[SDL] XFree86 4.3.0, SDL 1.2.5 refresh rates ...

[Andy Ross]

Nicolai Haehnle wrote:
> Is there a sane reason why somebody would want to run a refresh rate
> lower than the maximum reported? Basically everybody I know wants to
> use the maximum refresh rate all the time, because everything else
> just unnecessarily hurts the eyes.

Yes.  I've seen windows games select ridiculous modes like 1024x768 @
150Hz.  Beyond being an absurd choice (anything over about 80Hz is
undetectable to the human nervous system), it confuses monitors.  The
image ends up squashed or stretched or very off-center.  Monitors have
builtin mode calibrations for typical choices, but they don't
understand 150 Hz, even if they can display it.

That said, it seems the nice folks at XFree have already dealt with
this for us.  My monitor exports a maximum vertical refresh of 180Hz,
yet the XFree exported modes top out at a pleasant 85 Hz (even at the
very low resolutions where the card could do 180 if it wanted to).

So it's apparently not a problem.  XFree does the Right Thing, and SDL
should be able to select the fastest mode at the given resolution.

Andy