Theme for super CRT resolutions 1920 x 240

NikooZ

Hello everybody, I'm looking for a theme fitting a super CRT resolution, like 1920 x 240. It seems that there is nothing I can find when I look in the esthemes menu in Retropie Config, or maybe there is a tip to make them work correctly at ths resolution ?

Thanks a lot for your help !

Super Retropie

I think you mean a resolution of 320x240 for a CRT.

I have a theme called Super Retroboy that's at 320x240 for CRT's and small screen 4:3 portables and it's downloadable through the ES menu or from my Github.

https://github.com/KALEL1981/es-theme-Super-Retroboy

Super Retropie

This is the Super Retroboy Theme

NikooZ

No, I really meant 1920 x 240. This is called a super CRT resolution, it is an option you can use on Raspberry Pi with the HDMI timings. It is very useful to have a good ratio scaling in the different systems on a CRT monitor, and it is well supported by Retroarch

I know this is very specific, but if use this particular resolution, my games and emulators run very well, but the emulation station menu looks shrinked with every theme, because it was meant to run in 16:9 or 4:3 resolutions.

The only frontend I managed to run correctly at this resolution was Attract mode, but it looks like it is not present with Retropie for Raspberry pi4.

youxia

Super resolutions are used in runcommand-onstart, to be applied to the rom itself, they are not meant for Emulationstation. I don't think it's even possible, so you are probably just looking for CRT ES theme, for either 240p or 480i (two most common ES resolutions used on a CRT). There are several available, eg TFT -Pixel, CRT-Centered, Bubblegum.

NikooZ

OK thank you !

In my case, I added my super-resolution with HDMI_timings in the config.txt of my SD card. The problem is that applies this resolution to all the system. So if I can manage to run Emulation Station at 320x240 and my emulators at 1920x240, that can solve my problem. But I don't know how to do that, I'm not sure if the emulators can change the system resolutions ?

I tried an app called RetroCRT, but it didn't work as well : I had to set my HDMI_timings at 1920x240 in order to make it work, the program could not change the system resolution if I set my timings for 320x240

mitu

@NikooZ said in Theme for super CRT resolutions 1920 x 240:

But I don't know how to do that, I'm not sure if the emulators can change the system resolutions ?

You can use the runcommand scripting support to change resolution before and after the the emulator(s) run. Something like this.

NikooZ

Very useful, thanks, I will try that !

NikooZ

@mitu I tried the script, but it doesn't work... Maybe it was made for the RetroTink adapter, I personnally use a vga666 adapter, the parameters in the scrips doesn't seem to be the same...

mitu

You can use the resolution line in your config.txt (for the super-resolution) in the on-start scripts, replacing the values there (which might not fit the VGA666 adapter) and see if it works.

M3th0D

Gonna jump in on this thread as I want to do something similar.

My setup is an arcade monitor 15khz using a JPac and HDMI to VGA converter.

config:
hdmi_cvt=1920 240 60 1 1 0 0
hdmi_group=1
hdmi_mode=6

runcommand-onstart.sh:
tvservice -e "DMT 87" ; sleep 3 ; fbset -depth 8 ; fbset -depth 32; tvservice -s

runcommand-onend.sh
tvservice -e "CEA 6" ; sleep 3 ; fbset -depth 8 ; fbset -depth 32; tvservice -s

This gives 480i emulation station and 1920x240 in retroarch.
What Id like to do is have 320x240 in emulation station and 1920x240.

Unfortunately HDMI timing doesn't work with this setup. Is there a way to do it in the config?

NikooZ

@mitu That's what I did. Runcommand error log return an error on tvservice which could not activate the DMT 87 function. Seems logical, because my VGA adapter is on the GPIO ports, and TVservice seems to work only with HDMI ports. I looked on other forums, and it seems to be a problem linked to the Raspberry pi4 and tvservice which is not supported...

M3th0D

@NikooZ Im sure i remember reading that you use hdmi_timings for the vga666. Sorry I don't know that much about it.

NikooZ

@M3th0D Yes my VGA adapter for GPIO works with vga666 overlay

youxia

@NikooZ Retrotink is a very similar setup to GPIO, maybe overlay is different but we use the same runcommands. It should work for you, are you sure you did everything right?

I use Pi2SCART (GPIO, 666 overlay) and this is my runcommand-onstart:

#vcgencmd hdmi_timings 1920 1 24 192 184 240 1 4 5 14 0 0 0 60.0 0 36609600 1
tvservice -e "DMT 87"
fbset -depth 32 && fbset -depth 32 -xres 320 -yres 256

You can replace the values after hdmi_timings with your own hi-res ones. Just make sure you get rid of them in config.txt (put hdmi_timings 320 1 23 25 39 240 1 4 3 15 0 0 0 60 0 6400000 1 instead, they work on my generic Trinitron)

and runcommand-onend:

vcgencmd hdmi_timings 320 1 23 25 39 240 1 4 3 15 0 0 0 60 0 6400000 1
tvservice -e "DMT 87"
fbset -depth 8 && fbset -depth 16 -xres 320 -yres 240

Alternatively you can try to use this ready made images (download vga666 version): https://www.elotrolado.net/hilo_retropie-crt-edition-raspberry-pi-2b-3b-3b-tv-15khz-vga666-pi2scart-rgb-pi_2328132

@M3th0D there was a thread about using this adapter and settings for it recently, have a look around

M3th0D

@youxia I've had a good look around the forum but can't find what I'm looking for. It's ok if i use 480i but i have a decent 240p theme. I am having to play at 320x240 atm :/

NikooZ

@youxia Thank you ! I will try it !

NikooZ

@youxia That didn't work. The error log show me the same error as my previous tries :

[E] Failed to power on HDMI with explicit settings (DMT mode 87)
ioctl FBIOPUT_VSCREENINFO: Invalid argument
Parameters:
Executing: /opt/retropie/emulators/retroarch/bin/retroarch -L /opt/retropie/libretrocores/lr-fbneo/fbneo_libretro.so --config /opt/retropie/configs/arcade/retroarch.cfg "/home/pi/RetroPie/roms/arcade/sfa3.zip" --appendconfig /dev/shm/retroarch.cfg
[CDROM] No sg devices found and sg kernel module is not loaded.
[E] Failed to power on HDMI with explicit settings (DMT mode 87)
ioctl FBIOPUT_VSCREENINFO: Invalid argument

mitu

@NikooZ what PI model do you have ?

NikooZ

@mitu Pi4