Pixely Dos graphics

[Gareth2061]

Im sure this has come up before but its hard to search for.

Ive been playing a few old dos games lately, they seem to be a lot more pixely than they used to.

Is this in my imagination, the fact that modern monitors run at higher resolutions now or is there something im missing?

In the screenshots on websites they always look smooth.

[Zach]

You are correct mostly. It has to do with the resolution differences.

Pictures on web sites are usually screenshots taken of the game in its native resolution. They are usually very low res, below even 640x480. In Windows when you increase the resolution of your desktop, you gain more space because it is displaying more pixels per dot than in a lower resolution. As you increase the number of pixels displayed the image will get smaller because there is more space on the screen, but the sharpness and clarity will increase to a degree.

This is why modern games look very good and crisp in higher resolutions. Although they do also have high resolution graphics (to keep the size from being too small as you increase the resolution) too.

With dos games running in full screen on a modern monitor, 17" or larger, and especially for LCD's, you will get more pixelation because they are higher resolution displays. Although if you're lucky, with an LCD you may get some blurrying from the non-standard resolution (all LCD's are optimized for a particular resolution, called the native resolution) and that blurrying might help the picture look better.

Unlike DOS games, emulators actually overcome this problem because they feature graphics filters that can enhance the image through smoothing and sharpening / interpolating techniques.. I don't know of any DOS emulator/environment that can do that yet, though I think DOSBox MIGHT have some options, I can't confirm it as I haven't used it in forever.

Most DOS and older games were made back when we had smaller monitors like 15" or smaller, and as such the picture looked a little better too. I used to have an old Apple monitor I got from school, with a composite input (yellow RCA) that I would use for my Playstation. Compared to televisions which had larger screens, my picture was always much better looking and sharper/detailed because of the smaller screen size.. It also had excellent color balance too.

[Gareth2061]

I suspected as much. Im using Dosbox and it runs well, although its a little slim on options. Scummvm lets you cycle through different display modes (F8 I think) which lets you see a ver smooth image. My LCD doesnt go below 800 x 600 so I guess its pixels all the way.

[Zach]

Do you know that for sure?

I have never heard of an LCD not going below a certain res before.. I know there are published specs that it "officially supports" and whatnot, but it should still at least be capable of the low resolution. Unless you are getting errors if you try, I suppose? I know one issue may be if your trying an unsupported refresh rate in a particular resolution.

[Gareth2061]

Its stated as only doing so and its the minimum on the display properties menu.

[FatTrucker]

Display Properties > Advanced > Adapter > List All Modes, should allow you to run lower resolutions. Most modern monitors will still support resolutions down to 640x480 which is fine for most DOS games.

LCD's have fixed refresh rates but are usually quite happy to switch resolutions.

[Zach]

I've got multiple refresh rates... guess Samsung just makes good monitors :p

[Gareth2061]

Oh yeah!

You learn something new every day. Actually I think I've seen that before but just forgot.

Funny thing is it made the dosbox box bigger so it practically filled the screen (640 x 480) but the graphics were just as pixely.

I still think it needs an option like ScummVM though. I like to play in a window and have another window with TV or a video up, plus access to Messenger and Firefox. I like to multitask :)

[Zach]

I know for a fact DosBOX can run in windowed mode..

Are you using a front-end at all? You really should, it makes game configuration a breeze..

In the past I've used DOG

http://www.freewebs.com/erikgg/

[Gareth2061]

It runs in window by default. What I meant was I dont want to have to downscale my resolution to play it. In ScummVM you can just smooth out the graphics in the options.

I might give dog a go. Im using D-Fend at thwe moment, but the other day it stopped the mouse from responding so may try something else.

[Zach]

Ah, I see... so was it simply a blown up window then? or a full-screen mode?

I am guessing if you can get your games to run in their original resolution, in an actual full screen mode, it might help a lot more, if this hasn't been tried yet.. Switching the front end might get you better options to try for that, hopefully.

I understand about the smoothing option, its great when you have them