Resolution trouble [make it double!]

[Yanazake]

Hi there guys!


I got two problems related to on-screen resolution, and since they're related, I'll post both of them here.

1: I bought a new monitor, my first wide one. I don't know a THING about resolutions for wide screens. After I plugged it, my computer configured it to the highest possible resolution, it being described as "optimal".

Problem: Even if it's the biggest and best selected resolution, my monitor still shows a black border with the desktop image in the center. There's a "gap" between the edge of the image and the edge of the screen.

2: Now on to Dolphin. Before I had that monitor, I just used one of the smallest resolutions just to be sure that I'd be able to play with good FPS. I don't care much about super awesome details, I just want the games to run fine.
I failed to find a resolution for widescreen that didn't stretch the image in any way. IF I could remove the black borders, then I think it would work fine.

When I selected the same resolution my computer had chosen as "optimal", the sprites and graphics seemed right, but quite slow. Which configurations should I edit to fix this?



And now, as info is always needed to help you guys help me, here goes the details:

monitor: Samsung SyncMaster BX2350 - 23" led display. Connected to the computer via a HDMI to DVI cable.
I've installed the calibration program and the plugins [or tried to], but no big changes happened.

computer: i7 950(?) 3.7GHz
8gb RAM
Windows 7 64bits
ATI Radeon HD 4300/4500 Series [temporary for who knows how long]


As you probably have noticed, the reason I was using small resolutions is the graphics card, since I only have it because there is no onboard video adapter on my motherboard. Again, I don't care about pretty graphics, just want the games to run well again :/

[vortextk]

Numbers help when describing resolutions, the actual resolution.

In any case, yes that is why games are slow, your new resolution is way too high for that onboard. You need to go into dolphin and change your fullscreen resolution way down, but keep the same aspect ratio 16:9. You shouldn't be trying any games(pc or emulated) at 1920x1080, your monitor's native resolution.

For the black borders, you need to find this option in your drivers and set it to 0%:


I don't use other resolutions, but lets say you keep your desktop at 1920x1080 but games at 1280x720, in my experience you would have to fix it for that resolution separately, I think. I only change resolution of stuff to test or see something specific, so while I see the borders when I change resolutions for a game for instance, I don't care because it's not something I'm permanently keeping.

[NaturalViolence]

Changing dolphin's ouput resolution won't affect gpu load as long as you set the internal resolution to a fixed number like 1x, instead of leaving it on auto. If he sets his internal resolution to 1x and leaves AA off he can use whatever resolution he wants without it altering his performance.

[vortextk]

That seems weird to me, glad to know it works that way.

[HawaiianPunch]

(08-11-2011, 06:52 PM)NaturalViolence Wrote: Changing dolphin's ouput resolution won't affect gpu load as long as you set the internal resolution to a fixed number like 1x, instead of leaving it on auto. If he sets his internal resolution to 1x and leaves AA off he can use whatever resolution he wants without it altering his performance.

But wouldn't downscaling or displaying the image on a higher res monitor affect GPU performance?

[Yanazake]

So the name is "overscan". Thanks for that.

Anyway, I leave the native resolution at 1X and AA turned off, of course. The problem is [or actually was] the OTHER black borders, you know, the ones that make a video image wide on 4:5 monitors. It kept there when I switched to fullscreen, making the image look flattened.
I think I solved this problem by enabling "adjust to window", but it was a lucky try. I'm not sure whuch WINDOW resolutions I should choose, or what other configurations I could select.
Also, now the image is right in fullscreen, but it's stretched when I play in windowed mode.

[vortextk]

You have a 16:9 monitor. If you're playing a gamecube game, they're mostly in 4:3, a more boxier resolution with black borders on the sides on your display naturally. All wii games however are widescreen, 16:9.

You can use widescreen hack for gamecube games(fullscreen) and force 16:9, some games its ok, some games it causes crazy pop in. It causes the game to show what is being rendered past the 4:3 limits but some games don't render anything, everything or properly. In twilight princess on GC, the water looks screwed up in that margin between a 4:3 and 16:9 border. In pikmin, objects you can interact with disappear but the basic ground and land pieces stay. It's the same in mario sunshine and zelda WW with tons of objects disappearing from the screen before they're out of view.

If the widescreen hack works mostly properly, I'm happy and use that. In simply stretching it 16:9 or in your case rendering it to a 16:9 window, I don't like the image distortion and stick with the black borders. That's your call though.

[Yanazake]

No,no, I'm mostly playing Wii games. i'd like to just keep the vertical black borders on the sides for GC games and fill the screen/window with wide image for wii games.

The problem is that the contrary [GC filling 4:5 screen/window and wii with horizontal black borders above and below] was happening, and I didn't knew how to change that. I'm still kinda confused, actually :S

[vortextk]

Right, I forgot how windowed mode works. I don't know if you can do that without being able to specify custom resolutions, which I forget if you can do that somewhere. Play the games full screen, aspect ratio auto. I don't know if you can get rid of the bars when playing in windowed mode.

[NaturalViolence]

Quote:But wouldn't downscaling or displaying the image on a higher res monitor affect GPU performance?

As long as you're rendering at the same internal resolution, no, not in any significant way. Plus you usually have lots of extra gpu power since dolphin is usually cpu bound, and the linear scaling that dolphin does uses next to nothing in terms of shader throughput. Using a higher output resolution (ideally matching your monitors physical display resolution) will improve image quality even without raising the internal resolution just by providing better upscaling.

@Yanazake
Use stretch to window border or whatever they call that option now (it's one of the aspect ratio options).