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DOSBox Scaling is Limited

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Reply 20 of 25, by KainXVIII

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James-F wrote:
DOSBOX ECE. […]
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DOSBOX ECE.

output=opengl
aspect=true
scaler=normal5x forced

This gives the most 'accurate' scaling without much blur.

Any reason you don't use surfacepp as output?

Reply 21 of 25, by Falcosoft

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Chilly Willy wrote:

So is King's Quest V and among other games.

Yes, there are exceptions. But you claimed these are the rules:

Chilly Willy wrote:

320x200 is square pixel. ... The screen looks nice, clean, and not distorted. At 320x200, that's how the games were made.

Quite the contrary. The majority of games were supposed to be aspect ratio corrected to 4:3.
Here's a picture about a few of them: Monkey Island, Duke 3d, Wolfenstein, Dune, Indy 500, Arcade Volleyball, DogFight, Skyroads etc. And some non game examples: FractInt and Autodesk Animator:

320x200.png
Filename
320x200.png
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260.24 KiB
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1084 views
File license
Fair use/fair dealing exception
320x240.png
Filename
320x240.png
File size
627.78 KiB
Views
1084 views
File license
Fair use/fair dealing exception

You suggested that 4:3 correction must have been an anomaly by artist that did not grasp the situation right:

Chilly Willy wrote:

I won't disagree that some developers may have done that. Why, I have no idea other than they thought their game needed to fill the screen. Seems silly to me.

I do not think it was a silly idea.
Almost all the early CGA/EGA/VGA resolutions were not square pixel resolutions. But all the displays including TV sets were 4:3 displays. So games using these resolutions rightfully supposed that they would be played on a 4:3 display. Why do you think that 320x200 was an exception and it was meant to be used as 16:10 aspect ratio mode when no display in that age had a native 16:10 aspect ratio? And why do you think that other resolutions like your mentioned 160x200 should be stretched to also 16:10 an not to 4:3 as the native aspect ratio of all display devices at that time?
I have found no evidence (documentation, articles, other references) of your claims that 320x200 was a square pixel mode. If you find one please send me a link. On the other hand you can find many articles, wiki pages, etc. that explicitly say that 320x200 video mode's pixel aspect ratio was 1:1.2 just like 640x200 was 1:2.4 and should be corrected to 4:3. And what do you think about resolutions like 640x350? Are they also square pixel modes according to you? Some other links for you:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_Graphics_Adapter
http://www.reenigne.org/blog/what-is-the-cga- … -ratio-exactly/
http://www.vcfed.org/forum/archive/index.php/t-51820.html
https://medium.com/@felipepepe/no-ms-dos-game … io-37f86343ad65
I do not think that '320x200 is a square pixel mode because I have used my monitors for ages that way' is an argument. Yes, we do not have to agree about what we like. But I do think that facts should be accepted.

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Reply 23 of 25, by James-F

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KainXVIII wrote:

Any reason you don't use surfacepp as output?

These settings are equivalent to using surfacenp, which always stretches to screen edges.
The reason I don't use the PP patch is it is has noticeable slowdowns in fade-in/out.
If it weren't the slowdowns I would definitely use surfacenp.


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Reply 24 of 25, by Ant_222

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Chilly Willy, you can also try the pixel-perfect mode in DOSBox ECE:

windowresolution=desktop
fullresolution=desktop
output=surfacepp

Specify also

aspect=false

for square pixels and

aspect=true

for aspect-ratio correction. DOSBox will automatically enlarge the image as much as possible using integer scaling factors. For example, with a 1200x1920 monitor it will upscale a 320x200 game to:

320x200 -> [5x6] -> 1600x1200 with aspect=true
320x200 -> [6x6] -> 1920x1200 with aspect=false

That should be what you need.

Last edited by Ant_222 on 2018-01-12, 20:10. Edited 1 time in total.

Reply 25 of 25, by Ant_222

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James-F wrote:
KainXVIII wrote:

Any reason you don't use surfacepp as output?

These settings are equivalent to using surfacenp, which always stretches to screen edges.

Kain asked you about surfacepp, not surfacenp. Neither of these modes stretch the image to the edges, but try to keep the original aspect ratio regarding (aspect=true) or disregarding (aspect=false) PAR (pixel aspect ratio).