Contents
Install
Knowledge Base
Tab Features & Glossary
VBA Link & Trade
Pixel Filtering & Graphics Enhancement
Pixel-Art is renowned for its characteristic low resolutions, but VisualBoyAdvance provides users with the chance to customize their game’s look and feel by enhancing hand-drawn pixel art with scaling algorithms. These filters are a great way of making graphics look sharper than an authentic Game Boy Advance would on modern computer displays.
Users wanting a more “HD” or even nostalgic 1990’s experience whilst playing Game Boy Advance games, should utilize these settings for maximum effect.
Screen Filters
Easily customize your display output with the right scaling algorithm. To change and set a new Display Filter, go to Options > Video > Configure. Under Basic > Filters > Click on the drop-down menu and select your scaling algorithm.
Every Display filter has it’s own unique scaling algorithm and is best to test each one of them to fit your needs. Check out our “best settings” section or search up these filters included in VBA for additional information.
Interframe Blending
Interframe Blending, or every-other frame flickering, has long been a common effect used in video games. Most console games of the past have utilized phosphor fading on CRTs to achieve this effect, whereas newer Game Boy Advance systems target LCD panels and their response time for ghosting. Although modern LCDs have improved responsiveness, sometimes visible flickering can occur due to imperfect framerate settings.
This setting is switched off by default as only a handful of Game Titles requires Interframe Blending. If you do stumble upon a game that displays visible flickering, you should enable this option by going to Options > Video > Configure > Under Basic Tab > Filters > Click on the Interframe Blending drop-down menu and select either the Smart or Blur option to resolve.
Best Settings
With Visual Boy Advance offering users a handful of options to tinker with graphics and more, we’ve compiled a general “best settings” section to get the best look and feel while playing Game Boy Advance games.
1.Frameskip
FrameSkip allows an emulator to skip a certain amount of frames while maintaining the real-time speed of the game. This allows weak hardware to run games at a playable speed. For modern computers, this option should be removed.
- Change the Auto FrameSkip to 0 for best results by going to Options > Video > Configure > Click on Speed Tab and select 0.
2.Vsync
Vsync or Vertical Sync, synchronizes the refresh rate and frame rate of a monitor. GPU manufacturers developed this technology to solve screen tearing. Screen tearing happens when your GPU displays parts of multiple frames at once.
- To switch on Vsync on Visual Boy Advance go to “Emulation” and tick Vsync ON.
3.Pixel Filters
Make sure OpenGL is selected under output module for rendering 2D and 3D vector graphics and the scaled screen size is 4×4. This will allow you to get the best graphic ratios, with added pixel filters for enhanced graphic output.
- Best HD Pixel Filter
The best Display filter to get High Quality Definition will be xBRZ 6x.
- Nostalgic “1990’s” Feel
If you are looking for an old school filter, the best to choose from will be Scanlines or TV Mode.
4.Sound
Visual Boy advance allows you to customize and play around with various sound options. Firstly we will make sure all the sound enhancements are ticked under Options > Audio.
Originally, the GBA runs on a sample rate of 32.768kHz, however VBA allows us to upgrade the default sound quality and automatically configures it for us on a 44.1KHz sample rate. We can edit these settings by going to the Options Tab > Audio > Configure, if some games require a higher or lower rate.
Additionally, you can set your sound output device, number of sound buffers, enable hardware acceleration and stereo upmixing to adding a sound filtering capacity. On default this should already be ready-to-play.
5.More settings
More settings VisualBoyAdvance has to offer is the Real-Time clock, ensuring GBA games follow your Windows or real world time. This option can be configure under Options > Game Boy Advance > Real-Time Clock
Another feature that’s popular among our users is the Status Bar that gives us more details regarding our Framerate and Speed Counter. To enable the status bar just head over to Options > Video > Tick Status Bar.