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After tweaking some settings again I'm starting to think maybe if some of these alphabet soup options had little layman-friendly descriptions as to what they are and what they're for would be much more helpful than any simplification. (says the guy who couldn't figure out what his midi device was set to because that option was on a different screen than the midi options, but then I don't think anything in the graphics settings is anywhere near that bad)

[quote="Hellser"]* = NUKED, MAME, Java, DOSBox, ADLMidi, OPNMidi[/quote]
I think, I need to describe you something:
* NUKED, MAME, Java, DOSBox are emulators of OPL3/OPL2 chips, not a MIDI synthesizers. MIDI synthesizers over chips are usually interpreting MIDI commands into native commands of chips by register data writing.
* ADLMIDI is MIDI synthesizer that uses one of the OPL3 (YMF262) emulators, different from "OPL Synth Emulation" synthesizer
* OPNMIDI is MIDI synthesizer that uses an emulator of OPN2 (YM2612) chip which is different from OPLx but produces a similar sound. This chip is notable for wide usage in Sega Megadrive/Genesis game console. Before I implemented OPNMIDI, there were no any working MIDI players over that chip while there are a lot of them for an OPL3 chip.

So, in fact, there are three independent FM MIDI synthesizers: "OPL Synth Emulation", "ADLMIDI", and "OPNMIDI".

Thanks! Yeah, didn't mean to cause a tangent. That's indeed a separate topic altogether. :P

Well, if you guys would like to help brainstorm/workshop some better organization for the menu system, feel free to weigh in here: https://forum.zdoom.org/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=60041

[quote="Xaser"]

Back on topic, I'd like to echo the sentiments from earlier that the menu makes it really tough to figure out [i]what[/i] to change (I know of at least one person who stuck to 2.8.1 specifically because it took too much fiddling to try and get the classic look back). A menu revamp is a topic for another thread, but the presets will relieve most of the pain.[/quote]

I personally get very confused navigating GZDoom's options menu and often just choose to deal with the default look and play. I do this because I have a hard time knowing what to change. The comfort of gameplay that fits my selective choices and exploring all the features that have been so graciously added isn't worth the hassle of wrangling with the menu with little knowledge of what I'm actually doing. If I knew what to change to get what effect, I'd do it.

^ Basically this. It's the same problem as keybinds; there's no such One Cfg to Rule Them All, but some reasonable presets will go a long way.

Quotin' my suggestions from the other thread:
[quote]
[list][*]OpenGL Filtered (current defaults, only with Software light mode set by default)
[*]OpenGL Nearest (GL_NEAREST_MIPMAP_LINEAR, possibly with AF turned on for some crispness; Software light mode too)
[*]Software Truecolor (w/dynlights)
[*]Software Classic (paletted; no dynlights; basically the same visuals as ZDoom 2.8.1)[/list]
[/quote]

As mentioned in the list, though, one thing IMO that [i]should[/i] be changed for all cases is the default light mode -- "Dark" is not accurate to Doom's lighting model; "Software" is. The latter produces correct results in the vast majority of Doom maps (i.e. non-GZDoom maps or ones that don't target a particular lightmode), while the former is just an older mode that's the default for legacy reason (and GPU-compatibility I suppose), and unfortunately this is something that's more pervasive that contributes to the "GZDoom just looks wrong" sentiment that tends to float around. As opposed to filtering which are user preferences that people know they can turn off, the light model is way more sneaky.

Back on topic, I'd like to echo the sentiments from earlier that the menu makes it really tough to figure out [i]what[/i] to change (I know of at least one person who stuck to 2.8.1 specifically because it took too much fiddling to try and get the classic look back). A menu revamp is a topic for another thread, but the presets will relieve most of the pain.

[url=https://my.mixtape.moe/fajbzu.mp4]no, there really isn't any mipmapping.[/url] but back to the topic at hand.

seriously, just have a list of five or six graphical presets when you first start the game; two for software (one as faithful as possible, one as zdoom-y as possible), and three or four for opengl (one as faithful as possible, one that's focused on delivering a clean image, maybe one for gzdoom's current defaults, one that's decked out as hard as possible). it's quick and easy, it's impossible for the player to ignore, and if the player wants to fine tune it, there's nothing stopping them.

at the very least, it's a decent stopgap until the options menu becomes less of a labyrinthine nightmare.

What do I know what the driver does? There's clearly some mipmapping going on, but please do not ask me what's happening precisely. It may even differ between graphics cards.

... so then if anisotropic turned on mipmapping on its own, setting the filter mode to mipmap wouldn't change much. because it's already doing mipmaps.

someone's missing something here

edit: [url=https://my.mixtape.moe/wezjrj.mp4]yeah you still clearly have the shimmering of nearest neighbor going on, even with aniso x16[/url]

Because that's what mipmapping does: Sampling from a smaller, downfiltered version of the texture.

then why does actually turning trilinear mipmapping on completely change the metal and wood textures in the distance

Except, yes. That's exactly what it is doing. It's forcing Trilinear mipmapping on. Something that as you've pointed out, don't realize it is being forced on unless you go back to Texture Filtering.

[quote="Graf Zahl"]Ok, so effectively setting the anisotropic filter appears to force the mipmap filtering to be turned on.[/quote]
[url=https://my.mixtape.moe/ezhcfa.mp4]except no that's wrong too[/url]

Ok, so effectively setting the anisotropic filter appears to force the mipmap filtering to be turned on.

[quote="Graf Zahl"][quote="Hellser"]
As for what is right or what is wrong when it comes to the appearance of GZDoom - I personally use the "None" option with 16x Anisotropic Filtering.[/quote]

That's some weird combination. You are aware that with no filtering the anisotropic option won't do anything, right? For that to have an effect you need to have mipmaps enabled.

Or are you using None (Trilinear)?[/quote]

I'm using "None". Visually there's no difference if I were to switch to any of the mipmapping choices at 16x anisotropic or even if I have them off. If I were to turn off with that setting, then there's a big difference.

[url=https://i.imgur.com/x8xNiKI.png]Here's a screenshot of "None"[/url], zoomed in 4x with anisotropic filtering set to off. [url=https://i.imgur.com/dthnYel.png]Here's another screenshot[/url] with the filtering set to 16x.

[quote="GFD"](Don't include keybinds here, though—that's better suited for [url=https://forum.zdoom.org/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=60028]this topic[/url].)[/quote]
Heh, thanks. Waking up and attempting to make a post leads to mistakes. :lol: