Broken layer display in SNES9x-Next [EDIT: Bug identified]

RetroArch Nintendo consoles
#1

EDIT: “Crop Overscan” seems to break rendering in SNES9x-Next when set to OFF. It must be enabled or the below issue is encountered. END OF EDIT

I haven’t seen anyone else reporting this issue, which seems relatively major, so it may be I’m missing something on my end. On to the pictures!

Short version: what the hell’s going on here?

I didn’t originally download RetroArch v1.0.0.0, so I first encountered this bug in *.1. I tried dropping back, however, and am seeing the same thing there. I see this odd doubling effect across all games I’ve tested (though not at all times–it seems to be certain layers causing the problem, especially during fancy fade effects and such, like the title screen for The Firemen). I’ve tried deleting the config entirely, changing resolutions, filter, VI trap, vsync, GPU sync, etc., none of which seems to impact on this issue.

Firstly, has anyone else encountered this issue or is it something peculiar to me? Secondly, what the hell’s going on here?

My PAL Wii is running at 480p on System Menu 4.1E, Homebrew Channel 1.1.2, RetroArch v1.0.0.1 (same behaviour in *.0).

#2

Tested both The Firemen and Super Mario All Stars + Super Mario World and both seem fine.

PAL Wii 480p, System Menu 4.3E, RetroArch v1.0.0.1.

#3

Something like this happens in the SNES core when Crop Overscan (reload) is OFF

I tried to contact the devs a few times but was ignored so I have no idea what it is meant to do but as the name hints, I thought it would “crop” the pillar-boxed bars so certain cores can fill the entire screen on certain TVs, possibly GBA or Neo Geo. But it probably has nothing to do with the Wii side of RA

#4

I had a similar problem when mixing retroarch.cfg files of different cores, I was testing vba_next.dol build test and then using snes9x_next 0.9.9 fix version. I just deleted old cfg file and then all was working fine again.

Hope this helps

#5

Indeed, enabling Crop Overscan does make this problem go away for me, even without reloading RA.

I can tell you that your understanding of what the setting does isn’t quite right. All it does it cut off the edges of the screen, the area that was lost to “overscan” on old TVs. You might notice when playing some scrolling NES games that there’s an ugly column of garbage at the far left if you keep it disabled. The idea is to crop out parts of the image you generally wouldn’t have seen on a contemporary TV, since some consoles and games didn’t account for these areas being seen.

The (reload) is just an instruction; you need to reload RA to make the setting take effect. The setting only seems to be hooked up for certain cores like NES, though; as far as I can tell, nothing is actually cropped when it is enabled on the SNES (yes, even after a reload). So a setting that, in theory, doesn’t do anything, is messing up SNES emulation somehow. :confused:

Note to Libretro devs: “Crop Overscan” seems to break rendering in SNES9x-Next when set to OFF. It must be enabled or the above issue is encountered.

#6

I believe I mentioned this back around the time 1.0.0 came out, but my description was not nearly as… descriptive as yours and was probably lost among the flurry of other posts around that time.

Luckily, for whatever reason, I don’t need to turn crop overscan off.

#7

Hopefully this option will be removed from the next point release in that case.

#8

Why would you want to remove a feature? What crop overscan does depends on the core so I guess something must be fixed within S9X-Next

Crop overscan works great with Nestopia

#9

I meant remove it from the snes core obviously, unless anyone would want to play games as shown in the screenshots of course.

#10

Just a note and nothing related:

On vWii ( Wii U ) when you change ratio with Joostin online Settings editor, backgrounds are not presented properly if you entered settings editor via the HBC ( no need to change the ratio on your TV with this method ) On the other side when you enter settings editor gui via USB LOADER GX, the Wii menu is presented as it would in an original wii. ( you need to set the ratio on your tv also )

Strange to say the least but valid also. Depending on how you setup your ratio in vWii can break RA.