MagicEngine

[Specineff]

Hello to all the emulation fans, sorry to make my first post that one of a bug report.. actually is more of an incompatibility issue.

I downladed the demo version of ME (V 98 ) and afterwards installed a new Nvidia Geforce 3 Ti200 card(not bragging, ok? LOL) and then the funny things started to happen...

everything looked fuzzy and blurry, even though all the card's options were turned off, whenever I zoomed the screen the blur was there... no more clean, sharp, perfectly defined pixels, just a pic like something seen through an oil-smeared lens...

my other emulators, SNES 9x, NeoRageX, SMS Plus, and Gens became affected by this problem too, so I tried to mess up with the configuration settings and ini. files when available. ME's ini file gave me the answer: as soon as I set the screen zoom to software, everything was back to normal. So the card was applying anti-aliasing and bi-linear filter where it's not even needed. ZNES was unaffected when left to the default resolution of 640x800 full screen.

My MSX emulator was unaffected at all. (Yes, I do like the MSX, it's one of the best things to come from Japan ever, like the TG-16 ) And the Master System Emulator cannot run on DirectDraw anymore. I had to disable the option.

Soooooo...... has anyone else encountered similar problems with graphics cards?
If so, how did you fix them? this could be useful in the future.

Thank you and have a great day. (Can't wait for payday to buy the full version of ME )
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Proud owner of a Dreamcast, Saturn, Turbo Duo and a registered version of ME since 2002.

[ethylene]

Specineff, welcome aboard

Yes, I know this NVIDIA 'feature' well.

I used to have an old Intel i740 videocard. Worked just fine in emulators, but 3D performance was lacking. So, I did some research, and hunted down a good deal on an ASUS V6800 Deluxe (Geforce 256 DDR).

One of the first problems I encountered was the very one you are experiencing now. And I'm sorry to tell you, that so far, I've found no way at all to globally disable it. I've done my homework! I've dug through Usenet to no end. I've explored all the NVIDIA driver options in the GUI and in the files themselves. I've even tried altering BIOS files, then flashing the card with them (man did that get ugly). Nothing could deactivate the automatic hardware filtering. Although I still think it's possible.

The only other program of the ones you've mentioned that I use is Gens. In this emulator, you can avoid the filtering by setting the render type to 'Normal'. In fact, I've found a way around this effect in all but one application, which is video-in.

Hey, if you figure out a way, post it here, eh?

[Specineff]

All right! Gens and ME are working perfectly now. Thank you very much.

Gens must run in fullscreen now to avoid the filtering; no more chatting and playing at the same time, but that means I have the whole screen for Alien Soldier.

And ME is set up to do the screen zoom on software; screw that filtering and stuff.. I'm playing Raiden and Dracula X all blocky and pixelated, in glorious 8 bit color. :-p Too bad SNES9x cannot be fixed that way, but heh, I was a Sega loyalist and partial Turbo fan back in the early 90's. Who cares about FF3 when you have Phantasy Star IV and Y's?

So you got a 256 DDR card huh? Congratulations. Mine is not that fancy, but gets the job done. Let's see now if my brother wants to play Military Madness or Aero Blasters with me on the TV.
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Proud owner of a Dreamcast, Saturn, Turbo Duo and a registered version of ME since 2002.

[Jabberwok]

Specineff, just so you know, the original GeForce ( GeForce 1 ) was called the GeForce 256 since it was the first 256 bit gpu at the time. It's memory is 32 mb & is compatible with the 3.3v, agp 1.0 slot. An old but still great card, it's still the best card to get for those old motherboards . Heck, im after one myself to replace an old Voodoo3.

So in theory, your GeForce 3 ti200 is far supperior ( still with a 256bit core : the first 512bit gpu is the bizzare Matrox Parhelia wich will be the first 512bit gpu with a 256 mb framebuffer : should be out soon, the only one out now is the 128mb version. 256mb is useless on such a card but who am I to judge ).

Tidbits of info .

[Raligard]

I love the ability of my Radeon board and Direct X to be able to 'soften' sharp pixilated images in my emulators and zoomed bit map images! I was very pleased to see it and have no qualms about it what-so-ever. I still like to use scanlines too, they are a great feature of any emulator.
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- Raligard of The Wizards Eye

[Specineff]

Well, Raligard, the reason for my disapproval of this feature is the fact that the antialising is being applied to the whole game screen, regardless if it's blocky or not, scaled or at it's normal resolution. And the funny thing is, the filtering on my system is exactly as I had described it: like looking at things through a glass which has been smeared with oil. In other words, I can still see the pixels and the blocky, jaggy scaled images in my games, but totally out of focus. I even thought I needed to clean my glasses . Of course, texture mapped games like Soul Reaver and Starlancer benefit of this, but Sprite based games like Raiden (and the abominable Rabio Lepus Special) just look plain bad with this card. Of course, I can always use my brother's laptop.
Thanks for your time, fellow Turbo-Maniacz.

SpEcInEfF
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Proud owner of a Dreamcast, Saturn, Turbo Duo and a registered version of ME since 2002.