Silent Hill 3 in progressive scan.... Bloody hell!

[London Geezer]

oh god...

u guys...

OH GOD...

u have not seen this game until u see it in progressive scan on a monitor.
i mean.
god...
i have no words.
u guys NEED to buy a Blaze VGA adapter. it's just amazing.
not without problems (it crashes everytime an FMV comes up for some reason, but more on this later)...

this game looks just as good as those pre-release shots (the ones in 640x480 of course, not the super hi res ones), the texture detail is something i have personally never seen on PS2, and it really stands out when seen in progressive scan.
it's like the resolution has doubled...
the details on their faces are like doubled, Heather's face just looks amazing, and so do all the others to be honest. EVERYTHING in this game will be MUCH more detailed. this is BY FAR the best looking game i've seen on PS2 and admittedly on other consoles, and the fact that it can be viewed in progressive scan does nothing but confirm this.
to get the best view i left the noise filter ON (taking it off makes the game look like a PC game for some reason) and turned the display option to SHARP (the soft option blurs the image and it loses some texture detail, it's much better to leave it on sharp)
what an amazing thing this Blaze VGA adapter is.... and what a magnificent idea it was to buy it...


WARNING: if u do use the Blaze VGA Adaptor when playing this game, u should know that the game will crash everytime an FMV video comes up. FMV guys, not real time cutscenes. which means the weird intro video, the video in the shopping mall when u examine the TV and see a girl saying "Daddy", and the video that appears before fighting Leonard, when examining the red symbol on the wall that triggers the video about "a girl" and a voice saying "it's not possible, the pulse is so weak, what is keeping this child alive" and crap like that WILL MAKE THE GAME CRASH. all u need to do is:
for the introductory video, just press START as soon as the warning saying "this game may contain scenes of a violent nature" comes up, it will skip the intro and go straight to the initial screen.
for the other 2, save the game just before those points, play through in interlace mode, then pop it back to pro-scan (u'll need to turn off and on and all that, but HELL IT'S SOOOOO WORTH IT)...
oh and do not forget that, after completing the game and obtaining the Transform costume, equipping it will trigger a short (and very funny) video, which will make the game crash of course...

questions are very welcome.

 

[DeathKnight]

Calm down

Welcome to progressive scan. You mustn't have seen much in the past to come to your conclusions. Anyway, enjoy your stay... heh

 

[London Geezer]

Calm down

Welcome to progressive scan. You mustn't have seen much in the past to come to your conclusions. Anyway, enjoy your stay... heh

well, after being accustomed to playing Ps2 games on an LCD screen (which in interlace mode just looks a bit EWWW), seeing this beauty in progressive scan is a real shock...

anyway, i enjoyed progressive scan for a long time.

unfortunately here in Europe some people must think we're in the 70's or something and unfortunately the ONLY way to play pro-scan enabled games is with PS2. which means i will NEVER be able to play, for example, Soul Calibur 2 in 720p on an Xbox. hell i will never play any pro-scan games on Xbox and GC for that matter because the powers that be decided to cut it COMPLETELY from those 2 consoles, thinking PAL gamers still play with Black&White TV's....

so yeah, when i see this kind of beauty coming out of my old grumpy dusty loud PS2, i do get surprised...

 

[cthellis42]

Seems like an odd reaction from the Blaze, though... Do you know why it crashes on FMV?

 

[London Geezer]

Seems like an odd reaction from the Blaze, though... Do you know why it crashes on FMV?

well it happens with other games as well, it must have something to do with the Codec used for those FMV's.... some work some do not...

this blaze adapter is one amazing piece of work (the software most of it) but it does have some weird effects sometimes...

like, FFX's FMV's are all f**ked up, they run slightly faster (probably because of the fact that it's the PAL version at 50Hz being forced to run in 60Hz) and the sound can't keep up, so u get weird voices and music... pretty funny to see though

some others just plain crash....

 

[marconelly!]

(the soft option blurs the image and it loses some texture detail, it's much better to leave it on sharp)

'Soft' option is deinterlacer. It looks better when you enable it when you play the game on a TV as it eliminates interlace flicker.

I still think console games are better played on a TV. Monitor picture is too sharp for it's own good when it comes to games.

 

[London Geezer]

(the soft option blurs the image and it loses some texture detail, it's much better to leave it on sharp)

'Soft' option is deinterlacer. It looks better when you enable it when you play the game on a TV as it eliminates interlace flicker.

I still think console games are better played on a TV. Monitor picture is too sharp for it's own good when it comes to games.

WELL, when in progressive scan i thought it just wouldnt work, like with Guilty Gear X2, but to my surprise it blurred the image just slightly...

and trust me, the detail gained when playing this game in progressive scan is something u have to see...

 

[maskrider]

Finished the PAL game 4 times already, going to finish the Japanese version and then the PAL SH2 Director's cut and then the Japanese SH2 Restless dreams and then the X-BOX Japanese SH2 Restless dreams and then the SH2 US PC version and the SH3 PC version will be out already.

Ha ha ha ! I have gone crazy. I have even bought the trial version in a magazine with a gorgeous cover.

 

[cthellis42]

So I take it you like the game?

 

[London Geezer]

oh my god...

 

[maskrider]

So I take it you like the game?

Heh ! Sure I like the game.

Hey LB, any special settings than the default that you used to boot the game with Blaze VGA adaptor ?

edit: The more love thread like this one the better, I am really sick with those hate threads/posts. Too much bickering.

 

[marconelly!]

and trust me, the detail gained when playing this game in progressive scan is something u have to see...

Hmm, I've been playing all my Dreamcast games on VGA, and also on the TV, and I just don't think it's that big of a deal, as long as the image quality on the TV is good. TV even gives slightly more hazed and believable look due to color bleeding. All IMO, of course.

I use small (20") TV with component inputs that basically display more vibrant colors than my monitor does, and pixels on such smaller TV screen are small enough that it can't bother you in nicely made game like SH3.

 

[London Geezer]

well, basically i tried pretty much every setting.
the SHARP with NOISE OFF looks like a PC game.. sterile... no character to it...
the SHARP with noise filter ON looks like the pre launch shots. absolutely amazing. the way it should be played.

turning the soft option ON when playing in progressive scan blurs the image slightly, which is useless since u lose some of the detail and it does nothing to hide the jaggies. and the jaggies are a non-issue in this game anyway so there u go...

i honestly thought the soft option wouldnt work like it happened in Guilty Gear X2. at the end of the day a deinterlacer just wont work on a progressive scan picture... therefore SH3 soft filter must be some kind of blur filter....

 

[London Geezer]

and trust me, the detail gained when playing this game in progressive scan is something u have to see...

Hmm, I've been playing all my Dreamcast games on VGA, and also on the TV, and I just don't think it's that big of a deal, as long as the image quality on the TV is good. TV even gives slightly more hazed and believable look due to color bleeding. All IMO, of course.

I use small (20") TV with component inputs that basically display more vibrant colors than my monitor does, and pixels on such smaller TV screen are small enough that you can't bother you in nicely made game like SH3.

maybe... but there's nothing on DC that looks like SH3
and seriously, at least on my TV, the detail gained is unbelievable

 

[maskrider]

well, basically i tried pretty much every setting.
the SHARP with NOISE OFF looks like a PC game.. sterile... no character to it...
the SHARP with noise filter ON looks like the pre launch shots. absolutely amazing. the way it should be played.

turning the soft option ON when playing in progressive scan blurs the image slightly, which is useless since u lose some of the detail and it does nothing to hide the jaggies. and the jaggies are a non-issue in this game anyway so there u go...

i honestly thought the soft option wouldnt work like it happened in Guilty Gear X2. at the end of the day a deinterlacer just wont work on a progressive scan picture... therefore SH3 soft filter must be some kind of blur filter....

Hey, I mean Blaze VGA disc options.

BTW, I will never turn noise filter off as the lighting changed significantly when noise filter is off. Gorgeous lighting is only available with Noise filter on.

 

[marconelly!]

at the end of the day a deinterlacer just wont work on a progressive scan picture... therefore SH3 soft filter must be some kind of blur filter

Hehe, deinterlacer *is* a blur filter. It takes several horizontal lines and blends them into one line, then moves one line down, repeat.



Anyways, I've found version of Blaze adapter that works with NTSC PS2s and it's prety cheap actually. I'm tempted to buy it now

http://www.lik-sang.com/info.php?category=23&products_id=2361&

 

[cthellis42]

Anyone know the more technical back-end of SH3? (Frames, polys/sec, effects, all that jazz) It certainly seems like the best technical showcase for the PS2 so far. ^_^

 

[Fafalada]

i honestly thought the soft option wouldnt work like it happened in Guilty Gear X2. at the end of the day a deinterlacer just wont work on a progressive scan picture... therefore SH3 soft filter must be some kind of blur filter....

Every Flicker fixer is a blur filter - the difference is only where you execute it. If it's inside the CRT circuit it naturally won't show on progressive because the CRT settings are different to display different scan modes in the first place.
But some games add FF samples directly on the framebuffer since PS2 CRT can only do 2sample blend.

Anyway, I personally agree with Marc - sort of.
Media optimized for NTSC tends to look quite washed out in VGA, and the screen size is an issue for me too (don't have a 50inch HDTV handy).
Not to mention 60hz refresh on VGA monitor... brrrr my eyes :?

 

[Fox5]

Hmm, I've been thinking of a way to get my gamecube hooked up with progressive scan(currently is on a 27" tv with component cables but no progressive scan), but I'm not too keen on the idea of even buying a cheap HDTV or EDTV(around $600-$1000) unless I knew the improvement would be huge. I've also thought of getting http://www.play-asia.com/paos-13-50c95001.html/&index=0&query=vga this vga box which says it supports progressive scan, and while I do have a 21" monitor, I don't know if this vga box has a pass through port, I'm not sure on the quality difference, and I don't know if I really want to spend $70 to downgrade to a smaller screen, especially when I've been outputting vice city to my tv over svideo. Then again, back when I had an old TV(with numerous problems) with dreamcast on RF, I gladly changed to a 14" monitor and the difference was huge, and even compared to my current TV the vga had a noticeably better picture, but not worth it for the size difference. Ah, now that my mind has been on the subject for so long, I really want that vga box...I'll probably own it within a month now.

 

[maskrider]

Hmm, I've been thinking of a way to get my gamecube hooked up with progressive scan(currently is on a 27" tv with component cables but no progressive scan), but I'm not too keen on the idea of even buying a cheap HDTV or EDTV(around $600-$1000) unless I knew the improvement would be huge. I've also thought of getting http://www.play-asia.com/paos-13-50c95001.html/&index=0&query=vga this vga box which says it supports progressive scan, and while I do have a 21" monitor, I don't know if this vga box has a pass through port, I'm not sure on the quality difference, and I don't know if I really want to spend $70 to downgrade to a smaller screen, especially when I've been outputting vice city to my tv over svideo. Then again, back when I had an old TV(with numerous problems) with dreamcast on RF, I gladly changed to a 14" monitor and the difference was huge, and even compared to my current TV the vga had a noticeably better picture, but not worth it for the size difference. Ah, now that my mind has been on the subject for so long, I really want that vga box...I'll probably own it within a month now.

It is a transcoder which transcodes YPbPr -> RGBHV (a KeyDigital X-Blaster copycat, from mainland China). With 480p or higher, your monitor will be fine, but during the console boot up, you are stuck with 480i and you won't see anything on your monitor.

It is not really an usual VGA box.

Here is the original KD-CTCA2 (I have one), which costs US$300.