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Quality of graphics question

Posted: 14th August 2013 23:41

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So I've been playing FF7 via emulator back and forth between my laptop and my desktop.

On my desktop I have a decent video card, and the game looks pretty darn good. On my laptop, it's so-so.

I just hooked up my old PS2 and popped in the game. I have it connected to my LCD TV with component cables, Red/Green/Blue. It looks HORRIBLE. I thought for some reason it would look something like it does on my desktop but man it looks bad. Did it look that terrible back in the day? Is the quality really that much lower on the PS2?
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Posted: 15th August 2013 05:54

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The original resolution is very low, and the PS2 won't improve it at all. LCDs traditionally aren't fantastic at smoothing that out when it's scaled up. It's probably also either running in interlaced mode or trying to make 240p happen, both of which are also likely to degrade quality on an LCD.

In other words, the quality was always low, but on a 90s CRT it wouldn't be magnified so much.
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Posted: 15th August 2013 16:42

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Hmm...

So is it correct to say the game actually contains better graphics than can be displayed by the system? It's all related to the video hardware/software?

Since an image of the original PS1 discs on an emulator (with the proper graphics card and plugins) displays fantastic graphics on my PC.

Do you think the game would look much better on a PS3?
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Posted: 15th August 2013 16:55

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Eh I just read around that it probably won't...

So I guess the better question is...

What is it that emulators like ePSXe do that the PS3 doesn't that allows the game to look so good? On my desktop PC with a cheap $30-$40 video card I added, FF7 look amazing in ePSXe with Pete's graphic plugins.
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Posted: 15th August 2013 18:29

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Disclaimer: I am not an expert on the subject and this is mostly based on assumptions and broad strokes, but:

In the PlayStation you'll have some hardware to do magic with polygons and textures and such, and further along the line that will be rasterised into a display at a specific resolution. GPU plugins - as I understand it at least - step in and do their own rasterisation of data further up the pipeline instead of using the PS1's original output stage.

There's an important difference between that and the post-processing filters you often see used on 2D emulators. The latter generally do not compromise accuracy of anything other than the final image, as they simply sit on top of the console's final output stage. PSX GPU plugins, on the other hand, intercept and dispense with the final part of processing, and as such are contrary to 100% accurate emulation. That is why you tend to have more bugs and per-game checkbox oddities to work around them; the plugins just don't work the same way the original did.

Official emulators tend to favour accuracy (though they are often still fairly poor) rather than applying improvements that may not work for everything - don't forget, in most cases this stuff is thrown together to make quick bucks, so it's not really efficient to make a big effort on optimising each individual title.
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Posted: 16th August 2013 01:11

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Have you tried going into version (Triangle) options (Triangle) disc speed (standard or fast per preference) Texture mapping (smooth)

Hey write back and let me know if i helped any thanks!

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Posted: 16th August 2013 15:36

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Quote (Tiddles @ 15th August 2013 14:29)


Official emulators tend to favour accuracy (though they are often still fairly poor) rather than applying improvements that may not work for everything - don't forget, in most cases this stuff is thrown together to make quick bucks, so it's not really efficient to make a big effort on optimising each individual title.

Good point... when using an emulator on a PC, optimal GPU settings are going to differ from game to game. I'm still surprised at the drastic difference in quality when played on a console. You would think Sony, with all their technology, would have their systems do something to make the video quality of older games at least somewhat comparable to what an emulator can put out.

Quote (ReverendXIII @ 15th August 2013 21:11)
Have you tried going into version (Triangle) options (Triangle) disc speed (standard or fast per preference) Texture mapping (smooth)

Hey write back and let me know if i helped any thanks!

No I haven't, but thanks I'll try that out and let you know what happens. I must have missed something because I didn't realize there were options on the Version screen. I thought it just displayed info.

Moderator Edit
Given the rash of double-posting going on recently, I've merged the last two into one. It's possible to quote separate people in one post. -R51


This post has been edited by Rangers51 on 16th August 2013 15:43
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Posted: 13th April 2014 17:16
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It has a nice lego charm to it when in overhead view mode.
It gets more realistic when in battle ^^

This post has been edited by SinkeSeil on 13th April 2014 17:16
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