Final Fantasy Hacktics

I realized something pretty great last night about FFT having two resolutions simutaneously. The 3-D maps, textures and the HUD are all in 512x480 while the sprites and portraits and menus are all 256x240 doubled and juxtapositioned over that. When you play in window mode set to 512x480 you can clearly see the two different resolutions.
This is actually mode 06 of the eight modes PSX's games come in; here are the other modes: UPDATE SEE BELOW Two posts down

Mode 0 256x240 (Non Interlaced)
"       1 320x240 (Non Interlaced)
"       2 512x240 (Non Interlaced)
"       3 640x240 (Non Interlaced)
________________________

Mode 4 256x480 (Interlaced)
"       5 320x480 (Interlaced)
"       6 512x480 (Interlaced)
"       7 640x480 (Interlaced)
So setting your emulator to window mode and setting the window size to 512x480 allows you to see every pixel in its intended shape and size. This mode is not commonly used in other PSX titles. I read somewhere that the most common mode in Playstation used is Mode 1 320x240.
To make that twice as big and retaining its perfectness pixelwise I use Magnifixer set at 2x. You can right click to set it to a fixed location or hit control F. The freeware is here: http://www.blacksunsoftware.com/screenmagnifier.html (http://www.blacksunsoftware.com/screenmagnifier.html)
Using magnifixer to double it might not be  neccesary, setting the window to exactly twice the native resolution might work too. But because I'm so dazzled by this pixel perfection and have a spare monitor I will just stick to using magnifixer.

First screenshot is of the settings and the second one is of the game itself.

Wow looks great for you man, I don't know why its not working for me. I followed all your guidelines and have the same video converter Pete's.

 I've done some trial and error on this and found the best settings ever.. because they 1. display all the pixels properly, as in, no un-uniformly  stretched rows or anything; 2. the map shows perfectly (no black) & 3. the rain effects etc. show purrfectly... it's pretty sexy. They also work in any ratio: widescreen, TV-screen ratio, and native.
Here are the settings in epsxe:
(http://i.imgur.com/ucBvopR.png)

A large example of wide screen : (an ideal size for a 27" monitor though it's almost like 1 and half width pixels and they aren't perfect but still pretty dang nice when filling up your monitor)

Here is a sample of the settings in a large native ratio; in this ratio you can also set STRETCHING MODE to 1: like so but if you have it set to 0: it's fine too. (I couldn't see a difference):
(http://i.imgur.com/tZHRpYh.png)

A large example of native: (the pixels are perfectly square)

Resolution examples (most tested):

'Native Rez' [figure a]:         'TV Ratios' [figure b]:        'Widescreen' [figure c]:
 
   512x480                              640x480                         960x540
  768x720                               960x720                        1280x720
  1024x960                             1280x960                       1600x900
  1280x1200                           1600x1200                     1920x1080                 
  1440x1536 (not sure if anyone has monitor that large)

Fig. A

Fig. B

Fig. C

While this is pixel perfect, it isn't the intended viewing aspect. The intended viewing aspect is 4:3, not 16:15. It's nice for not seeing distorted graphics by video plugins that don't know how to properly resize anything, but everything is still taller than it should be.

The 60fps demo of Ridge Racer runs at 640x240, but you wouldn't play that in 8:3, for example. Everything would just be distractingly short and squatty.

Also, I do my portraits with the intent that they be viewed in 4:3, like an actual PlayStation would display it as. Wish everybody did that.

---

Edit:
I loathe uneven row/columns of pixels as much as you do, and equally loathe the interpolation so many emulators fall back on. A few emulators do have the above nice option, which scales at pixel aspect until the image is larger than the display window, then scales the image down. No rows or columns appear uneven, the image is softened only slightly, and the screen looks as intended by the developers.

Thanks Toshiko. I'm wondering if the scenes like the bar and other images are reformatted to 4:3 in the same way.
I agree; in 4:3 it looks like it did on my TV. (widescreen looks awkward & the un-reformated 16:15  makes the map look a bit confined in battle mode; though as a pixeler I dig it.
So if you use any of the ratios in the middle column I posted it should be perfect (example fig.b). The other two ratios are optional.

Semi important update:
I found a weird flaw that I can't explain; involving the sound plug-in. if you use ePSXe core 1.7.0 it will make the map black again. Using Eternal SPU plugin Lite works fine though and wont mess with the video. I have no idea why that happens; it makes no sense.

Still having issues when new spells are used in this configuration. It hangs skipping sound behind the frozen screen then works about 5 seconds in. I've got to get this working D:

I want to see Journey of 5 spells >.<

But thank you for the starting point! MUCH appreciated (:

Well after reading around I crossed paths with a comment from Elric who said he wasn't fond of ePSXe and preferred PSXFin. Considering he's part of the development team for Jot5, I thought "Surely it'll work for this then!". So, I grabbed a copy and Volai! Runs smooth, no customization or settings needed(besides memory card setup) and I even got to hear the old Sony boot up again as a cherry on top.

I love you ePSXe. I do. But you have been replaced.

 I haven't tried that emulator. I'll have to check it out sometime.
I actually miss that sound of the Sony boot up.

I REALLY need to teach Elric to stop using the wrong name. It's pSX. The executable for the final version of pSX is called 'psxfin.exe' because pSX Fin(al).

I understand that this is compatible with psx emulator. It's not working when I go to run it as an ISO. Do I have to run it some other way?

Should work fine as an ISO. All of my images are BIN+CUE, though, so I can't test; I don't have a CD/DVD drive anymore to rip any of my games in a different format. Might be a bad image?

This is common when people try to covert a bin or img to iso. Since they don't know its not needed as all 3 work fine.