Best of Both Worlds with Emulation and CRT Monitor?

[@kristophertadlock779]

This is awesome! I wrote this guide on vogons and then reposted on reddit. I've been a fan of the channel for a long time - it's so great to this featured in a video! Phil you are awesome!

[@philscomputerlab]

🎉 Thank you for this guide! Lately I add the word Reddit to my Google searches and it ends up with much better results 😅

[@NightSprinter]

Didn't you also mention about the custom modes for some games as well?

[@kosmosyche]

I used to have an Nvidia GTX680 (with a DVI-i connector, which is fully VGA compatible) as a second GPU in the system with a dedicated second CRT monitor specifically for DosBox. It was a beautiful setup. Then I moved to another country and left behind that rig and all my CRT collection. Now I am not only nostalgic about old DOS times, but how I good I had it on my old setup, haha.

[@JohnSmith-xq1pz]

A shame you couldn't takecit or get it shipped

[@HaraDayaful]

I was aware of this option in the control panel, and used it before. But never had these perfectly tuned profiles. Low-res games haven't looked this great on my CRT before! Thank you.

[@philscomputerlab]

@@HaraDayaful Awesome 😎👍

[@danielcasadevall6115]

Great video, thanks for sharing knowledge! I personally have tinkered a lot with DOSBox and CRT monitors, and yes, it's a very convenient setup, really close to the experience in native DOS with original hardware. In my case, I use a dedicated secondary gfx card (GTX 750) with VGA output,.no problem under Windows 11. Also, it's perfectly fine, and better for your eyes, to double the original vertical refresh rate (640x400 @140Hz, 640x480 @120Hz) if your CRT supports it (any 1280x1024 SXGA monitor should). I also found out that some scrolling games (Supaplex, Bio Menace...) work better with output=overlay instead of output=surface, at least in my case. Surface output stutters a little and won't show the original smooth scrolling, for me.

[@philscomputerlab]

Thanks for the tip with the smooth scrolling!

[@johnnovak1979]

Nice video, Phil, and thanks for mentioning DOSBox Staging yet again 😎 Regarding smooth scrolling, Staging gets it 100% right on VRR monitors out-of-the-box (on most systems, and there's always the possibility to manually tweak things for the best results). But there is an option to run those 70 Hz VGA games with smooth scrolling on fixed-refresh monitors, too, if the panel itself supports 70 Hz. My DELL U2414H monitor does not "advertise" 70 Hz refresh rates to the OS, but it can be "persuaded" to run at 70 Hz with a little coercion by creating a custom resolution via CRU or the Nvidia Control Panel. The trick is enabling "CVT reduced blanking" timings which then allows you to go up to 70 Hz if then panel itself supports it in hardware. Combined with the adaptive CRT shaders and enabling vsync in DOSBox staging ==> instant CRT bliss and 100% smooth scrolling even on a non-VRR monitor 😎 There are more details in the DOSBox Staging Getting Started guide in the "Star Wars: Dark Forces" chapter in the "Display refresh rate" and "Vertical syncing" sections (I don't think I'm allowed to post links here). Maybe a topic for a future video?... 😉

[@wocko1]

The proper German pronunciation of Wolfenstein, I love it! Nothing beats a CRT for DOS games, but it's getting harder to get them, not to mention people want ridiculous money for them.

[@craigpilkington4323]

Phil - we love you... This is the video I've been wanting!!

[@philscomputerlab]

Best of both worlds! Authentic CRT graphics with all the conveniences of emulation...

[@craigpilkington4323]

@@philscomputerlab thank you 🙏 - this is the set up I'll be going for. I have a HP Thin Client (610) running Windows and can't wait to get it set up...

[@alexgayer85]

Glorious. I’ve been wanting to do this for a while now! Thanks for sharing!

[@philscomputerlab]

Go for it!

[@dnielv]

Nice improvement. My dream back in the 90s, as a previous Atari ST and Amiga user, was to be able to run PC games at 15 kHz without doublescan, so the pixels would look a little more rounded. It always hurt my eyes to look at those ultra-sharp rectangular 320x200 pixels on a 640x400 resolution. Nowadays, I'm more or less able to achieve that 15 kHz scanline feeling with CRT filters, but it would be great to run those games on a real CRT monitor at real 15khz. A few years ago, I managed to run some of them using a CRT TV and a custom VGA-to-SCART cable and a TSR program that modified the output resolution on a real MS-DOS machine. However, since most games were coded for 70 Hz, compatibility wasn't the best.

[@philscomputerlab]

That Scart RGB look only existed with an EGA monitor, they also have lower KHz. But VGA was double scanned in order to hit the higher KHz. DOSBox Staging lets you have that Amiga Scart RGB look even with VGA, its a nod from one of the developers because if his passion for the Amiga.

[@moomah5929]

If you are not against using (Win)UAE, you can create high refresh rate custom resolutions for a VGA CRT monitor that can actually display 320x200 and such resolutions. Then you just have to set WinUAE to output native res without scalers and in proper full screen. I'm using a 2016 Intel laptop with VGA out and older drivers and have set lots of custom resolutions for this purpose, as it's a bit more involved than only having to create 320x200 and 320x240 custom resolutions.

[@philscomputerlab]

@@moomah5929 Ahh ok, now I get it. Well I always want to learn more and branching out a little is no problem!

[@MarcoGPUtuber]

Hooking up my 7900 XTX to a CRT was not in my 2024 tech bingo card.

[@philscomputerlab]

How dare they drop VGA. Boooooo

[@MarcoGPUtuber]

@@philscomputerlab Next time I see Dr Lisa Su at Computex, I'll petition her to add EGA support.

[@JW86SH]

I mean it wasn't in mine either, but now I feel like a challenge has been put out with this video. In the back of my mind, I'm thinking "Challenge accepted!"

[@lindoran]

Lol

[@RetroRepair]

Surely a HDMI to VGA DAC would work?

[@middle_pickup]

Very cool, Phil. Nice job with the still images of the CRT.

[@gogolapeter]

I've used CRU in the past for some odd monitors and it worked nicely. Didn't think to try it for DosBox 😮

[@kathleendelcourt8136]

This has been of great help to finding the optimal settings for Retroarch. 16 bit consoles like the Mega Drive/Genesis use resolutions very similar to old DOS games, like 320x224. Until now I was using a good enough compromise of 640x480, but thanks to the Custom Resolution Utility I can make a custom resolution of 640x448 to get an absolutely perfect double scaling on my CRT monitor. Though I'm still trying to find the best fine parameters for 512x448 (which is the double of the SNES and Mega Drive 256x224 low res modes). It is kinda working but the picture isn't covering the full screen so I guess some of the front porch/sync width/polarity values I tried aren't quite right. And I wish that the Custom Resolution Utility allowed you to create more than 4 custom resolutions.

[@GTXDash]

I made a 30min video on how to get a CRT to run on a modern PC that doesn't have VGA out. It's amazing how almost identical your methods are to mine, particularly when setting up DOSBox. But like in your video, the video I made tries to simplify the process as much as possible, and keeping the costs as low as possible. So yeah, you could invest in a fancy DP or HDMI to VGA converter but I wanted to see what result one can get with a basic (cheap) HDMI to VGA dongle, and I actually got a lot out of it when you use the right tools, especially CRU. So yeah, it totally is possible. You don't have to pay an arm and a leg to get a good experience. Obviously, if you want to expand beyond basic CRT compatibility, like you said, it can get really expensive.

[@philscomputerlab]

It seems I've watched it before according to KZbin 😊

[@AdamChristensen]

Love the video, as always. Gotta say you often trigger my FOMO when you focus on prices and scarcity. I've got plenty of hardware, but it always elevates my blood pressure. 😅

[@philscomputerlab]

LGA 775 FOMO video coming soon to the channel 😅

[@filipetmarcal]

Great review

[@philscomputerlab]

Thanks!

[@Dale-TND]

Anyone already forking out big bucks for a CRT make sure you get a thick high quality VGA cable. Those cheap thin dell/HP OEM ones are trash.

[@philscomputerlab]

Many actually have the cable soldered direct onto the PCB. Like this one, it's not removable like with modern LCDs. You are right, this is old-school analogue technology, thick cables with decent shielding are worth it.

[@Dale-TND]

@@philscomputerlab you rock!

[@mpettengill1981]

I think that's the case for most CRTs - The 4 I have all have the signal cables soldered directly to the driver board. They're all good quality shielded cables though - even on the the cheap non-name brand one.

[@Dale-TND]

@@mpettengill1981 definitely not the case for "most" CRTs especially not 21" trinitrons which are really the Cadillac of screens and what you want if you can find or justify the price.

[@mariobrito427]

I've tried a similar approach in the past with an old EEEPC 901, running XP and Dosbox. I didn't do any low level tweaking, but i found out that if i set Dosbox to full screen when it chenged resolutions it seemed to set the CRT correctly. At least i remember seeing those classic scanlines. Really an old laptop + a CRT + Dosbox has come to satisfy 99% of my retro computing needs (edit: typo)

[@philscomputerlab]

In XP I believe it supports going as low as 640x480. But DOSBox might just go with the desktop resolution.

[@SolSeal]

You can do that in AMD Adrenaline driver too… it’s not very straightforward but… it kinda works.

[@CompuforceWally]

Thanks for this. I guess I can try the same using Exodos?

[@philscomputerlab]

@@CompuforceWally Yes it should work with ExoDOS, but make sure you change the global DOSBOX config file and not the individual, per game, one!

[@fernandotiveron5305]

Just lost 1 crt yesterday... Glad i had a backup to try this!

[@Gromuhl]

Nice video as always :) . The nice thing of these CRT's is that they can get to pretty high refresh rates at those low resolutions. On my CRT monitor I managed to get to 140hz @640x400 and 640x480 with the help of CRU. I use an ATI HD5850 on windows 7, so the handy dandy nvidia way wasn't available for me. With 140 hz I have a nice exact double of the standard DOS refresh rate, but without getting headaches caused by 70hz as I'm quite sensitive to that. I think CRU is a good option for those AMD/ATI cards. It's a bit finnicky and if you set the wrong options, you'll have to restart in safe mode sometimes but ah well :). If you ever dive intro CRU and CRT's: if you want to use the high refreshrate you set for your monitor for multiple resolutions, you have to disable/delete all other resolutions in CRU, then add an "extension block". In this Extension block (I use type CTA-861), you have to set your resolutions from low to high in the "detailed resotuions"-field (you only have 6 options there). So for example, first 640x480@140hz, then 800x600@100hz etc). Because otherwise, when switching resolutions, Windows will force the desktop resolution instead of the native resolution. For example, it will smear a 640x480 picture onto the desktop 1024x768 resolution.... bit hard to explain. You'll understand it when using it. Picture of my settings, which work for me: ibb.co/sVpZm5N This way you'll also prevent windows from auto setting 60hz for example. For some reason, windows really likes to default to the lowest hz possible at times or in certain games.

[@philscomputerlab]

Great information, thank you for sharing!

[@acronym.4328]

I can only imagine what other emulators would look like running under a CRT this well, blending high performance from well made emulators and a fitting display for games of that era is definitely a great option!

[@karoo_bushman6880]

Oh how awesome it would be if we could just place some config files somewhere and have these added directly without having to type them in manually!

[@marquisor]

Would have been great if you'd also told us what cable/adapter you use and/or you'd recommend to get this working with relatively modern GFX cards which even don't have DVI anymore, just DP and HDMI. Instead of commenting "only one way to find out"?! THX :)

[@philscomputerlab]

Ok I bite. Watch the video before asking redundant questions. The graphics card and connection I clearly mention in the video 😂

[@marquisor]

@@philscomputerlab Why so spiteful? and always against my person? What's the point of not letting all of us know (if not arrogance, your behavior "I know something and you do not, dum****") in written text what cable you used, maybe some didn't understand because of other reasons than mine?! And you did not use an adapter, but a VGA cable you said in another comment, so what's the redundancy of my initial question how to handle DP, HDMI, DVI-x here right now?

[@philscomputerlab]

@@marquisor Mate, again, I'm clearly mentioning the graphics card and cable in the video. If you want text, go read on a forum or Reddit, don't be on KZbin which is for watching videos.

[@michaelluong6484]

Hey it's Phriday

[@montyoso]

Perhaps the RetroTINK 4K Video Timings Calculator can generate the values not listed in the DOS Custom Resolutions document.

[@philscomputerlab]

Yes it should work!

[@kunka592]

Thanks, I was wondering how to do this. I have a seemingly decent Displayport to VGA converter (StarTech DP2VGAHD20) but I think it might be adding a tiny bit of lag compared to native VGA so if you have any way of testing that, that would make for a good video.

[@ahabwolf7580]

Really curious if this would work with a htdmi -> vga adapter. Dosbox continues to amaze me.

[@philscomputerlab]

Only one way to find out 😊

[@terbog]

Thats an idea i was toying around a while. It may be noteworthy, that it is possible emulate Grayscale by using Colorfilters in Windows 10. Its niche, but may be of use in some situations.

[@krz8888888]

It’s an interesting hybrid is you want to experience the software as it played. I lile to experience the OG hardware too but it’s not for everyone

[@marquisor]

I wonder if CRU would work with Intel's internal CPU GPU? Interesting for mentioned thin clients or some of the older but good and reasonably priced Dell small form factors. Anyone has tried already and good/bad experience with it yet? :D

[@electricblue8196]

It woul be easier if with Custom Resolution Utility, that someone made an import file with all the resolutions ready.

[@chemergency]

I'm gonna try this on my Dell Inspiron system later it's got an AMD HD8XXX model with CRTemu drivers. This should provide an effective workaround for the games that give me a lot of problems on my Pentium III system.

[@JohnSmith-xq1pz]

How I wish I had a CRT monitor to use with DosBox... Definitely gotta take notes though for when I do find one 👍

[@moomah5929]

The video is nearly there. If you set custom resolutions with high enough refresh rates, you can actually get real 320x200 or 320x240 incl. glorious scan-lines, which normally is only possible with 15kHz monitors. For my CRT it's 120 or 140Hz.

[@philscomputerlab]

@@moomah5929 😮 Oh wow. That is really clever. So the display adaptor ties the double scanning not to resolution, but to scan rate?

[@moomah5929]

​@@philscomputerlab I don't really know what magic is going on in the behind the scenes but it works. Even the monitors OSD can't be displayed properly as it was never meant to run in such low resolutions. I guess the higher the vertical refresh rate, the higher the horizontal, so at some point even 320x200 come close to 31kHz when the vertical refresh rate is high enough. Just set my laptop up again and the monitor is running at 117Hz (monitor is a Philips 107E) in Monkey Island 1 (don't know if it was 200 or 240p).

[@maxmuster7003]

In MS DOS 6.22 i used 9" monochrom CRT, 15" CRT, 19"CRT, 20"CRT, 21" CRT and at last 28" LCD(native 1920x1200) on RADEON 9750 PCIe with VBE 3 bios with mode numbers for wide screen 16:9 aspect ratio in 1920x1080 and 16: 10 aspect ratio in 1920x1200 resolution.

[@adancalderon8915]

What a neat idea. Sadly, I got rid of my CRTs some years ago. Also, I have been compiling and using DOSBox-X. I am still trying to see if it accurately uses DOS share.exe for file and record locking applications.

[@colinstu]

I have a Sony WEGA 27" screen (trinitron) and the best inputs it has is Component. What would be the best way to get a PC to display MAME, DOSbox, PCem, or perhaps even retropi out to it?

[@sparki_]

get a slightly older video card with an s video port that has like 7 holes in it. There are breakout cables for component, the extra pins are that

[@SolSeal]

If adapters work and if freesync/g-sync also works. 😊

[@kristophertadlock779]

It does work! Not on a CRT of course.

[@SolSeal]

@@kristophertadlock779 I’m not that sure. I think if you use toastyx software you might be able to use it. Not sure though.

[@vitmich]

I found another solution for dos gaming in native resolution with smooth scrolling without changing host resolution and refresh rate. This solution is Dosbox pure from retroarch + crt switchres (31Khz) mode enabled. But for crt switchres you need to have compatible video card. Mine was hd 5450.

[@biddlestone]

Question for Phil and/or Commenter. I'm using a Windows 10 machine with a CRT monitor and an Nvidia GPU. Are there any settings that would be beneficial to change in the Nvidia Control Panel to further improve this process? Thank you.

[@shaneeslick]

G'day Phil, Very Cool, I think this is really good way of helping people Retro Game on a budget, while real DOS Era components are going from expensive to "🤬HOW MUCH!" it is great that these options are available to make newer more affordable XP/Vista Hardware Technology compatible older DOS Technology using W10. I have 2 DELL VGA Monitors, My original CRT from my DELL Dimension XP P4 plus a Flatscreen I got as a Complete DELL Vostro 200 set up for $20AUD, I also have some Gaming GPUs with VGA including my Gainward GTX 460 GS GLH plus my Gigabyte GTX260 OC, GTX260SOC & GTX275SOC

[@philscomputerlab]

Thank you 😊

[@emuboy85]

Awesome video as usual, one thing, I get you are going for pale pastel colours for your set but it kinda looks like an hospital room...

[@NYCMario1982]

Does this work with a powerful Windows XP Retro System??? For playing old win98/xp games AND Dos Games through DosBox???

[@karoo_bushman6880]

I want to know too! A Core2Duo 3GHz with Nvidia GT240, 4GB and SSD? Has VGA and can run XP games max settings up to 2003 (NFSU, BF1942).

[@philscomputerlab]

If DOSBox runs in XP, then should be good to go. Creating custom resolutions might be tricky, but at least with some drivers I remember that option was available.

[@svgaming234]

How effective would a DisplayPort/HDMI to VGA adapter be for these?

[@ScottOmatic]

From what I have seen, the cheapo ones will probably give you VGA and SVGA resolutions at 60hz or 70hz, but if you want to try some modern games on your old CRT, they struggle with accepting a modern HD screen resolution at higher refresh rates. It may not be much of an issue depending on the specs of your monitor and the type of games you are trying to run but from what I've seen will typical hamstring late-model high-end CRTs from running at their optimum display settings. Apparently there are some expensive adapters that may get around the issues found on most of the basic ones.

[@Super123456789Kuba]

A good solution to emulate these 286-486 era games that are a bit of a challenge to build a machine for, you'd go bankrupt with that pretty quickly these days.

[@philscomputerlab]

Yes prices keep increasing. Especially during the restrictions, it got out of hand.

[@AccountName-gv5ie]

What are the best CRT TV shader currently?

[@inp1ace]

Nice one Phil. what is the game sitting in the background after lemmings?

[@philscomputerlab]

@@inp1ace Gateway! A really cool text adventure game with graphics.

[@inp1ace]

@@philscomputerlab Awesome, thanks Phil

[@Koen-q4k]

Having played DOS games on the first generation of VGA monitors, like the IBM 8513, I am not fond of the horizontal lines that appeared on the later monitors.

[@unimportant5122]

Beware that using timings/refresh rates unsupported by a CRT can damage it. That's why they have a explicit "Enable resolutions not supported by monitor" tickbox...

[@philscomputerlab]

These are the same timings that you get when booting into DOS...

[@daniella-k]

I think if you actually have a crt monitor sitting in your house, you likely have a proper dos running retro pc anyway. I wouldn’t be without mine. Use it for a few retro consoles too.

[@kunka592]

I have DOS machines and CRTs but sometimes when I'm using a Windows machine, it's nice to be able to play DOS games on that as well. Also, sometimes your machines might not be compatible with some old game due to speed or whatever other issue so emulation just makes it convenient to play problematic games.

[@Jackpkmn]

Even though my laptop has nvidia graphics I couldn't set up manual resolutions for the internal display but CRU does the job perfectly. For some reason my laptop only came with 2 display modes, 48hz and 120hz. There are some games out there that will only run in 60hz with vsync enabled and you can't convince them to do anything else. So they would always pick the 48hz mode and run slow. And when I unplug the laptop it always drops down to the lower refresh rate to 'save battery' and 48hz is disturbing to use with regular desktop browsing. CRU let me remove that awful 48hz mode and replace it with a 60hz mode no problem. CRU is probably the tool to use for Intel Integrated graphics as well which can provide plenty of oomph for such old games but you can get even LGA1700 motherboards with native VGA ports and either pass through a more powerful AMD or nvidia graphics card like how laptops do or just use as is.

[@Tundreq]

What about using a crt with pcem or 86box?

[@philscomputerlab]

Not sure, never tried it, but definitely on the cards!

[@MissNorington]

The CRT is awesome! I have one myself. I also have DOSBox, but I must say, comparing the real thing to an emulated session in Windows 10/11... it is not buttery smooth. Check out doslogo's smooth scrolling video, and boot that in DOSBox, it can never run as smoothly like on a real retro PC, even on a CRT. There are more factors like the VGA emulation of the modern graphics card.

[@philscomputerlab]

What games didn't give you smooth scrolling with the setup shown in the video?

[@MissNorington]

@@philscomputerlab It's a Sonic game made in 2024 specifically to showcase the PC hardware's VGA smooth scrolling capabilities, and it boots directly from a floppy disk (or an image using DOSBox) to allow the hardware exclusive access to the VGA hardware without interference from an operating system, uses the Vertical Retrace IRQ from EGA if the hardware supports it. DOSBox cannot keep up with the emulation without dropping frames, so a CRT monitor will not show smooth scrolling this way. DOSBox won't even show the overscan border which is used, or the special color dac upload. On real hardware though, buttersmooth until end of time. Well, that is if the video card is okay at doing VGA, that most modern ones can't do and you introduce lag every now and then (they emulate the VGA signals). So a retro computer hardware is required. It is a proof of concept, you can find on doslogo's KZbin.

[@epoxxylocktight]

I've done this for a year with eXoDOS by mass-changed all the config files. Works flawless and is awesome on my W900

[@philscomputerlab]

Beautiful 😊

[@fattomandeibu]

Tried using a Raspberry Pi to do a similar thing for old game consoles, sadly, whilst it does have standard definition composite out, it always outputs at either PAL(720x576) or NTSC(640x480) interlaced signals, but a genuine console(or SDTV capable computers like Ataris and Commodores) from pre-PlayStation 1 days actually outputs PAL(360x288) and NTSC(320x240) progressive scan. This interlacing of a non-interlaced image always gives off a noticeable shimmering effect to the picture. Maybe someday someone will come up with a fix for this. Note on the resolutions given: These include the overscan not normally seen on an actual SDTV, emulators will typically crop this out automatically. Unfortunately the only CRT I own is PAL and RGB(50 and 60Hz vertical, 15.5KHz horizontal) only, so I can't test this rather nice sounding option.

[@philscomputerlab]

@@fattomandeibu AFAIK, only Scart RGB could do progressive. If you had antenna, composite it s-video you got regular PAL...

[@fattomandeibu]

@@philscomputerlab That's for 480p progressive, this is 240p progressive and should work fine over composite, as my real SNES and Amiga 1200 both output over RF for a proper progressive scan video to the very same TV. It's technically considered a "hacked mode" where it tricks the TV into thinking that every frame is field 0 of an 480i interlaced picture, meaning it doesn't readjust the beam giving a 60fps deinterlaced mode. It's very noticeable on when I switch from using real machine then switching to the Pi.

[@philscomputerlab]

@@fattomandeibu Thanks! I read up on the topic and you're 👍 I learned something today. I used to have a SNES with good old antenna cable and PAL...

[@fattomandeibu]

@@philscomputerlab I only learned of it recently, but it's a shockingly common mode. Even early Pong machines and the original IBM CGA card with composite output(and any clone of said card) use it. I only learned of it because I decided to try and use the composite out on my Raspberry Pi with an emulator running on my CRT. The picture I got was very wobbly and hurt my eyes. I tried both my real Super Nintendo and Amiga 1200 and it didn't happen with either of those.

[@OnlyEpicEmber]

Would this be possible with eXoDOS?

[@ezrafreemantle1824]

Hey Phil, I found a strange little hack with windows 98 formatting HDD. I use modern ssd's PCI - SATA. Not sure if that has anything to do with it. What I do is fdisk the drive and delete the partition. Leave it deleted and start Windows 98 setup. It will then create and format the partition at the full size of the HDD. I've successfully done this multiple times with 240gb in single partition

[@MarcoGPUtuber]

Ah but DOS needs no such configuration!

[@JohnSmith-xq1pz]

Perhaps but DosBox is multiple Dos machines in one and is immune to bad caps/battery leaks etc 😉

[@kafarske123]

Hi. Nice info. Dis not realize that was a thing.. I made an exodos machine after seeing your video on thst, and hooked it up to a crt, Just for simplisety. I do have other propper retro Machines, but some times, its better to Just emulate 😂😁 Annyways, the machine has a vga, so i Just polooed it to one of my crts. And it works grate, but i did not realize its not the propper Resolution... Perhaps om fooled by shaders 🤔 Dont know. Annyhoo, will have a look. Even thoug its only integrated graphix, in a 4th gen intel i5

[@VideogameBucko]

Great video thank you! Can I ask why "fulldouble" is set to true and also why scaler is set to normal2x (and not "none") ?

[@ScottOmatic]

I think this has something to do with CRTs doubling up basic VGA signals (such as 320x200) to display correctly on an SVGA monitor that is meant to have double the resolution, to get it to output properly, but I have no idea what the consequence of not running this in DosBox would be.

[@philscomputerlab]

Full double is double buffering, afaik it helps with smoother motion.Afaik the scaling is ignored because of surface output mode...

[@NightmareJoker2]

But does this work with a RTX 2000 series or newer card that doesn't have native VGA (10 series still has DVI-I which allows VGA out with a passive adapter, like those provided since the 8000 series and that 9800 you used in your example, but RTX 2000 series and newer doesn't) with an active HDMI or DisplayPort to VGA adapter? Because I get the feeling like you can't control the timing of the display with those like that...

[@philscomputerlab]

Only one way to find out 😉

[@HaraDayaful]

It does work. At least there's a clear change going on when you run these custom resolutions. In my case it was definitely for the better. Running HDMI to VGA. The 640x400 resolution pronounced the matrix grid, leaving more space between individual pixels, boosting the glow effect while also reducing bleed-over into other pixels. Try it out for sure.

[@FiveFiveZeroTwo]

Wouldn't you also need an adapter or convertor to connect the CRT monitor to a modern GPU without VGA / DVI outputs?

[@philscomputerlab]

Well of course

[@marquisor]

@@philscomputerlab and what adapter or cable do you use?

[@philscomputerlab]

VGA cable ​@@marquisor

[@marquisor]

@@philscomputerlab Thanks for the entirely constructive answer and for not underestimating my intelligence 👍

[@philscomputerlab]

​@@marquisorThen use your intelligence and pay attention when watching the video, as both, the graphics card and how it's connected, are mentioned 😅

[@Insomniator1]

Intel VGA driver GUI is crap, but fortunately you can add resolutions in CRU. But you need little fight with Intel GUI to proper disable screen scaling, in my case by default it's try scale any low resolution to 1280x1024(default res on my 19' CRT)

[@1300l]

Another thing to consider is actually use 16bit color depth

[@philscomputerlab]

What do you mean?

[@1300l]

@@philscomputerlab When creating a custom resolution, if it's possible, to set the color bit rate to 16-bit and not 32-bit as most used to run that back then ;)

[@philscomputerlab]

@@1300l DOSBox is a windows application though, it uses 32 But but of course will only display the limited colour palette of VGA DOS games afaik. But maybe I'm misunderstanding the question...

[@1300l]

@@philscomputerlab No you got it, thanks for the explanation :)

[@maxmuster7003]

DosBox svga_S3 emulation VBE-Modenumber 115h +4000h linear framebuffer in C0000000h for 800x600x32 true color.

[@CafeenMan]

Why not just get a 486 and run these things natively?

[@philscomputerlab]

Cost, complexity, inflexibility, unreliability and more?

[@fwingebritson]

Options are always great.

[@CafeenMan]

@@philscomputerlab Wow.... what kind of system did you have? I never had stability/reliability issues with a 486.

[@kunka592]

That hardware is only getting more expensive and I already have enough old machines taking up space and adding complexity to my kvm switching setup. This is super useful.

[@karoo_bushman6880]

You'll need a 8086, 286, 386, 486 and 233MMX and Voodoo cards to run ALL the games you can with a modern PC with these custom resolutions and a CRT.

[@jayblow]

I hear if you have a modern GPU with a USB-C you can use a VGA to USB adapter. Steam deck is a good candidate for this. Would like to see a video on that from you :)

[@philscomputerlab]

Interesting, I've never heard of this and seems a shame that reviews don't mention this...

[@kamilpotato3764]

Why vga out is required? I play some games on my crt monitor with dp to vga adapter. Using 3060ti.

[@philscomputerlab]

You could create all the custom resolutions and it works as shown in the video? What games are you playing?

[@kamilpotato3764]

@@philscomputerlab Not Dos. But did create easily custom resolutions in Nvidia panel. Played games like Planescape Tourment, Quake, Icewind Dale etc. Mostly older Windows games from second half of 90s and early 2000s(whatever still runs on Windows10). Don’t think I went lower than 640x480 in those games thou. Plus I play some newer games occasionally on CRT and for fun emulate older consoles.

[@philscomputerlab]

@@kamilpotato3764 Nice! Good to hear that such resolutions work 😃

[@ronm6585]

Thank you.

[@karoo_bushman6880]

Can this be done in DOSBox-X? I find it much more authentic and powerful than regular DOSBox..

[@philscomputerlab]

I'm not sure. You could give it a go and let us know?

[@karoo_bushman6880]

@@philscomputerlab I tried, all day, but I can't get it to output full screen, it only takes up a small part of the screen. And it won't switch to the custom resolutions I made. Regular DOSBox works perfectly though :) Too bad I can't get DOSBox-X to work, it has Voodoo! and lots of cool mounting features and audio settings.

[@philscomputerlab]

@@karoo_bushman6880 That's a shame! There is always something that doesn't work 😭

[@mrburns366]

Can this work with PCem?

[@philscomputerlab]

@@mrburns366 Maybe 🤔

[@overdriver99]

you are genius.. thank you so much!!

[@Insomniator1]

Newer DOSBOX-X/Staging/, ... has broken fullscreen old modes, stupid opengl or directx interpolation or lack of 320x200(640x400). So 0.74.x is still best versions if you use lowres fullscreen modes on CRT.

[@karoo_bushman6880]

Which version of Dosbox-X does still support this? I am trying, but cannot get Dosbox-X to output these custom resolutions

[@cesaru3619]

wow thou dollar mic, NOICE

[@marccaselle8108]

I would just buy a 90s laptop but i would have to be between 200 and 300 on ebay

[@philscomputerlab]

Well, laptop screens are even worse than modern LCDs...

[@caffeinatedhuman4035]

Linux mint with xrandr (custom resolutions)

[@DataDashy]

One more pcbway shill we dont need 😢

[@NightSprinter]

#DemScanlines

[@samuelbanya]

Man I wish you did Linux tutorials. I hate Windows 10 and 11 so much.

[@philscomputerlab]

Well with Linux, for me, the basics work, but then I always run into something that I can't figure out or that doesn't work or that takes a 10 page guide thats outdated 😂

[@samuelbanya]

@@philscomputerlab Read the man page lol. Nah, I get it though. I challenge you to do it though :) Cause fuck the direction that Windows is going.

[@edsiefker1301]

No kidding? Modelines in Windows.

[@AncapDude]

Ich vermisse diese Flimmerkisten kein Meter!

[@malcolmogilvy4885]

Ima wasted heaps on different ways to emulate from Pi's and multi scalers and scanline generators nothing compares to original tech the likes of the Commodore 64 SID chip sound or MegaDrive Yamaha sound chip sound is instantly missed it is Apples to Bananas just not the same Dos box is ok yet it is far from having a decent AGP RIG for retro PC gaming sure costs more yet collecting parts is part of the hobby these days AGP cards of higher end do cost a lot more yet if hunted for a bargain will be found in good time