[mecharmor23]

I'm currently playing FF9 with epsxe and Pete's Opengl plugin 1.51
However I notice that as I increase the resolution, the polygons look better but the prerendered backgrounds look worse as pixelation increases with resolution. Which is the opposite with 3d this gives the funny feel that your character is walking on a painting and the feel of realizim drops. FSAA seems to cause lags and pauses at times and but bilinear filtering on 2d causes weird glitches to happen. So bilinear filtering for 2d is left out. Is it a solvable problem? 2D in its default res of 320 X 240 looks alot better but 3D polygons gets all the pixelations. Is any programmer here investigating on this problem?

Your replies would be appreciated.

 

[NickK]

That's hard to fix unless someone decides to add some sort of super sampling technique that will increase the size of the individual images making them (hopefully) look better at higher resolutions. Bilinear filtering won't help much, because the resolution of the images will always stay the same. Perhaps I can do something, but it's not on my to-do list at the moment..

 

[Cyberman]

The only solution I can come up with is prefiltering the prerendered backgrouds. Even then only so much blending etc. can be done to an improve the image. The most complex method of image pixel expansion is to use data fitting. This involves generating cubic splines that fit the curve of the pixel intensity changes. Depending on the expansion ration IE 2:1 3:1 4:1 the larger it is the more affective this technique is. It gives the best image but at a VERY high performance penalty.

Wen 320x240 expanded say 3:1 is 960 x 720. The advantage of a one time expansion on a background image is that it can be slown without really being anoying. Most other techniques require you to constantly update the background image with a new image. A single expansion is it. The big drawback with this is MDEC movies. With those there is not much you can really do. It's best to let those play pixely along since a simple linear expansion of the data is not going to slow things down much but adding FSAA will.

There really is no good solution to be honest. Since in all ways you are far exceeding the original systems capabilties. Especially in games like FF7 .. with the scrolling 2 D backgrounds you'll notice that well.. it's not as cool looking as it was at 320x240. Bottom line is there is only so much you can do about it other than making NEW backgrounds.

Hey NickK

Cyb

 

[bleat]

Originally posted by mecharmor23
I'm currently playing FF9 with epsxe and Pete's Opengl plugin 1.51
However I notice that as I increase the resolution, the polygons look better but the prerendered backgrounds look worse as pixelation increases with resolution. Which is the opposite with 3d this gives the funny feel that your character is walking on a painting and the feel of realizim drops. FSAA seems to cause lags and pauses at times and but bilinear filtering on 2d causes weird glitches to happen.
Your replies would be appreciated.

Maybe my sys might be a little quicker, but I have no problems with using FSAA on my GeForce DDR + P3/733 + Win2K. FF9 looks really good.. here's my Pete's settings.. The only thing missing is the battle transition swirls.. i could really care less about it...
I'm using 2x FSAA and 12.90 nvidia drivers..

 

[kingking 3rd]

fsaa would help a little, don't think it's possible to imply such feature in gpu plugin

 

[bleat]

Originally posted by kingking 3rd
fsaa would help a little, don't think it's possible to imply such feature in gpu plugin

All GeForce and later nvidia cards do FSAA... Voodoo5 also does it.

I haven't heard much about the Kyro2 yet with FSAA.. so i cant tell you if it's any good at it..

 

[fivefeet8]

You guys gotta check out my screenshots of RE2 on a voodoo 5 5500 with 4xFSAA using lewpys glide pluggin... 2d and 3d looks better than on a real psx and pc versions..... Check them out and you will be amazed by just how much a difference FSAA and the right resolution can make 2d look.. To lessen pixelations and maybe even hide it is to use resolutions that are a multiple of the original psx resolution... ie. 640x480 or 960x720... And it also depends on your video card... I have heard the Geforce2 mx has bad 2d image quality.. My voodoo 5 makes all 2d backgrounds look fantastic... using 640x480 or 960x720 res... You can also check out my shots of FF7.... The 2d is looking great in that game as well...

 

[NickK]

The GeForce 2 MX has great 2D and 3D image quality!

 

[fivefeet8]

hey NickK..

show me a shot of RE2 or any other 2d game and let me check it out.. It may just be some versions of the geforce 2 mx... But at anandtech, they rated the 2d image quality of the geforce 2 as bad.. show me a shot... With and without FSAA...

 

[bleat]

Originally posted by fivefeet8
hey NickK..

show me a shot of RE2 or any other 2d game and let me check it out.. It may just be some versions of the geforce 2 mx... But at anandtech, they rated the 2d image quality of the geforce 2 as bad.. show me a shot... With and without FSAA...

By 2D image quality they mean the Windows Desktop at High resolutions.. It would make absolutely no difference in ePSXe which is a game.

And even then, they're comparing it to cards like the Matrox line and things of that nature.. the 2D comparison really isnt ePSXe related at all. The only thing that's going to help ePSXe is FSAA.. Any video card worth it's salt can display those wretched low rez background images.

 

[NickK]

I do hope you know that image quality is ultimately determined by the graphics plugin. The video card just does what you tell it to do. There's probably some cards that have really bad 2D and 3D but I haven't run into them. Lewpy's plugin seems to be doing a very good job in visuals dept. I just hope I can follow his example

 

[bleat]

Originally posted by fivefeet8
hey NickK..

show me a shot of RE2 or any other 2d game and let me check it out.. It may just be some versions of the geforce 2 mx... But at anandtech, they rated the 2d image quality of the geforce 2 as bad.. show me a shot... With and without FSAA...

I didn't put up any no-FSAA shots.. but this is 2x on a GeForce DDR.. pretty much the same perf as a MX, older tho, its the original GeForce.. But its a 2D background game...

Dino Crisis 2 - ePSXe 1.4 - Pete's OGL 1.51 - GeForce DDR - Win2K - 12.90 Drivers

 

[fivefeet8]

the 2d looks pretty good..... there is still pixelation in the shots but the second shot looks pretty smooth... Whats the resolution you are running? Try running it at 640x480 or 960x720.. and use 4xFSAA... That is what I run my 2d games...

 

[bleat]

Originally posted by fivefeet8
the 2d looks pretty good..... there is still pixelation in the shots but the second shot looks pretty smooth... Whats the resolution you are running? Try running it at 640x480 or 960x720.. and use 4xFSAA... That is what I run my 2d games...

I'll give it a shot.. the original GeForce doesnt do 4x very well... at 640 it probably would i guess.. a GeForce2 would be able to handle it no problem. I'm happy with it at 800x600 with 2x tho.

 

[fivefeet8]

The reason why I suggested 640x480 or 960x720 is because these resolutions are multiples of the original psx resolution.. Therefore there is a no or very little pixel stretching.. Which in turn makes 2d sprites and backgrounds look smoother.. I have tried 800x600 but the 2d doesn't look smooth even with 4xFSAA.. but at those resolutions above, all 2d is smoothed out...