Reply To: Let's talk about picture quality: An in depth discussion.

[patrickm]

I honestly think that people who complain about sharpness are sitting too close to their displays and/or are using overly large displays.

Just curious, how large is the display you are using and how far do you sit from it? I’m using a 24″ HDTV, the equivalent of a 19″ 4:3 TV. At a distance of less than 4 ft, the graphics are indeed too rough, while a CRT at the same distance would look fine due to the much lower resolution. However, if I move to 4-5 feet from the screen, it looks awesome. That’s the way higher resolution images work; a higher resolution image at a greater distance will look the same as a lower resolution image at a closer distance. This has to do with limitations of the human visual system and the amount of detail the human eye is capable of resolving.

Another thing to be aware of is that the “sharpness” setting on a properly calibrated display will be at or near 0, so if this isn’t set right, it could be having a detrimental effect on the game graphics.

I realize that sitting further back from the TV may not be for everyone, but you might give it a try if you think 8 bit and 16 bit graphics look too harsh with nearest neighbor filtering and scanlines.