Screen flicker

whathuh

New member
Computer Specs:
- Win XP
- 2GB RAM
- 2.4 GHz Duocore
- 256MB ATI Mobility Radeon X1400 (1440x900) res

The problem seems to occur on both SNES and NES emulators. I've tried nearly every one for each, including Virtual NES, Nestopia, ZNES, NESten, JNES, SNES9x and so on. I searched several posts on the forum, but found nothing, which makes me think I'm having a hard time finding keywords that relate to my issue. The best I can describe it is when I play an NES or SNES game, the gameplay is perfect. Sound is great, movement is great... my controller works fine. Unfortunately, when there is quick movement I see a horizontal 'wave' or 'flicker' that I would liken to viewing a TV monitor through a video camera. The waves aren't as prominent or as frequent, but they're somewhat of an annoyance.

On my previous laptop, I had a pretty basic setup, with only 32MB of video ram, and I never ran into this problem. Is it the frequency of my monitor vs. the game play frequency that's causing this? Are there any quick and/or easy resolutions to fix it?

I've tried every possible combination I can think of, such as changing my resolution to 800x600, changing my color depth to 16 bit, modifying every possible video option in each emulator I tried - all to no avail.

It's not a big deal, and I'm sure after I play for a while I'll barely notice it. If anyone has any suggestions on how to fix it, however, I would greatly appreciate any information. Thanks ;]

-Adam
 

whathuh

New member
No, it's not a motion blur... it's like a horizontal line you see on TV and computer monitors when you're viewing them through a video camera. It's not as constant or quick of a flicker, but I see a line gradually go from the bottom to the top during quick movement.

The VSync seemed to work though, so I appreciate the help ;]
 

Jale

Active member
Oh, yeah. VSync can be annoying sometimes. It's a processor intensive filter so it can reduce performance. To reduce this VSync effect, you can use Triple Buffering as well.
 

whathuh

New member
Fantastic - yeah I noticed it skipped a little at times like it was thinking, so I'll try the triple buffering. Thanks for all the help.
 

Jale

Active member
I forgot to say that Triple Buffering has its disadvantages too, and that's a little delay that occurs when you press a button, but the delay isn't a big deal (it's just a few miliseconds).
 
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