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General discussion (archive)Getting rid of scan lines at low resolutions(9 posts)solved(9 posts)solved
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Posted October 18, 2008
I have a 19 inch CRT monitor with a max resolution of 1600 by 1200 and using an 8800 GTX graphics card. I usually run most of my games at 1024 by 768. However, older games I recently purchased (e.g. Fallout and Starcraft) only run at lower resolutions. Unfortunately, when I run anything at 800 by 600 or lower the image is displayed with scan lines.
I'm guessing this has something to do with how my video card displays these resolutions? Or is it my monitor? Whatever the case they are somewhat distracting and I would like to get rid of them. Any ideas?
This question / problem has been solved by sahibimage
Posted October 18, 2008
I have some scan lines with my graphic cards on some games and resolutions. I suspect it to be a graphic card defect, so you can ask it to be changed :/
About Fallout, you can get the HR patch it will run at highest resolutions.
I don't know if it's the resolution or the game engine which displays this kind of errors, but on my computer Freespace, Caesar III, and even Stubbs the Zombies have this kind of issues (among others). I didn't try fallout though.
What about current generation games, do they display scan lines at low resolutions?
Post edited October 18, 2008 by DukeNico
Posted October 18, 2008
I dunno if you would actually call them scan lines, but maybe my eyes are just so used to seeing such high resolutions that perhaps I've forgotten how discrete each pixel is at such low resolutions. But yes, even modern games look this way at resolutions below 1024 by 768. Also, the lowest resolution the nVidia control panel lets me set is 800 by 600. Not sure what that means.
And yes, I just discovered the hi res patch for Fallout, which has brought on its own set of issues I'm currently resolving at the moment. :P
Posted October 18, 2008
Could you post a screenshot of the game with the lines, then an actual photography of the monitor with the lines ? It would determine if it's the monitor or the graphic card.
Posted October 19, 2008
Also not sure what you mean by scan lines, but have you tried adjusting the monitor's refresh rate?
Posted October 19, 2008
It's not exactly a solution, but I found an interesting piece of information:
Basically, a CRT monitor draws a maximum number of horizontal lines per second (clock speed), and, according to it, the CRT monitor is classified as a low-res monitor or a hi-res one (although there also were extended-resolution and medium-resolution monitors at their time they were abandoned pretty soon). Given this way of drawing the image, that is, by horizontal lines, any picture displayed by a CRT monitor is visually divided into that - horizontal lines, which implies there's a blank space between every couple of drawn lines. That space, which takes the form of a thin black line, is informally called scanline, and, obviously, the lower the resolution (and the bigger the monitor) is, the more noticeable the scanlines are. It's important to understand that the old (and not-so-old) sprite-based video-games were conceived with that in mind, that is, the graphic artists did draw the games' graphics knowing that the picture would get interpolated black lines, hence they were implemented for this type of presentation.

From: [url=]http://postback.geedorah.com/extra/a_matter_of_visual_precision.htm[/url]
I know it's not much, but I hope this sets you on the right track.
Post edited October 19, 2008 by sahib
Posted October 19, 2008
DukeNico: When I do a print screen of my game at low res then paste into Photoshop back in my usual higher res desktop resolution, there are no visible scanlines. Which leads me to believe that maybe I'm just too used to high resolutions that I've forgotten what low resolutions look like.
SkullCowboy: I have my refresh rate at 85 hertz. And as far as I can see that only affects the perceptible flickering. The scanlines are still there regardless of my refresh rate.
Either way, I've decided to accept my situation. But interesting article find, sahib. It might shed some light onto my dilemma.
Posted December 02, 2009
There is a solution, see here:
http://www.gog.com/en/forum/Freespace_Series/freespace_1_solution_better_image_quality_on_big_crt_monitors_19_amp_quot_up_for_nvidia_users_on_xp
This applies also to other low resolution games.
Post edited December 02, 2009 by jtsn
Posted December 02, 2009
avatar
jtsn: There is a solution, see here:
http://www.gog.com/en/forum/Freespace_Series/freespace_1_solution_better_image_quality_on_big_crt_monitors_19_amp_quot_up_for_nvidia_users_on_xp
This applies also to other low resolution games.

Wow, I can almost remember how petty my problems and life were at the time. The help isn't unappreciated but I'm playing on a laptop now and my old CRT isn't anywhere near for me to experiment with.
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General discussion (archive)Getting rid of scan lines at low resolutions(9 posts)solved(9 posts)solved
(9 posts)solved