When i run games in hardware they fill the (4:3) screen. Switch to software (or run the software core) and there are the normal black bars on the sides and added black bars on the top and bottom of most games.
From searching here it seems the software core is more accurate and since i use native with CRT shaders its better to use software?
I don’t play a lot of PSX an was mostly using the HW core. I starting looking into it because Crash Team Racing didn’t seem/feel right in HW.
You can play with the initial and last scanline core options to crop the bars off the top and bottom. You may have to restart the core for your changes to take effect.
For every single game? :’( hehe
If you want to be exacting, since PSX games have all different sized bars. Though there is a little consistency in some Square and Naughty Dog games.
That’s annoying… heh 
Is there a setting that looks “best” for most? I was just playing Harmful Park and there is no bars. How come HW can display Naughty Dog games as a full 4:3 image?
Not really, since many games draw in the full 240 framebuffer so you don’t have to cut off anything, but the Crash games have 12 pixel black bars. So if you cut them off for all games, you’d probably cut off UI elements in many of them. Maybe the HW renderer has some auto crop ability that can detect solid black?
Also, when you use the initial and last scanline options to crop, the aspect ratio isn’t adjusted. So the image is stretched taller and skinnier. I’ve combated this by setting custom ratios for all the games I have crop settings for. Had to figure out the math for how many scanlines I’m chopping off. There’s also the “crop overscan” setting to consider, which crops the bars on the sides. That also stretches the image, but it’s useful to get display aspect (4:3). With that off the image is squished a little by the bars; basically pixel aspect. I turn it on or off depending on which way gives me perfect circles or squares. When that’s on though, sometimes the picture can be cut off a little on one side or the other. So you also have to adjust the crop offset sometimes. Probably took me a day or two to get all my games set up like I wanted with per game settings.
I’d be curious if you could upload a screenshot of how Crash 1 looks in the hardware renderer. I think my end result with the software core is worth it:
(initial scanline 12, last scanline 227, custom aspect ratio 1.4815, crop overscan enabled and crop offset set to 2)Guess i will just do it one game at a time… if it needs it and when im actually ready to play it. Not dedicated enough to PS1 to put the work in for all games i have in launchbox hehe
Weird… Crash one has black bars in both HW and SW cores… I coulda swore…!! lol
Here’s CTR
Software core
Hardware core
Yeah, looks like it’s just cropping off those scanlines by default and stretching. No idea why it does that by default with the hardware core; I just tested it and got the same result as you. But Crash 1 and 2 have the bars just like in software. Seems like something weird with the hardware renderer and that game.
Thanks for the help. I will try out your suggestions on games that bug me 
