Filtering - bolrog/d2dx GitHub Wiki
In fullscreen mode, or when using a window scale factor > 1, D2DX has to scale the game graphics to fit the screen. This can be done in different ways, described here.
The default (high quality, sharp) setting is chosen to give a pleasant experience without undue blurring or aliasing artifacts. If you're not a fan of seeing "pixels", other options are available.
Default (high quality, sharp)
filtering=0
This mode uses integer scaling to achieve a sharp result, or "antialiased nearest neighbor" filtering when an integer scale factor can't be used.
Bilinear
filtering=1
This mode uses a four-tap bilinear filter for a smoother result, at the price of overall blurriness.
Catmull-Rom bicubic
filtering=2
This mode uses a clever nine-tap bicubic filter for a smooth, but sharper than bilinear, result.