Getting blurry image with half resolution?

[Menigmand]

I'm trying to get the last gaming juice out of an old laptop, so I want to cut the resolution. Problem is, it makes the image soft and slightly blurry.

I know about interpolation, but I'm cutting the resolution by exactly half, so each pixel should map perfectly to 4 pixels, and so I don't understand why I'm still getting the blur?

Someone told me that some screens will blur the image even though the resolution is exactly half. How can I make it stop doing that?

I'm on a 1680x1050 screen, and trying to run the game in 840x 525.

Please help

 

[clutchc]

That is one of the drawbacks of LCD displays that never used to be a problem with older CRT displays. Pixels don't map the way you expect them to. LCD displays are only accurate at their native resolution.

 

[Menigmand]

That is one of the drawbacks of LCD displays that never used to be a problem with older CRT displays. Pixels don't map the way you expect them to. LCD displays are only accurate at their native resolution.

So the idea of going with exactly half resolution to avoid blurring of the image simply won't work? No trick to make it happen?

 

[clutchc]

I have found no way to get my LCD displays to look 'good' at any resolution other than the native resolution. I wouldn't describe it as 'blurry', more like grainy or ruddy with poor clarity. What other wide-screen resolution options are offered when you right click the desktop and choose screen resolution? Do any of the other (non-fractional) choices look the same?

 

[Menigmand]

I later discovered that I was in fact not running at the half resolution I wanted. The game discarded my choice of resolution and defaulted to 1024x768, which was then stretched to 1680x1050. It was only when I disabled stretch-to-fill that I discovered the resolution was wrong.

Until I find a way to make the game accept 840x525, I guess this is a moot point. Still wondering about it though.

 

[Sailorondatea]

Actually I'm not a gamer but I am wondering about the same thing here. I have a 1920*1080px monitor. I knew about getting blury images but sometimes I just want to use it at half resolution (960*540) and expect sharp edges, pixelated image instead of interpolated image. I find this frustrating.
My monitor has aspect ratio options like original, full wide, zoom, 4:3, 14:9... One of them is "just scan" which, I assume, means 1:1 ratio. But when I lower the resolution, I only left with 16:9 and 4:3 options. All the rest are grayed out.
Now I wonder if it is about my screen or something to do with windows. [strike]I tried but I can't apply 640*400 for my laptop so I cant test it on native screen.[/strike]
It is the same on laptop screen. If I leave screen scaling settings on.
If I disable scaling, it just puts image in the middle and fills rest of screen blank with black. Well.. it is crisp but wont use whole screen :/