Unsolved How to change resolution per-game?

[Lumbeechief081]

I used RetroPie for 6 months before switching to RecalBox. On RetroPie you can press any button right after launching a game and change specific options for that game such as the core emulator, resolution, etc. On Recalbox I can't find a way to change the resolution of specific games, I only know how to change the resolution of the emulator in the recalbox.conf. Is there no way to set a resolution for specific games like I could in RetroPie? This becomes an apparent problem especially with certain arcade games because they have weird aspect ratios/resolutions and aren't scaled properly when using a resolution below its native such as Pacman, Frogger, Space invaders.. I want all my arcade games to run at 240p and certain ones to run at 480p because they are stretched at 240p. How do I set a resolution for a specific game? I'm talking about screen resolution and not that viewport custom aspect ratio stuff.. I have referenced this issue to a 2-year old thread https://forum.recalbox.com/topic/6903/screen-resolution-per-game-in-mame-retroarch/17.

[nokisenjin081]

I'm actually having the exact same issue as you. It is definitely a big problem seeing how RetroPie has very useful settings where as RecalBox doesn't. It was nice that one could launch a game and then change settings for those games such as resolution. With RecalBox I have yet to find out how to change resolution for specific games. I only know how to change resolution for the platform in the recalbox.conf. There are so much more guides online with RetroPie. Even the forums are better at helping it seems. I really do feel you pain.

[Bkg2k]

Are you talking about accessing retroarch menu?

[Lumbeechief081]

@bkg2k No i'm talking about Screen Resolution, the actual resolution the emulator displays at. I already know how to do that by adding
mame.videomode=DMT 87 HDMI
fba_libretro.videomode=DMT 87 HDMI
to the recalbox.conf.

What I'm really trying to do and the whole point of this thread is to change the resolution for specific games. Say if I wanted 3 games to use 640x480 and the rest to use 320x240, on RetroPie I could set the resolution through the launch options as shown below.

I would have option #4. "Select default video mode for emulator ()" set to my custom resolution "DMT 87". I then would have 480p or any other resolution I want for specific games set by using the option #5. "Select video mode for emulator + rom ()

[Zing]

@lumbeechief081 The only way to define the screen size per game, as far as I know, is: start the game, press hotkey B to access the retroarch menu, press A to go to the Main menu, go to Settings, go to video, modify the "aspect ratio" to "custom", modify the 4 items below to what you want:
Custom aspect ratio x pos.
Custom aspect ratio and pos.
Custom aspect ratio width
Custom aspect ratio Height
After that, press A twice to back to the Main menu, go to Quick Menu, go to Configuration Override options, choose Save Game Overrides.

[Zing]

@lumbeechief081 I found this:
https://forums.libretro.com/t/per-game-resolution-config-or-auto-change/4836

[Lumbeechief081]

This post is deleted!

[Lumbeechief081]

Quote: "The only way to define the screen size per game, as far as I know, is: start the game, press hotkey B to access the retroarch menu, press A to go to the Main menu, go to Settings, go to video, modify the "aspect ratio" to "custom", modify the 4 items below to what you want:
Custom aspect ratio x pos.
Custom aspect ratio and pos.
Custom aspect ratio width
Custom aspect ratio Height
After that, press A twice to back to the Main menu, go to Quick Menu, go to Configuration Override options, choose Save Game Overrides."**

Only problem with using Custom Aspect Ratio is shimmering caused by scaling. For example, the game Frogger runs at 256p. I have the screen resolution running at DMT 87 which is 240p. The game will be stretched on the vertical axis and certain game HUD elements will be cut off. I could turn off Integer scaling and than adjust the image with the Custom Aspect Ratio settings, but because Integer Scaling is off I will get shimmering because it isn't displaying those pixels perfectly aka Pixel Perfect/Integer Scaling mode. The best solution would be running the emulator at a higher resolution than the game resolution which is 800x600 because 256 * 2 is 512. Even at 480p the image will still be cropped.

Quote: I found this:
https://forums.libretro.com/t/per-game-resolution-config-or-auto-change/4836**

I looked at this and the settings suggested will not work for me, it's not a good solution as I would need to run all my MAME games as a whole in a higher resolution than 240p. I like 240p on my CRT because of scanlines. Can per-game video resolution not be implemented? If RetroPie can do it so can RecalBox. Certain games need to be run at different resolutions, don't only think of my reason for this, but others as well. Maybe it's not just because certain games are not scaled properly. For example, maybe some user has over 8 N64 games they play at 1080p. 3 out of those 8 games perform slowly at 1080p so maybe the user decides they just want those 3 games to run at 720p. See what I'm getting at here? Changing the resolution for specific games is very important. It's a very important setting that should be implemented, not just for my sake but for others as well.

[Lumbeechief081]

@Zing
@Bkg2k
I'm willing to donate money. That is how important this feature is for me.

[tonificante]

Even if development team takes this feature, you will sit a long time for it to be done. Last recalbox release took ten months or so..
You could try asking at batocera, they usually release every two months. Or stick to retropie. Or maybe recalbox developers will shorten release periods, who knows..

[OyyoDams]

@tonificante what is this troll post ? If you know nothing about Recalbox development, please just don't post.

[tonificante]

Sorry, didn't want to troll or hurt sensibilities, just give some information to the user. Please remove my previous post, I tried but I don't find any option.

[Zing]

@Lumbeechief081 Sorry, I'm not a developer, maybe @Bkg2k or @OyyoDams can help you.

[Lumbeechief081]

@tonificante RecalBox is more optimized than RetroPie, that's why I switched in the first place. Running at 240p with Black Frame Insertion I would get flickering on certain games. For example, Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island on the SNES I would get flickering on the title screen which is Super FX heavy. With RecalBox I don't get that at all and other games I tested between the two OS's.

[tonificante]

@lumbeechief081 Maybe you can find some video option which corrects that. I would try for example to disable the vertical video sync first. Hope it helps

[Bkg2k]

@lumbeechief081 we'll try to add such options ASAP. It won't be available from EmulationStation, at least in the first versions, but most likely through configuration files per rom and per rom folder.

[greenalex]

Alphanu is working on a very interesting feature for Retroarch : « switchres ».
More information on his Github, or his dedicated forum

Basically, it changes the resolution and the refresh rate automatically for each system, and possibly each game. The feature is already on the last Retroarch, but not really working on Raspberry yet. We’ll have to wait a bit for this ultimate feature...

[greenalex]

Other informations on the Libretro forum

[Bkg2k]

@lumbeechief081 We just finished implementing the resolution override on a per rom and/or per folder basis. This also works for emulators/libretro cores, shaders, ratio and a few other keys. We'll test this feature as well as other changes in the next days.

[Lumbeechief081]

@greenalex I'm using a VGA CRT monitor therefore 15khz isn't possible.. Even though "Switchres" is present in Retroarch on both RecalBox/RetroPie it would be cool if it actually worked on a Raspberry Pi through an HDMI to VGA adapter.