MAME graphics - Fuzzy

[jimmer]

I was aware that when MAME scales up the picture to a larger resolution it smoothes the edges of graphics. And I was content with that, until I just tried mame106. That gives super crisp scaled up graphics, and now I can hardly stand the fuzzy mame148 graphics.

I play Defender at 4x the original resolution on a TFT monitor.

Are there setting or anything else I can do to reduce the fuzziness?

[PL1]

Sounds like HLSL might be enabled.   


Scott

[Diet_Pepsi]

I know only enough about this kind of stuff to be dangerous.

What settings are you using in your config file?

If you are using d3d, try setting the filter to 0, which prevents your graphics card from stretching the original image.

Or use a prescale setting of 4 (a setting of 4 would scale the image up 4x before your graphics card stretches the image, so a 320x240 image would be 1280x960 before stretching).  Less stretching results in a clearer image.

Any solution beyond this would require input from someone who has more knowledge than I do.

[jimmer]

I'm running mame148 default settings. 

I've had a look at all the files in /hlsl  and in /docs. Not sure what I should be changing but    mame64.exe -video gdi    has made the graphics how I wanted.

The gameplay feels slightly different though. It's running 100% but feels slightly unresponsive, maybe I'm just tired.


Windows video options
---------------------

-video <gdi|ddraw|d3d|none>

   Specifies which video subsystem to use for drawing. By specifying 'gdi'
   here, you tell MAME to render video using standard Windows graphics
   drawing calls. This is the slowest but most compatible option.
   Specifying 'ddraw' instructs MAME to use DirectDraw for rendering.
   This causes MAME to render everything at a lower resolution and then
   upscale the results at the end. This produces high performance,
   especially on older or low-power video cards, but has a noticeably
   lower output quality. Specifying 'd3d' tells MAME to use Direct3D for
   rendering. This produces the highest quality output and enables all
   rendering options. It is recommended if you have a recent (2002+)
   video card. The final option 'none' displays no windows and does no
   drawing. This is primarily present for doing CPU benchmarks without
   the overhead of the video system. The default is d3d.

[Diet_Pepsi]

hmmm...not sure what that option does, but if you have not already done so you should open up a config file.  In the command prompt type "mame64 -cc" and that should create a configuration file in your mame folder.  You can then open this file and play with the different settings available (including those I discussed above).

I always use d3d, never gdi, although this is where my knowledge level taps out and where someone who knows more would need to step in.  I am happy to post the video settings in my config file (and you can use these to compare/play around with):

#
# WINDOWS VIDEO OPTIONS
#
video                     d3d
numscreens                1
window                    0
maximize                  0
keepaspect                1
prescale                  5
waitvsync                 0
syncrefresh               0
menu                      0

#
# DIRECTDRAW-SPECIFIC OPTIONS
#
hwstretch                 1

#
# DIRECT3D-SPECIFIC OPTIONS
#
d3dversion                9
filter                    1

[adder]

were u originally using direct3d before trying gdi
if so, i would switch to directdraw

mame64.exe -video ddraw -nohws

[Diet_Pepsi]

This will also work, but do you not get the same results by using d3d and turning the filter off?  For some reason I was either told (or read) that d3d is the best option to use, provided your system is current enough to accommodate.  Something along the lines of ddraw being more CPU intensive and d3d being more GPU intensive.

were u originally using direct3d before trying gdi
if so, i would switch to directdraw

mame64.exe -video ddraw -nohws

[jimmer]

mame64.exe -video ddraw -nohws    This works. I had tried ddraw before but without the -nohws it gave a super low-res menu screen.

The mame.ini prescale option works too.

I haven't played around enough to see if there are any differences, or how different games look.

[jimmer]

Now I'm using a smaller monitor 17" 1280x1024 I've got problems again.

mame64.exe -video ddraw -nohws     
This still works fine for Defender because 4x scale fits nicely.
But for Galaxian which is 768pixels tall I get 1x scale which is too short.

I could forget the -nohws and live with the low res menu (just readable) that I mentioned before, but any other ideas?