Better support for low resolutions possible?

320x240 · Feb 24, 2008, 01:30 AM

Hello,

I don't know if this would be possible to implement in the Omega drivers, but maybe I'm lucky

There's a big problem with low resolutions these days, because LCD/TFT screens get more popular, and we all know what they're doing to handle low resolution modes - they have to interpolate, which makes the picture look blurry and awkward.

Now, I've seen the option in my official ATI Catalyst Center to either stretch low resolutions to full screen, or to keep them small with a black border. In my opinion, there should be a third option: show a black border, but scale the picture as much as possible without blurry interpolating.

An example: My screen has a native resolution of 1400x1050. If I want to play a 320x240 game, it should be possible for the graphics card to scale the picture by simply turning each pixel into 4x4 pixels, resulting in a picture of 1280x960 pixels. If this picture would be centered on the screen, there would be a very unproblematic black border with only 60 pixels width on the left and on the right, and 30 pixels on the upper and lower side.

That would be so great! Sadly, my driver doesn't support that. Would it be possible to add this function in an Omega driver? Or is this technically impossible?

I think there are still very much great old games out there, and lots of people who still play them. Luckily, there are some great updated engines for some of them (e.g. I'm playing Doom by using the ZDoom engine in my native 1400x1050 resolution, which eliminates the problem of course, and some console emulators also support scaling the picture without interpolation etc), but those are only a few. In the end, there are still enough games that can't be enjoyed that way, and it shouldn't be a hard task for a graphics card.

What do you think?

Spyre · Feb 24, 2008, 02:28 PM

Omega doesnt write drivers he just slightly modifies the official AMD.ATI ones with INF tweaks and adds a 3rd party util as the control panel so no he cant add any features that the current AMD.ATI drivers lack.

kn00tcn · Feb 26, 2008, 04:40 AM

dosbox has lots of fullscreen rendering options

320x240 · Feb 27, 2008, 08:02 AM

@ Spyre: I know, but I thought it might be possible with a hack or something... I never developed or modified drivers, so I'm not able to really tell what might be possible

@ kn00tcn: Yes, but of course that's only for DOS games, and sadly DOSbox isn't always running fast enough for some games

Would this be possible for a background program, which manipulates or tunnels the display data? Like maybe a DirectX-hack or -plugin?

kn00tcn · Feb 28, 2008, 05:33 AM

haha i just realized what your username is

a DX hack sounds like a great idea.. maybe some people have looked into that elsewhere

otherwise... i guess find a CRT somewhere or change the OS resolution to half (probably not possible, or not easy without messing with a way to go under 800x600)

Feb 24, 2008, 01:30 AM	#1
320x240 DriverHeaven Newbie Join Date: Feb 2008 Posts: 2 Rep Power: 0 System Specs	Better support for low resolutions possible? Hello, I don't know if this would be possible to implement in the Omega drivers, but maybe I'm lucky There's a big problem with low resolutions these days, because LCD/TFT screens get more popular, and we all know what they're doing to handle low resolution modes - they have to interpolate, which makes the picture look blurry and awkward. Now, I've seen the option in my official ATI Catalyst Center to either stretch low resolutions to full screen, or to keep them small with a black border. In my opinion, there should be a third option: show a black border, but scale the picture as much as possible without blurry interpolating. An example: My screen has a native resolution of 1400x1050. If I want to play a 320x240 game, it should be possible for the graphics card to scale the picture by simply turning each pixel into 4x4 pixels, resulting in a picture of 1280x960 pixels. If this picture would be centered on the screen, there would be a very unproblematic black border with only 60 pixels width on the left and on the right, and 30 pixels on the upper and lower side. That would be so great! Sadly, my driver doesn't support that. Would it be possible to add this function in an Omega driver? Or is this technically impossible? I think there are still very much great old games out there, and lots of people who still play them. Luckily, there are some great updated engines for some of them (e.g. I'm playing Doom by using the ZDoom engine in my native 1400x1050 resolution, which eliminates the problem of course, and some console emulators also support scaling the picture without interpolation etc), but those are only a few. In the end, there are still enough games that can't be enjoyed that way, and it shouldn't be a hard task for a graphics card. What do you think?

Feb 24, 2008, 02:28 PM	#2
Spyre DriverHeaven Senior Member Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: England Posts: 240 Rep Power: 60	Omega doesnt write drivers he just slightly modifies the official AMD.ATI ones with INF tweaks and adds a 3rd party util as the control panel so no he cant add any features that the current AMD.ATI drivers lack. __________________ ATI Beta Tester game.AMD.Moderator

Feb 26, 2008, 04:40 AM	#3
kn00tcn DriverHeaven Senior Member Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Toronto Posts: 649 Rep Power: 0 System Specs	dosbox has lots of fullscreen rendering options __________________ http://www.kn00tcn.net/site/ati-catalyst-profiles/ http://www.kn00tcn.net/FPSLimiter.rar

Feb 28, 2008, 05:33 AM	#5
kn00tcn DriverHeaven Senior Member Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Toronto Posts: 649 Rep Power: 0 System Specs	haha i just realized what your username is a DX hack sounds like a great idea.. maybe some people have looked into that elsewhere otherwise... i guess find a CRT somewhere or change the OS resolution to half (probably not possible, or not easy without messing with a way to go under 800x600) __________________ http://www.kn00tcn.net/site/ati-catalyst-profiles/ http://www.kn00tcn.net/FPSLimiter.rar

Feb 27, 2008, 08:02 AM	Thread Starter #4
320x240 DriverHeaven Newbie Join Date: Feb 2008 Posts: 2 Rep Power: 0 System Specs	@ Spyre: I know, but I thought it might be possible with a hack or something... I never developed or modified drivers, so I'm not able to really tell what might be possible @ kn00tcn: Yes, but of course that's only for DOS games, and sadly DOSbox isn't always running fast enough for some games Would this be possible for a background program, which manipulates or tunnels the display data? Like maybe a DirectX-hack or -plugin?