Homebrew Official Retroarch WiiU (wip.)

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I don't see why scaling is a problem as long as the resolution of the Wii U signal and the TV are multiples of the console native resolution, for instance it works well on the NES which is 256*240 so can be nicely scaled to 720p, whose vertical resolution is 720 so exactly 3 times 240. Each (original) pixel is just transformed to a 3x3 TV pixel square.

This is what I'd expect, but the evidence I'm seeing on my system suggests otherwise. It seems to be scaling 240 to 480 for the gamepad (2x) and then scaling that to 720p (1.5x). That logically suggests that 2*1.5=3, but I'm getting "big pixel little pixel" syndrome. If you set the aspect ratio to custom and integer scaling to on you can see that the gamepad's resolution is being targeted: on a NES game if height is set to 480 it fills my 720p TV. If I set the height to 720 then it gets massively cropped.
Can anyone enlighten me?
 
This is what I'd expect, but the evidence I'm seeing on my system suggests otherwise. It seems to be scaling 240 to 480 for the gamepad (2x) and then scaling that to 720p (1.5x). That logically suggests that 2*1.5=3, but I'm getting "big pixel little pixel" syndrome. If you set the aspect ratio to custom and integer scaling to on you can see that the gamepad's resolution is being targeted: on a NES game if height is set to 480 it fills my 720p TV. If I set the height to 720 then it gets massively cropped.
Can anyone enlighten me?
What are you doing? Set the graphics driver to use the ratio supplied by the core and it has the best picture.
 
What are you doing? Set the graphics driver to use the ratio supplied by the core and it has the best picture.

No, my point was that this is indicative that it seems to be rendering at 480p for the gamepad and then scaling that up to 720p afterwards. Those numbers don't make sense if it was natively using 720p.

EDIT: Also for GB(C/A) games I use custom to have it a little zoomed out.
 
Last edited by eyeball226,
No, my point was that this is indicative that it seems to be rendering at 480p for the gamepad and then scaling that up to 720p afterwards. Those numbers don't make sense if it was natively using 720p.

EDIT: Also for GB(C/A) games I use custom to have it a little zoomed out.
You do realize that the resolution of the gamepad is always 854 x 480, right? This is at ALL times for all apps and games on the Wii U, no matter what the resolution of the TV is. Everything is just scaled to fit that resolution on the gamepad.
 
Last edited by brienj,
No, my point was that this is indicative that it seems to be rendering at 480p for the gamepad and then scaling that up to 720p afterwards. Those numbers don't make sense if it was natively using 720p.

EDIT: Also for GB(C/A) games I use custom to have it a little zoomed out.
well the gamepad is 480p so it will always be 480p on the gamepad no mater what no more no less.
 
Hi,
Last night I installed the stable build from retroarch site, but when I load a core it gets stuck on the menu screen i.e. keys on the gamepad donot work even the home button doesnot work and I have to reset the WiiU to go back. Can someone help me with this.

Thanks
 
Hi,
Last night I installed the stable build from retroarch site, but when I load a core it gets stuck on the menu screen i.e. keys on the gamepad donot work even the home button doesnot work and I have to reset the WiiU to go back. Can someone help me with this.

Thanks

same here, freeze when I launch whatever core
 
You do realize that the resolution of the gamepad is always 854 x 480, right? This is at ALL times for all apps and games on the Wii U, no matter what the resolution of the TV is. Everything is just scaled to fit that resolution on the gamepad.

well the gamepad is 480p so it will always be 480p on the gamepad no mater what no more no less.

Ok, since you both misunderstood I am happy to assume my wording was at fault. However give me a little credit, of course I know the gamepad is 480p.

When I said "rendering at 480p for the gamepad" I didn't mean "boo hoo, the gamepad picture is only 480p".

Let me try again:

No, my point was that this is indicative that it seems to be rendering at 480p for the gamepad (as in it is outputting 480p for the benefit of the gamepad) and then scaling that up to 720p afterwards (so the picture on the TV is just an upscaled version of the picture rendered at 480p for the gamepad). Those numbers don't make sense if it was natively using 720p.

Hopefully this makes sense to you? When I said "for the gamepad" I meant for the gamepad, not just "on the gamepad".
 
Ok, since you both misunderstood I am happy to assume my wording was at fault. However give me a little credit, of course I know the gamepad is 480p.

When I said "rendering at 480p for the gamepad" I didn't mean "boo hoo, the gamepad picture is only 480p".

Let me try again:

No, my point was that this is indicative that it seems to be rendering at 480p for the gamepad (as in it is outputting 480p for the benefit of the gamepad) and then scaling that up to 720p afterwards (so the picture on the TV is just an upscaled version of the picture rendered at 480p for the gamepad). Those numbers don't make sense if it was natively using 720p.

Hopefully this makes sense to you? When I said "for the gamepad" I meant for the gamepad, not just "on the gamepad".
And you also realize it's using GX2 which upscales it, not RetroArch, right? The GPU of the Wii U is scaling whatever is sent to it to the TV.

I've made many GX2 type apps that use 854 x 480 for the resolution which is perfectly fine, because the GPU will nicely upscale it to render it on the TV.

Retroarch would handle any scaling down to 854 x 480 though, and if you are playing a game that might be using 720p for the output (not sure what emulator you are using that would output that high), Retroarch would then scale it down to 854 x 480.
 
Last edited by brienj,
And you also realize it's using GX2 which upscales it, not RetroArch, right? The GPU of the Wii U is scaling whatever is sent to it to the TV.

I've made many GX2 type apps that use 854 x 480 for the resolution which is perfectly fine, because the GPU will nicely upscale it to render it on the TV.

That doesn't change my point, which is that the integer scaling function is rendered pointless if it's rendering at 480p and then upscaling it to 720p. Well I've not had a direct answer to my original question but it would seem that no it isn't possible to render at 720p directly.
 
I haven't used Retroarch on Wii U for awhile. How can I control games with the left stick?
You boot up a game, then open the RetroArch menu once the game is loaded up, go to Controls from inside the Quick menu and inside Controls, you will see an option below RetroPad or something, change that one to Left Stick or Left Analog.
 
That doesn't change my point, which is that the integer scaling function is rendered pointless if it's rendering at 480p and then upscaling it to 720p. Well I've not had a direct answer to my original question but it would seem that no it isn't possible to render at 720p directly.
The game output isn't always at 480p. For example, a game is 256 x 244 or something, then you choose whatever scaling, so if you choose 1:1 scaling, the game output is still 256 x 244. The GPU takes that 256 x 244 texture and fills the gamepad and TV screen with the 256 x 244 texture, based on the height of it. So if the height is 244, the width and height would be scaled at a factor of 480/244 for the gamepad and 720/244 for the TV. It isn't scaling the 480p texture of the gamepad to the size of the TV, it is scaling the size of the game output to fill both the gamepad and TV.

If you don't want it filling, then change the setting in the video driver.
 
Last edited by brienj,

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