Just make sure that aspect=true

If it is a nonVESA game.

rotaxt wrote:

1.) when playing in this window with 1280x800 - do you recommend to use a scaler and / or shader? i know it is generally a matter of personal taste with
these stuff, so currently I just tend to use the HQx2-Shader and no scaler - does this technically make sense in a window?

Though as you reference, some on this forum prefer the pixelated look, I would recommend using one or the other. Both should apply the same to fullscreen/windowed modes (though that may depend a bit on your selected video "output" driver, I think some may not support scalers).

rotaxt wrote:

2.) when I switch through all the pixel shaders the pictures changes and you can clearly see the different shaders. when I turn the shaders off and switch through
all scalers there is absolutely no visible change. even if i put "forced" behind the scaler in the config there is no visible change. are the scalers only working fullscreen?

Scaler changes should be visible in the windows mode. Many of the scalers produce pixelated image though (i.e. Hardware Xx, etc.), so ensure you are selecting one that will be more visible (2xSAI, etc.)

rotaxt wrote:

3.) does it generally makes sense to use a scaler and a shader at the same time? if not, in which case to use a combi, and in which case better to use a scaler/shader for its own?

Usually not these days. At one point I had generated 4xSAI output by applying both the 2xSAI scaler and a 2xSAI shader, but now I tend to stick with the xBR shader which scales cleanly per the available resolution.

rotaxt wrote:

4.) what about this 'xbr'-shader? i have read several times that this shader tops the hq-shader easily, can you agree? is it right that the xbr-filter does only work in surface-mode?

xBR is typically superior to the other filters available. There are two implementations of it for DOSBox. The first, which you seem to refer to in your question, is xBRZ. It's a modified version of the xBR algorithm, and I believe that yes it's coded to only work with a very limited set of output options. I forget the specifics, but if you look for the xBRZ thread here you should find more details. Also xBRZ is CPU based, and can have an impact on game performance.

The other would be the xBR shader, which may be a bit harder to find a compatible version these days since the Higan forum that hosted a lot of the discussion around the shader went down a number of months back. I can repost here if needed.

rotaxt wrote:

5.) i know many users do not like any of these scaler / shader-things, and many love these stuff to smooth, sharpen or whatever the picture.
so for me the hq-shader is my favourite i think. somewhere else somebody wrote the best combination is opengl and advancemame3.

If you like the HQ shaders, you'll likely prefer xBR. It does a better job scaling things beyond 3x, and at 1200x800 for 320x200 games you are already at 4x. And outside of certain laptops, I'd guess 1280x800 is not at the top end of available resolutions.

rotaxt wrote:

what are your preferred actual ombinations of scalers and filters with dosbox? i would be happy to know your choices, just to test them out. maybe i find something better than what
i use. of course it would be possible just to get through all possible combinations but often i am not sure if these combinations between scalers and pixelshaders make sense, make technically sense.

As stated above, xBR alone. I do wish DOSBox supported applying multiple shaders. For Higan, that enables a lot of cool enhancement effects, such as:

• xBR + Dilation: The dilation filter sort of tightens the focus of the image, allowing for there to be details smaller than the scaling size (i.e. picture elements smaller than 4x4 at 1280x800). Which can help improve things like thin lines, or points.
• xBR + mAdapt: The mAdapt filter helps convert dithered sections to solid colors, which could greatly enhance a lot of DOS games.

rotaxt wrote:

6.) last question: what about this opengl / openglhq-thing? is that also a good choice? and are scalers / shaders also working under opengl? any recommendations for a good combi?

Can't comment here, enabling OpenGL-HQ output mode causes an immediate crash for me.

collector wrote:

If it is a nonVESA game.

Why would that matter? At 1280x800 resolution I'd presume you'd still want to scale up a 640x400 image.

collector wrote:

If it is a nonVESA game.

Actually haven't played (m)any VESA games, so yes my experience is based on the older 320 x 200 games.

Does scaler=true cause any issues with VESA games?

I have quite a few VESA games. Every single one of them have a native resolution of 640×480, so they already have the proper aspect. The initial goal of VESA was a 800x600 resolution. Although aspect correction does not hurt, it is not needed. Most of the Sierra VESA games also shipped with a VGA driver for users without VESA hardware. If you set render to none with aspect correction turned off, the VGA driver will give you a tiny 320x200 window and with the VESA it will give you 640x480.

I won't insist that I know that all VESA games are at least 640x480, but if there are any that are 640x400, it would seem to be pretty rare. Remember that when VESA was starting to be included in games that new monitors had the additional scan lines with shorter pixels. Besides, if you run a VESA game with aspect correction off, it will be immediately apparent and aspect correction can then be turned on.

kolano wrote:

The other would be the xBR shader, which may be a bit harder to find a compatible version these days since the Higan forum that hosted a lot of the discussion around the shader went down a number of months back. I can repost here if needed.

I'd like to have them. 😀

thank you very much, i will go on and test now 😀

Rod Primitive wrote:

kolano wrote:

The other would be the xBR shader, which may be a bit harder to find a compatible version these days since the Higan forum that hosted a lot of the discussion around the shader went down a number of months back. I can repost here if needed.

I'd like to have them. 😀

DosBOX Compatible 5xBR-v3.8 Shader.7z

Thanks!

EDIT: Turns out that Daum already comes packaged with those shaders.

So which of the four shaders should I chose?

5xBR-v3.5b.fx
5xBR-v3.8a.fx
5xBR-v3.8b.fx
5xBR-v3.8c.fx

Rod Primitive wrote:

So which of the four shaders should I chose? […]
Show full quote

So which of the four shaders should I chose?

5xBR-v3.5b.fx
5xBR-v3.8a.fx
5xBR-v3.8b.fx
5xBR-v3.8c.fx

Good to hear that these got built into recent DAUM builds. 😀 I had avoided the more recent one due to some bugs with it.

The v3.8 versions have improved filtering routines compared with v3.5, so I'd go with one of those. The a,b,c variants control the the amount of rounding that occurs (a = squared corners > c = round corners).

BTW, I believe xBRZ was based on the v3.5 version.

i tested these shaders also and for me the 5xBR-v3.8c.fx looks best, but that's a matter of taste 😀 ! i was just confused first of all because somewhere else i read that these xBR-Shaders are working only with mode "surface", but they are working also with direct3d.

Do I still need to set the scaler to =hardwareXx?

rotaxt wrote:

i was just confused first of all because somewhere else i read that these xBR-Shaders are working only with mode "surface", but they are working also with direct3d.

The xBRZ scaler requires "surface", the pixel shaders "direct3d".

Rod Primitive wrote:

Do I still need to set the scaler to =hardwareXx?

No. Though honestly I'm not really clear on the purpose of the HardwareXx modes, since the output seems the same across them as with no scaler.

Don't know about you guys, but my DOSBox becomes REALLY slow when I'm using 5xBR. It's not slow when it's running, but when it starts up and shuts down it almost takes a minute for each action.
I think I'll stick to pixelshader hq2x.fx and scaler=hardware3x. Smooths out those sharps edges while keeping DOSBox smooth.

Also, I couldn't see any difference with each 5xBR anyway so.

Rod do you use pixelshader hq2x.fx and scaler=hardware3x fullscreen or in windowed mode? and do you use it with direct3d?

Rod Primitive wrote:

Don't know about you guys, but my DOSBox becomes REALLY slow when I'm using 5xBR.

Same here, a lengthy pause at startup...