Making 'overscan' work on an LCD screen

[fishermanbill]

I have a Picade with a 1024x768 screen and am using integer scaling with a 3x scaling for my arcade directory. This works a treat for any arcade that has an output resolution multiplied by 3 that is less than 1024 or 768 in both axis respectively. If the output resolution end up being larger in either direction then Retroarch automatically knocks the resolution scaling down to 2 leaving massive borders.

I'd like it to 'overscan' in each direction that goes over the physical width/height.

Is this possible with retropie/retroarch?

Thanks

Pi Model or other hardware: Pi 4 in Picade
Power Supply used: Picade
RetroPie Version Used (eg 3.6, 3.8.1, 4.1 - do not write latest): 4.7.1
Built From: (Pre made SD Image on RetroPie website, Berryboot, or on top of existing OS etc.. - please provide the filename of any image used) Pre made SD Image on RetroPie website
USB Devices connected: Picade
Controller used: Picade
Error messages received: N/A
Verbose log (if relevant): N/A
Emulator: FinalBurn Neo 1.8.8

[dankcushions]

@fishermanbill yes, it's possible. you need to use a custom resolution - it's one of the aspect ratio options. once there, you can adjust the x and y resolution manually, including going beyond your current display resolution.

a while ago i made a change to retroarch to show the current integer scale whilst you cycle through the resolutions. eg, on a 240p game it will say "480 (2x)" when you select that y resolution, etc. this will be useful in your case to find the next "3x" for both x and y.

[fishermanbill]

@dankcushions so you'd need to set up a config for every arcade that has a overscan output? There's an awful lot of them - eek!

You allude to being able to figure out the custom resolution but how would you do that from config files? Also how do you see your change where it outputs the resolution on screen?

Thanks for your response it's very helpful.

[dankcushions]

@fishermanbill said in Making 'overscan' work on an LCD screen:

@dankcushions so you'd need to set up a config for every arcade that has a overscan output? There's an awful lot of them - eek!

unfortunately it’s probably necessary. it’s possible to automate some of this stuff - i believe i experimented with letting them overrun by a certain tolerance when developing https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/4046/crt-pi-shader-users-reduce-scaling-artifacts-with-these-configs-in-lr-mame2003-lr-fbalpha-lr-nestopia-and-more-to-come

the issue is that arcade machines, unlike console games, had CRTs that were manually configured for the game. so they often have crucial gameplay info (eg score) running right to the edge of the image, because they knew an engineer/arcade operator would be adjusting the CRT to suit.

for this reason it’s probably not safe to automate an amount of ‘overscan’ in arcade games.

You allude to being able to figure out the custom resolution but how would you do that from config files?

you have to manually do it whilst the game is running

Also how do you see your change where it outputs the resolution on screen?

when you adjust the resolution in the menu it should be visible behind, no? the menu is translucent.