Best resolutions for console emulators on a arcade monitor?

[solid12345]

I got a WG d9800 coming in the mail and besides MAME plan to run some console emulators like Kega, Nestopia, Epsxe etc.

What is the best resolution to set the emulators at, considering most consoles were designed for NTSC televisions is it best to run at 640x480 or the actual resolution it is rendering at?

And is it overkill to run anti-aliasing and texture filtering on EPSXE on lower resolutions, will the scanlines pretty much cover up any jaggies?

Also what about Vsync, triple buffering any of that, what to turn on, want to avoid screen tearing if at all possible.

[Jack Burton]

Run NES games at 256x240 and SNES games at 256x240 and 512x448 depending on the game.  They will look ultra sharp and clear like this. 

The NES arguably looks better with NTSC interference, so if you want you can mess around with Nestopia's NTSC filter.  IF you do that then bump the resolution up to 512x448.

For playstation run at 320x240 or 640x480 depending on the game.  I wouldn't run anti-aliasing or filtering over any psx game.  They are going to look blocky and jaggy, that's the nature of the beast. 

Use either V-sync or Triple buffering, but not both. 

[ahofle]

As Jack Burton suggests, definitely play around and see what you like best.  I personally find for FCEUltra (NES) that 640x480 Scanlines looks great.  For SNES (ZSNES) I use 288x240.  N64 = 640x480.

[Jack Burton]

Also, NES games don't run in 640x480 on a tv.  The image is drawn as 255x224 because the US NES cropped part of the picture, and then it drew the same image twice on screen during one frame. 

If you run Nestopia in 256x240 with it's default settings it should fit your screen and crop about the same as a real NES did.  You will also get hardware scanlines. 

ZSNES doesn't allow full screen 256x240 because the devs don't like us.  I do have one experimental release that does if I can find it, but you'd probably still be better off sticking to snes9x for custom resolutions. 

[solid12345]

Appreciate the advice Jack and ahofle, and if you do find that copy of Zsnes I would really appreciate it!

[SailorSat]

Also, NES games don't run in 640x480 on a tv.  The image is drawn as 255x224 because the US NES cropped part of the picture, and then it drew the same image twice on screen during one frame. 

If you run Nestopia in 256x240 with it's default settings it should fit your screen and crop about the same as a real NES did.  You will also get hardware scanlines. 

ZSNES doesn't allow full screen 256x240 because the devs don't like us.  I do have one experimental release that does if I can find it, but you'd probably still be better off sticking to snes9x for custom resolutions. 

I'd rather use 512x240 for ZSNES as some games (Secret of Mana) use those "HiRes" modes for Fonts etc.

As for that special ZSNES version, you can try out http://files.arianchen.de/zsnesw.zip which is a custom compiled 1.51 with enforced 1:1 pixel aspect.
That version also supports the custom resolution feature (though I think the base ZSNES does too)

[Jack Burton]

Also, NES games don't run in 640x480 on a tv.  The image is drawn as 255x224 because the US NES cropped part of the picture, and then it drew the same image twice on screen during one frame. 

If you run Nestopia in 256x240 with it's default settings it should fit your screen and crop about the same as a real NES did.  You will also get hardware scanlines. 

ZSNES doesn't allow full screen 256x240 because the devs don't like us.  I do have one experimental release that does if I can find it, but you'd probably still be better off sticking to snes9x for custom resolutions. 

I'd rather use 512x240 for ZSNES as some games (Secret of Mana) use those "HiRes" modes for Fonts etc.

As for that special ZSNES version, you can try out http://files.arianchen.de/zsnesw.zip which is a custom compiled 1.51 with enforced 1:1 pixel aspect.
That version also supports the custom resolution feature (though I think the base ZSNES does too)

Sailorsat, will there be a visible difference in quality between 256x240 and 512x240 for 256x240 games? 

[SailorSat]

Nope

[tyson171]

What resolution does everyone run dreamcast at?  I haven't set up my dc emu yet (doing that this evening), planning on using null dc.  The other problem is that i have an older wells monitor (mortal kombat 3 monitor), and 640 x 480 has a lot of screen flicker to it, so i use 632 x 264 @ 56Hz ** or 640 x 240 @ 60Hz to run hyperspin and it looks great, but i haven't tried this res with any games yet (at work now, can't remember which res i use).  Main reason i want to run dc emu is for marvel vs capcom 2.

[SailorSat]

Dreamcast runs in 640x480i (Composite/SVideo/RGB) or 640x480p (VGA)
And most likely you won't notice the flicker ingame.

[retrometro]

What resolution does everyone run dreamcast at?  I haven't set up my dc emu yet (doing that this evening),
...

Running DC at 800x600 on a WG D9400.  Love it.  Looks better than the original DC

[johnmike7]

Also, NES games don't run in 640x480 on a tv.  The image is drawn as 255x224 because the US NES cropped part of the picture, and then it drew the same image twice on screen during one frame. 

If you run Nestopia in 256x240 with it's default settings it should fit your screen and crop about the same as a real NES did.  You will also get hardware scanlines. 

ZSNES doesn't allow full screen 256x240 because the devs don't like us.  I do have one experimental release that does if I can find it, but you'd probably still be better off sticking to snes9x for custom resolutions. 

I'd rather use 512x240 for ZSNES as some games (Secret of Mana) use those "HiRes" modes for Fonts etc.

As for that special ZSNES version, you can try out http://files.arianchen.de/zsnesw.zip which is a custom compiled 1.51 with enforced 1:1 pixel aspect.
That version also supports the custom resolution feature (though I think the base ZSNES does too)

Can anyone offer any tips to help me config this version of zSNES? I have a d9800 monitor and an AVGA card.  zSNES will only display at the proper width if I stretch it. I tried many custom resolutions including 512x240 but can't get any luck.

It's really annoying because this is the only system I haven't worked out. Any help you can offer is greatly appreciated.

[SailorSat]

Use Mode "CUSTOM DS F" and set resolution to 512 to 240.

Now you may ask why a "stretch" mode. Well simply because there are various 250x240 games out there that need to be "doubled" in size

[johnmike7]

Use Mode "CUSTOM DS F" and set resolution to 512 to 240.

Now you may ask why a "stretch" mode. Well simply because there are various 250x240 games out there that need to be "doubled" in size

That's what I was trying but it never worked. I thought I was losing my mind so I gave up. So after reading your post I tried again. The solution was strange but I thought I would post just in case anyone else wrestles with this.

512x240 was nowhere near full screen for me so I started messing with other resolutions. I ended up switching to Custom SF 256x240 and it took the proper aspect. Then I switched to Custom SF 512x240 and it kept the full screen aspect but still looked blurry. I finally switched to Custom DSF 512x240 and everything looked nice and sharp.

Normally I would try to duplicate these results to confirm the problem but it was so annoying that I haven't touched it since and I'm kind of afraid to. I don't know why I had to go this route I'm just glad it started working.

Thanks for the help SailorSat.

[Jack Burton]

yes, I can verify those results.  I don't know why, but zsnes needs d modes for correct custom resolutions.