GBA's vertical resolution is 160. 3DS's vertical res. is 240. Only 1,5 times.
You'd be leaving huge chunks of output outside of your view.
The most you can do (as far as I know) is use a filter, or mix of filters. On GPSP I got Bilinear + Normalx2/Scalex2 to make it somewhat okay, but you are not getting clean, sharp pixels and a larger output.
No, it can't be unbroken. This logic is hardcoded into the GPU circuitry. Besides, there is already a filter which simulates how it would look if nearest GPU scaling wasn't broken.
Also just like the others said, 2x would be cropping the GBA image to 180x120 out of the 240x160, so you'd miss out on quite a lot of the image.
Look, instead of asking you could experiment and try stuff to see what adapts to you the best with what we can do currently (or at all, I guess).
As I said, GPSP on RetroArch provides the most variety in filters while also giving good performance, contrary to mGBA that has performance issues unfortunately.
I'll leave here a few screenshots of the different filters and their results.
I have to say the last filter is slightly modified by me, as the ones that come with RetroArch have very white-ish lines and I wanted something darker. The grid kinda helps but it's obviously not designed for this use.
Nothing is ideal, but at least there are options. If someone knows of more filters out there compatible with the 3DS it'd be nice to know, but I doubt it.
Scalex2 smooths out things fine enough, gives the picture a more rounded look that works fine enough for a lot of games, but games with very tiny text or sprites, like the GBA Final Fantasy ports can become rather annoying to read. Normalx2 might help there.
Other filters are either too close to the ones mentioned, or way too blurry to consider for me.
I'd like to put a screenshot of the bigger output of OPEN_AGB_FIRM but I think you can't make screenshots there.
The original aspect ratio ins't terrible, and I might prefer it depending on the game but I tend to need a few minutes to get used to how small is in comparison with 3DS software. Adjusting to DS isn't nearly as hard though...
Oh, and using the filters without Bilinear tends to be a horrible idea, just a warning.
Look, instead of asking you could experiment and try stuff to see what adapts to you the best with what we can do currently (or at all, I guess).
As I said, GPSP on RetroArch provides the most variety in filters while also giving good performance, contrary to mGBA that has performance issues unfortunately.
I'll leave here a few screenshots of the different filters and their results.
I have to say the last filter is slightly modified by me, as the ones that come with RetroArch have very white-ish lines and I wanted something darker. The grid kinda helps but it's obviously not designed for this use.
Nothing is ideal, but at least there are options. If someone knows of more filters out there compatible with the 3DS it'd be nice to know, but I doubt it.
Scalex2 smooths out things fine enough, gives the picture a more rounded look that works fine enough for a lot of games, but games with very tiny text or sprites, like the GBA Final Fantasy ports can become rather annoying to read. Normalx2 might help there.
Other filters are either too close to the ones mentioned, or way too blurry to consider for me.
I'd like to put a screenshot of the bigger output of OPEN_AGB_FIRM but I think you can't make screenshots there.
The original aspect ratio ins't terrible, and I might prefer it depending on the game but I tend to need a few minutes to get used to how small is in comparison with 3DS software. Adjusting to DS isn't nearly as hard though...
Oh, and using the filters without Bilinear tends to be a horrible idea, just a warning.
Huh, does GPSP use GPU for drawing the image? That "unfiltered" one especially grabs my attention, as you can see the fuzzyness caused by the way the GPU handles nearest upscaling.
Also that Normalx2 looks really good, makes me wonder how there is enough CPU cycles to handle the upscaling, especially considering that just scrolling a 16bit framebuffer console takes an extremely long time...
If it was integer scale at 2x, it would be cropped to 160x120 out of the 256x192, which is a LOT of the image missing. It's 1.25x nearest, with the 4th and 5th pixels being the same in each direction (upscale ratio is 5 pixels output from 4, as in 1.25x).
I honestly don't know how RetroArch/GPSP does it, but you can input whatever aspect ratio you want.
Do you think a smaller scale than 1.5 would look better under these filters?
I always keep flipping between Normal and Scale, it's hard to choose for me.
Some of the filters included in RetroArch do affect the performance, but none of the ones I mentioned here seem to affect it, I have not experienced it on any test.
I honestly don't know how RetroArch/GPSP does it, but you can input whatever aspect ratio you want.
Do you think a smaller scale than 1.5 would look better under these filters?
I always keep flipping between Normal and Scale, it's hard to choose for me.
Some of the filters included in RetroArch do affect the performance, but none of the ones I mentioned here seem to affect it, I have not experienced it on any test.
I think that 1.2x (6/5) would look better for both DS and GBA in terms of scaling, but it wouldn't fill the entire screen, and it's still too small because even fully filling the screen it is a bit too small too, probably because the GBA SP in particular had a bigger screen than the 3DS bottom screen.
I did look for comparison photos and while I did not found numbers,a photo shows that the SP model is a bit larger than the original model.
I also found out that when non-xl screens play 1:1 GBA games the picture is smaller than on an original GBA, while XL models are the same or very very close.
Edit: I forgot to add a screen capture of mGBA, as it has hands down the best "full screen" picture out of any option, it's just unfortunate it also has not great performance... I'll add one later.
Edit: Oh, how interesting! It turns out mGBA runs at 800x240, not the usual 400x240. Could it might be the reason for the performance?
Regardless, here's a comparison shot for the above:
I'll leave also an extra shot from Mario & Luigi, just to show another game.
As you can see, it is very impressive, but I guess using the 800 mode helps? I wonder how it would look on 400 mode, an if doing that the performance would improve.
Oh, and by the way, I tried the new feature in OPEN_ABG_FIRM for borders. Converting to bgr is a bit annoying but after seeing how correctly, it works really nice! Thank you for working on that.
This is not a release build, don't use any patch other than rtcom.
Added experimental 4grid filters, I need some feedback.
It definitely needs tweaking, but I need to know how it looks to others as well, and if someone very well versed in emulator filters could chime in to help me tweak it so it doesn't look so off.
I've had a search through the thread and found - this post - where you mention PICA200 has a fixed pixel shader, is this only whilst scaling?
If not, is it possible to implement a shader for 'real' GBA and DS-Phat color correction, such as this
Also curious what the use case for 4grid filters are, is it to replicate the DS pixel grid when scaling?
Hi! As I did't find any GitHub repo for this to make a feature request, I'll ask here. Is it even possible to rotate both screens for games that work in book mode? Like sudoku by my brain academia
As each year passes, retro games become harder and harder to play, as the physical media begins to fall apart and becomes more difficult and expensive to obtain. The...
While rumors had been floating about rampantly as to the future plans of Nintendo, the President of the company, Shuntaro Furukawa, made a brief statement confirming...
Nintendo has officially announced that a successor to the beloved Switch console is on the horizon. As we eagerly anticipate what innovations this new device will...
DOOM is well-known for being ported to basically every device with some kind of input, and that list now includes the old retro game console in Persona 5 Royal...
With the vast success of Super Mario Maker and its Switch sequel Super Mario Maker 2, Nintendo fans have long been calling for "Maker" titles for other iconic genres...
Retro handheld manufacturer Anbernic has revealed its first clamshell device: the Anbernic RG35XXSP. As the suffix indicates, this handheld's design is inspired by...
After several months of work, the Harbour Masters 64 team have released their first public build of 2Ship2Harkinian, a feature-rich Majora's Mask PC port. This comes...
After rumour got out about an upcoming NES Edition release for the famed Nintendo World Championships, Nintendo has officially unveiled the new game, titled "Nintendo...
The number of layoffs and cuts in the videogame industry sadly continue to grow, with the latest huge layoffs coming from Microsoft, due to what MIcrosoft calls a...
Ubisoft has today officially revealed the next installment in the Assassin's Creed franchise: Assassin's Creed Shadows. This entry is set in late Sengoku-era Japan...
Nintendo has officially announced that a successor to the beloved Switch console is on the horizon. As we eagerly anticipate what innovations this new device will...
While rumors had been floating about rampantly as to the future plans of Nintendo, the President of the company, Shuntaro Furukawa, made a brief statement confirming...
As each year passes, retro games become harder and harder to play, as the physical media begins to fall apart and becomes more difficult and expensive to obtain. The...
After several months of work, the Harbour Masters 64 team have released their first public build of 2Ship2Harkinian, a feature-rich Majora's Mask PC port. This comes...
Ubisoft has today officially revealed the next installment in the Assassin's Creed franchise: Assassin's Creed Shadows. This entry is set in late Sengoku-era Japan...
After a little more than three years of exclusivity with the Epic Games Store, Square Enix has decided to bring their beloved Kingdom Hearts franchise to Steam. The...
After rumour got out about an upcoming NES Edition release for the famed Nintendo World Championships, Nintendo has officially unveiled the new game, titled "Nintendo...
DOOM is well-known for being ported to basically every device with some kind of input, and that list now includes the old retro game console in Persona 5 Royal...
Sony is once more attempting to reintroduce players to their older library of games by re-releasing classic PlayStation 2 titles onto the PlayStation Store. During...
The number of layoffs and cuts in the videogame industry sadly continue to grow, with the latest huge layoffs coming from Microsoft, due to what MIcrosoft calls a...
Ok ima just paste my message to someone else:
When i launch a game my wiimote unsyncs and doesnt want to connect again.People told me to ask you for help, i tried both Motion Plus inside and without motion plus but it doesnt work. Any ideas?
@Zynthrodak, Do you know if the batteries are dying? If the controller doesn't sync with the console, press the Sync button on both the controller and the console.
hi! so one time i forgot to load usb loader gx into sd card mode and then everytime i launch it, and even when i launch into sd card mode, it doesnt show anything on my sd card and just shows whats on my hard drive