Display

jonnykegz

So on retropie, When I play a game, I noticed the graphics don't seem quite as good as if I where playing on the original system. For instance, Super Mario for NES, game looks ok, but maybe more pixely? I have it hooked up to a 1080P LCD HD TV. Is there something I can do with TV settings or with Pi settings to make the picture quality better?

Thanks

sirhenrythe5th

@jonnykegz
Best way: use a CRT.
Alternative way: use a HD/4K Display and a Stader.
HD Displays were not meant to be used with NES & Co.

ReadyPlayaWon

@sirhenrythe5th said in Display:

Alternative way: use a HD/4K Display and a Stader

Stader ? .. you mean Shader

ReadyPlayaWon

@jonnykegz said in Display:

For instance, Super Mario for NES, game looks ok, but maybe more pixely? I have it hooked up to a 1080P LCD HD TV

Nintendo Nes games have a resolution of 256x240

Enlarge that for viewing on a 1920x1080 display and of course it's gonna look "more pixely".

Unless an Emulator can upscale the internal resolution of a game .. then it's 1:1 display, and the bigger the resolution display, the bigger the pixels.

You should see how some older games systems look on my 4K 3840x2160 TV ... they look like Minecraft.

jonnykegz

Ok, but also, the nintendo 64 games, I have an actual nintendo 64 hooked up to another hd tv, and there is definetely a difference between the pi emulator and the original system. Is this just because the 64 games are more demanding on a visual level?

thanks

lostless

@jonnykegz not to get to technical, but as others have said, the nes resolution was 240p and ran over a RF or composite most of the time, which neither have sharp picture quality. An emulator shows the raw pixels stretched over a 1080p, so the pixels are super sharp and huge. The are options to “fuzz” the image a tad. You can use biliner filter, the most basic filter, which blends the pixels together over the higher resolution. It’s the way I run games. Some don’t like the softer image, but it does lessen the pixelated look like an old CRT. Other option is to use nestopia, which has an option to simulate an old composite signal, which simulates what the nes looked like on a crt. There are also several shader that simulate all sorts of screen types. But that’s all it is, a simulated image made from the raw pixels.
As far as the n64, it also ran at 240p with a strong antialiasing. Antialiasing is used to smooth out the jaggies in 3D images, but in low res renders over a composite connection, it looks very blurry. When emulated, while the default resolution is 240p in retropies emulators, they don’t add antialiasing, by default, and they are showing a raw render of the polygons, so it looks sharper. You can also pump up the resolution on n64 games to whatever you please as long as the hardware can handle it..

jonnykegz

thanks, I think I'll try the bilinear filtering. Can you tell me how to set this up?

thanks again

mitu

Use the Configuration Editor and toggle the Video Smoothing option, configure it for all libretro based emulators.

dankcushions

relevant documentation: https://retropie.org.uk/docs/Shaders-and-Smoothing/