What's with N64's gfx artifacts??
Blake Patterson
Dreamcast. I also know my way around 3D hardware and the technology
there. But I'm stumped. What's with the N64's graphics artifacts?
I recently started getting back into some N64 titles and now have it
connected, via clean s-video, to my new Sony VVEGA TV (27"). Super
sharp setup, and everything is crazy vivid. The N64, unlike any other
console, has these curious artifacts that are especially noticeable
around thin lines that overlay a background scene, that almost look like
old Apple II-style color artifacts or JPEG artifacts. I thought, at
first, it was N64's anti-aliasing which does create artifacts of a sort,
given that it's adding a some blended, colored pixels to jagged edges,
etc. but this seems different. This seems "dirty".
Harder to notice on std TV but on this superclear setup it's visible.
It's not dithering either.
Anyone? Thanks.
bp
Codswallop
> I've got lots of consoles: Playstation, Playstation 2, SNES, N64,
> Dreamcast. I also know my way around 3D hardware and the technology
> there. But I'm stumped. What's with the N64's graphics artifacts?
>
> I recently started getting back into some N64 titles and now have it
> connected, via clean s-video, to my new Sony VVEGA TV (27"). Super
> sharp setup, and everything is crazy vivid.
Try turning the TV's sharpness right down or 'off' if it has sharpness
settings; the TV itself may be altering the N64's settings (some
'super sharp' TVs have been known to decrease the quality on DVDs).
Other than that I can't suggest anything else...
--
- Cods
pbqfj...@arjznvy.pbz
(un ROT-13 to e-mail)
Blake Patterson
Codswallop <co...@wallop.com> wrote:
No, it's not the TV. That's the point I was trying to get across with
my description of the excellent quality of hte TV and the high-quality
s-video connection to the TV from the N64. No other console that I own
shows this kind of artifacting, even one hooked up via std old composite.
It's definitely something the N64 itself is doing.
bp
--
Heisenberg may have slept here.
Jordan Lund
> No, it's not the TV. That's the point I was trying to get across with
> my description of the excellent quality of hte TV and the high-quality
> s-video connection to the TV from the N64. No other console that I own
> shows this kind of artifacting, even one hooked up via std old composite.
>
> It's definitely something the N64 itself is doing.
Codswallop makes a good point though... The sharpness setting on
televisions is used to improve poor signals such as over-air TV
broadcasts. If you have a really good signal such as from a game
machine or a DVD player the sharpness setting on a TV can cause what's
described as "edge enhancement" which is almost exactly the problem
you describe with the N64. Take a look at your TV menu and see if
there's a sharpness setting. If there is then you need to turn it all
the way down to 0. It's amazing how much better things look.
- Jordan
Chris M.
(vm) is turned on. Try turning it off from the advanced menu on the TV. I
think it turns on the comb filter which can cause adverse effects from
certain types of input. You can get an over exaggerated effect on lines. A
lot of people recommend turning it off altogether for most types of input.
Supposedly it improves picture quality but it just looks like it
oversharpens everything.
I have the Final Fantasy DVD, for instance, and there is a scene towards the
beginning that has a skyscraper with lights - a black/white contrast. If
you toggle it through the different vm modes, you will see how it can
adversely affect computer graphics with hard, contrasting lines. Since the
n64 has vivid colors, this may be the culprit. You may also want to turn
down the color saturation mode from the menu so that the colors don't bleed.
I would imagine that's easy to do with a n64.
The other thing that the n64 has a problem with is that the graphics have
been compressed down pretty hard in order to fit them onto a cart. So there
will be some degree of jagginess or color bleed (gauntlet comes to mind)
that is difficult to look at sometimes.
I always felt that the silicon graphics hardware in that machine wasn't
properly utilized because of the over compression due to a cart based
format. Just imagine if it had a cd player instead.
chris
"Blake Patterson" <bl...@blakespot.com> wrote in message
news:blake-39C00C....@news.bellatlantic.net...
Jordan Lund
> I always felt that the silicon graphics hardware in that machine wasn't
> properly utilized because of the over compression due to a cart based
> format. Just imagine if it had a cd player instead.
Yup. That was the big bottleneck on that machine... The Gamecube is
what Nintendo promised the N64 would be. :^)
- Jordan