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

  • Thread starter Sono
  • Start date
  • Views 751,272
  • Replies 2,428
  • Likes 101

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

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

    Votes: 188 79.3%
  • No, I don't want to use even more broken stuff

    Votes: 20 8.4%
  • Yes, but only in GBA mode, because I play DSi exclusives

    Votes: 12 5.1%
  • No, because I only use DS and DSi mode

    Votes: 17 7.2%

  • Total voters
    237
  • Poll closed .

Sono

cripple piss
OP
Developer
Joined
Oct 16, 2015
Messages
2,823
Trophies
2
Location
home
XP
9,328
Country
Hungary
For some reason, now gyro doesn't works for me. The only thing that changed was TWiLightMenu++, I'm running a nightly, so I guess that might be it.

Gyro support is between rtcom and GBARunner2 ARM7, so TWiLightMenu++ shouldn't be able to influence it unless it touches TwlBg.cxi

Edit: I only realized the moment I posted this that forcing DS or DSi mode does affect GBARunner2's ability to detect rtcom. I remember having such problems when trying to force DSi mode on GBARunner2.
 
Last edited by Sono,

BETA215

Member not found
Member
Joined
Dec 30, 2014
Messages
347
Trophies
0
Location
they/them | 0xDEAD brain
XP
1,690
Country
Argentina
Gyro support is between rtcom and GBARunner2 ARM7, so TWiLightMenu++ shouldn't be able to influence it unless it touches TwlBg.cxi

Edit: I only realized the moment I posted this that forcing DS or DSi mode does affect GBARunner2's ability to detect rtcom. I remember having such problems when trying to force DSi mode on GBARunner2.
Latest TWLM++/nds-bootstrap builds are working on making DSiWare support possible, some games are already running. So, I'll test with latest stable and see if something changes.
 

BETA215

Member not found
Member
Joined
Dec 30, 2014
Messages
347
Trophies
0
Location
they/them | 0xDEAD brain
XP
1,690
Country
Argentina
I was totally wrong, the culprit here was rehid. Gyro doesn't works in rehid currently, so I guess it doesn't gets initialized in 3DS mode, and when booting to TWL mode it stays that way. I'll message the dev.
 

BETA215

Member not found
Member
Joined
Dec 30, 2014
Messages
347
Trophies
0
Location
they/them | 0xDEAD brain
XP
1,690
Country
Argentina
How to use the "Screen swap for DS mode"?
I looked into this and I can't find the menu that enable this or any video tutorials.
If running DS games in TWiLightMenu++ via nds-bootstrap, just press L+R+Up+X for a few seconds, and screens will swap. Depending on the game is how it'll work.

EDIT: Just to clarify, it isn't something Sono worked on, it was done on nds-bootstrap side. But I guess it's a good solution until Sono works on something like that.
 
Last edited by BETA215,

Sono

cripple piss
OP
Developer
Joined
Oct 16, 2015
Messages
2,823
Trophies
2
Location
home
XP
9,328
Country
Hungary
How to use the "Screen swap for DS mode"?
I looked into this and I can't find the menu that enable this or any video tutorials.
If running DS games in TWiLightMenu++ via nds-bootstrap, just press L+R+Up+X for a few seconds, and screens will swap. Depending on the game is how it'll work.

EDIT: Just to clarify, it isn't something Sono worked on, it was done on nds-bootstrap side. But I guess it's a good solution until Sono works on something like that.

lol, I have no idea why I didn't add the screen swap patch yet to the menu, even though it already exists... I guess I'll do that soon
 

playsaves3

Well-Known Member
Member
Joined
Mar 1, 2020
Messages
145
Trophies
0
XP
347
Country
United States
lol, I have no idea why I didn't add the screen swap patch yet to the menu, even though it already exists... I guess I'll do that soon
im so hyped when your able to get the widescreen patch to be as crisp as the original 4:3 aspect ratio thats when this will truly invalidate the original size and way to play and give a major reason to own xl models good luck man
 

Sono

cripple piss
OP
Developer
Joined
Oct 16, 2015
Messages
2,823
Trophies
2
Location
home
XP
9,328
Country
Hungary
im so hyped when your able to get the widescreen patch to be as crisp as the original 4:3 aspect ratio thats when this will truly invalidate the original size and way to play and give a major reason to own xl models good luck man

Without extra CPU processing power (which the old3DS doesn't have) and some clever filters (which don't exist?) it's not possible to get unfiltered resolution without just downscaling it to 1:1 pixel ratio. Sorry.
 

zosxavius

New Member
Newbie
Joined
May 2, 2021
Messages
4
Trophies
0
Age
45
XP
52
Country
United States
I read on reddit that you had a GBA firm patch in the works? Still happening? The GPU scaling is honestly perfect. It was a revelation. Text looks much better. I think softer is the better approach. Bilinear filtering is probably best and I suspect that's what the GPU is doing. I know GBA games look best with bilinear enabled in retroarch. Certainly better than the stock approach. Would it be possible to patch in a way that injects also work? I don't see why not. It looks like open agb firm still has a little ways to go IMO but I don't see why this couldn't be applied there as well.
 

Rahkeesh

Well-Known Member
Member
Joined
Apr 3, 2018
Messages
2,178
Trophies
1
Age
42
XP
3,261
Country
United States
The current patcher can already do GPU scaling for GBA, just launch in GBA mode (hold Y? or B? while starting the program). It kind of works nicely with the widescreen option too, just a mild stretch to fill out the black bars, and the blur takes care of any artifacts.

The holy grail is still 800px wide mode though IMO. Perfect 3X horizontal integer scale that's razor sharp and zero artifacts. You can probably blur the vertical a good bunch with how sharp the horizontal will be.
 

zosxavius

New Member
Newbie
Joined
May 2, 2021
Messages
4
Trophies
0
Age
45
XP
52
Country
United States
The current patcher can already do GPU scaling for GBA, just launch in GBA mode (hold Y? or B? while starting the program). It kind of works nicely with the widescreen option too, just a mild stretch to fill out the black bars, and the blur takes care of any artifacts.

The holy grail is still 800px wide mode though IMO. Perfect 3X horizontal integer scale that's razor sharp and zero artifacts. You can probably blur the vertical a good bunch with how sharp the horizontal will be.


Nope. Not from an inject at least. I tried open agb firm again and they seem to be doing something different with the scaling. Its pretty decent. Unfortunately I can't change the brightness and I'm pretty sure a bunch of games have saving issues so it's probably best to wait for it to mature. Looking back through the comments I see that Sonos doesn't have access to the GPU in AGB mode so that would be a road block. I still think VC injects are the best solution for most games though with a way to drop back to the home menu easily and also launch from home, agb firm is going to be the future. Seems like there's a payload launcher for the home screen now so I see it's possible to make this as seamless as VC GBA injects which close home anyway.
 

Rahkeesh

Well-Known Member
Member
Joined
Apr 3, 2018
Messages
2,178
Trophies
1
Age
42
XP
3,261
Country
United States
Maybe its a feature that got removed recently but I have GPU scaling working on my GBA injects with a .cxi generated by sono's tool. It's the only way to make GBA widescreen not look super chunky because matrix scaling is broken on one of the axes.

There's also a nice forked build on open_agb_firm that increases the brightness range and improves save compatibility, makes it so I can actually play casually with it now! Check the last page or two of the thread for more.
 
  • Like
Reactions: zosxavius

3DSBest

Member
Newcomer
Joined
Mar 28, 2021
Messages
15
Trophies
0
Age
74
XP
191
Country
United States
Sooo after installing this and enabling wide screen, are you supposed to ALSO apply widescreen cheats to supported games to make them render better or does it do that by itself? I can't exactly figure it out
 

RocketRobz

Stylish TWiLight Hero
Developer
Joined
Oct 1, 2010
Messages
16,614
Trophies
3
Age
24
XP
21,032
Country
United States
Sooo after installing this and enabling wide screen, are you supposed to ALSO apply widescreen cheats to supported games to make them render better or does it do that by itself? I can't exactly figure it out
TWiLight Menu++ does it by itself, otherwise, you'll need to enable the cheats manually.
 

Sono

cripple piss
OP
Developer
Joined
Oct 16, 2015
Messages
2,823
Trophies
2
Location
home
XP
9,328
Country
Hungary
Is there any way to change the redshift settings that are used in Twilight Menu++ without repatching?

It would be possible to reconfigure it in DS mode, yes. Someone just needs to make it.
I tried to do it, but I'm no DS developer, and I failed miserably.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Nicky P

Lenks

Well-Known Member
Member
Joined
Mar 8, 2020
Messages
104
Trophies
0
Age
37
XP
1,190
Country
Bulgaria
I don't know if the idea is mentioned before but some good scanline filter wouldn't be a better and cool solution to hide the blurriness?
 

Sono

cripple piss
OP
Developer
Joined
Oct 16, 2015
Messages
2,823
Trophies
2
Location
home
XP
9,328
Country
Hungary
I don't know if the idea is mentioned before but some good scanline filter wouldn't be a better and cool solution to hide the blurriness?

I don't think it's possible to implement a good quality scanline filter, let alone being able to implement it at all. The hardware is quite limited.
 
  • Like
Reactions: BETA215

Site & Scene News

Popular threads in this forum

General chit-chat
Help Users
  • BakerMan @ BakerMan:
    i said i was sleeping...
  • BakerMan @ BakerMan:
    sleeping with uremum
  • K3Nv2 @ K3Nv2:
    Even my mum slept on that uremum
  • TwoSpikedHands @ TwoSpikedHands:
    yall im torn... ive been hacking away at tales of phantasia GBA (the USA version) and have so many documents of reverse engineering i've done
  • TwoSpikedHands @ TwoSpikedHands:
    I just found out that the EU version is better in literally every way, better sound quality, better lighting, and there's even a patch someone made to make the text look nicer
  • TwoSpikedHands @ TwoSpikedHands:
    Do I restart now using what i've learned on the EU version since it's a better overall experience? or do I continue with the US version since that is what ive been using, and if someone decides to play my hack, it would most likely be that version?
  • Sicklyboy @ Sicklyboy:
    @TwoSpikedHands, I'll preface this with the fact that I know nothing about the game, but, I think it depends on what your goals are. Are you trying to make a definitive version of the game? You may want to refocus your efforts on the EU version then. Or, are you trying to make a better US version? In which case, the only way to make a better US version is to keep on plugging away at that one ;)
  • Sicklyboy @ Sicklyboy:
    I'm not familiar with the technicalities of the differences between the two versions, but I'm wondering if at least some of those differences are things that you could port over to the US version in your patch without having to include copyrighted assets from the EU version
  • TwoSpikedHands @ TwoSpikedHands:
    @Sicklyboy I am wanting to fully change the game and bend it to my will lol. I would like to eventually have the ability to add more characters, enemies, even have a completely different story if i wanted. I already have the ability to change the tilemaps in the US version, so I can basically make my own map and warp to it in game - so I'm pretty far into it!
  • TwoSpikedHands @ TwoSpikedHands:
    I really would like to make a hack that I would enjoy playing, and maybe other people would too. swapping to the EU version would also mean my US friends could not legally play it
  • TwoSpikedHands @ TwoSpikedHands:
    I am definitely considering porting over some of the EU features without using the actual ROM itself, tbh that would probably be the best way to go about it... but i'm sad that the voice acting is so.... not good on the US version. May not be a way around that though
  • TwoSpikedHands @ TwoSpikedHands:
    I appreciate the insight!
  • The Real Jdbye @ The Real Jdbye:
    @TwoSpikedHands just switch, all the knowledge you learned still applies and most of the code and assets should be the same anyway
  • The Real Jdbye @ The Real Jdbye:
    and realistically they wouldn't

    be able to play it legally anyway since they need a ROM and they probably don't have the means to dump it themselves
  • The Real Jdbye @ The Real Jdbye:
    why the shit does the shitbox randomly insert newlines in my messages
  • Veho @ Veho:
    It does that when I edit a post.
  • Veho @ Veho:
    It inserts a newline in a random spot.
  • The Real Jdbye @ The Real Jdbye:
    never had that i don't think
  • Karma177 @ Karma177:
    do y'all think having an sd card that has a write speed of 700kb/s is a bad idea?
    trying to restore emunand rn but it's taking ages... (also when I finished the first time hekate decided to delete all my fucking files :wacko:)
  • The Real Jdbye @ The Real Jdbye:
    @Karma177 that sd card is 100% faulty so yes, its a bad idea
  • The Real Jdbye @ The Real Jdbye:
    even the slowest non-sdhc sd cards are a few MB/s
  • Karma177 @ Karma177:
    @The Real Jdbye it hasn't given me any error trying to write things on it so I don't really think it's faulty (pasted 40/50gb+ folders and no write errors)
  • DinohScene @ DinohScene:
    run h2testw on it
  • DinohScene @ DinohScene:
    when SD cards/microSD write speeds drop below a meg a sec, they're usually on the verge of dying
    DinohScene @ DinohScene: when SD cards/microSD write speeds drop below a meg a sec, they're usually on the verge of dying