Consistent Resolution Output Then Scaled To Display?

[hooperre]

This mostly relates to RetroArch, but I'm wondering if I can scale my RetroArch displays to be 1920 x 1080 in terms of how it is rendered, but display at a different resolution based on the TV output?

Currently I have all of my TV and arcade overlays (by @Orionsangel, honestly amazing work if you haven't seen them) rendering at 1080 and the video sitting neatly inside them. However, if I go to a 720p display or 4k display things obviously don't line up the same.

I don't fully know how to ask this question concisely, but is there a way to have everything rendered at 1080, but displayed at the TV's resolution?

[Thorr69]

@hooperre If the TV has upscaling capability, that's the easiest. Another way would be to run the HDMI through a stereo receiver that upscales. The problem with either of them is that you are adding latency to the chain and your games will have playability issues.

[MacGyver]

@hooperre
If you're talking Raspberry Pis, then just force the resolution to 1920x1080 in /boot/config.txt with:

hdmi_group=1
hdmi_mode=16

Full options here:

This should work for any screen that can do at least 1080P (2K, 4K, 8K), for any screen that can't do at least 1080P the only solution is some sort of hardware device like Thorr69 mentioned.
Most modern screens can do 1080P.

[hooperre]

@macgyver Thank you!