Hacking Possible to Disable the Wii's (De)Flicker Filter?

[NoobletCheese]

Or can anyone help me figure out the process of turning a dither removal into a cheat code? I know to you remove it from the .dol, but not how to make it a cheat.

GXSetDither seems to be:
XXXXXXXX3C80CC0138A000613800000080C702205066177A98A4800090C4800090C70220B00700024E800020

XXXXXXXX seems to vary between games, but we always want to replace it with either 4E800020 or 48000028.

For this example we'll replace it with 4E800020 ("return" instruction).

Gecko code should be:
28YYYYYY 00003C80 // if 2 bytes at mem address 0x80YYYYYY contain 3C80
06ZZZZZZ 00000008 // write to mem address 0x80ZZZZZZ the following 8 bytes
4E800020 3C80CC01 // 8 bytes to be written
e0000000 80008000 // end of code

YYYYYY

Spoiler

YYYYYY = mem address discovered with eg. Dolphin debugging UI (Config > interface tab > show debugging UI) which contains the string 3C80CC0138A000613800000080C702205066177A98A4800090C4800090C70220B00700024E800020

Dolphin debugging UI doesn't seem to find long strings, so click "dump MRAM" which dumps to C:\Users\YourUsername\Documents\Dolphin Emulator\Dump\mem1.raw

Then inside mem1.raw search the string and get the offset highlighted in red:

So for this game YYYYYY = 4BDC50

ZZZZZZ

Spoiler

ZZZZZZ = YYYYYY - 4
= 4BDC50 - 4 (eg. Windows calculator > view > programmer > hex radio button)
= 4BDC4C

So the code for this game would be:
284BDC50 00003C80 // if 2 bytes at mem address 0x804BDC50 contain 3C80
064BDC4C 00000008 // write to mem address 0x804BDC4C the following 8 bytes
4E800020 3C80CC01 // 8 bytes to be written
e0000000 80008000 // end of code

An alternative to disabling dithering is to patch the game's vfilter to a weak strength filter like 04041010100404 ("Low" in ULGX Enhanced) which reduces dithering artefacts a bit at expense of some image clarity.

 

[ReveriePass]

GXSetDither seems to be:
XXXXXXXX3C80CC0138A000613800000080C702205066177A98A4800090C4800090C70220B00700024E800020

XXXXXXXX seems to vary between games, but we always want to replace it with either 4E800020 or 48000028.

For this example we'll replace it with 4E800020 ("return" instruction).

Gecko code should be:
28YYYYYY 00003C80 // if 2 bytes at mem address 0x80YYYYYY contain 3C80
06ZZZZZZ 00000008 // write to mem address 0x80ZZZZZZ the following 8 bytes
4E800020 3C80CC01 // 8 bytes to be written
e0000000 80008000 // end of code

YYYYYY

Spoiler

YYYYYY = mem address discovered with eg. Dolphin debugging UI (Config > interface tab > show debugging UI) which contains the string 3C80CC0138A000613800000080C702205066177A98A4800090C4800090C70220B00700024E800020

Dolphin debugging UI doesn't seem to find long strings, so click "dump MRAM" which dumps to C:\Users\YourUsername\Documents\Dolphin Emulator\Dump\mem1.raw

Then inside mem1.raw search the string and get the offset highlighted in red:

So for this game YYYYYY = 4BDC50

ZZZZZZ

Spoiler

ZZZZZZ = YYYYYY - 4
= 4BDC50 - 4 (eg. Windows calculator > view > programmer > hex radio button)
= 4BDC4C

So the code for this game would be:
284BDC50 00003C80 // if 2 bytes at mem address 0x804BDC50 contain 3C80
064BDC4C 00000008 // write to mem address 0x804BDC4C the following 8 bytes
4E800020 3C80CC01 // 8 bytes to be written
e0000000 80008000 // end of code

An alternative to disabling dithering is to patch the game's vfilter to a weak strength filter like 04041010100404 ("Low" in ULGX Enhanced) which reduces dithering artefacts a bit at expense of some image clarity.

Oh man… that’s way out of my expertise. Any chance someone here could make 1 code, for Animal Crossing City Folk, please?

 

[oldmario1974]

Would it be possible to also remove the horrible blurred filter from you vc arcades ?

 

[NoobletCheese]

Would it be possible to also remove the horrible blurred filter from you vc arcades ?

Probably. Which games?

 

[oldmario1974]

Ghouls n ghosts and others.

 

[NoobletCheese]

Ghouls n ghosts and others.

I checked it out (Ghosts n Goblins) and yes the graphics do look filtered.

Disabling Wii's filter in Dolphin has no effect on anything. I've never observed Dolphin fail to remove it from any game.

Maybe the arcade board has its own filtering as those old arcade machines used CRTs.

 

[oldmario1974]

Altered Beast for example we can change from 240p to 480i without this filter.
Maybe that filter can be disabled.

 

[mive]

you need to unpack arcade wad, decompress 0000001.app (lz11), remove filter, (maybe optional) compress 000001.aṕp, repack wad. If you want I can upload a python script which does this for you, but its only for linux (should be in this thread somewhere)

 

[oldmario1974]

Would it be possible to show where I need to modify?
I don't know how to use linux.

 

[oldmario1974]

Would it be possible to show where I need to modify?
I don't know how to use linux.

 

[mive]

do you mean ghost and goblins (arcade) or ghouls n ghosts (genesis/mega drive/pce)? because afaik only ghost and goblins has an wii vc arcade version

 

[oldmario1974]

Ghost and goblins (arcade).

 

[mive]

1. unpack wad

mv@mv-pc:/tmp/Ghosts 'n Goblins (Europe) (Arcade)/tmp$ wadunpacker Ghosts\ \'n\ Goblins\ \(Europe\)\ \(Arcade\)\ \(Virtual\ Console\).wad
wad header:
0000: 00000020 49730000 00000a00 00000000
0010: 000002a4 0000034c 01303dc0 00034600
--- cid=00000000 index=0000 type=0001 len=00034600
--- cid=00000001 index=0001 type=0001 len=001b7080
--- cid=00000002 index=0002 type=8001 len=0045940f
--- cid=00000003 index=0003 type=0001 len=0028d874
--- cid=00000004 index=0004 type=8001 len=0020e900
--- cid=00000005 index=0005 type=0001 len=003056f5
--- cid=00000006 index=0006 type=8001 len=0005a8c0
--- cid=00000007 index=0007 type=8001 len=0037adfc
--- cid=00000008 index=0008 type=8001 len=000f7e8a
--- cid=00000009 index=0009 type=0001 len=00050500

2. decompress 00000001.app

mv@mv-pc:/tmp/Ghosts 'n Goblins (Europe) (Arcade)/tmp/0001000145353450$ gbalzss --lz11 d 00000001.app 00000001_decompressed.app

3. open 00000001_decompressed.app file in hex editor
search for

2C 03 00 00 41 82 00 F8 89 04 00 00 38 00 00 00 89 44 00 01 38 60 00 00 51 00 07 3E 88 E4 00 06 51 40 26 36 89 04 00 0C 50 E3 07 3E 38 E0 00 00 51 07 07 3E 89 44 00 0D 89 64 00 07 39 00 00 00 51 47 26 36 89 44 00 02 89 24 00 12 51 63 26 36 51 40 45 2E 89 44 00 0E 51 28 07 3E 89 24 00 13 51 47 45 2E 89 44 00 03 51 28 26 36 89 24 00 14 51 40 64 26 89 44 00 0F 51 28 45 2E 89 24 00 15 51 47 64 26 89 44 00 04 89 64 00 08 51 28 64 26 51 40 83 1E 89 44 00 10 89 24 00 16 51 63 45 2E 89 64 00 09 51 47 83 1E 89 44 00 05 51 28 83 1E 89 24 00 11 51 63 64 26 89 64 00 0A 51 40 A2 16 89 44 00 0B 51 27 A2 16 88 84 00 17 39 20 00 01 51 63 83 1E 51 43 A2 16 50 88 A2 16 51 20 C0 0E 39 40 00 02 39 20 00 03 38 80 00 04 51 43 C0 0E 51 27 C0 0E 50 88 C0 0E 48 00 00 24 3D 00 01 66 3C 60 02 66 3C E0 03 66 3C 80 04 66 38 08 66 66 38 63 66 66 38 E7 66 66 39 04 66 66 3D 20 CC 01 39 40 00 61 99 49 80 00 2C 05 00 00 38 80 00 53 39 60 00 00 90 09 80 00 38 00 00 54 39 80 00 00 50 8B C0 0E 99 49 80 00 50 0C C0 0E 90 69 80 00 99 49 80 00 90 E9 80 00 99 49 80 00 91 09 80 00 41 82 00 40

and change to

2C 03 00 00 41 82 00 F8 89 04 00 00 38 00 00 00 89 44 00 01 38 60 00 00 51 00 07 3E 88 E4 00 06 51 40 26 36 89 04 00 0C 50 E3 07 3E 38 E0 00 00 51 07 07 3E 89 44 00 0D 89 64 00 07 39 00 00 00 51 47 26 36 89 44 00 02 89 24 00 12 51 63 26 36 51 40 45 2E 89 44 00 0E 51 28 07 3E 89 24 00 13 51 47 45 2E 89 44 00 03 51 28 26 36 89 24 00 14 51 40 64 26 89 44 00 0F 51 28 45 2E 89 24 00 15 51 47 64 26 89 44 00 04 89 64 00 08 51 28 64 26 51 40 83 1E 89 44 00 10 89 24 00 16 51 63 45 2E 89 64 00 09 51 47 83 1E 89 44 00 05 51 28 83 1E 89 24 00 11 51 63 64 26 89 64 00 0A 51 40 A2 16 89 44 00 0B 51 27 A2 16 88 84 00 17 39 20 00 01 51 63 83 1E 51 43 A2 16 50 88 A2 16 51 20 C0 0E 39 40 00 02 39 20 00 03 38 80 00 04 51 43 C0 0E 51 27 C0 0E 50 88 C0 0E 48 00 00 24 3D 00 01 66 3C 60 02 66 3C E0 03 66 3C 80 04 66 38 08 66 66 38 63 66 66 38 E7 66 66 39 04 66 66 3D 20 CC 01 39 40 00 61 99 49 80 00 2C 05 00 00 38 80 00 53 39 60 00 00 90 09 80 00 38 00 00 54 39 80 00 00 50 8B C0 0E 99 49 80 00 50 0C C0 0E 90 69 80 00 99 49 80 00 90 E9 80 00 99 49 80 00 91 09 80 00 48 00 00 40

4. compress 00000001_decompressed.app

mv@mv-pc:/tmp/Ghosts 'n Goblins (Europe) (Arcade)/tmp/0001000145353450$ rm 00000001.app && gbalzss --lz11 e 00000001_decompressed.app 00000001.app

5. repack wad

mv@mv-pc:/tmp/Ghosts 'n Goblins (Europe) (Arcade)/tmp$ wadpacker 0001000145353450 "Ghosts 'n Goblins (Europe) (Arcade) (Virtual Console)(No VFilter).wad"
Cert... OK
TMD... OK
There are 10 files described on the TMD.
Ticket... OK
00000000.app... OK
00000001.app... OK
00000002.app... OK
00000003.app... OK
00000004.app... OK
00000005.app... OK
00000006.app... OK
00000007.app... OK
00000008.app... OK
00000009.app... OK
Header... OK
Writing Ghosts 'n Goblins (Europe) (Arcade) (Virtual Console)(No VFilter).wad file... OK

edit:
try also setting scanlines to 1 instead of off (off seems to use some sort of bilinear filtering which is much better (or disabled) with scanline setting)

 

[oldmario1974]

Thank you so much mive but it looks like it's in 480i not 240p.
The image is still somewhat blurry.

 

[oldmario1974]

I've already disabled it but it's still the same.

 

[NoobletCheese]

I've already disabled it but it's still the same.

Yeah it's not the Wii's vfilter as Dolphin can always kill it regardless of whether the game uses compression, and toggling it on and off shows no difference in image quality (unless Ghouls n Goblins is set to 480i).

So I'm 99% sure it's not Wii's vfilter causing it, but something exclusive to the games themselves. In the same way "set dark filter" function was exclusive to N64 games, maybe there is a similar unique function these arcade games can use to set their own deflicker filter.

So we'd have to find it, possibly by toggling between 240p and 480i and dumping memory contents to see what changed, if as you say that removes the filter.

Speculation: maybe it's not actually a deflicker filter but the game simply rendering at 240p and getting bilinear scaling to 480p instead of the optimal line-doubling ("double strike") for 480i mode.

I looked at Altered Beast USA vs EUR arcade versions and strangely the EUR version is filtered, USA is not, and toggling Wii's vfilter has no effect either.. a bit like how the JPN ver of Bomberman 94 has a filter and USA ver does not. ¹

 

[oldmario1974]

NoobletCheese wouldn't it be possible then to disable double strike ?

 

[NoobletCheese]

NoobletCheese wouldn't it be possible then to disable double strike ?

I thought we want to enable double strike to avoid the bilinear scaling, if bilinear is the culprit. But looking at the SDK it seems double strike mode is just 240p output from the console, not 480i with field 1 and field 2 containing the same image. There is no 480p double strike mode either. I'll just try all the modes and see what happens...

 

[Maeson]

Kinda like Contra Rebirth having that filter on PAL but not NTSC, if my memory serves me right...

 

[oldmario1974]

The ntsc jpn version also has a filter.