[RESOLVED][5.1.1] Trying to set frontend resolution to 4K

Hello! I have RetroBat set up on my PC which is plugged into a 4K TV. The resolution of the EmulationStation frontend looks somewhat low and pixelated and I’m trying to increase it but can’t figure out how.

In the .ini file (as shown in the FAQ), I can configure WindowXSize and WindowYSize and force full screen. When I do this, I definitely get sharp text, but I see a tiny crop of the screen instead of the whole thing. Any ideas? Should the frontend be able to scale to 4K?

Thanks in advance, and hopefully not something very simple that I've missed!

Hello,

There is nothing to do

I use Retrobat on my PC with 4k display, and with my TV 4k 86", no issue...

Thanks for the response. In your experience does the frontend (e.g text, menus) look low res, or does everything scale? Not sure what I’m missing.

Retrobat run a the same resolution of your Windows Desktop.

The result is beautifull.

You can post a screenshot ?


You are on v5.1.1 ?

Yes, I've just updated to 5.1.1. This screenshot hopefully shows the issue; the resolution is 4K but the text looks pixelated.



EDIT: Seems the compression lowered the res of that image, but you hopefully get the idea.

with 576 x 1024 resolution (this screenshot), it's a little hard to see the real result...

On my PC:


clic on the scrrenshot to see at the real resolution (4k)

Apologies, seems my screenshot's resolution was lowered by the compression when I uploaded it. That said, I think I see the same issue in yours---the text isn't sharp like I would expect (e.g., like it is in this browser). Maybe it's a stylistic thing though, and a misunderstanding on my part. I just thought I had misconfigured something.

Try another theme... maybe.

I tried another couple of themes, but it's the same.

Interestingly, when I configure EmulationStation like this:



I get the cropped-in weird view, but the text is perfectly sharp. If there were some way to zoom it out I think it would be perfect.



This is why I thought there must be some setting I'm missing.

Try:  force full screen

That gives me the cropped-in view in the screenshot above. (The screenshot is a full view of everything I see)

That's where I suspect something might be going wrong.

When I do force full screen and set it to 1920x1080 rather than 3840x2160 I get something like this, still cropped in but much less... which makes me think the default view is something like 720p.

I repeat, there is no default value, Retrobat, with fullscreen option activated, run at the same resolution of your Windows Dekstop.

Show me your Windows desktop resolution.

Try with 100% not 300%. and fullscreen activated only.

Aha! That did solve the issue. The text looks perfect at 4K now! I hadn't considered that the scale parameter in Windows would have an effect. I think I probably need to set this as a parameter when running the .exe file so I don't have to change my global setting though. Anyway it's my problem now. Thanks for your help figuring it out!

For anyone reading this in the future, I had to right-click the .exe, go to the compatibility tab and click "Change high DPI settings" to let the program set it.

Thanks for the info, I have the exact same problem.

I used batocera and the text was fine at 4k but in retrobat at 4k the text resolution is quite low for some reason.