Additional resolution suggestions

RetroArch Nintendo consoles
#1

Sorry to bring this up again, but I figured somewhere central for people to request more hardcoded resolutions for RA Wii might be useful.

Personally, I’m interested in more vertically-doubled resolutions, as I’m part of what’s most likely the majority of users whose Wiis are hooked up to modern HDTVs with terrible double-strike (240p) support. RetroArch has plenty of resolutions for users on CRT, as their userbase has been vocal about getting them included. Newer TVs, not so much. e.g., all 15 of the following double-strike resolutions are included:

   GX_RESOLUTIONS_512_192,
   GX_RESOLUTIONS_598_200,
   GX_RESOLUTIONS_640_200,
   GX_RESOLUTIONS_384_224,
   GX_RESOLUTIONS_448_224,
   GX_RESOLUTIONS_480_224,
   GX_RESOLUTIONS_340_232,
   GX_RESOLUTIONS_512_232,
   GX_RESOLUTIONS_512_236,
   GX_RESOLUTIONS_336_240,
   GX_RESOLUTIONS_384_240,
   GX_RESOLUTIONS_512_240,
   GX_RESOLUTIONS_576_224,
   GX_RESOLUTIONS_608_224,
   GX_RESOLUTIONS_530_240,

But the 15 line-doubled equivalents are not:

   GX_RESOLUTIONS_512_384,
   GX_RESOLUTIONS_598_400,
   GX_RESOLUTIONS_640_400,
   GX_RESOLUTIONS_384_448,
   GX_RESOLUTIONS_448_448,
   GX_RESOLUTIONS_480_448,
   GX_RESOLUTIONS_340_464,
   GX_RESOLUTIONS_512_464,
   GX_RESOLUTIONS_512_472,
   GX_RESOLUTIONS_336_480,
   GX_RESOLUTIONS_384_480,
   GX_RESOLUTIONS_512_480,
   GX_RESOLUTIONS_576_448,
   GX_RESOLUTIONS_608_448,
   GX_RESOLUTIONS_530_480,

I don’t claim to know what most of these resolutions are “for”, but presumably anything that’s needed for CRT users is equally important on modern displays which lack adequate support for those line-heights. Off the top of my head, though, I do see NES, CPS-1, CPS-2 and Neo Geo resolutions among those not included for HDTV users. At present, it’s difficult-to-impossible to get a nice looking image on these platforms without using bilinear filtering.

On another note, lacking the knowledge or capability to compile RA Wii myself, if anyone knows where these resolutions are compiled into the core DOLs, even a couple of minor tweaks to replace some 240p resolution with their 480p equivalents would keep me quiet for a while. :wink:

EDIT: I understand this also makes the resolution list almost twice as long; perhaps it might be pertinent for RetroArch’s video settings to have an option that simply toggles whether interlaced resolutions are included in the list. I’m guessing the majority of users have essentially no use for them, so fully half of the list could simply be dropped for those users.

#2

Most USB loaders have a neat feature where one can save specific settings for each game, it would be useful if this could get into RA. Having all those resolutions in one place would not be so inefficient if you don’t have to skim through them every time.

I once tried to hex edit the SNES core for 512*224p as default but I could not find anything close to video modes.

#3

Apart from the resolutions affair, would it be possible to put an additional Scanline filter? Something like drawing a full black pixel line on even or odd lines.

If it isn’t too much for the already limited Wii gpu, it could save us lots of money in Scanline Generators. Not having shaders due to memory restrictions is something understandable, but if other emulators manage to do 2xSai filtering, why not implementing a scanline one?

And one last question, where in the code is the Bilinear one? I’d like to experiment a little with it, but I only find empty references to it.

#4

Adding new resolutions just for HDTVs doesn’t make sense, since whatever resolution you are suggesting will be upscaled anyway to the native resolution of your HDTV.

Double-strike only make sense with CRT TVs.

#5

I think you might be misunderstanding my request. The double-strike resolutions are already there and probably great for CRT users. But as an HDTV owner, what resolution would you suggest I run, e .g. CPS-2 games at? 384224 looks atrocious on my display because it has no support for 240p signals; it just interprets them as 480i and attempts to deinterlace the image with disastrous results. 640480 with bilinear filtering enabled looks unpleasantly blurry to me and makes me feel like I’ve forgotten to put on my glasses.

What would look good on my set is 384*448, so that my TV stops trying to deinterlace an image that is already progressive. I understand the point you make about the TV’s scaling also getting in the way; I’m always going to have that filtering, of course. But that’s no reason to add additional filtering via RetroArch’s bilinear filtering option if I don’t absolutely have to. I’d rather get the sharpest image out of RetroArch that I can, so my TV’s scaling from 480p to 1080p (which is reasonably good and looks fine from a normal sitting distance) is the only filtering I have to put up with.

“The image is already filtered, so filter it some more” doesn’t make sense to me as a solution. It’s very possible to reduce that filtering (e.g. SNES at 512*448, a resolution that’s already included in RetroArch) which results in an image that I find more pleasing, while fully aware that there is still some (less) filtering being added by my HDTV. I’m not asking for magical reproduction of CRT display on an LCD HDTV; that’s nonsense and I know it. I’m just asking for a better option than “turn on bilinear filtering”.