*SOLVED* 240p per emulator (run command setting) possible?

matchaman

This probably works "by accident", but glad you have a solution. I will look into adding official support for switching to progressive modes though.

Yup, lots of trial and error :D that would be great, thanks!

@mitu said:

Yes, I see that the file is created when you change the resolution through the Runcommand launch. I didn't have that since I haven't done this for any emulator. Enjoy on your CRT !

Thanks! Just make sure that you don't use any shaders and you have enabled bilinear filtering in Video settings. Not all lines correspond to the original pixels on every system but bilinear smoothing does an OK job in fixing this.

ohmycommodore

So this is still while using sdtv_mode=16 in config.txt? Any other changes in that file?

And the end result, after this videomodes work, is games in 240p, and menus / everything else in a more readable resolution?

matchaman

No, I am using sdtv_mode=2 (PAL 576i, the best possible picture for menus). 240p will apply only when running emulators and will normally revert back to interlaced when exiting.

For those who can't use PAL, it's unfortunate that if the sdtv_mode is 0 (480i), when exiting the signal will remain 240p for the rest of the session, making text hard to read. It goes back to interlaced only if the config.txt is PAL (and vice versa as I just confirmed).

To sum it up, you can have 576i@50hz for the menus via sdtv_mode=2 in /boot/config.txt and 240p@60hz for emulators via emulatorname = "NTSC 4:3 P" in /opt/retropie/configs/all/videomodes.cfg

ohmycommodore

OK thanks. Hopefully what you've learned will help open up doors to an NTSC solution. Good job with the trial and error!

matchaman

You're welcome. Really glad to see I'm also helping others with 240p awesomeness! :D

edmaul69

@ohmycommodore in the previous 240p thread i explained how i made the menus and emulationstation 480 and the games 240p.

matchaman

@edmaul69

Where is that located? I spent time looking and there was no simple solution. Some suggested running scripts that ruined the theme when exiting games or using shaders (to force things out?) which I avoid for performance reasons.

edmaul69

@matchaman i posted it here:

https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/13503/480p-menus-240p-games/4

edmaul69

@matchaman also here are the commands for tv service. i use putty to ssh into the pi to use commandline.

240p

sudo tvservice -c "NTSC 4:3 P" ; fbset -depth 8 ; fbset -depth 32; tvservice -s

480

sudo tvservice -c "NTSC 4:3" ; fbset -depth 8 ; fbset -depth 32; tvservice -s

matchaman

I see, however it's possible to be done via runcommand which is simpler, doesn't give a momentary message and also safer for video themes.

In the past I tried several workarounds (very likely including your method) and when exiting a game, video themes had erroneous structure :/

Though runcommand isn't perfect either; as I mentioned before, if the config.txt mode is NTSC or PAL, then the game running in the same region's progressive mode will not go back to interlaced (unless it's at the opposite region).

edmaul69

@matchaman i never get an error message, so not sure what you get from other methods.

Edit:i think you are saying themes that have videos gets the erroneous structure? I wouldnt know as i dont use video themes.

edmaul69

@matchaman also with this method i use, it goes back to interlaced after i exit a game. All this is ntsc as i dont use pal at all.

pjft

I hate to resurrect an old thread, but I'll likely be going through the exact same process soon in an old PAL CRT.

Just to confirm, @matchaman , your TV is PAL and yet it works well with the NTSC 4:3 P video mode, is that it?

If you just used the sdtv mode to 240p you wouldn't have needed to change the individual emulators settings for them to display as intended but ES would have looked fairly bad, correct?

Just making sure I follow it.

Thanks!

youxia

@pjft Are you going to connect through RGB or composite?
Personally I use runcommand which is more versatile but it also depends on the method you're using. There is also a CRT theme (named "CRT" :) which works well without the need for 480i.

pjft

@youxia I was going for composite.

youxia

@pjft Then I recommend reading about these 2 methods first, the ES look is the least of your worries ;)

https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/18624/custom-configs-for-crt-using-the-built-in-composite-out
https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/11628/240p-and-mame-scaling/12

pjft

@youxia Thanks - I'll look into it!

molton

I've been looking into this a bit recently. I find that the default settings look pretty good in 240p with bilinear filtering on, but I wanted to get really accurate results so I compared the real NES hardware output to the raspberry Pi composite out in 240p.

molton

for NES my CRT likes
-240p screen format
-640x480 render resolution for the screen format
-717x552 (5 x -40 offset) retroarch scaling resolution
-bilinear filtering set to off

For SNES I use a 702x496 retroarch custom scaling resolution with a 12 x -8 offset and bilinear filtering on. Genesis looks pretty good with bilinear filtering on and standard 4:3 resolution