Hacking WiiU VC vs. vWii fceugx emulator

[Sdg124]

I wanted to make a few brief comments on something that I have noticed.... my setup is WiiU hooked up to sony receiver by HDMI, then to a sony 52" tv through HDMI. I purchased a few WiiU VC games (including Super Mario Bros). Here are my observations regarding comparison of WiiU vs. vWii, attached is a picture of the comparison:

1) Regardless of WiiU, vWii mode, emulator, USB loader GX, virtual console games, etc.... my tv is detecting an HD signal from everything WiiU. Previously my Wii was hooked up with HDMI with a Wii2HDMI adapter, and there was never an HD signal detected. So WiiU is outputting a 1080p signal regardless of what I play. It has nothing to do with the pass-through of HDMI signal through Sony receiver.

2) WiiU VC NES games (like Super Mario) has black borders all around (even a little bit on the top and bottom of the screen). This is regardless of the fact that I made sure to optimize the screen size in the WiiU settings.

3) WiiU VC NES games.... the color looks dulled down and the image is a little blurry. The vWii fceugx emulator looks much cleaner and does not have borders (when applied appropriately in the settings).

4) Bottom line, vWii fceugx looks much cleaner and more colorful than the WiiU purchased NES VC games.

5) I believe similar results are seen when examining Castlevania IV WiiU VC vs. vWii SNES emulator.

6. The only slight benefit of WiiU is that there might be an extremely slight less input lag (better controller response time) in WiiU VC vs. vWii emulators. However, this can be fixed by applying the TV's game mode.

 

[duffmmann]

The other benefit of course is that the Wii U VC games can be played on the gamepad with the actually gamepad, while vWii emulators can be seen on the gamepad, can't be controlled with the gamepad which is a bit of an annoyance if you're trying to only play on the gamepad while someone uses the tv

 

[the_randomizer]

VC games are limited to 4:3, which what is the aspect ratio was locked to on the original 8/16-bit consoles and when used on an old school CRT Nestopia on RetroArch Wii is actually superior to fceu gx

 

[duffmmann]

VC games are limited to 4:3, which what is the aspect ratio was locked to on the original 8/16-bit consoles and when used on an old school CRT Nestopia on RetroArch Wii is actually superior to fceu gx

I personally hate the GUI for retroarch, even though I understand it does have better compatibility with some games.

 

[the_randomizer]

I personally hate the GUI for retroarch, even though I understand it does have better compatibility with some games.

To each their own, but the fact of the matter the emulation is much better, the GX emulators suffer from frame-skipping issues, f which RA doesn't suffer from

 

[duffmmann]

To each their own, but the fact of the matter the emulation is much better, the GX emulators suffer from frame-skipping issues, f which RA doesn't suffer from

Yeah I'm aware, the only place this really ever bothers me thought is on specific GBA games. Afterall, I have no issue playing all those playstation games on WiiSX despite framerate issues.

 

[the_randomizer]

Yeah I'm aware, the only place this really ever bothers me thought is on specific GBA games. Afterall, I have no issue playing all those playstation games on WiiSX despite framerate issues.

Many GBA games run full speed on RA Wii now

 

[Sdg124]

I just attached a picture of the comparison to the original post. My opinion, the emulators win, and I should save my money on VC NES & SNES game purchases. I think Nintendo advertises 1080p signal for WiiU, but vWii mode seems to look better and provide 1080p signal.

 

[the_randomizer]

I just attached a picture of the comparison to the original post. My opinion, the emulators win, and I should save my money on VC NES & SNES game purchases. I think Nintendo advertises 1080p signal for WiiU, but vWii mode seems to look better and provide 1080p signal.

Yes it does, 1080 and 16-bit games do NOT mix well at all They look even better on the game pad screen since it's a 480p signal and games back then were 240p.

 

[Sdg124]

I feel like Nintendo dulls the color and makes these NES/SNES games blurry to make these games look less pixelated. I might be alone on this, but I feel the pixelation makes things look cleaner.

 

[the_randomizer]

+

I feel like Nintendo dulls the color and makes these NES/SNES games blurry to make these games look less pixelated. I might be alone on this, but I feel the pixelation makes things look cleaner.

Ugh, on a smaller screen, pixellation wouldn't look too bad, but having a 240p signal blown up unfiltered on a 50" screen looks pretty bad IMHO lol! Games from 20 years ago or so weren't designed with HD in mind. I don't get why the game pad has proper filtering when the signal is sent to the TV. Nintendo could so easily add an option to toggle a filter on/off like in an unofficial emulator.

 

[mightymuffy]

Yes it does, 1080 and 16-bit games do NOT mix well at all They look even better on the game pad screen since it's a 480p signal and games back then were 240p.

And that's where VC gets a point back, because as of yet there's no way to play vWii with the GamePad buttons...
Audio is also muffled on VC compared to emulator, and yes even framerate is poor ...compared to RA certainly!
The story is even worse with SNES, I've got VC Zelda:LttP and that's dodgy to say the least. Still, using that GamePad, it's almost worth it for that!

 

[the_randomizer]

And that's where VC gets a point back, because as of yet there's no way to play vWii with the GamePad buttons...
Audio is also muffled on VC compared to emulator, and yes even framerate is poor ...compared to RA certainly!
The story is even worse with SNES, I've got VC Zelda:LttP and that's dodgy to say the least. Still, using that GamePad, it's almost worth it for that!

And we still don't have ALLTP on the Wii U VC thanks to NOA being stupid lol The game pad is nice, and overall the emulation accuracy is decent, but yeah, Snes9x Next does a better job I think I've given up on the eShop and will stick to emulators like RetroArch Wii, it gets the job done and I don't have to wait for Nintendo of America to stop being losers about how they release games. Hopefully someday, vWii can be used with the game pad buttons, at least for emulators.

 

[Sdg124]

I feel the Wii N64 VC games are certainly worth acquiring (purchasing or installing Wads). Mario64 & StarFox64 VC on vWii look/play much better than emulator (as well as the original N64).

 

[the_randomizer]

I feel the Wii N64 VC games are certainly worth acquiring (purchasing or installing Wads). Mario64 & StarFox64 VC on vWii look/play much better than emulator (as well as the original N64).

Oh yeah, they fixed the framerate issues huh? I remember Star Fox 64 having issues, but Nintendo quickly patched them or something. Too bad Nintendo was stingy on the no. or releases, a whole 21 games. Sad I doubt we'll ever see a new version of Wii64 anytime soon

 

[PolloDiablo]

wow! the VC looks like shit
I never bothered with VC games, I always used emulators

 

[Sdg124]

In regards to the 4:3, I believe the WiiU VC uses a smaller screen. This would explain the black bars on the top and bottom as well as the larger black bars on the sides. Whereas the vWii emulator has no bars on top and bottom and smaller bars on left and right.

 

[Sdg124]

Just for comparison purposes, attached is an image that I just took, comparing the WiiU VC to vWii emulator to vWii VC.... of Castlevania IV. Yes, I purchased Castlevania IV for WiiU & vWii VC. Again, 1080p signal was obtained from all.. From what I can tell, there are 3 different screen sizes being displayed on my TV. Again, the WiiU VC is squished with black bars on top and bottom. This is similar to the first image I posted in this thread of NES Super Mario Bros. Interestingly, the vWii VC does not have these black bars on the top and bottom. Once again though, the vWii SNES emulator with 16:9 fix shows the largest picture as demonstrated by the slimmer black bars on the left and right, but appears to be a slightly stretched image. If you look at the item square at the top of screen, this is a little stretched on the emulator. As for the quality of the image being displayed in all 3 formats of the game, I feel that all are comparable. The downside to the vWii VC is that even a SNES game takes up ~100 blocks of vWii memory, of which is extremely limited. I think my vWii can only hold 4 N64 VC games before it runs out of space. So once again, the SNES emulator on vWii wins.