Homebrew TWPatcher - DS(i) mode screen filters and patches

Sono · Sep 28, 2020

RadoMiami said:
I personally thing that it's incredible that TWPatch even exists and works. I wonder, how did you even do it?

The backstory is really simple: I wanted to prove that I can reverse engineer TwlBg to figure out how the capture card works, and I have succeeded enough to be able to do matrix replacement.
After that I figured I might as well just do patches which me or the community find useful.

intergalacticoh said:
Hey, just wanted to let you know that I tried this out and it works great. Been playing DQ6 for about a week with this filter, it makes a huge difference.

What's planned for future updates? It works great already so I'm curious what you want to improve.

There is not much planned for future updates - or at least none that I want to spoiler -, but I can tell that I really want to fix the lag present in the patcher, as it makes it unusable.

justjack said:
What would be the best combo currently? GPU upscaling + which filter?

As @Robz8 said above, it's either a choice between GPU upscaling (which is blurry, but looks much, MUCH better than MTX upscaling), or MTX upscaling (which can do multiple effects, but overall it looks bad due to the low internal precision used by the hardware).

Basically if you like how the GPU upscaling works despite the blur then use that, but otherwise if you read back in the thread then I remember most people saying "Sono's crisp" and "Linear sharpen" are the two most favorites.

r0achtheunsavory · Sep 28, 2020

I don't think there's much of a reason to use any of the other options besides Sonos crisp and Double Pixel. Everything else has cons but no pros over those.

As for emulation in general, I thought the Switch Lite might be better than the New 2ds XL for that purpose so I bought one. Turns out, it's worse in just about every way. Read my detailed explanation of that if you don't want to do the same mistake:

https://gbatemp.net/threads/the-swi...he-new-2ds-xl-in-just-about-every-way.574596/

fjury · Sep 28, 2020

I am having some issues, I usually play in fullscreen not in 1:1 mode, but recently, the bottom screen started thinking that I am still using the 1:1 size of the screen. So when I touch the bottom it doesn't register the imput right. I could say it is "calibrated" wrong if that explains it better. What could I do to fix the problem? I tried reaplying the filter in the TWpatch aplication on the 3DS but its not fixing anything.

EDIT: I found the issue, I should hold X when starting the DS game to fix it after playing in 1:1 mode the previous time.

Feffe · Sep 28, 2020

@Sono I apologize if that's already been answered. Is the anti wear patch actually useful or not?

Sono · Sep 28, 2020

Feffe said:
@Sono I apologize if that's already been answered. Is the anti wear patch actually useful or not?

We don't know. Something has been killing WiFi flashes on some 3DSes, but it seems like it's not the rewriting code, because Nintendo has actually put checks to guard against re-writing the WiFi flash unnecessarily.

Because it's an annoyance and a source of confusion, it's been disabled in newer builds, and once I release a release build with the lag fixed, it'll have the anti-wear patch disabled by default. I only left it in for those who are either paranoid (and rightfully so), and those who have really old 3DSes which could have their WiFi flashes dying.

Feffe · Sep 28, 2020

Sono said:
We don't know. Something has been killing WiFi flashes on some 3DSes, but it seems like it's not the rewriting code, because Nintendo has actually put checks to guard against re-writing the WiFi flash unnecessarily.

Because it's an annoyance and a source of confusion, it's been disabled in newer builds, and once I release a release build with the lag fixed, it'll have the anti-wear patch disabled by default. I only left it in for those who are either paranoid (and rightfully so), and those who have really old 3DSes which could have their WiFi flashes dying.

Ah, thanks. That was the part I was missing.

I don't mind pressing X every now and then, so I'll probably leave the patch on.

Gamertag · Oct 5, 2020

Hi,
First of all,in my behalf and all commoners i would like to thank the people behind this amazing work.
I dont know very much about programing but since gpu scaling is the best way to play is there any way to remove the blur?
Sorry for my ignorance.

Sono · Oct 5, 2020

Gamertag said:
Hi,
First of all,in my behalf and all commoners i would like to thank the people behind this amazing work.
I dont know very much about programing but since gpu scaling is the best way to play is there any way to remove the blur?
Sorry for my ignorance.

I am sorry, but due to GPU and patch limitation it's not possible to remove blur. In TWL_FIRM rewrite it might be possible, but it requires hand-craft assrmbly due to extremely strong timing limits

I can't do anti-blur in TWPatch, it's impossible, sorry.

RadoMiami · Oct 6, 2020

Sono said:
I am sorry, but due to GPU and patch limitation it's not possible to remove blur. In TWL_FIRM rewrite it might be possible, but it requires hand-craft assrmbly due to extremely strong timing limits

I can't do anti-blur in TWPatch, it's impossible, sorry.

I personally think the blur's just fine. It kinda adds some character! (Not in the 4:3 getting badly stretched to 16:9 way, but in the improper scaling for Game Boy games on 3DS way.

xxpirad · Oct 6, 2020

Sorry for the dumb question, but in the 9/3 build the gpu scaling and wide-screen can't work together?

Sono · Oct 6, 2020

xxpirad said:
Sorry for the dumb question, but in the 9/3 build the gpu scaling and wide-screen can't work together?

Experimental version? I was working on the mode800 patch, so it's very possible I broke it during development.

xxpirad · Oct 6, 2020

Sono said:
Experimental version? I was working on the mode800 patch, so it's very possible I broke it during development.

I see, thanks! Can i also ask what mode 800 patch is?

Sono · Oct 6, 2020

xxpirad said:
I see, thanks! Can i also ask what mode 800 patch is?

On 3DSes with a 3D screen (basically every 3DS except the toast-shaped 2DS) has a 240x800 screen. The way it works is that there are rectangle-shaped pixels where you can combine 2 of them for a square (normal) pixel which halves the resolution to 240x400 (3D off).

Normally 240x800 is only utilized for 3D mode, (240x400 for each eye), but there has been an unused feature found which lets 3DS programs to use the full resolution. So far only homebrew make use of this feature.

The mode800 patch takes the LCD timing parameters used by this mode, and does a ton of patches to try and get the fixed 240x400 code to work with this new mode.

So far I have been partially successful, but there are either graphical glitches, or part of the screen is cut off (most attempts basically), or crashes due to the code freaking out and killing itself.

RadoMiami · Oct 6, 2020

Are you planning on trying to fix the 9/3 build so you can actually use GPU upscaling with it later, or will you simply create an all-new build later on? (I'm not trying to rush you to create anything, since you have a life outside of TWPatch, just kinda curious.)

Sono · Oct 6, 2020

RadoMiami said:
Are you planning on trying to fix the 9/3 build so you can actually use GPU upscaling with it later, or will you simply create an all-new build later on? (I'm not trying to rush you to create anything, since you have a life outside of TWPatch, just kinda curious.)

I might give up on the refactor (for now) and just do a quick bugfix, this lazy route is more tempting... :/

jeff93063 · Oct 12, 2020

Would it be possible to add a scaler that doesn't scale? I always hold start when booting a DS game, but it would be cool to set that as default using the patcher. Thanks.

DSoryu · Oct 12, 2020

jeff93063 said:
Would it be possible to add a scaler that doesn't scale? I always hold start when booting a DS game, but it would be cool to set that as default using the patcher. Thanks.

That feature exists already, is the un-start patch, you can enable it in the patches menu.

jeff93063 · Oct 12, 2020

I have tried the patcher a few times and it has no effect. I choose my scaler, select a patch (un-start) and press start. It goes through the compression countdown and says "ready to use". But nothing changes when I run DS games, either using twilight forwarders or real cartridges.

Sorry if I've done something wrong and you've already answered this a hundred times. This thread is huge.

ccfman2004 · Oct 12, 2020

jeff93063 said:
I have tried the patcher a few times and it has no effect. I choose my scaler, select a patch (un-start) and press start. It goes through the compression countdown and says "ready to use". But nothing changes when I run DS games, either using twilight forwarders or real cartridges.

Sorry if I've done something wrong and you've already answered this a hundred times. This thread is huge.

That's a bug in the 09/03 release. Try this one: TWPatch

Sono · Oct 12, 2020

This is embarrassing. Not only is the new build several MONTHS behind schedule, but it's more broken than ever, and it's sad to see all the complaints about it. At least the complaints are chill.

I was showcasing TWPatcher to my cousin, and for some reason widescreen and GPU patch is indeed not working after having recompiled a *known working* source.

If I figure out why this feature combo (and as it turns out, many others) are broken, I'll turn off some (broken and/or slow) features, so I can hopefully somehow exert a new build before the end of the year... this is peak game dev crunch, except I'm not making a game.

Homebrew TWPatcher - DS(i) mode screen filters and patches

Are you interested in a complete replacement of TwlBg which includes all patches?

Yes, I don't care how broken it will be!

No, I don't want to use even more broken stuff

Yes, but only in GBA mode, because I play DSi exclusives

No, because I only use DS and DSi mode

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