Aspect Ratios, Scanlines, and Fixed Res Displays

**NEOGEOman** · 20 Apr 2009, 01:50 AM

Frogacuda nails it in one. THAT GUY wasn't wrong to think scanlines were cool n all, but he couldn't tolerate the idea that other methods weren't the spew of satan himself.

When I really want to game, I play on one of my CRTs. When I'm doing analysis, ripping sprites, mucking about or emulating 30 shmups on an idle night at home, I'll use the LCD. The screenshots I abuse you with will include a random mix of all kinds of shitty methods, including the dropshadow everyone loves so much.

Somtimes I even do things like this, screenshot manipulation designed to make THAT GUY apoplectic:

If you want to see a really awful use of authentic screenshots, check out the appallingly bad Atari Lynx screenshots in my book. The publisher couldn't manage to replace them with the good ones I sent before going to print, and they look like serious ass.

**Frogacuda** · 20 Apr 2009, 01:58 AM

You have a book? What's it called?

**NEOGEOman** · 20 Apr 2009, 02:09 AM

After writing my Mario Sprite History article, Rotovision contacted me about writing one of a trilogy of game art books. The other two were canceled and then my editor stopped talking to me, but in the end they released a book that's not quite entirely execrable.

Details here...

**Frogacuda** · 20 Apr 2009, 02:28 AM

Interesting. I love pixel art, I might have to check that out when I have a few bucks to blow.

**bVork** · 20 Apr 2009, 03:01 AM

Originally Posted by Frogacuda

You should discuss modern solutions to these issues more. Some of the discussions of things like hard scaling and scanlines seem a bit antiquated in light of modern screen fitting and monitor emulation techniques. By combining overlays, prescaling, and filtration in the right order, you can create something that looks pretty nice at any resolution.

For example, here's a raw shot of STUN Runner, a game that uses a wierd resolution (512x240) and then a screenshot of it running in MAME. And another without the scanline stuff. You can see that there is neither blurring nor distortion, and the scanlines line up per-pixel as they would on the real thing, regardless of the fact that my screen resolution isn't proportional to the original resolution (view screenshots full size or you'll get some distortion from the browser's scaling, of course).

Are those two latter resolutions displaying the game at 4:3? The screenshots are at 1280x1024 but I can't tell if the black bars on the top and bottom are enough to return the game to its proper aspect ratio.

**Frogacuda** · 20 Apr 2009, 03:16 AM

It's 4:3. The black bars are because I set the aspect ratio to 4:3 instead of fullscreen, and 1280x1024 isn't a proper 4:3 resolution (which would be 1280x960). Mistake on my part.

**ssbomberman** · 20 Apr 2009, 09:43 AM

I swear by low res RGB. A handful of years ago I discovered it and can't go back. Genny looks insane in RGB as does Saturn, PS2, and DC. Even current gen isn't too bad at all in 15khz RGB. PS3 SCART mode looks great.

Great read. You might want to, in the scanlines section, talk a little about 240p and what systems support it. I know there is an article about it out there, but it would tie in nicely.