Bilinear Filtering (FFXII) - Forced vs PS2? Opinions and Reasons, Please

[Maverik770]

Hey everyone. So I'm playing FFXII on my PC with PCSX2 and it runs great and looks beautiful. The only minor thing that bothers me a bit is how pixelated the menus and text look. I've gotten pretty used to it so it's not a major deal. I've been reading a lot on the forums here about the different settings and options within PCSX2 and I love tweaking my game as much as possible to deliver the best possible experience on FFXII.

So I read a lot about the Bilinear Texture Filtering options here on the forums and I feel like I have a pretty good understanding of what it is and how the 3 different options work and should look in most situations. I've learned that the filtering options are all useful in certain situations and how they should affect most games or situations.

With that said, I've always had my Bilinear Filtering set to the "PS2" option, which is "On Demand" and as close to the original PS2 emulation as we can get on that setting. After reading about the "Forced" option improving the text and menus in FFXII, I gave it a shot on my game and behold, the text and menus do look much better with Bilinear Filtering set to "Forced".

I feel like some other edges and areas in the game also look sharper and better with the "Forced" filtering option set. But I've also read some people's comments/opinions on the forums here saying that the Forced filtering could hide/remove or alter some pixel elements and that in their opinion the default "PS2" filtering setting looks best to them.

This got me wondering if I might be missing anything in game because of the Forced filtering. I started thinking to myself that the Quickening/Esper animations look different and possibly less bright/vibrant/detailed than they do with the default "PS2" filtering option? I've been trying to take and compare screenshots of the Quickening and Esper animations to see if I can tell a visual difference between the actual effects on the 2 different filtering methods and I'm not sure if I can tell a difference or not. But despite not being able to tell in screenshot comparisons, in the back of my head I can't help but shake the feeling that the Quickening/Esper animations do look brighter and more vibrant with the "PS2" filtering setting as opposed to the "Forced" setting.

Is that even possible? I suppose a lot of the elements in those Quickening/Esper animations are 2D overlays and thus could be filtered differently? If it's possible does anyone else agree with what I'm saying or have any proof to back that up? I'd really like to use the Forced filtering as the text looks much better but if it changes certain other aspects of FFXII in a negative way then I will deal with the pixelated text and stick with the PS2 filtering option.

So what filtering options do you guys use for FFXII? Any advice or solid evidence anyone can provide about the Bilinear Filtering options, especially in regards to FFXII is greatly appreciated. Thanks everyone!

[Vokadae]

I don't have FFXII so I do not know personally for that game. In my opinion think that Bilinear (PS2) is about the best option still sometimes.
There is also Trilinear on OpenGL if you want to try that.
For me it would come down to how 3D a game is and whether or not it would have a ton of 2D sprites or Not because some 2D games do not look good with forced filtering. That and I think a lot of PS2 games had 480i CRT's in mind which is a whole other can of worms for video quality stuff especially 2D elements.

Also sometimes forced Bilinear filtering will also try to force filter a video. I had a case in which forced bilinear would put huge lines through a credits video.
So I usually stick with the PS2 Bilinear settings to avoid stuff like that.

[CK1]

Bilinear/Forced filtering can improve flat textures slightly; but what you're really looking for in this case is the "Round Sprite" option. You can find it in the HW Hacks section of GSdx and set it to "Half"

[FlatOut]

Bilinear/Forced filtering can improve flat textures slightly; but what you're really looking for in this case is the "Round Sprite" option. You can find it in the HW Hacks section of GSdx and set it to "Half"

If you really want to risk hiding/removing or altering some pixel elements than that is definitely the option to use. :-)

[Maverik770]

Vokadae - Thank you for the information. That is very good stuff to know!

CK1 - I have tried the Round Sprite option set to "Half" as suggested and it definitely improves the pixelation on text and menus a bit. I don't believe it seems to be affecting anything else that I can tell. Thank you for this suggestion.

Flatout - The Round Sprite option causes some pixels to be filtered out or altered? Would you say it's more or less aggressive than the Forced Bilinear Filtering option in that regard? Have you tried it in FFXII to know if it filters anything important or noticeable? Can you suggest an alternative setting to improve the text and menus without removing pixels/effects/elements from other areas of FFXII?

Does anyone have any other settings or configuration suggestions for optimizing FFXII as much as possible? I'd be really curious to see what other users are using as their configurations for maximizing FFXII as far as possible. I looked up the PCSX2 Wiki Page for FFXII linked below but I don't know how I feel about the Tested/Suggested settings shown on that page for FFXII:

FFXII PCSX2 Wiki Page & Settings:
http://wiki.pcsx2.net/index.php/Final_Fantasy_XII