Original Resolution / Aspect for each game

[rsn8887]

Yes, in principle "core provided" should work and give 4:3/3:4 for almost all games. And it should give the correct non-4:3 aspect ratios for games such as Ninja Warriors arcade.

But quite often it just doesn't work. I think these are just longstanding bugs.

For example, in Sonic the Hedgehog, using the default Retro Pie settings, the screen is stretched to some kind of non-4:3 ratio. To fix this, I had to change the setting in the "emulator config" menu to force 4:3 for the Genesis emulator. How can such a popular game already cause this to fail?

The "core provided" setting also fails with many vertically oriented games and many multi-screen games. It also gives the wrong aspect ratio when using the advanced "screen rotation" option, e.g. it does not switch from 4:3 to 3:4 when rotating a 4:3 game by 90 degrees.

Once those remaining bugs are all fixed, nobody should have to manually change aspect ratios anymore. But in the meantime, a little fiddling with the "emulator config" menu is required, on a per-emulator basis. Alternatively, the correct settings could be made default to spare users from having to mess with this stuff.

[dankcushions]

@rsn8887 said in Original Resolution / Aspect for each game:

Yes, in principle "core provided" should work and give 4:3/3:4 for almost all games. And it should give the correct non-4:3 aspect ratios for games such as Ninja Warriors arcade.

But quite often it just doesn't work. I think these are just longstanding bugs.

For example, in Sonic the Hedgehog, using the default Retro Pie settings, the screen is stretched to some kind of non-4:3 ratio. To fix this, I had to change the setting in the "emulator config" menu to force 4:3 for the Genesis emulator. How can such a popular game already cause this to fail?

what emulator? "core provided" leaves the aspect ratio calculation up to the emulator, which is almost always what you want to do. i suspect something else is going on here with your config. can you show an example?

The "core provided" setting also fails with many vertically oriented games and many multi-screen games. It also gives the wrong aspect ratio when using the advanced "screen rotation" option, e.g. it does not switch from 4:3 to 3:4 when rotating a 4:3 game by 90 degrees.

only if the emulator hasn't been fully coded to account for this. lr-mame2003 and lr-fbalpha for example have no problems here, and are generally the ones that you should be using.

[retrocraze]

Some good info here guys.

So do you think I should set it to core provided to get the correct Aspect ratio for arcade games?
Also, is there a way to shrink the image to smaller version in centre of my HD TV?

[dankcushions]

@retrocraze said in Original Resolution / Aspect for each game:

So do you think I should set it to core provided to get the correct Aspect ratio for arcade games?

like i said, it depends what emulator you're using. lr-mame2003 and lr-fbalpha will use the correct aspect ratio when set to 'core provided'. lr-mame2010 has problems i believe.

[retrocraze]

@dankcushions said in Original Resolution / Aspect for each game:

@retrocraze said in Original Resolution / Aspect for each game:

So do you think I should set it to core provided to get the correct Aspect ratio for arcade games?

like i said, it depends what emulator you're using. lr-mame2003 and lr-fbalpha will use the correct aspect ratio when set to 'core provided'. lr-mame2010 has problems i believe.

Im not even sure what emulator its using. I think its lr-mame2003.

I will try these settings later tonight:

Aspect Ratio: Core Provided
Integer Scale: On

Custom Aspect Ratio 4x

If I set these do I have to make sure that any settings in retroarch.cfg are defaulted as well?

ie... I have aspect ratio set to unset i think.

I tried tinkering a little with the configuration editor but not sure what difference it made.

[dankcushions]

@retrocraze said in Original Resolution / Aspect for each game:

@dankcushions said in Original Resolution / Aspect for each game:

@retrocraze said in Original Resolution / Aspect for each game:

So do you think I should set it to core provided to get the correct Aspect ratio for arcade games?

like i said, it depends what emulator you're using. lr-mame2003 and lr-fbalpha will use the correct aspect ratio when set to 'core provided'. lr-mame2010 has problems i believe.

Im not even sure what emulator its using. I think its lr-mame2003.

I will try these settings later tonight:

Aspect Ratio: Core Provided

yes

Integer Scale: On

this will scale via integer values - this will not neccesarily give the correct aspect ratio. this is not the default

Custom Aspect Ratio 4x

same as above. this is not the default.

If I set these do I have to make sure that any settings in retroarch.cfg are defaulted as well?

ie... I have aspect ratio set to unset i think.

I tried tinkering a little with the configuration editor but not sure what difference it made.

like i said, the defaults are correct. if you've changed a bunch of stuff then it's difficult to say what you need to do to get back to 'normal'.

[retrocraze]

@dankcushions said in Original Resolution / Aspect for each game:

@retrocraze said in Original Resolution / Aspect for each game:

@dankcushions said in Original Resolution / Aspect for each game:

@retrocraze said in Original Resolution / Aspect for each game:

So do you think I should set it to core provided to get the correct Aspect ratio for arcade games?

like i said, it depends what emulator you're using. lr-mame2003 and lr-fbalpha will use the correct aspect ratio when set to 'core provided'. lr-mame2010 has problems i believe.

Im not even sure what emulator its using. I think its lr-mame2003.

I will try these settings later tonight:

Aspect Ratio: Core Provided

yes

Integer Scale: On

this will scale via integer values - this will not neccesarily give the correct aspect ratio. this is not the default

Custom Aspect Ratio 4x

same as above. this is not the default.

If I set these do I have to make sure that any settings in retroarch.cfg are defaulted as well?

ie... I have aspect ratio set to unset i think.

I tried tinkering a little with the configuration editor but not sure what difference it made.

like i said, the defaults are correct. if you've changed a bunch of stuff then it's difficult to say what you need to do to get back to 'normal'.

Your confusing me lol

If i go to all libretro configs, then into mame and arcade conconfig files. everything is more or less set to unset.

If someone can paste here what their settings are for retroarch / video settings. we can go from there.

[caver01]

@retrocraze said in Original Resolution / Aspect for each game:

Your confusing me lol

What he is saying is that if you leave well enough alone and don't add any extra configurations, lr-mame2003 will scale the game to fill your display using whatever aspect ratio is correct for the given ROM. Crucially, this might NOT be proportional scaling because the game image was often stretched to fill original arcade cabinet CRT displays (4:3). AND it is rarely integer scaling because using integer magnification would prevent the stretching needed in one direction or the other to reproduce the original aspect ratio. Besides, integers rarely multiply out to exactly fit your display's resolution. BUT it will look correct, or at least it should match the way it looked in the arcade.

[retrocraze]

@caver01 said in Original Resolution / Aspect for each game:

@retrocraze said in Original Resolution / Aspect for each game:

Your confusing me lol

What he is saying is that if you leave well enough alone and don't add any extra configurations, lr-mame2003 will scale the game to fill your display using whatever aspect ratio is correct for the given ROM. Crucially, this might NOT be proportional scaling because the game image was often stretched to fill original arcade cabinet CRT displays (4:3). AND it is rarely integer scaling because using integer magnification would prevent the stretching needed in one direction or the other to reproduce the original aspect ratio. Besides, integers rarely multiply out to exactly fit your display's resolution. BUT it will look correct, or at least it should match the way it looked in the arcade.

Thanks for the info.
I don’t want the image to fit my display, I just want it to be the games corrext ratio and potentially smaller on my screen with more black borders.

[retrocraze]

So, it’s a strange thing. When I set a resolution of 320x224 the game fits the screen and plays smooth but looks terrible.. When I set 640x448 the game slows down sometimes like my graphics card is keek.
Wtf
It’s as if RetroPie can’t handle Outrun!

[caver01]

@retrocraze nothing is worse than a keek graphics card. I hate when that happens.

What emulator are you using? What ROM? What computer? There are so many variables.

[retrocraze]

@caver01 said in Original Resolution / Aspect for each game:

@retrocraze nothing is worse than a keek graphics card. I hate when that happens.

What emulator are you using? What ROM? What computer? There are so many variables.

Lol!

I’m using a Raspberry Pi3 with RetroPie.

The rom I am trying to get playing smoothly is Sega Outrun on Mame.

[caver01]

@retrocraze you still gotta be more specific. There are nine versions of MAME you could be using.

[rbaker]

@retrocraze said in Original Resolution / Aspect for each game:

Lol!
I’m using a Raspberry Pi3 with RetroPie.

Lol indeed.

Anyway, here, try this.

[retrocraze]

@caver01 said in Original Resolution / Aspect for each game:

@retrocraze you still gotta be more specific. There are nine versions of MAME you could be using.

I believe is Mame lr-mame2003. lol

[retrocraze]

@rbaker said in Original Resolution / Aspect for each game:

@retrocraze said in Original Resolution / Aspect for each game:

Lol!
I’m using a Raspberry Pi3 with RetroPie.

Lol indeed.

Anyway, here, try this.

That really interesting!

SO from what I read, that can run as a port on emulation station? I just need to get those versions of Outrun for it to work.

[RumblinBuffalo]

@caver01 @dankcushions I found this thread searching for correct aspect ratios for a few games. Generally speaking - I'm following the rule above that the default (core provided) aspect ratio is correct in lr-mame2003.

However, I noticed in my setup that Mat Mania, when run on lr-mame2003, it appears too narrow, so I used a .cfg file to change it from 'core provided' to 1:1 and to me, that looks correct (and running the same rom on lr-mame2000 appears to set it at 1:1 as the 'core provided' ratio without manual config).

@caver01 said in Original Resolution / Aspect for each game:

What he is saying is that if you leave well enough alone and don't add any extra configurations, lr-mame2003 will scale the game to fill your display using whatever aspect ratio is correct for the given ROM. Crucially, this might NOT be proportional scaling because the game image was often stretched to fill original arcade cabinet CRT displays (4:3). AND it is rarely integer scaling because using integer magnification would prevent the stretching needed in one direction or the other to reproduce the original aspect ratio. Besides, integers rarely multiply out to exactly fit your display's resolution. BUT it will look correct, or at least it should match the way it looked in the arcade.

I was also curious about Mortal Kombat (which seems too narrow to me at 'core provided' ratio). But if I'm reading the above (and understanding it) correctly, as long as I use the 'core provided' aspect ratio in lr-mame2003, it should match the way it looked in the arcade. Is it too narrow looking because I'm not using an actual arcade screen that "stretched" the image?

[dankcushions]

@rumblinbuffalo said in Original Resolution / Aspect for each game:

I was also curious about Mortal Kombat (which seems too narrow to me at 'core provided' ratio). But if I'm reading the above (and understanding it) correctly, as long as I use the 'core provided' aspect ratio in lr-mame2003, it should match the way it looked in the arcade. Is it too narrow looking because I'm not using an actual arcade screen that "stretched" the image?

no - the point is that core provide will do all the relevant stretching and/or squeezing that the actual arcade screen would have done. for example, mk had a standard 4:3 CRT so the aspect ratio provided by the core should be the same. mat mania is a 3:4 game so that should be 3:4 via core provide.

[UDb23]

@retrocraze said in Original Resolution / Aspect for each game:

I just want it to be the games corrext ratio and potentially smaller on my screen with more black borders.

If you're using libretro emulators (e.g. lr-mame 2003 or lr-mame2010) you can edit the game (rom) specific cfg file to set the size and position of actual "game area" on your screen.
Check this file as example. That game "Spiders", plays correctly only in mame 2010 but that emulator has wrong default aspect ratio. That cfg fixes the problem.

[dankcushions]

@udb23 FYI the aspect ratio issues in mame2010 have been fixed, if you update it via souce. 2003 always worked properly in this regard.