Laptop Screen Makes MS Train Sim Look Like Crap...

[Caveman]

I just got a Compaq laptop and have installed MS Train simulator on it. Although the 1 GHz Athlon runs the program much faster than my old 300 MHz PII, my graphics look horrid and blocky -- the detail just isn't there. All things being equal, is an LCD screen not capable of producing detailed images or is it just a function of my video card? Any ideas? Running Win XP so I've got DX8.1

 

[jschuk]

LCD's do find displaying images, just look at the same picture on your laptop and desktop. All LCD's for the past several years can display 16bit color and most will do 24bit. Several things can make your game graphics look bad. If the game requires 3D, the culprit could your video chip. You also might check to make sure the game is using the 3D adapter and using software rendering (may not be an option). LCD's also have a native resolution and look best when they run at that resolution. Change your resolution in windows and you will see. So check to make sure the game is running at the LCD's native resolution. Now some LCD's do have problems refreshing the screen and this will show up as streaking or even ghosting. This is especially true of passive matrix LCD's.

 

[Caveman]

WOW, thanks much for the reply. Very informative.