A question about fullscreen modes

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I decided to test grafx2 on my laptop.
It has a 1280*800 screen so I thought 'great! now I'll be able to pixel in
fullscreen low resolution like 320*200 or 640*400 without blur'.
However when I did change to those resolutions, I noticed that indeed there
was blur, although the ratio is the same.
Why is this? Is it thanks to my monitor, or directx or what? Can anyone
confirm that they had a pixel-sharp fullscreen mode on a TFT monitor?

Original issue reported on code.google.com by yoka.ter...@gmail.com on 13 Feb 2009 at 9:03

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It seems that my laptop is somehow to blame. I ran an old DOS game in 320x200 
and
there was again some interpolation involved.

Original comment by yoka.ter...@gmail.com on 13 Feb 2009 at 9:26

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I can only say my old laptop (LCD, non-TFT) proposes resolutions lower than its
native pixel sizes, and they are rendered sharply. (native=1024x768, no borders 
in
512x384). I'm afraid you're victim of the drivers or settings of your videocard.

It may not be clear in the project status, but we can no longer get all the
resolutions of the DOS version of GrafX2, even on the suitable CRT monitors...
The factors are:
- your videocard or chipset
- your drivers
- DirectX for Windows, x86 (?) for linux
and then there's SDL which can only use what filtered from the 3 layers above,
and then grafx2 queries SDL and proposes you everything that SDL said was 
possible.

What is available really varies, I've seen a HP video chipset give a lot more
resolutions than a NVidia gamer's card. 

Issue 86 will allow using double pixels in Grafx2, it's a software operation so 
the
pixels will be as sharp as the resolution they're used in. In your case, you'll 
have
a "perfect" 640x400, and even in window mode you'll be able to draw with this 
size.

Original comment by yrizoud on 13 Feb 2009 at 10:23

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That's not x86, but X11 under linux.
You may want to try the following to "unlock" other graphic modes:

-Under windows, a tool called powerstrip alow you to configure and finetune 
strange
video modes. It may or may not help getting a nice video mode.
-Under linux, xvidtune can help do the same thing

However, if your tft screen is bad at interpolating, i'm not sure they can do 
much...
maybe tweaking the Horizontal and/or Vertical blank delays slightly if your 
ideo card
allows it can help...

Original comment by pulkoma...@gmail.com on 14 Feb 2009 at 10:51

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Thanks Pulkomandy, Powerstrip just added 12 working modes for me below 640x480,
starting at 424x272. Most are weird, but at least I got a classic 640*256, and
512x384 which is exactly half of my desktop resolution. I used lrmc to search
additional modes.

Original comment by yrizoud on 14 Feb 2009 at 7:03

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What is lrmc and where do I get it?

Original comment by ilija.melentijevic on 14 Feb 2009 at 7:23

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LOL I just caught a fish :)
If you're not using a CRT monitor, don't expect a miracle...
Low resolution mode calculator, http://lrmc.sourceforge.net/
First you have to get Powerstrip installed, then you run for example "lrmc 320 
256 60
-p", and copy the resulting line in Powerstrip config, then you use Powerstrip 
to
insert this resolution in Windows settings, then you cross fingers and run 
GrafX2...
I followed the instructions here:
http://wiki.arcadecontrols.com/wiki/Custom_display_modes_(Windows)_-_Powerstrip
I skipped the part about making these resultions available in Windows desktop,
irrelevant for us.
If a resultion just gives you a black screen, remember to use shift+return to 
swap back.

Original comment by yrizoud on 14 Feb 2009 at 7:46

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Bah, I tried powerstrip but same-ratio resolutions are still smoothed :(

Original comment by ilija.melentijevic on 14 Feb 2009 at 7:57

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Run grafx2 /double to get half-desktop-res if it can't be done in hardware.
Anyways, this is not really an issue report, we are starting to get more and 
more 
users, i feel it's time to open some kind of mailing list or forum... what do 
you 
think about that ? I don't think we want to be flooded with issue reports only 
asking questions...

Original comment by pulkoma...@gmail.com on 17 Feb 2009 at 9:23

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It's normal for a proportion of queries to resolve as "no it 's normal" or "it 
wasn't
grafx2's fault", but do as you want.
The number of issues is mostly due to me opening more issues than I can resolve 
:-/

Original comment by yrizoud on 17 Feb 2009 at 11:04

• Changed state: Fixed

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Well, issues are there for that, note that there is a problem and we have to 
solve 
it. Anyways, we can't solve them as fast as they are discovered, there are more 
users than devs :)
But a mailing list for general traffic (simple questions, drawing tips, 
pictures 
done with gfx2, and so on) seems a good idea.
However, i don't want people to feel lost with too many ways of communicating...
I think we'll be fine with just one general mailing list for now. We've been 
exchanging mails with Yves and some users, and a mailing list seems more 
practical.
It is also possible to create a mailing list where to send mail notifications 
for 
every commit (including diffs and commit message). Currently these are only 
sent to 
my personal email. But if someone wants to have them...

So :
-General mailing list for both user&dev discussion (can be split if there is 
too 
much traffic)
-Speial mailing list for the commit messages, if someone wants them. Note : i 
think 
they are also available as rss feeds, so using mail is maybe pointless.

Original comment by pulkoma...@gmail.com on 18 Feb 2009 at 9:59