Diablo 2 Blurry when character is in motion

Ask about motion blur reduction in gaming monitors. Includes ULMB (Ultra Low Motion Blur), NVIDIA LightBoost, ASUS ELMB, BenQ/Zowie DyAc, Turbo240, ToastyX Strobelight, etc.
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Indialien
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Joined: 01 Mar 2020, 23:02

Diablo 2 Blurry when character is in motion

Post by Indialien » 08 Apr 2021, 17:56

I'm having a really frustrating graphics issue in Diablo 2.
When my character is standing still, everything on screen appears clear and sharp.
When my character starts moving around, especially side to side, everything on the screen, except for my character, starts vibrating side to side really fast, creating a double vision blurry appearance.

I've tried Sven's Glide wrapper.

I've tried changing the resolution of my monitor (a 160hz Gsync monitor).

I run the game through D2SE. Both D2SE and Diablo 2 are running in XP service pack 3 and in admin mode.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Specs: 2080Ti, i9 9900K, 16GB DDR4, 2 monitors (160hz gsync & 60hz)

MCLV
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Joined: 04 Mar 2021, 15:04

Re: Diablo 2 Blurry when character is in motion

Post by MCLV » 10 Apr 2021, 04:38

Indialien wrote:
08 Apr 2021, 17:56
When my character starts moving around, especially side to side, everything on the screen, except for my character, starts vibrating side to side really fast, creating a double vision blurry appearance.
Does it look similar to this? https://www.testufo.com/

alexander1986
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Joined: 10 Jan 2019, 01:07

Re: Diablo 2 Blurry when character is in motion

Post by alexander1986 » 10 Apr 2021, 09:07

could be because of the hard 25 fps limit in singleplayer, if you type /fps in the game chat you will see your fps and ping, 25 is limit in singleplayer but 200 is limit on b.net/local tcp/ip game,


only annoying thing with local tcp/ip game is that maps won't save and will be reset every time, but its the same as playing on battle.net..also takes a few seconds to create new game instead of instant, but the mouse feeling and game smoothness will be *extremely* better when playing online/local tcp/ip game..


think there is some mods out there also that disable the 25 fps limit in singleplayer but I never tried that, anyway good thing D2 resurrected is coming and the fps limit is gone there + new graphics :)

Indialien
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Joined: 01 Mar 2020, 23:02

Re: Diablo 2 Blurry when character is in motion

Post by Indialien » 10 Apr 2021, 09:22

Does it look similar to this?
It looks very similar to the 40fps row along the bottom. It has that same double vision look, where it looks like the image is vibrating back and forth. Is that normal because of the low fps?

I'm well aware that Diablo 2 is capped at 25fps in single player. It can technically go higher than 25fps in battlenet or IP game, but it's only for your mouse pointer. The game still runs at 25fps even online because the animations are anchored to that 25fps limit. All the timings in the game are built around that frame rate.

MCLV
Posts: 43
Joined: 04 Mar 2021, 15:04

Re: Diablo 2 Blurry when character is in motion

Post by MCLV » 11 Apr 2021, 16:04

Yes, that's the effect of tracking moving objects at low fps. I dug out my old installation of Diablo II and checked how the motion looks like. I can basically see the same thing like you report. It is much more pronounced when running the game in fullscreeen mode. While it was still present in windowed mode, it wasn't that intrusive for me personally.

Indialien
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Joined: 01 Mar 2020, 23:02

Re: Diablo 2 Blurry when character is in motion

Post by Indialien » 12 Apr 2021, 10:23

I experience the same thing. It is worse in full screen mode for me as well.

I played Diablo 2 at a friend's house just a few days ago and his runs perfectly. There is no double image look when he moves around in game. It looks very smooth. He plays fullscreen, and it looks fantastic. He has objectively lower quality hardware in hic pc than I do. I helped him build the pc since he was on a budget. It's essentially a lower version of my own computer. He plays on a pretty sizeable tv instead of a computer monitor.

I have asked people in other forums and on a couple Diablo Discord channels about this same issue I'm having. The reply is always along the lines of, "I've never noticed that before. The game runs smooth and looks clear for me."
Are so many people simply unable to see it? Do they just not notice it? Or, like my friend, are they being honest and the game runs well for them?

I'm not sure how to remedy this. I can play the way it is because I enjoy the game so much. But, it sure would be nice if my computer could run this 20 year old game. A 2080Ti, i9 9900K, 16GB RAM shouldn't be struggling to run this game imo. Something must be wrong. I just don't know what it is...

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Chief Blur Buster
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Re: Diablo 2 Blurry when character is in motion

Post by Chief Blur Buster » 12 Apr 2021, 14:10

Indialien wrote:
12 Apr 2021, 10:23
I experience the same thing. It is worse in full screen mode for me as well.
Indialen:
Let me guess: You have a VA-panel monitor, or a curved monitor? They’re kind of so-so with Diablo II due to slow pixel response for the dark colors of Diablo II’s dungeon scenes.
Head of Blur Busters - BlurBusters.com | TestUFO.com | Follow @BlurBusters on Twitter

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Indialien
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Re: Diablo 2 Blurry when character is in motion

Post by Indialien » 13 Apr 2021, 14:58

I have an ASUS ROG SWIFT PG248Q 160Hz G-SYNC Monitor. I also have an ASUS VN247 60Hz Monitor. I use both monitors as a dual monitor set up. I've tried running Diablo 2 on each one with the same result.

MCLV
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Re: Diablo 2 Blurry when character is in motion

Post by MCLV » 17 Apr 2021, 11:04

Indialien wrote:
12 Apr 2021, 10:23
I experience the same thing. It is worse in full screen mode for me as well.

I played Diablo 2 at a friend's house just a few days ago and his runs perfectly. There is no double image look when he moves around in game. It looks very smooth. He plays fullscreen, and it looks fantastic. He has objectively lower quality hardware in hic pc than I do. I helped him build the pc since he was on a budget. It's essentially a lower version of my own computer. He plays on a pretty sizeable tv instead of a computer monitor.

I have asked people in other forums and on a couple Diablo Discord channels about this same issue I'm having. The reply is always along the lines of, "I've never noticed that before. The game runs smooth and looks clear for me."
Are so many people simply unable to see it? Do they just not notice it? Or, like my friend, are they being honest and the game runs well for them?

I'm not sure how to remedy this. I can play the way it is because I enjoy the game so much. But, it sure would be nice if my computer could run this 20 year old game. A 2080Ti, i9 9900K, 16GB RAM shouldn't be struggling to run this game imo. Something must be wrong. I just don't know what it is...
Well, I don't think that the fact that 25 fps game looks bad when field of view is panning is surprising in any way. And I'm not surprised that some people don't complain about that either. It's simple because they are used to it and they consider it normal.

The only interesting thing is that you say that it looks good on a TV at your friend's house. Could you maybe try to connect a PC monitor to his setup and check how it looks there? Maybe there is a motion interpolation enabled on the TV which removes the stutter?

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Re: Diablo 2 Blurry when character is in motion

Post by Chief Blur Buster » 19 Apr 2021, 18:03

Try this:

Things To Try
  1. Disable multimonitor (test only one monitor connected -- other monitor unplugged)
  2. Test with G-SYNC ON, the overdrive behaves different.
  3. Test with G-SYNC OFF, try manually changing different overdrive settings
  4. Test at lower Hz, with ULMB ON. Try 85 Hz ULMB motion blur reduction, usually the lowest ULMB Hz supported on 144-160Hz monitors.
  5. Test at plain jane 60 Hz. Switch your high-Hz monitor temporarily to 60 Hz. Use this refresh rate specifically for this low-framerate game.
  6. In rare cases, 70Hz looks better for old DOS game ports that hasn't been stutter-corrected for 60Hz, since VGA was a 70Hz mode
G-SYNC can still work with certain 20-year-old-games if they're Windows ports of DOS games
G-SYNC will sometimes work with old Windows games, provided the old Windows game (even if it's a port) supports a VSYNC OFF setting with any DirectX/Direct3D APIs, as G-SYNC is simply a visually enhanced extension of VSYNC OFF.

But sometimes G-SYNC=OFF works much better for specific games
Tweak your overdrive manually instead. You have to turn off G-SYNC to manually tweak this. ASUS has AMA settings, see LCD Overdrive FAQ which you can tweak to make motion better and less blurry for dark dungeons.

Force a game to specific Hz
You can force a game to a specific refresh rate through various tricks (eg. creating a custom 1920x1079 mode with only one refresh rate). Configure Diablo to the nonstandard custom resolution you've created, and it gets forced to use your custom refresh rate & its custom settings. Disable stretch mode ("No Scaling" in NVCP).

Avoid Overclocked Hz for Dark Dungeon Games: Slower GtG
Try avoid overclocked refresh rates for dark dungeon games, since LCD GtG is slower at overclocked refresh rates than non-overclocked refresh rates (e.g. 100Hz, 120Hz, 144Hz looking better than 160Hz). Slow pixel response problems appears more often in dark colors found in dark dungeon games!

Try testing motion blur reduction mode such as ULMB
Also, monitors with fast-GtG can look unusually stuttery for low-framerate games. You may wish to test again with ULMB turned on at the lowest refresh rate (e.g. 85 Hz) that your specific monitor supports. This will mimic CRT stutter better than LCD stutter, and might "feel better".

Strategically avoid max-Hz for low-framerate games if all fail
Sometimes using max-Hz for low-Hz games sometimes backfires on quality with retro games at certain settings. Some high-Hz screens do a great job at low-Hz but not all of them. Sometimes a monitor's 60 Hz setting actually fixes problems for old games, especially console ports.
Head of Blur Busters - BlurBusters.com | TestUFO.com | Follow @BlurBusters on Twitter

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Forum Rules wrote:  1. Rule #1: Be Nice. This is published forum rule #1. Even To Newbies & People You Disagree With!
  2. Please report rule violations If you see a post that violates forum rules, then report the post.
  3. ALWAYS respect indie testers here. See how indies are bootstrapping Blur Busters research!

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