Pre-rendered gfx look horrible.....

Yes dude.... Unless you got a video card with FSAA, the only thing you can do is try bilinear filtering.. You can also try running the games at 640x480 or 960x720 res.. See if these resolutions make the 2d look better..

If you were to run a real psx through onto your computer monitor, the 2d would look worse.. It's just the TV scanlines which really help with the image quality of 2d when you play a real psx on your TV.. They may look better on TV but not on a computer.. You can also try the Scanlines options in petes gpu pluggins... One other thing to try is play the games a few feet away..

I always run my games which uses 2d with this:

640x480 or 960x720 res
4xFSAA

It smooths out the 2d exceptionally.. Check my legend of mana screens and see for yourself how good 2d can look with the right settings and Video card.. Or my FF7 shots too. Or RE2.. All games which uses 2d backgrounds..

The geforce 3 cards have been out for a bit now.. Still waiting for some dough to get me one too.. They are currently the fastest and most advanced consumer video card out at the moment..

Even if I did get a geforce 3.. I would still like to keep my voodoo 5 5500.. Maybe I will also get a voodoo 5 5500 pci.. Just to play in glide..

Bah...........i got off my lazy ass and di some searching.................damn this Geforce 3(i wans't even spelling the damned thing right) is incredible....hell ya it has FSAA and HSAA...............jesus.................but its 350 right now.........i have the money but............i don't know if i should spend that much just for a video card?!!

to make up for my lazyiness here's a full list of what my new dream card can do

GeForce3 Features
Third Generation nVIIDA GeForce3 nFiniteFX™ GPU
nFiniteFX™ programmable Vertex Shader
nFiniteFX™ programmable Pixel Shader
Lightspeed Memory Architecture™
High-Resoultion Antialiasing (HRAA)
>3.2 billiion AA samples per sec fill rate
7.36GB/sec memory bandwidth
World's Fastest DDR Memory interface
Microsoft® DirectX® and OpenGL™ 1.2 optimizations and support 350MHz RAMDAC
High Definition Video Processor (HDVP support all ATSC resolutions)
AGP 4X / 2X, AGP texturing and Fast Write support
World's Fastest DDR Memory interface
64MB Ultra fast DDR SDRAM on board
Optional TV output module (For NTSC or PAL TV standard)
ATX form factor board





Technical Specification

GeForce 3

3D Features
nVIDIA nFiniteFX™ Engine - Vertex Shaders are used to breathe life and personality into characters and environments. For example, through vertex shading developers can create true-to-life dimples or wrinkles that appear when a character smiles.
nVIDIA nFiniteFX™ Engine - Pixel shaders alter lighting and surface effects that replace artificial, computerized looks with materials and surfaces that mimic reality.
Lightspeed Memory Architecture™ - GeForce3, through its advanced Lightspeed Memory Architecture™ brings an array of technology to bear on the challenge of memory bandwidth. By representing complex geometry as a high-order surface and performing those surface calculations entirely on the GPU,
High-Resolution Antialiasing (HRAA) - Delivers fluid frame rates of 60 frames per second or more at high resolutions, such as 1024x768x32 or higher, with full-scene antialiasing (FSAA) turned on. Featuring the Quincunx AA mode, HRAA delivers a high level of detail and performance for all applications.
AGP Texture Support - Takes advantage of new methods of transferring information more efficiently, and allows content developers to use high-quality, 32-bit color textures and high-polygon-count scenes.
Microsoft® DirectX® 8.0 Compatibility - Ensures compatibility with the next generation of 3D applications to hit the market. The GeForce3 GPU supports DirectX 8.0 features and special effects for the ultimate 3D experience.

Video Features
High-Definition Video Processor (HDVP) - Turns your PC into a fully functional DVD player, and an HDTV player with the purchase of an additional third-party decoder.
Independent hardware color controls for video overlay
Hardware color space conversion (YUV 4:2:2 and 4:2:0)
5-tap horizontal by 3-tap vertical filtering
8:1 upscaling and downscaling
Per-pixel color keying
Multiple video windows with hardware color space conversion and filtering
DVD sub-picture alpha blended composition
Video acceleration for DirectShow, MPEG-1, MPEG-2, and Indeo

now if someone can translate all that techno talk to english it might get somewhere.......

You might want to check out this forum where the GF3 is concerned.. I thought I had read that the Quincunx FSAA was causing some ppl to have graphics glitches. It might have been something else I was reading, but look through here and make sure.

Aside from that, you definitely need a card that can do FSAA to make the 2D stuff look better.. I myself don't use the filtering built into the GPU plugins, I think it hurts more than it helps. Edges dont look right, with black borders sometimes, and the text boxes in FF9 look strange with it on. I leave the filtering off and use 2x FSAA at 800x600x32. I only have an original GeForce DDR, but it does look pretty good. I'm sure a GeForce2 Ultra could do 4x FSAA at like 1024x768 or higher with no problems. But the GeForce3 could be had for around $80-100 more online if that works.

Nvidia also just announced something about GeForce3 MX, that might be a good choice...

I also read somewhere that using FSAA combined with only resolutions that are 2x, 3x, 4x the original PSX resolution makes the 2D backgrounds look better. I cannot vouch for this though. (such as if the original PSX rez is 320x240, then use 960x720(3x) or 1280x960(4x) instead of 1024x768(3.5x))

I think someone posted that tip in this forum, but i'm happy with 800x600 so i havent tried it...

Good luck..

Originally posted by The Vagrant
thanx for your input (I was afriad of a few flames as any newbie asking a question usually gets), I've heard alot about this new Geoforce 3 card that's coming out (is out already??), do you think that could solve this nasty 2-d problem?

btw i have no idea what gfx cards are considered good..............does anyone know if mine is any good?

P.S. hows does that TNT2Ultra stack up against the Geoforce 3?

what's that FSAA (i'm guessing the last 2 stand for anti-aliasing or however you spell that), bah............will the geoforce 3 have that feature (I think you guys can already tell what card I wanna get)

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