Remove deflicker filter from N64 VC games on Wii?

[andykara2003]

Hi all,

I'm looking to remove or reduce the deflicker filter from N64 VC games on my Wii in 480i on my consumer Sony trinitron CRT TV. I use Swiss to do this on my Gamecube, which is great & it works really well on all my GC games.

Swiss on GC can remove two layers of filter, setting '2' is the usual filters in operation, '1' takes away the deflicker filter and '0' removes another softening filter, which looks too blocky & aliased for me. I run all my GC games on setting '1', removing the deflicker but keeping a certain smoothness.

I see that for Wii, USB loader GX now has this function for Wii games, but I'm looking specifically to do this with my official N64 VC games on the Wii. I want to use the official games I downloaded from the eshop as the emulation works well.

Is there a solution for these official N64 VC games on Wii that can remove this first deflicker layer but not all softening so it looks harsh & aliased? i.e. equivalent to the '1' setting on Swiss on Gamecube.

Thanks.

 

[JuanMena]

I downloaded from the eshop

Is there a solution for these official N64 VC games on Wii that can remove this first deflicker layer but not all softening so it looks harsh & aliased?

If you have PriiLoader installed, enable Deflickering and 480p fix in Menu System Hacks.

Post automatically merged: Apr 15, 2023

Alternatively, use the Service Menu in your trini to see if you can do something additional to Wii System Menu Hacks.

If I recall correctly there's options to do so, but will depend on your TV's model and year of manufacture.

 

[Maeson]

From what I remember there was no filter on N64 vc games back when this was being researched. I remember one of the Bomberman TG16 games having it, but no N64 games.

What some had was a darkening filter, like SM64 or Wave Race and we found out how to take it out, though.

I know Ogre Battle 64 has a softening filter, but that's from the original game and only for some graphics, like character sprites, but text isn't affected.

SM64 had that in the original too, but not on VC, again from what I remember reading.

 

[andykara2003]

@JuanMena - Cheers for the reply - yes I meant Wii shop

So Priiloader disables deflicker system wide for all 480i games including N64 VC? In that case, does it have 2 levels of filter removal like Swiss?

What does the 480p fix do? Usually 480p modes don't use deflicker as there's no interlacing to compensate for - is it another type of filter removal?

@Maeson Ahh OK, that's very useful. So it sounds like perhapsthere's no deflicker filter. I wonder why Mario Kart 64 looks so soft then. I'll have a look through the games later when it gets dark so I can get a proper look at the various games. I mostly play SM64, MK64, Wave race, 1080, Zeldas & Mario tennis. I'll check across these & see if it varies from game to game & get back here..

EDIT - I'm into my CRTs so the focus etc. has been dialed in and the set is unused but for a few hours (1992 set, bought new old stock!). Looks very clean with GC games in deflicker mode. Wii N64 VC is much blurrier.

 

[Maeson]

Ah wait wait, you're talking about playing in 480i?

Yeah, what I was talking about was in 480p. My mistake, I completely ignored the "i". Yeah, the Wii should use the Deflicker when interlaced video modes are used. I apologize. I think we could check the old "deflicker" thread in search of what we found out to see if we can remove it when on interlaced.

 

[andykara2003]

Ah wait wait, you're talking about playing in 480i?

Yeah, what I was talking about was in 480p. My mistake, I completely ignored the "i". Yeah, the Wii should use the Deflicker when interlaced video modes are used. I apologize. I think we could check the old "deflicker" thread in search of what we found out to see if we can remove it when on interlaced.

I had a trawl through the threads, but the only options I could find was individually editing Wii games or the new deflicker disable option in USB loader GX (and maybe other USB loaders?)

But I'm not sure if either of these options would work with the official N64 games?

@JuanMena - do you reckon that PriiLoader fix would cover the N64 games?

 

[LoveCheese]

If you are using USBLGX you have to first activate the channel display box (your games must be on the NAND) and in the same way as normal Wii games you have to activate the deflicker filter. Although I'm not sure if it applies to some games whose main.dol is compressed (like Zelda MM).

This works for WiiWare games too.

 

[Maeson]

You could dump the WAD, modify it and install it on your Wii, I did so when I was trying.

As LoveCheese says, USB Loader GX was capable of forcing things on games installed on the system's memory. One of the later updates Blackb0x fixed forcing options on emunand, and I remember trying stuff like using gecko codes and such on emunand Wiiware games and it was working, so you could try with those too.

It's unfortunate that to use most N64 games without installing them on your memory is to use neek, because if I remember right you cannot force video options when on neek. Maybe there's a way but I don't know it.

 

[andykara2003]

Thanks guys, much appreciated. Sorry for my ignorance - the console is unmodded so far & the games are just downloaded from the official Wii shop when it was open - does that mean they are on the nand and fine to go? So for example I just hack the console with letterbomb, install USB loader GX, activate the channel display box (not sure what that means) and just run the games as they are from there?

 

[Maeson]

Channel display means that once you launch usb loader gx, to tell the application to show the channels installed in your console, as those are hidden the first time you use USB Loader GX.

If you downloaded them from the shop, yes, they're in the nand (the "hard drive" of the Wii).

But if you wanted to launch the games from the wii menu, then you'd need to edit the games themselves, as I don't know a way to have games to be launched from wii menu with customized settings.

 

[JuanMena]

Had to take a nap because I hadn't slept somce 2am.

Last time I touched a CRT was in 2019. I've been using an LCD Monitor ever since, so deflicker really means very little for my display because it doesn't has scanlines.

As far as I'm concerned though, Deflicker in PriiLoader should remove deflicker in all apps, and I'm not sure how it speaks to other apps containing Deflicker options.

Yesterday while playing smash brawl via Nintendont I was playing with video modes and I noticed that setting Nintedont Video options to Force Deflicker, the ingame video options that blurrs or sharpens image was working.
Forcing NTSC in Nintedont will remove flickering/blur altogether, so the ingame option will actually disable flickering/blur altogether independently if the option is On or Off ingame.

Makes sense? So I'm guessing you have to enable Deflicker in everything you can to actually see a change.

Might be wrong though as the Smash Melee I was playing was the Akaneia build.

About 480p Menu Fix, it's literally that, fixes the Menu being displayed at 480p. But i guess it'll mean nothing if using 480i. But still wouldn't hurt yo enable it.

Which reminds me that, if you guys are looking to improve a bit more the Wii's picture in 480p/i, use 4:3 aspect ratio instead of 4:19.
4:19 will stretch the image and it will stretch/blur pixels.

 

[andykara2003]

Thanks again guys - so we have two very different approaches from two very knowledgable people.

For a noob like me who just wants to have the cleanest most straightforward approach and only uses this NTSC Wii for N64 VC games (I use my other PAL Wii for Wii games), what would be the easiest, most approach of the two for just the N64 VC games?

 

[Maeson]

You could use your pal wii to play your ntsc n64 games if you wanted.

Either way, if you just want something you can just select on the Wii Menu, you will need to make wads of the N64 you wanted, so you can modify them on PC. Once modified, you can install them in the memory of your Wii, and they could be played by normal means, with whatever changes you did. You could even pass the games through wwPacker and Custom Nand loader to make NTSC Wads that could be played on your PAL Wii normally.

The thing is that we have not looked into removing the filter for 480i back then, so It'd have to be checked how it could be done.

The other route is simply use USB Loader GX to boot the games with customized settings whenever you wanted to play them. Currently is the way I do things, I have my Wii set up to boot into the Homebrew Channel, and from there I can go to whichever app I want, but you could have yours start in USB Loader GX if you wanted.

You would go to your N64 games, change settings like Remove Deflicker, save and start the games. It wouldn't require you to mess around with wads, but you'd need to use USB Loader GX.

 

[LoveCheese]

Had to take a nap because I hadn't slept somce 2am.

Last time I touched a CRT was in 2019. I've been using an LCD Monitor ever since, so deflicker really means very little for my display because it doesn't has scanlines.

As far as I'm concerned though, Deflicker in PriiLoader should remove deflicker in all apps, and I'm not sure how it speaks to other apps containing Deflicker options.

Yesterday while playing smash brawl via Nintendont I was playing with video modes and I noticed that setting Nintedont Video options to Force Deflicker, the ingame video options that blurrs or sharpens image was working.
Forcing NTSC in Nintedont will remove flickering/blur altogether, so the ingame option will actually disable flickering/blur altogether independently if the option is On or Off ingame.

Makes sense? So I'm guessing you have to enable Deflicker in everything you can to actually see a change.

Might be wrong though as the Smash Melee I was playing was the Akaneia build.

About 480p Menu Fix, it's literally that, fixes the Menu being displayed at 480p. But i guess it'll mean nothing if using 480i. But still wouldn't hurt yo enable it.

Which reminds me that, if you guys are looking to improve a bit more the Wii's picture in 480p/i, use 4:3 aspect ratio instead of 4:19.
4:19 will stretch the image and it will stretch/blur pixels.

The option to turn off the delficker in Priiloader only applies in the Wii menu, not in the channels, for that you have to manually edit each main.dol of the channels with a hex editor or, easier, launch them through USBLGX.

 

[andykara2003]

Thanks guys, so sorry for the delay, family life took over. The reason I wanted to use the NTSC Wii is because I wanted to have the official NTSC 60Hz versions of the games outputting via RGB scart (I'm in the UK) to my Trinitron. The NTSC Wii doesn't output RGB so I had it fitted with a WiiDual to get the GCvideo analogue RGB out.

Cheers @LoveCheese, & @Maeson, I'll go wth USBLGX then. I'm thinking of using https://wii.guide/ - is that a decent guide?

In the USBLGX section, it says I need to connect a USB drive - will a thumb drive do? I don't need any Wii or GC games on this `Wii, just the N64 games already installed on the console.

 

[Maeson]

That's probably the best guide available currently, yes.

You don't need to have an usb drive for usb loader gx if you're just going to play software from your wii, but if you want yeah, put a pendrive formatted as fat32 and leave it there, if only so whenevwe you enter the loader you don't have to wait for the initial "no usb inserted" time wait.

 

[andykara2003]

Wow, it works beautifully, thanks so much all! And four levels of filter removal is fantastic as you can really fine tune the look - I find just one layer of removal (medium) is enough to sharpen the image without it getting too pixellated & losing that smooth N64 image style. Huge appreciation for everyone here's help!

I'm now looking to remove the dark filter from the games. I think this looks to be a more complicated process but I don't know if this might be risky also. I've found a couple of threads:

https://gbatemp.net/threads/possibl...de-flicker-filter.477163/page-13#post-9495273

https://gbatemp.net/threads/possibl...de-flicker-filter.477163/page-12#post-9494969

From my noob perspective, I'm gathering that I need to somehow copy the N64 games that are on my system menu, transfer them to PC, use an editor of some kind (hex editor?) to find and adjust a value in each rom and place the game (wad?) back onto my Wii. Could I ask how I can copy/replace the wads & what PC program I would need to adjust these values?

Is it dangerous to do this?

 

[worm28]

Wow, it works beautifully, thanks so much all! And four levels of filter removal is fantastic as you can really fine tune the look - I find just one layer of removal (medium) is enough to sharpen the image without it getting too pixellated & losing that smooth N64 image style. Huge appreciation for everyone here's help!

I'm now looking to remove the dark filter from the games. I think this looks to be a more complicated process but I don't know if this might be risky also. I've found a couple of threads:

https://gbatemp.net/threads/possibl...de-flicker-filter.477163/page-13#post-9495273

https://gbatemp.net/threads/possibl...de-flicker-filter.477163/page-12#post-9494969

From my noob perspective, I'm gathering that I need to somehow copy the N64 games that are on my system menu, transfer them to PC, use an editor of some kind to find and adjust a value in each rom and place the game (wad?) back onto my Wii. Could I ask how I can copy/replace the wads & what PC program I would need to adjust these values?

Is it dangerous to do this?

Use this to dump your N64 games to wad https://wii.guide/dump-wads.html but i dont know what pc program to remove the dark filter i would like to know too and installing the wads are easy just use a wad manger i use this https://oscwii.org/library/app/yawmME

 

[Maeson]

To edit the 00000001.app you can use any Hex Editor, like HxD which is freeware and works pretty well.

If you do things correctly it should work without issues, I still have Super Mario 64 which I modified for research back when I wrote that post installed on my Wii and it's the one I use to play whenever I want to.

In any case, you can make a backup of your Wii's NAND memory before doing anything, in case something goes wrong, but you could just uninstall the game if it failed to work. Unless you modify the banner files, you cannot brick your Wii that way. At least that's what I remember.

 

[andykara2003]

Thanks guys, trying this now.

@Maeson - really appreciate your input and discoveries on this - how should I put the wad back on the console when I've edited it? I don't mind if it's not on the Wii menu screen, as long as it's bootable from USBLGX so I can reduce the flicker filter.