I'm having issues with running Snes9x Fullscreen on CRT TV

If you're having problems with Snes9x, or think you've found a bug, this is the place to be.
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GiSWiG
Snes9x White Belt
Posts: 7
Joined: Sat Aug 03, 2013 3:20 pm

I'm having issues with running Snes9x Fullscreen on CRT TV

Post by GiSWiG »

I'm having issues with running Snes9x Fullscreen at anything but 640x480 on CRT TV. I'm running Snes9x 1.53 on a PC hooked up to a CRT TV. Looks great with no need for shaders to create fake scanlines so I'm not using anything extra. Bilinear filtering is off too. (P.S. FCEUX looks awesome! Different emu/system but you get it)

PC: Core2Duo 2.4GHz, 3GB RAM, Win7 32-bit, Radeon HD 4350 (just about the only card that has S-Video out)

With these settings:
Direct3D, Emulate Fullscreen, Stretch Image, Ration 4:3, VSync, Frame Skipping Fixed at 0, no shaders
Output Image Processing = None, Hi Res = None, Resolution (SEE BELOW), Triple Buffering, Transparency Effects, Hi Resolution Support, Blend Hi-Res Images.

Almost all settings are default.

At full screen with Snes9x and Video Card set to 640x480, everything is beautifull, performs well, like 99% of the real thing (even using a Wii Classic Controller adapter).

If I set the video resolution to either 800x600 or 1024x768, leaving Snex9x at fullscreen res of 640x480, it runs at about (guessing) 1/4 of normal speed. Runs fine in window mode. I tried matching the video resolution with the Snes9x fullscreen res at 1024x768 or 800x600 but it makes no difference.

If I turn off VSync and try the higher resolutions, everything runs fine except now you can see the screen tearing/lag. These are all low resolutions and this PC should handle all of them with VSync. I've also tried DirectDraw and OpenGL with no benefit, slightly worse actually. (DirectX 9 is installed) I have tried using a fresh install with default settings, only changing the VSync and fullscreen resolution and it still acts the same.

Is there anything I could try? Should I have to use frameskipping? (With defaults, it is set to Automatic, Max of 0). Is this a bug or something wrong with the enviroment?


This PC is going to be a media center/Emulator gamer PC and I hope to use a multi-emulator front end but at 640x480, things get tight.
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OV2
Official Win32 Porter/Dev
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Joined: Thu Aug 30, 2007 10:15 pm

Re: I'm having issues with running Snes9x Fullscreen on CRT

Post by OV2 »

Sounds like you're running 640x480@60hz, while you're running the higher ones at lower refresh rate - that will obviously slow down the emulation if you enable vsync.


The fullscreen resolution setting has no effect when you're running with emulate fullscreen.
GiSWiG
Snes9x White Belt
Posts: 7
Joined: Sat Aug 03, 2013 3:20 pm

Re: I'm having issues with running Snes9x Fullscreen on CRT

Post by GiSWiG »

OV2 wrote:Sounds like you're running 640x480@60hz, while you're running the higher ones at lower refresh rate - that will obviously slow down the emulation if you enable vsync.


The fullscreen resolution setting has no effect when you're running with emulate fullscreen.
The only frequencies possible are 29MHz or 30MHz. It is a CRT TV and not a PC monitor.
GiSWiG
Snes9x White Belt
Posts: 7
Joined: Sat Aug 03, 2013 3:20 pm

Re: I'm having issues with running Snes9x Fullscreen on CRT

Post by GiSWiG »

GiSWiG wrote:
OV2 wrote:Sounds like you're running 640x480@60hz, while you're running the higher ones at lower refresh rate - that will obviously slow down the emulation if you enable vsync.


The fullscreen resolution setting has no effect when you're running with emulate fullscreen.
The only frequencies possible are 29MHz or 30MHz. It is a CRT TV and not a PC monitor.
And everything actually defaults to 29MHz
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OV2
Official Win32 Porter/Dev
Posts: 679
Joined: Thu Aug 30, 2007 10:15 pm

Re: I'm having issues with running Snes9x Fullscreen on CRT

Post by OV2 »

Then you will only get 30fps in s9x with vsync, which means games will run at half speed.
GiSWiG
Snes9x White Belt
Posts: 7
Joined: Sat Aug 03, 2013 3:20 pm

Re: I'm having issues with running Snes9x Fullscreen on CRT

Post by GiSWiG »

OV2 wrote:Then you will only get 30fps in s9x with vsync, which means games will run at half speed.
But 640x480 @ 29MHz, Direct3D, I get full speed. Anything higher, it is less than half speed. I tested again and at 800x600 and 1024x768, OpenGL will run full speed with V-Sync but there is still some jitterness like it is not fully V-Synced.

Well, I found a workaround for the issue with a resolution changer utility called Display Changer. http://12noon.com/?page_id=80. Now I just keep my resolution @ 1024x768 and use the command line utility to change the resolution to 640x480, run snes9x, and revert back when closing snes9x. Its quite a powerful utility.

I can't say that it is solved, but my workaround works and Snes9x looks great on the TV. I can see why thoes 'scanline' shaders don't quite get it. They set static lines, sometimes too thick, and mostly not consistent through the whole screen. For example, 3 out of every 10 lines look thicker or thinner. On a real CRT, they 'moving' (not really but I'm not getting into why). The picture is also much brighter on a CRT TV.
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