Retropie/EmulationStation Main Menu Resolution not changing

[swagmastaa420]

Hi all,

I've been really struggling to set a custom resolution for my screen. Basically, I have the official Raspberry Pi 7 inch touchscreen display that has a screen resolution of 800 x 480 though I need to center and resize the resolution to that of 640 x 480 (4:3 ratio). I'm currently running Retropie v4.4 off a Rpi 3. I've tried various methods involving the config.txt file but the closest I've gotten to success was a successful resizing of the terminal and GUI's but when EmulationStation loaded and the Retropie menu manifested, it seems to have ignored my set resolution and sticked with the full 800 x 480.

I feel like something has to be changed in Retropie's config file to set the resolution for EmulationStation, I'm not sure. What file or configuration must I input to successfully change the resolution of all functions of my Raspberry Pi, including EmulationStation itself?

Thanks in advance.

[mitu]

The global system's resolution is set in /boot/config.txt. Emulationstation also has parameters for width/height, through the --resolution parameter, but it should obey the system's resolution and try to use it in fullscreen. Run emulationstation --help to see the arguments it accepts.

[swagmastaa420]

@mitu, Thanks for the reply!
Your method seemed to have worked somewhat; I've added the following to the boot/config.txt:

# code block
hdmi_force_hotplug=1
hdmi_ignore_edid=0xa5000080
config_hdmi_boost=4
hdmi_group=2
hdmi_mode=4
overscan_left=96
overscan_right=96
overscan_top=0
overscan_bottom=0

and did emulationstation --resolution 640 480.

This successfully resizes everything (the width is less since it goes from 800 : 480 to 640 : 480) but the EmulationStation menus and splashscreens don't keep its aspect ratio (or proportion, I'm not sure how to describe it) though the resolution's been resized. Is there a way I can keep the new resolution (640:480) proportional and not compressed looking?

[mitu]

@swagmastaa420 said in Retropie/EmulationStation Main Menu Resolution not changing:

This successfully resizes everything (the width is less since it goes from 800 : 480 to 640 : 480) but the EmulationStation menus and splashscreens don't keep its aspect ratio (or proportion, I'm not sure how to describe it) though the resolution's been resized. Is there a way I can keep the new resolution (640:480) proportional and not compressed looking?

Do you have a screenshot ?
Normally there would be no need to specify the height/width when starting ES, it should detect the resolution you have and start fullscreen. I'm not sure the dialogs and menus will be resized accordingly though, even in this case. If you start ES with --debug, do you see any error regarding resolution detection in the log file (~/.emulationstation/es_log.txt`) ?

[swagmastaa420]

@mitu I think I got it! I made an error in typing the resolution emulationstation --resolution 640 480 and it seems to be working properly though the resolution is only slightly compressed, which is no biggie; the games seem to fit the resolution proportionally along with the pixel desktop.

Unless there's a way to have EmulationStation exactly proportional in its resolution, I think this is as far as I'll go with this as it's only the EmulationStation menu having this issue, thanks!

Also, I didn't see any errors regarding resolution when using emulationstation --debug and as you said, the menus and the diaglogs didn't resize exactly but it's only slightly compressed now though I'm not sure how distorted it would look with other aspect ratios.

[mitu]

What's the reason you want the display resolution to be 4:3 ? You can run ES at the native resolution and switch the display to 4:3 for the games only. The Runcommand allows you to choose a different resolution when starting the game.

[swagmastaa420]

@mitu For my particular build I'm squeezing this 7 inch screen into a frame that has an opening less than that of the full screen resolution hence the need to resize all functions of my Raspberry Pi, it's currently going well but I kinda wished that the EmulationStation screen wasn't compressed to fit.

[dankcushions]

@swagmastaa420 you can use themes designed for 4:3. i've no experience with it myself , but here's a few links:

https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/15521/theme-insert-rom-16-9-and-4-3
https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/10421/comic-book-theme-4-3-full-release
https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/18203/4-3-themes

there's even low resolution themes designed for CRTs, etc, which may look better at your low resolution. those should be obviously named.

[swagmastaa420]

@dankcushions These "mini" themes work perfect! I never thought of using 4:3 themes or were aware of them; it fixes the distortion problem and now everything's proportional, thank you :)