There is a blur with the filter on "None"

[Lumberjack [FR]]

Hello,

I just bought Sonic Mania and was curious to know how the game is scaling the picture originally in a resolution of "424 x 240" to a resolution of "1920 x 1080", because as we can calculate it, the aspect ratio isn't the same.

424/240 = 1,7666666666666666666666666666667

1920/1080 = 1,7777777777777777777777777777778


To keep the perfect same aspect ratio, the game should have been displayed in a resolution of "1908 x 1080" or te be initially in a resolution close to "426 x 240", which isn't perfect either.


So I wondered if a bilinear filter or something else was used to strech the image in a resolution of "1920 x 1080".

But it was something else that surprised me when I took some screenshots to compare.


When the filter chosen is on "None", there is a little blur, even in windowed mode when the window size is 1X, 2X or 3X.


It's strange, because it was impossible to take a picture in its native resolution without this blur. I needed to search on Google to find a perfect image in the resolution of "424 x 240". I took this picture :

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1804701861


And here is a screenshot I took in-game in windowed mode with a window size of 1X :

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1804705396

We can clearly see that the image is blurry !


In windowed mode with a window size of 3X (resolution 1272 x 720) :

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1804706072


And in fullscreen in 1080p (the window size has no influence) :

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1804706700


In this last case, the game has to be slightly stretched. But I don't know how it's stretched, because it's impossible to compare with this blur.


But as you can see here, I compared the screenshot that I found on Google in its native resolution (I scaled it 3X with a "nearest neighbor/point" algorithm) with the screenshot that I took in windowed mode with size 3X and then zoomed the picture at 400% :

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1804707369


So, who suspected this kind of blur with the filter on "None" ? Or am I the only one that has this ? Is it a bug ?


Thank you for your answers ! ;-)

[Axanery]

It’s because of the upscaling that you see the blur. There isn’t a way to get rid of it. You could play on 4X resolution through the dev menu while not having fullscreen on for a big picture while not getting any blurryness. Or you could just play on fullscreen because it’s barely noticeable.

[Lumberjack [FR]]

For the fullscreen mode, I agree.

But the pictures 2, 3 et 5 were taken in the windowed mode. So I think they shouldn't have any scaling and blur :-/

[Axanery]

It might be possible that your shaders might be disabled, do you have shaderSupport set to y in settings.ini?

[Lumberjack [FR]]

Nope ! It's enabled ! :-)


[Video]
; NB: Fullscreen Resolution can be explicitly set with values fsWidth and fsHeight
; If not listed, fullscreen will just use the desktop resolution
windowed=n
border=n
exclusiveFS=y
vsync=y
tripleBuffering=y
winWidth=1272
winHeight=720
shaderSupport=y
screenShader=1

[Lumberjack [FR]]

I understood how the "None" and "Clean" filters work with the windowed mode and the fullscreen mode !

Because yes, even with "None", there is a filter.

In the windowed mode, the picture is shifted from 1 pixel to the right and 1 pixel to the bottom and then is blended with the non shifted picture with a blend ratio of "0.25". It's true with a 1X, 2X and 3X window size.

For the "Clean" filter, the blend ratio is "1.0/3.0" (0.33) instead. There is no bilinear filter or something else.



But a bilinear filter is used in fullscreen mode to strech the picture and smooth the image.


With the "None" filter, in 1080p it's simply :

Simple 4X (so the resolution is 1696 x 960) + Bilinear filter (1920 x 1080)


With the "Clean" filter, it's :

Simple 2X (so the resolution is 848 x 480) + Bilinear filter (1920 x 1080)


I don't know how it is in 2160p. I would be curious to know !

[jamesorthii]

I'm having this same issue. I didn't used to have this issue, but noticed it today when I tried to take a screenshot. The image is distorted exactly like yours, even at 1x scaling, it still is blending the pixels for some reason.

I made a post about it. It's really frustrating. I've been playing it for years, and didn't have this problem. I wonder if it's part of an update patch?

[Lumberjack [FR]]

Have you an AMD card ? I wonder if the problem doesn't come from the AMD card...

[jamesorthii]

Originally posted by Lumberjack FR:

Have you an AMD card ? I wonder if the problem doesn't come from the AMD card...

I know its been some months, but I just noticed this reply. I have an Intel HD graphics card (built into a Surface Pro 2). And I'm still having the blur problem.

Here's a few things I noticed:

1. The blur effect does not seem to take place when the game is running a Video (take a screenshot during the animated scene that plays when you wait on the title screen).
2. I have old screenshots and video screen recordings of Sonic Mania that show proof that this blur effect was not there before. I may have been running Windows 8 at the time (I don't remember). One screen recording was in GIF format, and is thus pixel-perfect. This GIF recording is dated November 17, and no blurry glitch effect is present.
3. I tried rolling back to an older version of Sonic Mania (release version, before Mania Plust DLC). The blur still existed when I rolled back to the old version.
4. I tried messing with High DPI settings, no luck.
5. I tried upgrading my graphics driver. No luck.

This leads me to believe it is either graphics card related, something that was changed in STEAM that is causing it, or Windows 10 related.

I have not seen this blurry effect in any other game, Steam or non-steam, 2D or 3D. It seems to be only Sonic Mania, but I also have picture proof that this did not occur in 2017 on my same machine.

It's very puzzling.

[Lumberjack [FR]]

Yes, fortunately, there isn't any problem in fullscreen. But it's still strange...