Poor image quality after bad reboot

[Chief Blur Buster]

If the problem is screenshottable (if those real screenshots rather than fascimiles of what you are seeing), then the problem is already in the graphics frame buffer, that there's a potential GPU mis-scaling behaviour. Try seeing if the problem disappears if you uninstall the GPU drivers. (e.g. run off the default Microsoft drivers -- VGA drivers).

And try seeing if the problem disappears if you swap graphics cards temporarily, even to an older one.

[ZonePhoenix]

If the problem is screenshottable (if those real screenshots rather than fascimiles of what you are seeing)

I can't even understand what that means, they are screenshots, print screen then pasted into ms paint

If the problem is screenshottablethen the problem is already in the graphics frame buffer, that there's a potential GPU mis-scaling behaviour. Try seeing if the problem disappears if you uninstall the GPU drivers. (e.g. run off the default Microsoft drivers -- VGA drivers).

And try seeing if the problem disappears if you swap graphics cards temporarily, even to an older one.

Ive ran DDU to completely kill drivers, tried other cards, gtx 980, 1060, rx 580

Also what do you mean mis-scaling? If i play a game there is no scaling, im playing in monitor resolution

The other thing is there are people who can output the same way that i used to, this guys screenshots are only a year old, i messaged him on reddit but he stopped replying after 1 message
https://imgur.com/An7cr0z mine: top image
https://imgur.com/LqjFWWK mine: left image
Look at the difference in sharpness and colour of the sprites in the vendor and player icons

This is an absolutely huge problem that no-one seems to notice or care about

[ZonePhoenix]

The fact that the psu blew and one of the cables blew says alot to me

After the reboot one of the monitors was showing this weird grey image on the screen and it was flickering, its almost exactly like this which i stole from a youtube video showing edid errors https://i.imgur.com/phILi7w.png

After that the image quality went to shit, whites became light grey, blacks became dark grey and there was alot more blur

The monitors went alot more dim and i had to up the brightness from about 60% to 100%

Sometimes i wonder if its all a lack of voltage driving the signal to the monitor but how would i even be able to fix that

[ZonePhoenix]

Alot of people have said its windows so ive downloaded an iso of Windows 10 1511 from early 2016 to actually find that part out

[jorimt]

I can't figure this out

3 fucking years ive had this problem now



Why is this a thing in this day and age, this sucks

Honestly, since you're using DPI scaling, it simply looks like the difference between bilinear and bicubic upscaling at the OS-level:
http://nickyguides.digital-digest.com/b ... icubic.htm

It's very possible MS switched to (a "blurrier") bicubic method for DPI upscaling (which is actually considered higher quality) at some point in the update process over the years.

Could be something else, but I wouldn't know what at that point.

[ZonePhoenix]

I can't figure this out

3 fucking years ive had this problem now



Why is this a thing in this day and age, this sucks

Honestly, since you're using DPI scaling, it simply looks like the difference between bilinear and bicubic upscaling at the OS-level:
http://nickyguides.digital-digest.com/b ... icubic.htm

It's very possible MS switched to (a "blurrier") bicubic method for DPI upscaling (which is actually considered higher quality) at some point in the update process over the years.

Could be something else, but I wouldn't know what at that point.

Yeah and i don't really believe it's got anything to do with the windows dpi scaling, because if that was the case then all id have to do is set 100% dpi and the problem would be fixed right? But everything is still blurry ingame

But anyway ive gotta get around to installing an older version of windows to exclude it, even though it doesn't make sense to me how it would be different because the dpi setting shouldnt have any affect on an unscaled fullscreen game, literally all it does is resize the desktop elements up and down and that's all it does

[Stitch7]

Quite honestly the 2019 in my opinion looks better blended and the edges are smoother. The 2016 looks incredibly pixelated. However I have never noticed any issues and I've had this setup -for 6 years now.... The only thing that changed is my gpu and my cpu...

[jorimt]

Yeah and i don't really believe it's got anything to do with the windows dpi scaling, because if that was the case then all id have to do is set 100% dpi and the problem would be fixed right? But everything is still blurry ingame

But anyway ive gotta get around to installing an older version of windows to exclude it, even though it doesn't make sense to me how it would be different because the dpi setting shouldnt have any affect on an unscaled fullscreen game, literally all it does is resize the desktop elements up and down and that's all it does

Okay, so I took a couple screenshots on my system in the Division (1), and mine looks closer to your "after" (right click and "view image" for full size; these are uncompressed PNG):




Using a 1440p monitor, Windows 100% DPI scaling, Nvidia GPU scaling set to "Display" and "No-scaling."

Sorry to say, but I believe the "after" is perfectly normal, and what you had on the "before" was abnormal, whatever caused it. I think the reason you can't "fix" it, is that you actually can't "break" it again for whatever reason to revert it back to what was in your "before" images.

Your "before" images look closer to "Nearest neighbor" scaling (usually reserved for retro pixel art games) than even bilinear scaling to me. For instance, take a look at the "Base of Operations" icon; it's not even resolving each of the columns completely/properly in your "before" image:



That said, while using Windows scaling have you tried:

1. The Division.exe > right click > Properties > Compatibility > Change high DPI settings section? It has a lot of options regarding how DPI scaling affects some apps/games (and to be clear, DPI scaling CAN affect some apps/games).
2. System > Advanced system settings > Advanced > Performance "settings" > Visual Effects> Custom > Smooth edges of screen fonts? This won't affect anything but desktop fonts, but it will be interesting to know if that looks closer to your "before" images to you.
3. I assume you've tried ClearType settings? Again, not that it would affect anything but text.
4. IF you have an Nvidia GPU, have you tried messing with the scaling modes under Nvidia Control Panel > Adjust desktop size and position > Scaling?

I'd also add that we can only see so much on our side with screenshots. It's possible you're display is doing something in person we can't see from here, so I wouldn't rule that out either, but again, I'm thinking this scaling "issue" (at least from your screenshots) is normal, and you simply don't prefer the probably intended smoother system-wide display scaling method, DPI scaling or no DPI scaling.

[ZonePhoenix]

The windows 10 dpi setting and adjusting cleartype has no effect on gaming so i don't know what you really want me to say

You can keep adjusting cleartype and windows settings but that won't ever change how the way an unscaled fullscreen game looks, so i don't know what the point of your post is

[jorimt]

The windows 10 dpi setting and adjusting cleartype has no effect on gaming so i don't know what you really want me to say

From my previous post (relevant lines highlighted in bold and underlined):

2. System > Advanced system settings > Advanced > Performance "settings" > Visual Effects> Custom > Smooth edges of screen fonts? This won't affect anything but desktop fonts, but it will be interesting to know if that looks closer to your "before" images to you.
3. I assume you've tried ClearType settings? Again, not that it would affect anything but text.

You can keep adjusting cleartype and windows settings but that won't ever change how the way an unscaled fullscreen game looks, so i don't know what the point of your post is

That was a very small portion of my post (and the least relevant content) you pulled out. Do you have any comments on the rest of my previous post, or do you simply refuse to consider the possibility (just the possibility, mind you) that the scaling you prefer may end up being the aberration here?

If so, fair enough, I won't bother you further.