Stuttering with Higher Refresh Rates

[BigheadSMZ]

Another issue I noticed when trying to use this with Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon. When setting 120Hz or 144Hz refresh rate, there is a consistent stutter about every second. This does not happen with Borderless Gaming or Lossless Scaling. I noticed this same stutter in the game "CrossCode" when the refresh rate is above 60Hz.

[mashakos]

pls check the latest release

[BigheadSMZ]

So it's been awhile but I've come back to give this another shot. Unfortunately, still the same issues I was having before. I really wanted to like this program, I love the fact it can be set up exclusively on a per-game basis. This is especially useful when setting games up with LaunchBox. I've even written a combination VBS script that creates a batch script and modifies the INI file directly in case the path has changed. Basically, double click a game, everything needed to be done is done automatically. This can't be done with other scalers. Saying that, now that Lossless Scaling has the ability to create profiles... it's not such a loss anymore.

Anyway, let me get into what I'm seeing. Previously I thought things were good with 60 Hertz, but I was wrong. It does not matter what refresh rate I set my 2560x1440p monitor to: 60/120/144. Here is three games that I tested using four different scaler programs and their results....

Issues Explained:
There is only two issues I experienced, and they are exclusive to either OmniScaler or Borderless Gaming.

• Rubber Banding: The screen appears to slightly shake back and forth as the screen scrolls.
• Pixel Deformation: The pixels do not always remain "square". Similar to the effect of non-integer scaling.

Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon
The reason for scaling this game is that it will not scale above 1080p resolution. This game's screen scrolling always has a noticeable "shake" when the character is walking, except when walking up and down stairs which was used as the primary test case to test for "smoothness". All tests were performed by scaling the screen using "Windowed Mode" at "1x" scale.

• OmniScaler: Slight Rubber Banding
• IntegerScaler: Perfect
• LosslessScaling: Perfect
• Borderless Gaming: Slight Pixel Deformation

Kirby's Dream Land Advance
The reason for scaling this game is that fullscreen mode is broken, and just displays a small image in the top left corner. This is a PC fan-made remake of Kirby's Dreamland to mimic the style of a Gameboy Advance game. The scrolling in this game isn't fantastic, and it's smoothest when Kirby is running. Interestingly, Borderless Gaming fails in much of the same was as the built-in broken fullscreen mode.

• OmniScaler: Slight Rubber Banding
• IntegerScaler: Perfect
• LosslessScaling: Perfect
• Borderless Gaming: Fails (Same issue as built-in Fullscreen)

Castle in the Darkness
The reason for scaling this game is that by default, it upscales with a bilinear filter resulting in a blurry image. The game does not support integer scaling or nearest-neighbor point filtering. Tested with "Window Mode" at "1x" scale. Interestingly by default, the game experiences "jitter" on my monitor at 60 Hertz, but is perfectly smooth with 144 Hertz. All other settings do not make any difference.

• OmniScaler: Slight Rubber Banding
• IntegerScaler: Perfect
• LosslessScaling: Perfect
• Borderless Gaming: Fails (Applies Bilinear Filter)

So unfortunately, IntegerScaler and LosslessScaling are the only options that work without issue with all games. LosslessScaling is a bit better than IntegerScaler with its ability to create profiles, but is paid software while IntegerScaler is free. I have tested many more games outside of these, and the results are basically consistent. I really hope that OmniScaler can one day make it to the level of these other scaler programs because I love that it can be kind of "built-in" to the game folder. I have no idea what is up with that rubber banding effect, but it's distracting enough that I just can't use it. I've even upgraded every single piece of my hardware since my last tests, so it doesn't seem specific to certain builds.