144 x 100 x 256 Color mode

[R0ger]

You say 'the mode relies on the checkerboard masking' .. but actually it does not ! It relies on half-pixel masking. And that can be done without checkerboard, using just vertical stripes. It might help on LCD .. sadly I can't test anytime soon.

 

But I made a version which uses it .. so maybe anyone else can try it ..

 

 

girl-stripes.xex

[+Stephen]

You say 'the mode relies on the checkerboard masking' .. but actually it does not ! It relies on half-pixel masking. And that can be done without checkerboard, using just vertical stripes. It might help on LCD .. sadly I can't test anytime soon.

 

But I made a version which uses it .. so maybe anyone else can try it ..

 

 

Looks a bit better than the checkerboard I think. However, the flicker is pretty bad (I am using PAL on a Sony PVM). The darker colours are not so bad, but the bright sky in this is like a strobe. I have not tried this on an NTSC machine yet.

[Rybags]

LCDs will usually blend frames and eliminate flickering so really you need an actual machine on a CRT to judge results (emulation will vary depending on settings, system and monitor refresh rate).

[R0ger]

Yep, the last version is meant as possible improvement for real hardware and frame-blending LCD TV .. situation, which is more and more typical on parties and such. Sadly I wont be able to test this combination for at least 2 weeks.

[Gunstar]

Not bad, I like it better than interlaced APAC. Of course since you NEED the flickering masking to achieve the 144 horizontal res, this picture below is half the resolution as in real life. So it's impossible for me to show exactly how good it looks in a still shot. This is the very first girl.xex file that was posted, it actually looks best over-all on my screen compared to the others. Here is what it looks like on my LCD monitor, of course that's a Supervideo 2.1 upgraded 50Hz PAL s-video output, into my Ambery AV-8 s-video-to-VGA converter and out to 60Hz 1024x768 VGA. And of course the Ambery converter also does upscaling and 3D comb filtering and motion adaptive progressive scan...etc., etc. It does flicker in real life, but no worse, and maybe better than I remember interlaced APAC on my 1084S-P Commodore monitor...and that was NTSC 60Hz at the time. Oh, and my LCD screen is set at 45 bright and 75 contrast; this is normal for me. I did set it to default 50/50 which made it no better or worse, just the usual difference expected with any image. No noticeable difference in the strength of the flickering to me.

Edited January 3, 2018 by Gunstar

[R0ger]

Yeah, it actually seem decent. Not the most typical LCD setup, but thanks ! Wait, is this the first version, or the second ?

Edited January 3, 2018 by R0ger

[Gunstar]

That was the first, here is the second, it has striped vertical banding about 2/3 of the screen with the more normal look the last 1/3. which looks terrible on my set-up:

[Gunstar]

Never mind. I found out if I reset my video-to-vga converter after loading the girl-stripes.xex it does look better! I forgot that I sometimes have to reset the converter if I'm switching between more normal and more exotic video signals/resolutions. But it handles it all like a charm!

 

This version is much better, far less flicker which allows better color saturation to perceived vision. This is the best 256 color mode I've seen from the A8. The amount of flicker I'm seeing reminds me of the old B/W 15fps movies. Which is good compared to flicker from other mixed modes.

Edited January 3, 2018 by Gunstar

[+Stephen]

Never mind. I found out if I reset my video-to-vga converter after loading the girl-stripes.xex it does look better! I forgot that I sometimes have to reset the converter if I'm switching between more normal and more exotic video signals/resolutions. But it handles it all like a charm!

 

This version is much better, far less flicker which allows better color saturation to perceived vision. This is the best 256 color mode I've seen from the A8. The amount of flicker I'm seeing reminds me of the old B/W 15fps movies. Which is good compared to flicker from other mixed modes.

It sure doesn't look like that on CRT!!!

[R0ger]

Never mind. I found out if I reset my video-to-vga converter after loading the girl-stripes.xex it does look better! I forgot that I sometimes have to reset the converter if I'm switching between more normal and more exotic video signals/resolutions. But it handles it all like a charm!

 

This version is much better, far less flicker which allows better color saturation to perceived vision. This is the best 256 color mode I've seen from the A8. The amount of flicker I'm seeing reminds me of the old B/W 15fps movies. Which is good compared to flicker from other mixed modes.

 

Now we're talking ! This is what I expected .. you can see odd and even pixels are different height, but not so much. So on frame-merging LCD it might work - and they do not flicker at all, that's the good thing about them.

 

Anyway, I never realized I can just take picture of the screen with camera This picture shows the grid I was talking about. The grid actually goes throught middle of the GTIA pixels, and inside each 'cell' you should see clearly 2 different colors.

 

Yeah .. the mode can looks amazing .. but it can also look crap. That's the problem ..

Edited January 3, 2018 by R0ger

[_The Doctor__]

so in the 480i mode that has been written elsewhere on the forum,,, you could take the odd even output you have here and re encode to do that same? I think that might work... The trick of the eye would equalize the overlap at a distance

Edited January 3, 2018 by _The Doctor__

[Gunstar]

 

The grid actually goes throught middle of the GTIA pixels, and inside each 'cell' you should see clearly 2 different colors.

 

Yes, I see that now if I click on the picture and "zoom" in. I could probably see it on my monitor if I looked close, but the picture makes it easier.

 

Yes, cameras can take much better pictures of LCD screens than of CRT.

 

As to the great or crap looking part, that will probably depend on the quality of LCD TV/monitor people are using, and of course the way they are using it. Like the second picture I posted, that looks terrible; I bet some people with older or cheaper TV/monitor/converters may get screwed up images like it. And depending if it's composite, s-video or converted to VGA like mine.

Edited January 3, 2018 by Gunstar