Marseille's mCable?

[Seraphic]

This may be just me, but before going with cheap Post-Processing-AA that smoothes some jaggies but leaves others and looks horrible in motion (as it doesn't have a temporal element), I'd rather pass on AA altogether.

doesn't temporal aa suffer from ghosting and detail lost during motion? I've only tried them a few times, but I don't really like to use FXAA or TXAA because of how blurry they can look. didn't Linus say that the M cable uses an algorithm that's more similar to SMAA?

Native 480p 2D might look better than 240p...

Can you think of a game? I could capture a quick set after I "find" it.

@Seraphic, awesome screenshots! if you get a chance definitely try using GSM to force ps2 games into higher resolutions, for instance Metal Gear Solid 3 and Wild Arms 5 can be reliably pushed to 1080p. and your video processor can definitely handle aspect ratio correction. can the M cable process the OSSC's 240p 3x, 4x or 5x modes? also, what about 480p 2x?

for native 480p games with 2D art here are some (Wikipedia also has a full list, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_P ... play_modes)


Most Guilty Gear tittles

Melty Blood: Actress Again

Sonic Mega Collection Plus

Alien Hominid

La Pucelle: Tactics (also has a 240p mode)

I will try the other x scaling for you. And do you have Melty Blood? I can not get it to switch to 480p mode.

[Thomago]

This may be just me, but before going with cheap Post-Processing-AA that smoothes some jaggies but leaves others and looks horrible in motion (as it doesn't have a temporal element), I'd rather pass on AA altogether.

doesn't temporal aa suffer from ghosting and detail lost during motion? I've only tried them a few times, but I don't really like to use FXAA or TXAA because of how blurry they can look. didn't Linus say that the M cable uses an algorithm that's more similar to SMAA?

Given high enough framerates, you won't notice these effects. I mean - Temporal AA isn't perfect, but in comparison to FXAA or SMAA it's brilliant, especially in conjuction with downsampling.

What are you comparing to? For plenty of games FXAA/SMAA looks great in motion. For others it looks horrible.

... which is due to these AA types' inherent limitations. FXAA/SMAA are fine for smoothing more or less diagonal edges in still images; for everything else they are useless. For some games this is fine, for others it isn't.

[Seraphic]

Can the M cable process the OSSC's 240p 3x, 4x or 5x modes? also, what about 480p 2x?

Working but with artifacts on screen:
OSSC 240p 3x
OSSC 240p 4x
OSSC 240p 5x in 1920x1080
OSSC 480p 2x

Working and no artifacts:
OSSC 240p 2x
OSSC 240p Passthru
OSSC 240p 5x in 1600x1200 and 1920x1200 (seems to be Passthru though as image not being processed)
OSSC 480p Passthru

[Blair]

I will try the other x scaling for you. And do you have Melty Blood? I can not get it to switch to 480p mode.

thanks!

from the wiki, to Access the Progressive Scan menu hold the × and △ buttons down together when the game boots up. [for Melty Blood: Actress Again]

[Seraphic]

I will try the other x scaling for you. And do you have Melty Blood? I can not get it to switch to 480p mode.

thanks!

from the wiki, to Access the Progressive Scan menu hold the × and △ buttons down together when the game boots up. [for Melty Blood: Actress Again]

I know, I tried that, but it is not working for some reason. I have other 480p games that enable no problem.
Are we sure Melty Blood is a 480p game?

[Blair]

I know, I tried that, but it is not working for some reason. I have other 480p games that enable no problem.
Are we sure Melty Blood is a 480p game?

users on neo-geo.com seem to confirm that it works, and I've seen videos of the 480p menu screen before the game starts up.

I have a copy (somewhere) i'll give it a test later today. thanks for trying out those OSSC modes.

[Seraphic]

I know, I tried that, but it is not working for some reason. I have other 480p games that enable no problem.
Are we sure Melty Blood is a 480p game?

users on neo-geo.com seem to confirm that it works, and I've seen videos of the 480p menu screen before the game starts up.

I have a copy (somewhere) i'll give it a test later today. thanks for trying out those OSSC modes.

Okay, I got 480p working now. Not looking too hot though...

Crystalio II scaling 480p to 1080p


mCable scaling 480p to 1080p


Crystalio II scaling 480p to 1080p


mCable scaling 480p to 1080p


Crystalio II scaling 480p to 1080p


mCable scaling 480p to 1080p

[FinalBaton]

man, the Crystalio's upscaling of 480p is insane...

[Xer Xian]

@Seraphic: what does the CII say about data levels output by the mCable?

When the CII is set to auto detect it says it is receiving 16-235.
However, it also does this for OSSC/PS3/PSTV/Xbox360 even when they are set to Full Range/Extended. So it is a bug I think?

Right I had forgotten you mentioned that in the OSSC thread. I just tried this with my unit and apparently the OSSC output is correctly identified as full range in my case - going from Auto to 0-255 in the input port configuration showed no difference, but not so with the transition from Auto to 16-235. However, my CII is just the 3100 model which has different hardware and firmware, I don't know if that counts.

By the way, the CII has a 'pixel perfect' test pattern that maybe you could use to test the upscaling quality of the mCable? It'd better than using different frames from a PS2 (and also, apparently the OSSC is not 100% neutral.. I'm going to post about this in the OSSC thread). If you want to give this a try when you have some time, just grab a direct capture of the CII 720p test pattern and then another one of the same pattern upscaled to 1080p by the mCable.

[Blair]

Okay, I got 480p working now. Not looking too hot though...

ah, excellent! you were able to get progressive mode working (very nice). it's possible that this game is actually a bad choice because the character sprites are drawn at a 240p style resolution (chunky pixels) while the backgrounds, menus and other art assets are more in line with a 480p title. I wonder if something like Alien Hominid or Odin Sphere would fare better? either way, fantastic job on the comparison Seraphic.

[ZellSF]

Not sure about Alien Hominid, but Odin Sphere doesn't natively support 480p (forcing with GSM works fine though).

[bobrocks95]

Not sure about Alien Hominid, but Odin Sphere doesn't natively support 480p (forcing with GSM works fine though).

I recall having a problem with using GSM on it. Doesn't it cut off part of the picture?

[Blair]

ah, right I was thinking about the Odin sphere remaster (Leifthrasir) on ps3 and ps4 (I think it's also on Vita?)

but I do know that Alien Hominid has a native 480p mode, as I played it on a progressive scan capable display when it came out.

[Seraphic]

DigitalFoundry finally did a review for the Gaming mCable.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ANIlyAN ... e=youtu.be

[orange808]

I keep hearing that there is some really good 480p scaling (uncompressed?) going on inside these cables. I can't help but wonder what it would look like if we could turn off the anti aliasing.