New monitor font looks like dogshit

[0rbisson]

I have just bought a new monitor with specs

MSI MAG 275F 27inch 180Hz FHD Rapid IPS Gaming Monitor, 1920x1080, 16:9, 0.5ms GtG, 1000:1 Contrast, 250 Nits, 1x DP 1.4, 2x HDMI 2.0b, HDR10, Adaptive Sync, Frameless Design, Tilt, VESA 100x100mm

For some reason the in game font looks like dogshit (see photo) it just doesnt look smooth it has this pixilated effect to it. i have the desktop res native and have q2pro res matching. Any ideas?

[QwazyWabbit]

I've seen that font before and it's probably in a pak file for that game mod. What mod are you playing in that screenshot?
The fonts in Q2 are defined in pics/conchars.pcx or possibly conchars.tga and mods can customize them.

You can change it in the mod by locating that file in the mod folder and either deleting it or replacing it for something you find more pleasing.

Keep in mind those typefaces were designed for a 640x480 resolution and when you get a better microscope you see details you never noticed before.

[|iR|Focalor]

Keep in mind those typefaces were designed for a 640x480 resolution and when you get a better microscope you see details you never noticed before.

I don't think it's any mod, probably just the conchars from a pak he's using.

But yeah, like qwazywabbit said, probably you're using a conchars image that is small and when it's getting magnified to display at 1920x1080, it's magnifying the zig-zaggy look of the edge of the pixels for the smaller image. The solution would be to re-make your conchars image at a bigger resolution... which can be quite a tedious chore. I have custom made upscaled conchars for a couple of my paks before. I spent lots of time making grid-lined templates in photoshop. But even with a grid to see where all the edges of each character can extend to, you have to manually arrange each letter and number, making sure you don't overlap anything, blah blah blah... it's very time consuming, and sometimes the end result looks like crap and probably isn't worth using. It can be frustrating when that happens.

I think the stock Q2 conchars are 128x128. (To upscale, you want to double the number, so 128 times 2 is 256, and 256 times 2 is 512, etc.) I've made some that were 256x256, and some that were 512x512. It's been 3 years or more since I've played around with making stuff for Q2, but from what I remember... I think I found that the 256x256 ones seemed to work better and look smoother in 1920x1080 than 512x512. You'd think that oversizing it and then having the game shrink the display size down would make the edges of the characters look like smoother cleaner lines, but no, unfortunately it doesn't work that way with conchars, at least not on my display.

Here's a site with a bunch of conchars for download:
https://gfx.quakeworld.nu/browse/charsets/

Right side top menu, it breaks it down by size (256, 512, 1024+). You can try different sizes and see what works best for you.

I noticed you said you got a new IPS panel monitor. Was your previous one an old-style TN panel? If so, how does the new one compare? Is there any blurry "ghosting" motion crap with movement in Quake2 or other shooters?

When I got this machine, I bought a TN panel cuz I thought it was the ONLY option for being able to play shooters like Q2 with no motion blurring, but I keep seeing these IPS monitors with .5 latency and 120+hz refresh... I would love to replace this thing with an IPS panel to get better color and clarity, but not if it's not every bit as responsive and blur-free.

[0rbisson]

The monitor itself is buttery smooth, but make sure if possible you connect using the dp instead of hdmi