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The Settlers seriesS2: Preferred DOSBox scaler?(5 posts)(5 posts)
(5 posts)
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This is my favourite topic
Posted March 28, 2010
Anyone know a particular DOSBox scaler looks/works particularly well with Settlers 2?
As configured by GOG, the game is set to run in original resolution - and this actually looks rather good on my LCD, but unfortunately the mode switches are annoying (my monitor is very slow to switch resolutions). I'd prefer to have DOSBox do the scaling if possible so I can run the game at my desktop res. I know the settings to do this, problem is that the end result doesn't look as good. I guess my monitor's built in scaling is better than DOSBox's default scaler.
I haven't tried messing around with all the scaler settings though (and the DOSBox wiki is currently down, making research difficult). For this type of game, I prefer the pixels to be smoothed as opposed to maintaining the original low-res look.
Posted March 28, 2010
Given your request, I suggest running using a scaler of "none" with the opengl output driver, or running in software with the hq2x filter and with Settlers set to run at 640x480 or 800x600 ingame.
What is the native resolution of your LCD?
Settlers 2 itself can run at a resolution up to 1024x768. The scalers can't do a good job of converting this to a normal monitor resolution (1400x1050, 1280x1024, etc.), so it will look best if:
a) You run it in a window at 1024x768
b) You run Settlers at a lower in-game resolution and then use the scaling options (either fullscreen or windowed)
c) You let the video card / monitor take care of the scaling, like you are now
To demonstrate the scaling options, I've taken the screenshots with Settlers 2 set to run in 640x480 mode (in the options of the game itself). Pictures have been trimmed to respect GOG size restrictions.
DOSBOX settings for the hardware shots are as follows:
[sdl]
fullscreen=false
windowresolution=1280x960
output= ** opengl / openglnb, depending on screenshot **
[render]
aspect=true
scaler=none
(you could also try setting fullscreen to true, and changing the fullresolution variable to your native screen resolution)
DOSBOX settings for the software shots are as follows:
[sdl]
fullscreen=false
windowresolution=original
output=overlay
[render]
aspect=true
scaler= ** name of scaler ** followed by "forced" (e.g. hq2x forced)
I can post a few more screenshots if someone will reply to this and reset the 2MB limit for my next post :)
Attachments:
hardware_opengl.png (436 Kb)
hardware_opengln.png (156 Kb)
soft_advmame2x.png (260 Kb)
soft_tv2x.png (286 Kb)
soft_hq2x.png (442 Kb)
soft_supereagle.png (395 Kb)
soft_normal2x.png (163 Kb)
Post edited March 28, 2010 by domgrief
Posted March 29, 2010
Thanks for the response, the native res of my LCD is 1920x1080.
The issue with the in-game resolution is that the viewable area changes based on the resolution. 1024x768 shows a larger area than the lower resolutions - in effect making the image look "zoomed out." Probably some people prefer seeing more of the map, but I actually kind of like a smaller viewing area so I see the details better and everything doesn't look so tiny. For that reason, I'd like to stick with 800x600 as far as the in-game resolution.
Thank you very much for the screenshots with the various scalers. Looks like the advmame2x is to my preference. A bit smoothed out, but not overly so like the supereagle.
---update---
Tried it and it worked great. Set the fullscreen output resolution to 1920x1080, turned on aspect scaling, and set the advmame2x scaler. End result is as desired.
Unrelated - I was also getting some pretty nasty screen tearing when scrolling the map, but enabling double buffering seems to have mitigated that somewhat (though not totally eliminated it).
Post edited March 29, 2010 by Sweetz
Posted March 29, 2010
Glad to hear it worked!
Out of interest, I've attached the rest of the screenshots I took, in case any of these scalers take your fancy.
(I doubt they will, though, as most of them are even harder to look at than the supereagle)
Attachments:
soft_scan2x.png (138 Kb)
soft_rgb2x.png (223 Kb)
soft_advinterp2x.png (307 Kb)
soft_2xsai.png (452 Kb)
soft_super2xsai.png (353 Kb)
Post edited March 29, 2010 by domgrief
Posted August 06, 2019
avatar
domgrief: Given your request, I suggest running using a scaler of "none" with the opengl output driver, or running in software with the hq2x filter and with Settlers set to run at 640x480 or 800x600 ingame.

What is the native resolution of your LCD?

Settlers 2 itself can run at a resolution up to 1024x768. The scalers can't do a good job of converting this to a normal monitor resolution (1400x1050, 1280x1024, etc.), so it will look best if:
a) You run it in a window at 1024x768
b) You run Settlers at a lower in-game resolution and then use the scaling options (either fullscreen or windowed)
c) You let the video card / monitor take care of the scaling, like you are now

To demonstrate the scaling options, I've taken the screenshots with Settlers 2 set to run in 640x480 mode (in the options of the game itself). Pictures have been trimmed to respect GOG size restrictions.

DOSBOX settings for the hardware shots are as follows:
[sdl]
fullscreen=false
windowresolution=1280x960
output= ** opengl / openglnb, depending on screenshot **
[render]
aspect=true
scaler=none

(you could also try setting fullscreen to true, and changing the fullresolution variable to your native screen resolution)

DOSBOX settings for the software shots are as follows:
[sdl]
fullscreen=false
windowresolution=original
output=overlay
[render]
aspect=true
scaler= ** name of scaler ** followed by "forced" (e.g. hq2x forced)

I can post a few more screenshots if someone will reply to this and reset the 2MB limit for my next post :)
Thanks for the info! Very helpful
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This is my favourite topic
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The Settlers seriesS2: Preferred DOSBox scaler?(5 posts)(5 posts)
(5 posts)