monitors have fixed pixel matrix (unlike CRTs). That means you should always use their native resolution - if you don't, the image will be scaled, that means a digital pixel will not correspond to a physical pixel perfectly, and the result will be a blurry, ugly image. you don't want that.
If you want sharp image, do the following - set your drivers and your monitor so that they don't scale the game output to your monitor. Basically, you usually have three modes - Normal (image is stretched and distorted), Aspect ratio (image is stretched, but not distorted), and Centered (image is not streched, 1:1 pixel ratio is maintained).
However, when you use it on a 320x200 game, the image will be tiny. Therefore you need to use a filter that does no interpolation, but simply displays each pixel as a block of 2x2, 3x3, 4x4, etc.
That way, the image will still be crisp, but large enough to be legible. Use highest value that still fits your monitor. For example, if you have a 320x200 game and 1680x1050, you want to use a 4x filter to achieve a 1280x800 centered in the middle of your screen - it's the best option. Or you can use the aspect-ratio scaling, but the result will be slightly blurry. I prefer the first option.
Which means it would be nice to have the 3x/4x resolution filter in ScummVM...to help all those poor sods who can't set such filter through their OS...like ... me
I miss CRTs. I put a WinXP computer together for my daughter and set up DOSBox and ScummVM for her to play games and it came with a CRT. Such a beautiful monitor. Any resolution...crisp and clear.
Well, Dosbox Daum supports shaders in .fx format and there is a quite nice CRT shader, which emulates the behaviour of an old CRT screen and it's quite accurate:
You can even adjust the amount of curvature. I think it looks much better as if you just upscaled it to 1080p...
Maybe ScummVM could support shaders in the future?
