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[waal]

QUOTE(rasputin1983 @ May 16 2010, 03:08 AM)

hi folks.
i've read various posts regarding setting correct aspect ratio for emulators.
can anyone advise me on the resolution to use for DosXbox games? i'm mainly concerned about VGA titles...

also, i have some PAL versions of amiga games e.g 'valhalla: before the war'. these games are designed for 720x576 and run too fast in 60hz, even character voices are slightly higher pitch. what is the ideal display resolution for these?

thanks for any help

For amiga, best display is a 908x624 screen size with a resolution of 720x576 for SDTV. Position the screen to Y=0 and X= -135. And voilà, you'll get a pixel perfect screen. For HDTV, you just multiply to keep this ratio. Also amiga games were mostly made for european PAL TV so always use 50hz.

[rasputin1983]

thanks for the reply Waal.
are the X Y co-ordinates really important?
Cospefogo recommends keeping them at even numbers wherever you choose on screen which goes against your suggested X= -135. how did you come to that conclusion?
if X Y is important i'll have to find out suggestions for all emulators...

i've been playing around with various amiga games, when setting a resolution of 720x480 to 908x624 the image fits my screen much better than PAL 720x576, so is it possible to use a resolution of 720x480 while using a refresh rate of 50hz? this would give me the smoothest speed while having an optimum screen fill...

lastly, i've noticed most recent emulators have an option to set aspect ratio. in neogeo this seems to work a treat, but in xsnes9x_1.42 i set the option for 'original snes aspect ratio' and although the image is clearly affected, i'm dubious to it's functionality; i have a save state in Star Oceans in a room with a diagonal shelf on the wall perfect for testing aspect ratio. this line is only straight when using bilinear filtering. i've tried deleting all configs/saves and re-set original aspect ratio, but to no avail... am i missing something here?

thanks for reading

[waal]

QUOTE(rasputin1983 @ May 16 2010, 12:23 PM)

thanks for the reply Waal.
are the X Y co-ordinates really important?
Cospefogo recommends keeping them at even numbers wherever you choose on screen which goes against your suggested X= -135. how did you come to that conclusion?
if X Y is important i'll have to find out suggestions for all emulators...

i've been playing around with various amiga games, when setting a resolution of 720x480 to 908x624 the image fits my screen much better than PAL 720x576, so is it possible to use a resolution of 720x480 while using a refresh rate of 50hz? this would give me the smoothest speed while having an optimum screen fill...

lastly, i've noticed most recent emulators have an option to set aspect ratio. in neogeo this seems to work a treat, but in xsnes9x_1.42 i set the option for 'original snes aspect ratio' and although the image is clearly affected, i'm dubious to it's functionality; i have a save state in Star Oceans in a room with a diagonal shelf on the wall perfect for testing aspect ratio. this line is only straight when using bilinear filtering. i've tried deleting all configs/saves and re-set original aspect ratio, but to no avail... am i missing something here?

thanks for reading

Well, -135 is the good position on my TV, but it could be -100 on yours. Remember it only position, not size. Size is always 908x624. Then you center the screen like you want.

720x480 suits well for NTSC users. With this you'll fill the entire screen. Because most of PAL amiga games leaves a black border at the bottom to be compatible with the NTSC setups. But overscan PAL games like UNREAL or Battle Squadron can be problematic, you'll miss the bottom part of the game then. I always use PAL 50hz with my setup even if I could use NTSC. I don't mind the black border, it's an old habit.

About the screen ratio option in new Madmab edition emus, I'll let the master himself answer to you.

[rasputin1983]

don't think xsnes9x is by madmab, his ratio correction option seems fine so far.

so yeah, i get you regarding the XY co-ordinates(not size), stick with 908x624 and set position wherever is best for your TV.

i always hated the black borders in amiga games, made me jealous seeing people play games on their PCs with a full screen of graphics! still wouldn't have given up my Miggy tho... but i never knew why they were there till now

i'm still curious about PC VGA aspect ratio if anyone knows....

i'd be interested to know just how many people on this forum use exact original display with all filters off, i have to at least put flicker filter to 1, especially at 50hz, the screen literally jumps up & down, not to mention the headache it induces!

[Bomb Bloke]

Most VGA games ran in "mode 13h", which is 320x200 (8:5). EGA titles typically used the same resolution. The monitor would stretch the picture vertically to fit the full size of the 4:3 physical display (so the pixels weren't exactly square).

When attempting to play old games on LCD displays (say you're using DOSBox on a modern PC), often they'll simply resort to placing black borders at the top and bottom of the image instead of stretching it (so the pixels are square, but the image appears slightly squashed compared to how the game developers (presumably) intended them to appear). LCDs aren't as dynamic as the old CRTs when it comes to aspect ratios.

[rasputin1983]

i'm using an old CRT too, wouldn't play retro games any other way.

i thought VGA was 640x400/480, i'll give X-600 Y-430 a try

[Bomb Bloke]

VGA hardware was capable of those resolutions, but there were some difficulties in presenting higher resolutions while maintaining an 8-bit colour depth (up to 256 unique colours on screen at any one time) - the next step down was 4-bit, which looked, well, rubbish (only 16 colours at once).

SVGA could handle both resolution and colour depth, but the Xbox doesn't have the processor power to emulate many games using that display mode at an acceptable framerate. Heck, it has trouble with most mode 13h games.