Gaming Wii U Bad Upscaling? Maybe, but your screen could also be the problem

Mr Objection · Apr 8, 2021

I have been reading quite a lot about the Wii U doing a very poor job at upscaling when playing in vWii mode and with Nintendont (it seems to be true) and that is it better to run it at 480P (this part is sightly true).

The thing is that 480P looks good if your screen is good at upscaling, but 1080P isn't that bad on the correct screen. I am using an old LED PC monitor to run my Wii U at 1080P and games on vWii mode looks very good also games running with Nintendont. I wanted to try 480P and I won't turn back to it, it looks so blurry... I prefer a sharp image rather than a blurry one. It all depends on your liking and your screen too...

I wanted you to see Images taken with my capture card, with the Wii U running 2 games at 480P and 1080P output resolution and give your opinion in which one you prefer:

vWII Comparison

godfather 480p console and 1080p capture.png

godfather 1080p console and 1080p capture.png

Gamecube Comparison

Thanks for your time.

Edgarska · Apr 8, 2021

Yes, if your TV is bad at upscaling then it's better to let the Wii U do the upscaling.

That doesn't make the Wii U upscaling good, it just means the TV is worse.

Mr Objection · Apr 8, 2021

Edgarska said:
Yes, if your TV is bad at upscaling then it's better to let the Wii U do the upscaling.

That doesn't make the Wii U upscaling good, it just means the TV is worse.

That is true, but 480 still looks blurry, I have tested it also on a good Samsung TV that makes a far better job than my monitor. 1080P looks sharper (that is what a lot of people say) than 480P, maybe the edges are rough, but well... they are old games running in a lower resolution

This is a topic about personal preference, the true change comes with a good upscaler

chainswordcs · Apr 8, 2021

I noticed really how bad Wii U upscaling was when on the file select screen in Super Mario Sunshine.

The red details of mainly Mario's hat just look awful and blocky somehow. I can't describe it exactly, I don't remember what I read... Something about the red color detail being like half resolution, don't quote me on that. But I can tell you it looked bad and it looked better on 480p.

To be honest I barely even notice when playing on the gamepad, perhaps because it's lower resolution or just a lot smaller.

I don't have an OSSC or any purpose-made retro gaming upscaler, but to me 480p mediocrely upscaled by my TV looks better. And if you do use an OSSC or something, you might be truly better off going with 480p to eliminate the Wii U's upscaling issues.

Mr Objection · Apr 8, 2021

chainswordcs said:
I noticed really how bad Wii U upscaling was when on the file select screen in Super Mario Sunshine.

The red details of mainly Mario's hat just look awful and blocky somehow. I can't describe it exactly, I don't remember what I read... Something about the red color detail being like half resolution, don't quote me on that. But I can tell you it looked bad and it looked better on 480p.

To be honest I barely even notice when playing on the gamepad, perhaps because it's lower resolution or just a lot smaller.

I don't have an OSSC or any purpose-made retro gaming upscaler, but to me 480p mediocrely upscaled by my TV looks better. And if you do use an OSSC or something, you might be truly better off going with 480p to eliminate the Wii U's upscaling issues.

Strangely I don't see any problem when connected to my monitor (maybe something in the settings on it helps). For me it looks way sharper and texts are easier to read. Look at vWii Comparison 1, the text looks much better in the 1080P Capture. In the vWii Comparison 3 I can see some red color distortion, but that isn't shown on my Monitor, just when recording.

trogdon · Apr 16, 2021

vWii mode’s output is softer at 480p than it is at 720p or 1080p, and has been shown in many tests previously. A Wii at 480p will look better than a Wii U running vWii at 480p for whatever reason

N7Kopper · May 5, 2021

chainswordcs said:
I noticed really how bad Wii U upscaling was when on the file select screen in Super Mario Sunshine.

The red details of mainly Mario's hat just look awful and blocky somehow. I can't describe it exactly, I don't remember what I read... Something about the red color detail being like half resolution, don't quote me on that. But I can tell you it looked bad and it looked better on 480p.

To be honest I barely even notice when playing on the gamepad, perhaps because it's lower resolution or just a lot smaller.

I don't have an OSSC or any purpose-made retro gaming upscaler, but to me 480p mediocrely upscaled by my TV looks better. And if you do use an OSSC or something, you might be truly better off going with 480p to eliminate the Wii U's upscaling issues.

The GamePad is 480p wide. It only needs to deinterlace 480i and downscale 576i.

Maybe the need to make both TV and DRC outputs work could shed some light on the somewhat unpopular output?

chainswordcs · May 5, 2021

N7Kopper said:
The GamePad is 480p wide. It only needs to deinterlace 480i and downscale 576i.

Maybe the need to make both TV and DRC outputs work could shed some light on the somewhat unpopular output?

OMG I thought the gamepad was 720p, but it's only 854x480! Well then it's no wonder that Wii and GameCube games look passable on it. There's a chance it's being upscaled and then downscaled again though, which is a little icky.

Gaming Wii U Bad Upscaling? Maybe, but your screen could also be the problem

What do you prefer running vWii and Nintendont in 480P or in 1080P?

480P

1080P

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