Re: [openMSX-devel] Scaler refactoring

[<er...@au...>]

Some random remarks:

> Some practical issues:
> - what is a better name: "scale1x1on2x2" or "scale1x1to2x2"?

Same diff, imho. At the moment we have ...on..., so I guess we'd better stick
to that.

> The algorithm setting could keep the name "scaler" and as its values it would
> have "simple", "HQ", "Scale"/"ScaleNx", "SaI" etc.

Sounds good.

> I'm not sure yet about the resolution setting, some options:
> - a setting named "resolution" and as its values "320x240", "640x480" etc.
> drawback: selecting an arbitrary window size by dragging a corner is not
> possible

And it's not really a 'resolution', it's more a 'window-size' ...

> - a separate "resolutionx" and "resolutiony" settings (integer ranges)
> drawback: when changing them on the console, it's more typing and if you type
> only one command per line, the screen will change twice

set resolution 320 240
set resolution-x 320
set resolution-y 240

(Or %s/resolution/windowsize/ :-))

> If scanlines and blur cannot be matched, they are just ignored.

But hopefully with some feed back to the user, otherwise I guess we'll get
a lot of bogus '"scanlines/blur" doesn't work on my machine' bug reports ...

> A scaler algorithm may have a limited number of zoom factors. [...]
> It could be useful to select a different fallback
> for each scaler, so a sharp scaler like ScaleNx will use nearest neighbour
> and a blurry scaler like SaI will use bilinear interpolation.

Hm, I'm not sure whether I, as a user, would like that. If I select a specific
scaler, I expect openMSX to use *that* scaler. If that scaler can not handle
the resolution/zoom factor, I think I'd rather see a fall-back to the nearest
scaleNx than a similar-but-not-quite-the-same scaler.

> How should OSD elements such as the icons and the console behave for 
> different output window sizes?

The OSD elements are not part of the MSX output, but belong to openMSX's
user interface. Hence they should not be subject to scaling and always have
the same size (ehm, in pixel count that is :-)).  Even if that means having
a rather small console and teeny-weeny leds on high resolutions.

> Wouter and I would like to start working on this refactoring right now. This
> means we will not be able to release in the next few weeks. I hope you can be
> patient a bit longer.

I wasn't even aware of any plans for a release ^_^

Just my 2ct
    Eric