how can i improve winuae output on lcd monitor?

[kirk]

hi all,
ive read a few replys on this board on the topic of poor graphics on pc monitors and lcd screens, and the replys just say use the filters, but ive tried every filter and setting and all they seem to do is make the screen larger, so i shrink it to fit and the graphics still look blocky and pixellated.

is there no way to improve the picture, either by blurring or some applied effect (the brill eagle mode on zsnes springs to mind, i wud be over the moon if a similar result cud be achieved on winuae).

i love winuae but this issue ruins the experience.i wish all my old amiga disks still ran cos i miss the great rgb output to my old tv from my a500, though i still wud love to use winuae.

ive googled winuae graphic plugins but can not find any, despite the odd mention of em here and there, but no information on even how to use em,if they exist.

[FOL]

Originally Posted by kirk

hi all,
ive read a few replys on this board on the topic of poor graphics on pc monitors and lcd screens, and the replys just say use the filters, but ive tried every filter and setting and all they seem to do is make the screen larger, so i shrink it to fit and the graphics still look blocky and pixellated.

is there no way to improve the picture, either by blurring or some applied effect (the brill eagle mode on zsnes springs to mind, i wud be over the moon if a similar result cud be achieved on winuae).

i love winuae but this issue ruins the experience.i wish all my old amiga disks still ran cos i miss the great rgb output to my old tv from my a500, though i still wud love to use winuae.

ive googled winuae graphic plugins but can not find any, despite the odd mention of em here and there, but no information on even how to use em,if they exist.

Use Picasso96 mode and UAEGFX mode. Gives you crystal clear screen in native resolution. Only in WB though, if you launch certain apps and games, obviously it will revert to old res.

If you dont want to do that, then I find Filter "Direct3D" FS works fine for me.

[kirk]

for me, direct3d fs just makes the screen too large, and still crappy looking.

cud you tell me what your screen looks like and what i need to do to use the filters, eg, if i select eaglemode it just blows the screen up, all the filters do this, and when i shrink the screen to get the full picture back, it still looks crap, no blurring, no smoothing (yum yum), nowt.

is there any way at all to smooth or slightly blur the screen ?

[Rabbit80]

Are you on the latest version of WinUAE? Have you got the filters?

http://www.winuae.net/files/filtershaders.zip

[Valken]

When using upscaling filters, I usually use either:

Scale 2x/3x/4x or Direct 3D (point 32bit) to keep that old school grainy look
SuperEagle to antialias some of the jaggies without much blur

or

any of the HQ2x/HQ3x/HQ4x modes

Unfortunately, none of the HQ or LQ modes work well with winuae or as good as other emulators which has those modes. PC SNES emulators show a big difference when using the HQ filters.

[Toni Wilen]

Make sure lores is enabled because most of games are in lores and without lores uae does pixel doubling before filters -> filter sees 2x2 blocks -> bad result.

[Valken]

Hi Toni,

Thanks for the update. Tried it and HQx2/x3 works now. HQx4 just drops back to null filter. Probably due to low desktop res setting.

HQx looks the best overall as always.

[kirk]

ive got the filter shaders and i had put them in in plugins, but still no effect.

cud someone explain exactly where to put em and the folder structure, cheers.

[Valken]

Kirk,

To install all of the filters, extract the file's contents (including folders) into your WinUAE PLUGINS folder :EG c:/winuae/plugins

You might need to CREATE the "plugins" folder if you do not already have it (mine didn't).

After that, fire up WinUAE, load a profile you want to work in, then set the following parameters:

Under HOST | DISPLAY | SCREEN - set a resolution you want to test with - I have mine at 800x600 under WINDOWED since I plan on using it in a window on the desktop

Under HOST | DISPLAY | SETTINGS - set both Native Mode and RTG mode to WINDOWED so you can play with UAE in a window until you have the settings to your satisfaction.

Under HOST | DISPLAY | RESOLUTION - select LORES so the filters work properly per Toni as explained above.

Under HOST | FILTER | select the filter you want to test - defaul is null

I recommend you start with Direct 3D, POINT 32 BIT first, then go through Scale2x, SuperEagle, hq2x/hq3x/hq4x then compare that to the rest of the filters. I am currently using HQ3x/HQ4x for adventure games.

You should also select AUTOMATIC SCALING in HOST | FILTER so the filtered output will scale according to your selected screen resolution (use up as much screen as possible).

You can also pause a game, then jump back to the FILTER settings and play with different filters to see how it looks.

Good luck!

[kirk]

thanx for that, i shall fire winuae up and fiddle about asap, looking forward to seeing the results.

just one tiny thing, i presume the latest winuae is the one to use to see all the options to set ?, i do run it, but i also run some of my old faves in winuae 1.2, and i think maybe all the above options are not in it, so i suppose what im trying to get at is,

is the latest version as fast as older ones, and is it stable, and also i presume all my old configs from 1.2 are incompatible (i did try loading a 1.2 config into latest winuae and a prob occured, however the 1.2 save states work like a charm in latest winuae, i wonder why that is cos obviously the configs etc will be different, so i suppose saving a state only saves certain things whilst leaving configs etc alone, if so how come save states seem to be tranferable ?, maybe they are not and i will run into probs later on in games?)

i understand my save state query is slightly off topic but it is linked in with my initial ques and would lose context if i started another thread, so please bear with me !,
cheers

[Valken]

I'm using the latest WinUAE (beta 21) but any of the 1.5.x series should have all those tweaks available.

It is best to use a newer version since if we have problems, Toni can fix it for the next release!

WinUAE is really the Ultimate Classic Amiga now!

[TCD]

Originally Posted by kirk

is the latest version as fast as older ones, and is it stable, and also i presume all my old configs from 1.2 are incompatible (i did try loading a 1.2 config into latest winuae and a prob occured, however the 1.2 save states work like a charm in latest winuae, i wonder why that is cos obviously the configs etc will be different, so i suppose saving a state only saves certain things whilst leaving configs etc alone, if so how come save states seem to be tranferable ?, maybe they are not and i will run into probs later on in games?)

I don't know where this Urban Myth of imcompatible configs comes from, but WinUAE works really fine even with 0.88 configs Not so sure about savestates though. Guess it's a bit try and error if they work without problems.
WinUAE 1.5.3 is the latest stable version and you should really use it.

[kirk]

but is it possible that a config file from an earlier winuae can run fine in a later (or earlier even) winuae when each winuae has different/extra/less options to fiddle with ?

i ask this cos i ran battle squadron in 1.5.3 with my old 1.2 config and got some screen corruption, but the game did run, ill try again to see if it reoccurs

[TCD]

Originally Posted by kirk

but is it possible that a config file from an earlier winuae can run fine in a later (or earlier even) winuae when each winuae has different/extra/less options to fiddle with ?

Because WinUAE just ignores unused (obsolete) entries and uses defaults for the ones not in the config file.

Originally Posted by kirk

i ask this cos i ran battle squadron in 1.5.3 with my old 1.2 config and got some screen corruption, but the game did run, ill try again to see if it reoccurs

It's not really config related. The emulation gets more accurate in each version and so configs that worked in older versions are handled different in a newer version. Always a good idea to check it with the quickstart options and then adjust your config