Hacking WiiU Virtual Console finally fixed! [No More dark filter, and widescreen support!]

[MikaDubbz]

Anyone has tried this method with the mario party trilogy?

I just finished checking my entire N64 VC library on my Wii U, which includes MP2 and MP3 and they both work widescreen and dark filter removed. In fact every N64 game I checked with this works without issue. If people are having issues I suspect they're just doing something wrong, because you just use the same file you used for one N64 title and it works for all of them. In addition to both Mario Parties, I've checked and can confirm the following work: Super Mario 64, Mario Kart 64, DK64, Bomberman 64, Bomberman 64: The Second Attack, Bomberman Hero, Excitebike 64, Harvest Moon 64, Super Smash Bros, Paper Mario, Mario Golf, Mario Tennis, Ocarina of Time, Majora's Mask, Yoshi's Story, Pokemon Snap, Pokemon Stadium 2, Kirby 64, Sin & Punishment, Mega Man 64, Wave Race 64, F-Zero X, Starfox 64, Banjo Kazooie, 1080 Snowboarding, Chameleon Twist, and Ogre Battle 64. Every single one worked without a problem.

 

[the_randomizer]

I just finished checking my entire N64 VC library on my Wii U, which includes MP2 and MP3 and they both work widescreen and dark filter removed. In fact every N64 game I checked with this works without issue. If people are having issues I suspect they're just doing something wrong, because you just use the same file you used for one N64 title and it works for all of them. In addition to both Mario Parties, I've checked and can confirm the following work: Super Mario 64, Mario Kart 64, DK64, Bomberman 64, Bomberman 64: The Second Attack, Bomberman Hero, Excitebike 64, Harvest Moon 64, Super Smash Bros, Paper Mario, Mario Golf, Mario Tennis, Ocarina of Time, Majora's Mask, Yoshi's Story, Pokemon Snap, Pokemon Stadium 2, Kirby 64, Sin & Punishment, Mega Man 64, Wave Race 64, F-Zero X, Starfox 64, Banjo Kazooie, 1080 Snowboarding, Chameleon Twist, and Ogre Battle 64. Every single one worked without a problem.

It's funny how people can unofficially make an official emulator better than it was intended to be. Blur/darken filters and bad aspect ratio be damned.

 

[Enscripture]

Yes, someone else pointed out this had already been discovered, but I found it out independantly from you, completely unaware we already had a solution for the DS VC games.

Cool! I was trying to figure out how to fullscreen the DS Zelda games and romswapping the official one with the D-Pad patched rom from Romhacking works perfectly

 

[bootmonster]

So I have been playing around with this and it really is great, the difference is quite striking.

Standard

Filter Removed and Frame resized to 1920x1080 (in game widescreen setting turned on also)

However the black bars I still found annoying. So it got be wondering about the scale option in Frame. I did a bit of testing and this does indeed scale the image up or down.

I took the all of the screenshots using the Wii U browser, and did some calculations using the black bars. Oddly the image isn't centered exactly, so I calculated the scale of each side to fill the black space.

Black space in above image (1280x720);

Area    Pixels   Scale

Top     30px     1.090909
Bottom  33px     1.100917
Left    40px     1.066667
Right   44px     1.0732826

I decided to keep both x and y the same so not to distort the image (that's assuming it's not already distorted), but it does mean you lose a few pixels from the left and right. Though you could try x 1.08 and y 1.11 if you want to get those pixels back and maybe that is the 'correct' aspect ratio.

So I tested both 1.09 and 1.1 scales to see if my calculations were correct, and the resulting screenshots are below;

1.09 Scale for both x and y (1 pixel at the top and small black bar at bottom)

1.1 Scale for both x and y (maybe 1 black pixel at bottom) but not really noticeable on hardware.

I am pretty pleased with the results, and looks like my calcs were pretty much spot on. I'd maybe recommend 1.11 to drop that last pixel, but I do wonder if playing around with Origin: OriginX and OriginY values or the Transformaton: Translation values could allow you to centre the image, and reduce the scaling slightly and not lose any pixels.

If the image were perfectly centred the ideal scaling would be x =1.070234 and y = 1.09589

This is just for US retail Donkey Kong 64 haven't checked any other games yet.

 

[dragon12]

Sweet! Gonna try it with my N64 VC games.

 

[ploggy]

So I have been playing around with this and it really is great, the difference is quite striking.

Standard

Filter Removed and Frame resized to 1920x1080 (in game widescreen setting turned on also)

However the black bars I still found annoying. So it got be wondering about the scale option in Frame. I did a bit of testing and this does indeed scale the image up or down.

I took the all of the screenshots using the Wii U browser, and did some calculations using the black bars. Oddly the image isn't centered exactly, so I calculated the scale of each side to fill the black space.

Black space in above image (1280x720);

Area    Pixels   Scale

Top     30px     1.090909
Bottom  33px     1.100917
Left    40px     1.066667
Right   44px     1.0732826

I decided to keep both x and y the same so not to distort the image (that's assuming it's not already distorted), but it does mean you lose a few pixels from the left and right. Though you could try x 1.08 and y 1.11 if you want to get those pixels back and maybe that is the 'correct' aspect ratio.

So I tested both 1.09 and 1.1 scales to see if my calculations were correct, and the resulting screenshots are below;

1.09 Scale for both x and y (1 pixel at the top and small black bar at bottom)

1.1 Scale for both x and y (maybe 1 black pixel at bottom) but not really noticeable on hardware.

I am pretty pleased with the results, and looks like my calcs were pretty much spot on. I'd maybe recommend 1.11 to drop that last pixel, but I do wonder if playing around with Origin: OriginX and OriginY values or the Transformaton: Translation values could allow you to centre the image, and reduce the scaling slightly and not lose any pixels.

If the image were perfectly centred the ideal scaling would be x =1.070234 and y = 1.09589

This is just for US retail Donkey Kong 64 haven't checked any other games yet.

Thank you. These values helps with Fzero X's black boarder too. Fullscreen loveliness

 

[ShadowOne333]

So I have been playing around with this and it really is great, the difference is quite striking.

Standard

Filter Removed and Frame resized to 1920x1080 (in game widescreen setting turned on also)

However the black bars I still found annoying. So it got be wondering about the scale option in Frame. I did a bit of testing and this does indeed scale the image up or down.

I took the all of the screenshots using the Wii U browser, and did some calculations using the black bars. Oddly the image isn't centered exactly, so I calculated the scale of each side to fill the black space.

Black space in above image (1280x720);

Area    Pixels   Scale

Top     30px     1.090909
Bottom  33px     1.100917
Left    40px     1.066667
Right   44px     1.0732826

I decided to keep both x and y the same so not to distort the image (that's assuming it's not already distorted), but it does mean you lose a few pixels from the left and right. Though you could try x 1.08 and y 1.11 if you want to get those pixels back and maybe that is the 'correct' aspect ratio.

So I tested both 1.09 and 1.1 scales to see if my calculations were correct, and the resulting screenshots are below;

1.09 Scale for both x and y (1 pixel at the top and small black bar at bottom)

1.1 Scale for both x and y (maybe 1 black pixel at bottom) but not really noticeable on hardware.

I am pretty pleased with the results, and looks like my calcs were pretty much spot on. I'd maybe recommend 1.11 to drop that last pixel, but I do wonder if playing around with Origin: OriginX and OriginY values or the Transformaton: Translation values could allow you to centre the image, and reduce the scaling slightly and not lose any pixels.

If the image were perfectly centred the ideal scaling would be x =1.070234 and y = 1.09589

This is just for US retail Donkey Kong 64 haven't checked any other games yet.

Thank you. These values helps with Fzero X's black boarder too. Fullscreen loveliness

So what scale values should be used to have the least amount of pixels lost?
X = 1.08 and Y = 1.11?

 

[ploggy]

So what scale values should be used to have the least amount of pixels lost?
X = 1.08 and Y = 1.11?

I used the values in the guys screenshot..
X = 1.1
Y = 1.1
Seems to work fine. (there are still a few pixels of black on the top and bottom but only while in race, in the games menu the screen is fullscreen)

 

[bootmonster]

So what scale values should be used to have the least amount of pixels lost?
X = 1.08 and Y = 1.11?

I haven’t tested it but yes it should. You could even go to more decimals points but I have only tried two decimal places.

And I’m not certain every game behaves the same.

 

[Fgamer]

These are awesome findings! (edit: don't do the following - after some testing it works for cemu but not on a real Wii U, leaving the info here in case anyone else tries it) I've tested a few settings and rather than use Scale (0,0) you can instead change the Visible parameter to False and this also removes the dark filter.

Can anyone tell me if anything ever been discovered in terms of improving input lag for Wii U N64 VC or the reason why it exists in the first place? Could there be anything in these files?

So I have been playing around with this and it really is great, the difference is quite striking.

This is just for US retail Donkey Kong 64 haven't checked any other games yet.

Thank you. These values helps with Fzero X's black boarder too. Fullscreen loveliness

(edit: the following patch has issues when installed on a Wii U, probably only working via emulator at the moment) There's actually a borderless widescreen patch for F-Zero X! You'd be better off using this patch rather than scaling the image as it renders at an even higher resolution (both horizontally and vertically) than the standard widescreen patch. It's by gamemasterplc of course:



N64 games render at several different resolutions which I believe is the cause of those black borders on some games. I think manually scaling is going to affect image quality in terms of no longer hitting an integer scale, so ideally widescreen patches that actually render the game in 16:9 (like the borderless F-Zero X one) would be the optimum solution for maxing out the screen. Still a nice find though @bootmonster

 

[Keylogger]

Someone can link the patched universal file I have to put in the VC game folder?

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

Hum I can't get perfect dark working ...
It's noted as working in the compat list: https://wiki.gbatemp.net/wiki/WiiU_VC_N64_inject_compatibility_list#E

Perfect Dark in full screen!

 

[Hozu]

I believe the black bars are there to have integral scaling, since 1080 is not a multiple of 480. While N64 games were originally in 240p, Wii (U) VC makes them render at double their original resolution, then the Wii U probably upscales that to 960p. Of course, some people would rather have non-integral scaling than black bars, so more power to them I guess.

 

[Fgamer]

I believe the black bars are there to have integral scaling, since 1080 is not a multiple of 480. While N64 games were originally in 240p, Wii (U) VC makes them render at double their original resolution, then the Wii U probably upscales that to 960p. Of course, some people would rather have non-integral scaling than black bars, so more power to them I guess.

Some games actually have some letterboxing going on which adds black borders (Donkey Kong 64, Super Mario 64, F-Zero) and others fill out the screen (Ocarina of Time, Mario Kart 64).

 

[ploggy]

These are awesome findings! I've tested a few settings and rather than use Scale (0,0) you can instead change the Visible parameter to False and this also removes the dark filter, no idea if one setting has any particular advantage over the other, probably the same in practice.

Can anyone tell me if anything ever been discovered in terms of improving input lag for Wii U N64 VC or the reason why it exists in the first place? Could there be anything in these files?





There's actually a borderless widescreen patch for F-Zero X! You'd be better off using this patch rather than scaling the image as it renders at an even higher resolution (both horizontally and vertically) than the standard widescreen patch. It's by gamemasterplc of course:



N64 games render at several different resolutions which I believe is the cause of those black borders on some games. I think manually scaling is going to affect image quality in terms of no longer hitting an integer scale, so ideally widescreen patches that actually render the game in 16:9 (like the borderless F-Zero X one) would be the optimum solution for maxing out the screen. Still a nice find though @bootmonster

Thanks, I tried the Widescreen patch from that vid but it still shows black bars around the screen when in race and hud looks way off to the right.
That patch really doesn't play nice with the WiiU N64 VC ..

Spoiler

 

[Fgamer]

Thanks, I tried the Widescreen patch from that vid but it still shows black bars around the screen when in race and hud looks way off to the right.
That patch really doesn't play nice with the WiiU N64 VC ..

Spoiler

View attachment 142413

That's a shame but it makes sense actually with all the extra detail being rendered. I'll test it myself later, I still have the original widescreen patch installed at the moment.

 

[xLothwenx]

This combined with the Mario 64 rom hack to enable widescreen and allow 60 FPS is great, except for one thing: The Wii U Virtual Console input lag!

Looks like this remains a huge issue with Wii U Virtual console.

 

[ShadowOne333]

This combined with the Mario 64 rom hack to enable widescreen and allow 60 FPS is great, except for one thing: The Wii U Virtual Console input lag!

Looks like this remains a huge issue with Wii U Virtual console.

Indeed.
I never bitch about input lag, but damn is it noticeable in the Wii U's VC.
Jumping with Mario and swinging the sword with Link has never felt so... delayed.

 

[KawlunDram]

Trying to swap out the Majora's Mask rom with a patched rom and it keeps crashing.

What'd I do wrong, fellas

 

[Billy Acuña]

Is it just me or F-Zero X crashes at the title screen with the widescreen patch?

Enviado desde mi LG-X240 mediante Tapatalk

 

[Enscripture]

N64 games render at several different resolutions which I believe is the cause of those black borders on some games. I think manually scaling is going to affect image quality in terms of no longer hitting an integer scale, so ideally widescreen patches that actually render the game in 16:9 (like the borderless F-Zero X one) would be the optimum solution for maxing out the screen. Still a nice find though @bootmonster

It's from the stupid overscan of old tvs thats why theres a box around say kirby 64 and paper mario and conkers bad fur day. On conker that glitchy stuff at the top is what's off screen since you're not supposed to see it

EDIT: I did (1.1, 1.11 ) and finally those black bars are gone on Kirby 64 and Paper Mario!!