How to Configure Point Scale Filtering in OBS

This article provides a quick, step-by-step guide on how to configure the “Scale Filtering” setting to “Point” in OBS Studio. By changing this setting, you can prevent blurry upscaling and maintain sharp, crisp pixel art when capturing or streaming low-resolution retro emulation sources.

To configure Point Scale Filtering in OBS Studio, follow these steps:

1. Locate your retro source: Open OBS Studio and find your emulation source in the Sources dock at the bottom of the screen. This is typically a Window Capture, Game Capture, or Video Capture Device.
2. Access the source menu: Right-click on the specific source you want to adjust.
3. Navigate to Scale Filtering: In the context menu that appears, hover your cursor over the Scale Filtering option.
4. Select Point: Click on Point from the sub-menu.

By default, OBS Studio uses bilinear filtering to scale video sources. While bilinear filtering works well for modern, high-resolution games by smoothing out rough edges, it causes low-resolution retro games (such as NES, SNES, or Sega Genesis titles) to look blurry and washed out when scaled up to 1080p or 4K.

Selecting Point filtering—often referred to as nearest-neighbor interpolation—forces OBS to scale the source by duplicating the original pixels without any smoothing. This preserves the sharp, blocky, and authentic aesthetic of classic pixel art on your stream or recording.