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    Maximum*required* screen res for emulation?

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved General Discussion and Gaming
    screenresolutionpicaderender
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    • S
      sepinho
      last edited by

      I'm looking into updating the screen on on Picade. Standard recommendation seems to be 12" 1024x768 displays. That got me wondering: What's the maximum required resolution for Retropie's emulators. I guess native resolution for most - if not all - emulated home consoles would be PAL/NTSC. So does it make sense to pick a high-resolution display for Retropie? Are there any hi-res arcade games?

      Would native 800x600 be enough? Might that even put less of a strain on my Pi 3 than rendering 1024x768?

      dankcushionsD 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • dankcushionsD
        dankcushions Global Moderator @sepinho
        last edited by

        @sepinho

        "maximum required" doesn't really make sense to me :) the minimum required depends really on the games you want to play. most retro systems are 320x240 or thereabouts. the benefit of higher resolutions is that when games are odd resolutions (very common, especially with arcade games), the higher the resolution the less visible the scaling artifacts will be. for example, a vertical arcade game may have a resolution of 240x320. if you scaled that up to 800x600, whilst keeping aspect ratio, there would be some visible artifacts, or if you kept integer scaling on, you would have large borders (actually it wouldn't upscale at all, just stay at it's original resolutions, as 2x320 is greater than 600).

        Would native 800x600 be enough? Might that even put less of a strain on my Pi 3 than rendering 1024x768?

        the pi3 has a very weak GPU, but simple upscales like this it can do in its sleep. there's no real strain upscaling to HD resolutions

        ultimately IMO a 1080p screen is the best, but not always practical depending on the size of your build. 1024x768 should do pretty well in most situations.

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        • S
          sepinho
          last edited by

          The scaling artifacts arguments makes a whole lotta sense, thanks for the quick reply! I'll just go for a 1024x768 then if it doesn't really affect GPU performance much.

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