Widescreen snes games?

[deshayzilla]

I'm wondering if there is anyway to edit a snes game to run in widescreen, without distorting the image. Like a way to change the render area to outside the window.

I think since something like this exists in Dolphin why couldn't it exist in BSNES?

Maybe there is a way to edit roms to change their resolutions?

Just a thought...

 

[Psionic Roshambo]

Nothing is impossible when it comes to computer programming but to get wide screen on the SNES you would need to hack the emulator to add that feature and then you would have to hack each ROM that you wanted in wide screen mode. Not really an easy task.

Edit: Well maybe some things are impossible.... People asking for full speed emulation of newer systems on older systems... But that's a hardware limitation, not really related to what you ask

 

[deshayzilla]

Yeah it would probably be a good amount of work but honestly it would be worth it.
The games would look awesome in widescreen.
Nintendo should seriously consider doing this for their virtual console service. I think they have done it for some of the 3D NES games on 3DS.

 

[Rydian]

There's an example I recorded today for the N64 where it's possible to force it, but unlike the Wii, games were never designed with widescreen in mind, so you can see all the graphical issues.

EDIT: Fix, GC -> Wii

 

[deshayzilla]

Yeah I understand there is going to be some graphics issue but I think it would interesting to see.
I know when using the gba emulator for DS that it renders to the whole screen. I could see this being the next big accomplishment for snes emulation.

 

[Rydian]

Do you mean viewing things outside the normal area? NO$SNS and other emulators with debug features can often view VRAM and layers and such.

 

[Ultralex]

I remember that gameboy emulator that was on my M3.
You could force widescreen on it.
I played Metroid 2 on it an you could see the tiles building up on the left and right.

 

[Celice]

There's an example I recorded today for the N64 where it's possible to force it, but unlike the GC, games were never designed with widescreen in mind, so you can see all the graphical issues.

This is a problem because the emulators are rendering items outside the native display resolution. Games which will "unload" actors and entities off-screen will disappear when you use the fake widescreen rendering. This is nothing that can be fixed, excepting creating new hot-patches that will force the game to run less-efficiently by not unloading entities that are rendered off-screen; however, code such as this will likely be unique to each and every game and require much labor to perfect, let alone get working.

Various GameCube games also suffer from the larger widescreen rendering (such as Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance), as they, like the N64 games, were not necessarily all intended for widescreen gaming. (This isn't necessarily to call out the poster above, but is more to expand more as to why the problem exists, for those interested).

Now, I've actually bee curious: why can't one simply "squish" an image at the correct aspect ratio, so that when playing the games on a 16:9 display, the games will "unstretch" back into their relatively-correct aspect ratio? I've seen several games render the games with such a squished nature (Final Fantasy XII, Perfect Dark, Goldeneye 64) that didn't have too many problems with such a method. There will likely be 2D distortion to a much greater extent than if the games were purely 3D, but still, it seems to me that the games ought look better rendering with the method I'm thinking off, than simply stretching a correct 4:3 ration into a bloated 16:9 image (withstanding the normal native resolutions displayed by the system already).

Or something.

 

[Rydian]

Now, I've actually bee curious: why can't one simply "squish" an image at the correct aspect ratio, so that when playing the games on a 16:9 display, the games will "unstretch" back into their relatively-correct aspect ratio?

The Wii actually does this for it's "widescreen mode", but that's because it was made to do that in the first place.

 

[YayMii]

Yeah I understand there is going to be some graphics issue but I think it would interesting to see.
I know when using the gba emulator for DS that it renders to the whole screen. I could see this being the next big accomplishment for snes emulation.

The built-in GBA functionality on the DS/DSlite doesn't render to the whole screen, it renders at original resolution in the middle of the screen. Even the GBA emulator on the DStwo doesn't render to the whole screen.

 

[deshayzilla]

The built-in GBA functionality on the DS/DSlite doesn't render to the whole screen, it renders at original resolution in the middle of the screen. Even the GBA emulator on the DStwo doesn't render to the whole screen.

I'm talking about gbaemu4DS. That renders to the whole screen.

 

[Rydian]

Doesn't it just upscale?

 

[deshayzilla]

Doesn't it just upscale?

No it goes beyond the regular boarders of the GBA. Everything is still in still in scale with some added outside elements that you wouldn't normall see. For instance when walking around in any of the pokemon games you can see beyond what you normally would.

 

[Rydian]

No it goes beyond the regular boarders of the GBA. Everything is still in still in scale with some added outside elements that you wouldn't normall see. For instance when walking around in any of the pokemon games you can see beyond what you normally would.

I never bothered trying it out, this info makes me want to...

 

[deshayzilla]

I mean there is some graphical glitches but it runs quite well for what it is. Sound kinda works. Check the compatibility list before trying it out, only specific versions of each game seem to work the best.

 

[caribou007]

There's an example I recorded today for the N64 where it's possible to force it, but unlike the Wii, games were never designed with widescreen in mind, so you can see all the graphical issues.

Those old games weren't made with a wide viewing angle in mind so the development crew sometimes left production equipment within view of a 16:9 frame such as Lakitu's cameras frequently hanging into the side of the frame or Shigeru Miyamoto standing off to the side directing the action.

 

[FAST6191]

On the GBA stuff I imagine that is likely to be the BG layers sometimes being 256x256 or more where the resolution of the GBA is 240x160. There are all sorts of implications for going over this though and the sprites/OAMs are often hardcoded along with the logic to control them so at best you are going to have a fancy border. You can see this quite happily in any emulator that has a background viewer.
Others have already taken 3d games, if you fancy a search term then viewport rendering would probably want to be it.
As for the SNES I would hold it is much like the GBA, if I was going to try something I would probably consider an emulator with the option to move the camera and crank the speed so high (savestate and move in all directions before reloading and handing the control back) and then you can stitch enough data together to fake it.