EmulationStation scale far too large

Asmodeus04

Hello everyone, new to the forum but reasonably experienced Retropie user here:

I recently got my hands on a Raspberry Pi 4, and have put Retropie on it. Seeing faster HDMI port gave me the idea to push 120fps refresh rate on it - it's within spec due to 4K60hz being possible, so I took to it.

The changes in Linux itself weren't too difficult - there is a CEA spec for 1080P at 120fps, so basic configuration wasn't difficult. Lo and behold, it boots, everything looks great through splash...until EmulationStation loads.

EmulationStation is scaled faaar too large - I'd estimate I can see roughly only 1/4 of the screen. I've gone through all the overscan settings, to no avail (it is worth noting that I had to turn Overscan off for my TV, but I have tried with it on). From there, I went to the autostart script, and set emulation station to start with the

--resolution 1920 1080

flag. With that in place, however, it will not load EmulationStation.

Have I made a silly mistake? Is there somewhere else I should define the EmulationStation flags to load the software? Is there a known bug I'm unaware of? Any help I can get is immensely appreciated - I have a Sony X900F TV, and the 40ms latency in its game mode kills me. 120fps mode is about 12-13ms, and is the last step I can take before having to buy and build an entire PC for the sake of handling this downstairs.

Thank you everyone in advance!

mitu

Did you modify the boot config.txt file to add your video mode ? What does tvservice -s shows ?

Asmodeus04

@mitu Yes, I've set the following flags:

hdmi_mode=1
hdmi_group=63

These are predefined CEA modes.

When I type in

tvservice -s

It shows at 1920 x 1080, 120hz.

The Raspberry Pi is functionally running at this resolution - EmulationStation is the only thing not functioning correctly. If I go into the autostart.sh script and try to manually set the following flag:

--resolution 1920 1080

EmulationStation doesn't visually load at all - I can see it running with the TOP command, but it doesn't display for me.

mitu

@Asmodeus04 said in EmulationStation scale far too large:

EmulationStation doesn't visually load at all - I can see it running with the TOP command, but it doesn't display for me.

Can you post your config.txt ? How did you install RetroPie ?

Asmodeus04

@mitu I installed on a fresh memory card using the new 4.6 Retropie image with Etcher. The only change made was adding the 'SSH' file to allow out of box access.

I've posted config below, as I'm on mobile:

# For more options and information see
# http://rpf.io/configtxt
# Some settings may impact device functionality. See link above for details

# uncomment if you get no picture on HDMI for a default "safe" mode
#hdmi_safe=1

# uncomment this if your display has a black border of unused pixels visible
# and your display can output without overscan
disable_overscan=0                                                                 
# uncomment the following to adjust overscan. Use positive numbers if console
# goes off screen, and negative if there is too much border
#overscan_left=16
#overscan_right=16
#overscan_top=16

# uncomment to force a HDMI mode rather than DVI. This can make audio work in
# DMT (computer monitor) modes
#hdmi_drive=2

# uncomment to increase signal to HDMI, if you have interference, blanking, or
# no display                                                                       #config_hdmi_boost=4

# uncomment for composite PAL
#sdtv_mode=2

#uncomment to overclock the arm. 700 MHz is the default.
#arm_freq=800

# Uncomment some or all of these to enable the optional hardware interfaces
#dtparam=i2c_arm=on
#dtparam=i2s=on
#dtparam=spi=on

# Uncomment this to enable infrared communication.
#dtoverlay=gpio-ir,gpio_pin=17
#dtoverlay=gpio-ir-tx,gpio_pin=18

# Additional overlays and parameters are documented /boot/overlays/README

# Enable audio (loads snd_bcm2835)
dtparam=audio=on

[pi4]
# Enable DRM VC4 V3D driver on top of the dispmanx display stack
dtoverlay=vc4-fkms-v3d
max_framebuffers=2

[all]
#dtoverlay=vc4-fkms-v3d
overscan_scale=1
#hdmi_enable_4kp60=1

mitu

Looking at the config file (to which I've added code tags to be more readable), I don't see any settings for the resolution (hdmi_group, hdmi_mode).

Asmodeus04

@mitu It looks like part of it got cut off.

Apologies, I will correct from desktop - although this did take another strange twist. Once I actually loaded a ROM, it went back to emulationstation, which is now properly scaled with the letters on the left side cut off.

I have to wonder if it's a render issue. I'm going to try fiddling with the emulationstation overscan and see if that fixes it.

Asmodeus04

@Asmodeus04 I'm going to drop this for now. unless you you are using a CRT, the 120 hertz mode is not worth messing with. It's too choppy.