And while we're at it, I'm also very interested in DOSBOX's up-sampling function (SuperEagle, 2XNormal, 2XSAI, etc). I mean, if your CPU and video card can take it, then you can up-sample that 320x200 resolution to higher resolution while making them smooth.

How feasible it is to "hardwire" such function to an external box? Imagine connecting your PC to an external "VGA scaler box" that can up-sample your video card's output to any resolution you want.

"Great for connecting VGA graphics cards to DVI displays"

Thats all it does. It doesn't use any magic. It's just used to avoid any issues that occur if you just used a small convertor (screen misaligned, not scaled to fit, etc). I don't think it helps the actual smoothing at all. It's also useless for those of us using DVI-only on both ends.

As for dosbox up-sampling I find the scalers simply change the image too much. I like the old pixelated look of games, I just want it scaled. Using DDraw and setting my native resolution takes care of that just fine (with some stretching, if you use widescreen).

avatar_58 wrote:

I don't think it helps the actual smoothing at all. It's also useless for those of us using DVI-only on both ends.

Well I don't think it helps the smoothing either, but if it really change your video card's output to any resolution you want (without smoothing, of course), including the native resolution of your LCD flat panel, then it is interesting indeed. At least it eliminates the problem of clarity loss due to non-native resolution.

I still wonder though; how costly it is to incorporate DOSBOX-style smoothing to such converter? Does it take a DSP chip to do the job? Or is it simple enough for DIY project?

I am less-than-a-fan of monitor scaling. How would you scale a 640x480 resolution to a monitor that uses a 1440x900 or a 1600x1200 resolution? It must look blurry because the pixels are not an even integer relationship to each other. However, I think it is perfectly possible with a software driver for any game that uses a 640x480 resolution to display pixels twice in each direction to result in a sharp 1280x960 resolution. As many LCD monitors use a 1280x1024 resolution, this would fill almost the whole screen. I would like to know of an LCD screen that can do that, because mine cannot without some loss of clarity.

Integer scaling is best. DOSBox's openglnb and direct3D drivers, found in official and unofficial builds, respectively, can do wonders for proper scaling.