Video fixes for PCE-Fast

RetroArch Nintendo consoles
#1

Thanks to Tatsuya79 we can finally play these games correctly.

I’ve compiled a Wii build: https://www.dropbox.com/s/x9h3iokbdno21 … e_fast.dol Update: Added Tatsuya79’s 352 fix for games like R-Type and added 352x240/480 to the list of resolutions. Compiled with current source, which fixes a bug that would only allow one CD to be loaded, requiring a restart to load another one.

These were changed: if (!strcmp(“pce_fast.slend”, name)) return 235; to 239 (this forces you to use 512x480 or 512x240p to get it to display without scrolling artifacts it seems, to me this is a major win since you can mostly forget about 512x232p) This isn’t very important because most TVs won’t show a difference.

In the implementations thread Tatsuya79 said: use “VDS = M_vdc_VDS - 4;” to mimic exactly what mednafen on windows displayed (using the “aspect” option in the mednafen-09x.cfg). I would stick with VDS = M_vdc_VDS - 3; because on Wii if you play a game with 224 lines your image will not be centered, for 239/240 etc. you won’t see a difference on your TV. Also I set viWidth to 644 because accuracy.

Before and after:

This is how a 224 game looks now: The bars/borders at the top and down are exactly 8 pixels up and 8 pixels down, so you know it is centered correctly.

#2

Nice, hopefully this is included for the 1.0.0.3 Wii release :slight_smile:

#3

On PC these lines will be displayed on screen resulting in a flattened picture, that’s why I limited the setting to 231. How is WiiMednafen displaying stuff? is there an official version?

Then perhaps there is a better way to define a viewport somewhere and its ratio… but pce_fast seems quite hackish in its code I don’t really understand everything like the different cases for different resolutions. (that’s why I just took mednafen standalone as reference)

#4

What do you mean by flat? I have no idea what “if (!strcmp(“pce_fast.slend”, name))” is I just wanted 240 lines and that’s what ariok said to use to get those lines. Now I can take full screenshots and not cropped ones! Also I looked at the source in github it looks like they went with VDS - 4; this means on Wii/GC games will never be centered by default, too bad at least you can move the viewport… At least there’s the build I posted.

I don’t know anything about WiiMednafen’s code, but the output on the TV is not much different from RA; it’s not even centered.

#5

I compiled a version with slend 239 and VDS-3 and took some screenshots to compare with the current 231 VDS-4.

You can see the additional lines are displayed and so it makes the ratio a bit flattened. You can see the picture is not centered on spriggan, but that’s the same result mednafen stand-alone displays on PC. edit: just noticed about Spriggan, the additional lines on the bottom (the difference between 239 and 231) are black. That’s what make the border on the bottom as big as the top one.

So you see, I just mimicked the original emulator. But I like the fuller picture with more pixels better, but the aspect ratio would have to be modified and I don’t have a pc-engine to make comparison.

edit: Well the best thing would be to have the “crop overscan” and “maintain aspect ratio” working.

#6

Well, just to add the pc-engine has a vertical resolution that can vary between games. You can see this thread here about it.

Check Dracula X, it will have a black border on the bottom with slend 231 and an even bigger one with 239. So yeah… no real solution except some kind of a register for every particular game to crop each overscan.

I guess that’s something the original emulator has to decide, not libretro. :confused:

#7

That’s odd, to summarize: 239 and VDS-3 works well on Wii and 231 VDS-4 works well on PC, if that’s right perhaps some exceptions could be added?

I don’t have the actual hardware but the Virtual Console seems to be doing it right, it automatically sees if a game is 224 lines or longer and centers it. The 16 extra lines in the Banpresto game screenshot actually change color depending on the current scene, it’s rather bothersome in some areas but is almost never black; the VC however never displays those lines with color.

Dracula X is an odd case, the official VC release has a certain setting checked that crops overscan but on my TV the game looks badly window-boxed, If I uncheck this setting (which is totally possible, it’s just a text file next to the game iso) my TV can see more of the game but because of my TV’s overscan if there is a black bar at the bottom I still would not see it as my TV only shows around 230/460 lines.

#8

Retroarch does have dynamic resolution support now, if that is the case I guess that should be implemented properly by the core.