Hardware Scanlines

[Bing1093]

So lately I’ve noticed that the top screen of my N3DSXL has scanlines. But they go away when the 3D mode is on. They’re mostly noticeable when I’m playing games that make the screen smaller so I have to move my face closer, like GBC games, since I play them using the exact scaling option.

Just wanted to know why the system has scanlines, since I thought only CRTs had them?

 

[KleinesSinchen]

This is more like an optical illusion – not real scanlines. Because you have this very unequal resolution of 800x240 on the upper screen in 2D mode, the pixels look much finer in horizontal orientation. Any given pixel is duplicated once horizontally. It is much easier to see the individual lines than individual pixels in this mode. This effect cannot be seen on a O2DS with its 400x240 screen.

In 3D mode you get 400x240 per eye and will not notice “scanlines” but you can clearly see individual pixels like on the O2DS (on the XL models this is easy even with not so good eyes).

Please excuse the image quality. My camera is bad and taking pictures of an LCD is not easy – especially in 3D mode. Plus: I have to compress them heavily before uploading. So there are jpg compression artifacts when you zoom in.
You can see that the parallax barrier looks almost as wide as the pixels. I have to emphasize this: A normal camera gets only ONE of the two 3D-images so the 3D mode photo is nothing like looking at a 3DS with both eyes.
Photos taken from: 3D Classics Kirby’s Adventure

 

[Kubas_inko]

3DS has 2x more pixels horizontally than vertically. And each "second" vertical row will get enabled when you enable 3D.
800x240 with 3D (= 400x240 + 400x240)

 

[Bing1093]

This is more like an optical illusion – not real scanlines. Because you have this asymmetric resolution of 800x240 on the upper screen in 2D mode, the pixels look much finer in horizontal orientation. Any given pixel is duplicated once horizontally. It is much easier to see the individual lines than individual pixels in this mode. This effect cannot be seen on a 2DS(XL) with its 400x240 screen.

In 3D mode you get 400x240 per eye and will not notice “scanlines” but you can clearly see individual pixels like on the 2DS (on the XL this is easy even with not so good eyes).

Please excuse the image quality. My camera is bad and taking pictures of an LCD is not easy – especially in 3D mode. Plus: I have to compress them heavily before uploading. So there are jpg compression artifacts when you zoom in.
You can see that the parallax barrier looks almost as wide as the pixels. I have to emphasize this: A normal camera gets only ONE of the two 3D-images so the 3D mode photo is nothing like looking at a 3DS with both eyes.
Photos taken from: 3D Classics Kirby’s Adventure
View attachment 146815 View attachment 146816

Thanks for such a detailed response!