Homebrew Saving screen resolution on a per core basis in Retroarch Wii

[TheManHimself]

So I've set up each individual core to output its respective system's correct aspect ratio using the custom aspect ratio video setting. The Wii is hooked up on a widescreen television, so for 90% of the cores, keeping the screen resolution at 640x448 and running the custom aspect ratio is enough to make games look great without any annoying pixel warping. The problem is that whenever I run a SNES game i have to go into the video settings and manually set the resolution to 512x448, since running 512x448 as a custom aspect ratio while retroarch is outputting at 640x448 squishes the screen area.

Basically this is a pretty minor issue, since all I have to do is go into a menu and change it when I run SNES9X, but if there is a way to do this automatically I would love to know.

 

[Maeson]

Man, after so long I'm happy to say that your answer is RA-SS.
https://github.com/SuperrSonic/RA-SS

I've spent time throughout the years waiting and looking for a version of Retro Arch for Wii that "just worked". Up until recently I stuck with Retro Arch 1.0.0.2 because it was the most functional even with issues or lack of features such as the one you mention. I had to change the resolution each time I wanted to play something, and while could be annoying, I accepted it because the rest was fine. Other things like Turbo buttons didn't work too. And more modern versions had an awful lot of problems and annoyances.

But this fork made by SuperrSonic is fantastic. You can save resolution and aspect ratio per core and works beautifully, just remember to set them while running a game (the resolution of a core is not the same as the resolution of a core while playing a game!). Has many more options and features, both for the interface and the emulation itself. Jumping from one controller on to another is as simple as plugging it/turn it on, and the performance of the emulators I'd say is also great and I haven't noticed any downside (heck, with the SNES 9x 05 Plus core you can play Kirby's Dream Land 3 without frame drops and the transparency effects for what I've seen!).

Once you set the desired mix of resolution and aspect ratio on a particular core, you're good to go and it will use it every time you boot a game with that core. It's really straightforward in comparison!

So that. Overall, it's solid and I have to say that it's the best time I spent using Retro Arch on this system.

 

[TheManHimself]

Man, after so long I'm happy to say that your answer is RA-SS.
https://github.com/SuperrSonic/RA-SS

I've spent time throughout the years waiting and looking for a version of Retro Arch for Wii that "just worked". Up until recently I stuck with Retro Arch 1.0.0.2 because it was the most functional even with issues or lack of features such as the one you mention. I had to change the resolution each time I wanted to play something, and while could be annoying, I accepted it because the rest was fine. Other things like Turbo buttons didn't work too. And more modern versions had an awful lot of problems and annoyances.

But this fork made by SuperrSonic is fantastic. You can save resolution and aspect ratio per core and works beautifully, just remember to set them while running a game (the resolution of a core is not the same as the resolution of a core while playing a game!). Has many more options and features, both for the interface and the emulation itself. Jumping from one controller on to another is as simple as plugging it/turn it on, and the performance of the emulators I'd say is also great and I haven't noticed any downside (heck, with the SNES 9x 05 Plus core you can play Kirby's Dream Land 3 without frame drops and the transparency effects for what I've seen!).

Once you set the desired mix of resolution and aspect ratio on a particular core, you're good to go and it will use it every time you boot a game with that core. It's really straightforward in comparison!

So that. Overall, it's solid and I have to say that it's the best time I spent using Retro Arch on this system.

Yah this is absolutely perfect. I spent so many years browsing through the main fork of Retroarch Wii that relearning where things are in menus is going to take some getting used to haha.

I've spent the morning messing around with the new setup and I've ran into two walls:

I need to figure out how to get the newest revisions of the VM FBA Neo Geo core and MAME 03 Vector Graphics core running on this. Garou runs like butter in the newest revision of FBA, and this may seem like a curio, but vector Star Wars doesn't center the joystick and runs slowly on the old core that's included in this.

Also, do you know if there is still a way to set aspect ratio on a per game basis? There are a few systems that output at variable resolutions, like the Sega Genesis and the Turbografx-16: I use the standalone Genesis Plus GX, so Sega isn't an issue; but I have individual configs for every TG-16 that uses a nonstandard display size, and i'd love to keep them.

 

[Maeson]

I can't really say I know about a way of making a single core output different resolutions automatically. My way around that is just making a copy of the core (say, genplus GX) and have each for 512 and a 640 games and I boot one depending on what I'm going to play.

For example Shining Force 2 is a 512x448 game, while Sonic 2 is 640x448.

For PC-Engine / TG16 I do the same but for 448 and 464, although that one is a bit more complex because you also have to go to Core Options and tweak the Last Scanline option. That said, the Beetle PCE core in the latest version (28 of April) seems to run very slowly than the one in the previous version (20 of April), I'll check that out.

EDIT: Okay, ignore the PCE- Beetle core and use PCE Fast, that one works at the intended speed.

The "Last Scanline" option I use for the PC-Engine core is 230 (or 229). With that there will be no Pixel Warping and the lower part of the screen won't be cut off.

 

[Wiimpathy]

Game override is one of the useful feature in the latest retroarch versions. @SuperrSonic fork is very good but it lacks this option.
For arcade you can specify resolution per game rather easily. Thanks to available lists, it's possible to have all games launched at correct resolution automatically. I've posted a little pack for NeoGeo a while ago : https://gbatemp.net/threads/large-neogeo-games-support-and-cps3-tests.493767/page-8#post-8529236

I'll try to post similar packs for mame when I have time.

 

[SuperrSonic]

Ah, I didn't bother with game overrides because I would not use them, if I want game specific settings I'm using arguments to change the path of the config file. Not the best choice for the hbc where you still need multiple copies of the core per game, but for channels it's ideal.

I need to figure out how to get the newest revisions of the VM FBA Neo Geo core and MAME 03 Vector Graphics core running on this. Garou runs like butter in the newest revision of FBA,

The reason why I didn't update it is because some recent changes reverted the core to before it had support for unibios 3.1, this is as far as I can tell the only way to save settings like system type and region.

https://github.com/libretro/fbalpha2012_neogeo/blob/master/src/burner/libretro/libretro.cpp#L223
when it still worked: https://github.com/libretro/fbalpha...1ad6f37/src/burner/libretro/libretro.cpp#L386

 

[Wiimpathy]

It's strange, I've tried with Unibios 3.0 in fba neo v0.6 and it's saving the .fs correctly.

 

[TheManHimself]

Ah, I didn't bother with game overrides because I would not use them, if I want game specific settings I'm using arguments to change the path of the config file. Not the best choice for the hbc where you still need multiple copies of the core per game, but for channels it's ideal.


The reason why I didn't update it is because some recent changes reverted the core to before it had support for unibios 3.1, this is as far as I can tell the only way to save settings like system type and region.

https://github.com/libretro/fbalpha2012_neogeo/blob/master/src/burner/libretro/libretro.cpp#L223
when it still worked: https://github.com/libretro/fbalpha...1ad6f37/src/burner/libretro/libretro.cpp#L386

Are you able to update to the newest revision of the MAME 03 suite? The Vector Resolution toggle in the newest version is the only way I've been able to get a few games to run at a playable frame rate, and vector anti-aliasing is experimental in the included version and hard freezes the Wii.

 

[LumInvader]

I remember running into problems getting RA-SS to function through HBC, so I gave up. Instead I've been creating my own profiles, which is a long, long road. I may eventually share them, but they're CRT only and I'll need to remove the custom x\y coordinates that are specific to my TV. Another issue is that the MAME build locks up if you attempt to load a second game. So every time you load another game, you need to reopen MAME. It makes testing game settings a royal PITA.

 

[TheManHimself]

I remember running into problems getting RA-SS to function through HBC, so I gave up. Instead I've been creating my own profiles, which is a long, long road. I may eventually share them, but they're CRT only and I'll need to remove the custom x\y coordinates that are specific to my TV. Another issue is that the MAME build locks up if you attempt to load a second game. So every time you load another game, you need to reopen MAME. It makes testing game settings a royal PITA.

I just repaired my CRT, so if you can upload your profiles I can just fix the x/y position manually. I'm sticking with the main fork for arcade for now, so I could definitely make use of them

 

[LumInvader]

I just repaired my CRT, so if you can upload your profiles I can just fix the x/y position manually. I'm sticking with the main fork for arcade for now, so I could definitely make use of them

Wiimpathy just released basic profiles that should help. You'll probably want to disable bilinear filtering for games that are pixel perfect, so add this line to those games:

video_smooth = "false"

Other settings that will help make games fit your screen better, are:

aspect_ratio_index = ""
custom_viewport_x = ""
custom_viewport_y = ""
custom_viewport_width = ""
custom_viewport_height = ""

...with the custom numerical values going inside the quotes.

There are plenty of games that will require those extra settings, like Crazy Climber for example. IIRC, my TV's overscan removed the map, so I had to widen the current_resolution_id then edit the viewport to display the game in it's true resolution:

current_resolution_id = "8"
custom_viewport_width = "512"
custom_viewport_height = "224"

Doing that allowed the map to display while also keeping the output pixel perfect.

As for my .cfgs, they're only partially finished and I'm really not comfortable releasing them in an unfinished state with all of the quirky settings for my TV. I don't mind doing it, but hunting down game resolutions for each game, testing them, and then editing each .cfg by hand has been a very slow, time consuming process. Just like you I want to see this finished, but real life comes first, so the project is on hold for a bit.