Hardware GB/GBA Virtual Console too dark?

[AdmiralToucan]

I find that GBA VC games have some weird grey/dark filter over them. I've also noticed a weird afterimage effect. No idea why this was done and most VC games seem to be dark in general. I don't think there's any way to fix this without modifying something that goes above my head, but have you guys noticed this as well?

 

[44100hz]

Nintendo likes to dim VC things, really couldn't tell you why. Something about photosensitive epilepsy?
I'm 99% sure the afterimage is just the 3ds having a bit of screen blur, and is present on all games VC or not.

EDIT: it's added in. I was 99% wrong

I feel like if there's a way to hack power saving brightness, it could be fixed.

Here's my theory:
Say screen brightness is 100%, but the game is only using 50% of the brightness. Power saving will reduce the backlight to 50%, but stretch the game's levels to 100% brightness in software. Result is that the game looks the same and the backlight can run half as bright. But, if we can get it to stretch the brightness to 100% without reducing the backlight, we turn a perpetually 50% bright game to a 100% bright one.

 

[ItsMetaKnight]

I agree it is much too dark. Really dislike it.

 

[tbb043]

Nintendo likes to dim VC things, really couldn't tell you why.

Probably to simulate the eyestrain you'd get on the original hardware, heh.

 

[Tomy Sakazaki]

Whoever programs the base emulator that Nintendo uses actually try to emulate the screen effects (and their problems) of the games on VC.
GBA titles actually have an added ghosting effect. GB titles have more ghosting on "green screen mode" (classic GB) than on "gray screen mode" (GB Pocket). NES games are a bit blurred to simulate RGB pixel blending.
I say emulate because some effects use simplistic approach to get a somewhat similar result.

 

[44100hz]

Whoever programs the base emulator that Nintendo uses actually try to emulate the screen effects (and their problems) of the games on VC.
GBA titles actually have an added ghosting effect. GB titles have more ghosting on "green screen mode" (classic GB) than on "gray screen mode" (GB Pocket). NES games are a bit blurred to simulate RGB pixel blending.
I say emulate because some effects use simplistic approach to get a somewhat similar result.

Are you sure the GBA/GB add ghosting? In a homebrew emulator I seem to get the same effect on GB. I think it's just the coloration which causes the LCD to respond differently. Also, the NES blurring is so that they stay 4:3 aspect, because it linear scales from 256px to 320px.

EDIT: gba games clearly have motion blur added.

 

[AdmiralToucan]

What's interesting is I booted up my GBA Player the other day and it's surprisingly just as dark and has nasty input delay! There's a custom homebrew game boy player boot disc called Game Boy Interface that fixes these problems though. Lower latency and correct colors.

even super gameboy on the snes handles the colors better than VC. Motion blur is pretty poop, but I'm thinking a custom GBA_Firm would have to made to fix these problems unless you can tell the games to be brighter.

 

[Deleted User]

Wow...dindnt notice till now...

 

[[Truth]]

Yeah, this is the only thing holding me back from getting my whole GBA library to the 3DS.
3DS GBA VC vs. GBA SP with AGS-101 display is a difference of night and day.

I already asked in the patched AGB_Firm thread if this is fixable, but nobody replied.
I hope we can have a comment by one of the 3DS devs about this.

 

[Deleted-236924]

Another thing to consider is that the original GBA had a pretty dark screen too, due to no backlight or no frontlight of any kind.
As a result, some games have had their color palettes brightened. FFVI and Super Mario Advance/Super Mario World come to mind.

 

[Deleted User]

Yeah, this is the only thing holding me back from getting my whole GBA library to the 3DS.
3DS GBA VC vs. GBA SP with AGS-101 display is a difference of night and day.

I already asked in the patched AGB_Firm thread if this is fixable, but nobody replied.
I hope we can have a comment by one of the 3DS devs about this.

man no need to bump such old threads...
and - if already bumped- does NTR's brightness settings fix it?