Video problems with Nvidia card

Hi everybody,

I have been playing around with some NES emulators (fceu, nestopia and nnnesterj) and the the games are blurry (in full screen) and "glitchy" (for lack of a better word...for example when I'm playing Mario 3, and I'm running, the there are some lines that flash like there is a problem with the refresh or something). Here is my setup:

AMD Athlon 64 FX-60
2GB PC3200 RAM
EVGA Geforce 8800 GTS
Acer p241w LCD
WinXP Pro SP2

I used to have a CRT with Radeon video card, and I never had these problems. I have tried adjusting the resolution in windows and in the emulator, messing around with the settings in the nvidia control panel, changing the settings in the emulator itself (disabling hardware acceleration in fceu did clear the blurry problem in windowed mode, but I still have problems in full screen with blurand the "glitchy" problem is still there). Stretching the image instead of having the black areas on the sides helped a *little*. I've spent many hours looking online for a solution, and have found other posts that mention issues with nvidia cards...I have not tried looking for an updated driver (currently 6.14.11.6921 from December 2007 is installed). I can play MAME perfectly in full screen with no video problems.

I think the problem may be with my LCD display or my video card settings...ultimately I would like to be able to play in full screen (either stretched or not) or close to full screen without any video problems (I know emulation will never be perfect, but I'm sure it can be better with my setup). I would really appreciate any and all help anyone would be able to give me.

Thanks!

Mike

The blur is normal. It's a filter applied by your video card and/or LCD screen. Anyway, you could try checking the video configuration of your emulator. And the flashing line it's completely normal too. The real NES also show those lines.

Thanks very much for your help. Do you have an idea what setting I could change in fceu to get rid of the blur?

Also, do these problems exist on CRT monitors? I do not recall seeing them a while ago when using emulators.

Ok, I just played Mega Man, and the "flashing" I guess can be described more as choppy video. I have both Mega Man and SMB 3 for NES, and neither have this problem on the real system. I will upload a video as soon as I figure out how to capture my desktop. Any other ideas?

Thanks!

No other suggestions? I am still trying to figure out how to capture some video, I believe I will need to download some 3rd party software

Hi everybody,

Sorry I keep responding to myself. I installed the newest driver for my video card, downloaded the new fceux, and set my desktop to a plain background. I got it to the point to where I only get blurry line all the way across the screen that goes from teh bottom to the top when I'm running...

Does anyone have any ideas on what I can do to get rid of it?

Thanks very much!

Mike

Its difficult to understand what its doing from that description. Could be a refresh rate issue especially if you are using an LCD panel.

You could try using Fraps to capture some video or alternatively use the PrntScrn key to capture some screen shots if it will show the effect in a static screenshot.

Without pics or vid its going to be very hard to identify your problem from your description.

Sounds like a resolution problem (bunching the "full" scaled image upon the screen). Have you tried different video resolutions (modes), either same as desktop or of a smaller...?

Hi guys,

Thank you very much for your suggestions. I have tried changing the resolution on both video and in the emu (ie. emulator went from 320(default) to 800x600, 1024x768...and I have tried lowering the resolution on my video card (from default 1920x1200).

Yes, it is an LCD ( 24"), i have a feeling that may have something to do with it.

I took a video, but unfortunately when I watched it a few times, the lines appeared at different times, so I'm afraid nobody else will see them :) Please tell me what you think:

http://www.filefactory.com/file/bd2a...pple_video_zip

thanks very much again

The problem is probably that your LCD will be running at around a 60hz refresh rate and the emulator is probably set up to run at something different. This will cause issues with tearing and scrolling. Couldn't see anything described as Blurring unless you are referring to jerky scrolling which again if it isn't just the way the original NES game behaved would point to a refresh rate mismatch.

As a final point, the download you've provided includes a copy of the game rom. I would suggest removing that PDQ as it breaches the sites rules.

I'm very sorry about that..I'm trying to take the link down now.

It could very well have to do with the refresh rate difference, my LCD only supports 60hz. Any idea how to lower the refresh rate in fceu?

Thank you