hi,

i started up Myst, Riven, etc. and the resolution is pretty bad. how can i improve it please?

Of all the fruitless searches?

Depends on what you mean. If you actually mean the resolution of the games, they're pre-rendered so they are what they are.

If the problem is something else then you're going to have to be more specific.

sorry. the games are very grainy. can see pixels. edges are jagged.

Ah, in that case yes, that's just what the games look like. Unless you're seeing something significantly different from the pics on the store page?

Play them on a 14-17" CRT monitor and they'll look like they were intended to look.
Next topic: explosions in Space Invaders don't look realistic!

I believe Real Myst can be played in higher resolutions than the original release. A quick google says Myst can only be played in 640x480. Chances are your video card is trying to display the game in a high resolution and color range.

Without knowing what specific OS you;re running, kind of hard to point you in the right direction. Windows has a compatibility mode you can modify the resolution and color ranges. You may want to look into that. I seem to recall the original Myst being just like that.

thank you. running Windows 10. ill check compatability mode

What teceem said, on a crt these games look pretty awesome.

You could try applying a filter with Reshade but I don't think it will work in this case as afaik Myst isn't a Direct3D or OpenGL application but maybe there are other filtering options out there.

If you want to apply a filter to Myst or Riven, ScummVM is probably your best bet.
It also lets you play Myst in widescreen, in as much as the original images were letterboxed by the game engine and ScummVM can display them full screen. ResidualVM can do similarly for Myst 3 actually.

It's physically impossible to raise the resolution of a pixel image. Scaling and interpolating can't add image information that was never there in the first place.

A bit off topic: I always wondered were community mods that add higher resolution textures to 3D games get their textures from? Do the makers of those mods make their own textures or do they redistribute them from (commercial) databases?

For specific kinds of images, upscaling works amazingly.
For example, waifu2x upscale Anime-Style Art, and almost always output very good result.

Many otaku use waifu2x to upscale anime, and are satisfied with the machine-produced pseudo-HD video.

But still, it's subjective. Some people like interpolation, others prefer the original pixels.
Interpolation can look better (my opinion) if you're sitting farther from the screen (e.g. couch - TV).

I meant the resolution and color range of the screen and video card. Windows 10 still has the 256 color mode and you can put it in 640 x 480 display mode.

Sorry if I wasn't clear.

To be honest, I don;t think it;s going to make it better. I recall the game was pixelated when I played it but it won;t hurt to try.

Yeah, that's just what Myst and Riven looked like. They were made in the 1990s, so they're well over 20 years old. They were amazing for the time, but time has been less than kind to them. Which is why RealMyst and RealMyst ME were made.