Is it possible to change target screen display resolution before emulator launch?

Hi everyone again! Just a quick question.

Is there a way in Retrobat to change the target display resolution before launching a standalone emulator? Running some script or maybe ES can do that before passing everything to an emulator?

There are a couple of edge cases where it might be necessary. For example, some Teknoparrot games run in a fixed resolution, like for example Luigi's Mansion arcade. The only way to run it in fullscreen is to have a desktop resolution of 1080p. DgVoodoo2 won't help in this case unfortunately, as this is a DX11 game.

The other case I stumbled upon is glitchy Demul which messes up aspect ratio when running Gaelco games. Its 4:3 fixed aspect ratio is anything but 4:3. The only other working option is to stretch the output to current desktop resolution. If we were able to set a proper 4:3 resolution before launching it (like 1920x1440 or 2880x2160 for example), everything would've been fine and dandy.

Hello,

This is possible in some emulators with using the option "videomode" in advanced options \ video

But it's only activated for some emulators, and will indeed change the desktop resolution before running the emulator, and set it back to initial resolution once the emulator exits.

In which emulator would you require this and why ?

tartifless,

thanks for looking into this!

So, as I've mentioned, at this moment I faced two issues where the video mode change would've helped.

1. Demul-old setting for 4:3 aspect ratio is messed up when running Gaelco romsets. Here's the example with Gaelco game running in Demul when 4:3 aspect ratio is forced. The display's resolution is set to 2560x1440:

It's also important to note that the fullscreen mode of Demul is bugged and it will set the display's native resolution anyway.

So the following workaround is only possible with borderless window (the mode Retrobat already launches Demul in).
Here's the result when I set the Demul's aspect ratio to "Stretch" and the desktop resolution to 1920x1440 (4:3 AR) in Windows before launching Retrobat/Demul:


Also of note is that this is only happening with Gaelco romset. Dreamcast is fine in Demul AR-wise even with DX11-old plugin.

2. The games running with Teknoparrot sometimes don't allow for resolution change. Even though there's a "video mode" setting in the Teknoparrot games in Retrobat, the display resolution is not changed. Here's an example of Luigi's Mansion Arcade running on a display with 2560x1440 resolution. I've tried setting it to 1920x1080p and to 2560x1440 without success. I believe, the Retrobat's setting tries to force the game to run in the specified resolution, however there's currently no known way (I believe) to alter the output resolution of this game (even by editing the game's config files).

Both demul and teknoparrot do not offer to change desktop resolution before launching games.

Would it be possible to implement such a feature?

Zoomer wrote:Would it be possible to implement such a feature?

Nope,

The emulator does not allow it, and has not been updated for several years.
And it's not open-source.

No, I mean, there's no way in hell the emulator will be updated. However, I'm talking about the possibility of Retrobat to switch the desktop resolution for such specific cases?

For example, the Teknoparrot games that don't allow the change of resolution. It's not exactly the Teknoparrot's fault that they don't allow it

And at the same time the old Demul codebase would benifit from it. Maybe by means of scripting or somesuch?

Teknoparrot games are PC games.
Teknoparrot is not an emulator, it's a game launcher...

Indeed. And the ability to customize game's resolution is on a per-game basis. Unfortunately, there are some that won't run full screen if the system doesn't provide the required resolution. Hence the screenshot I've attached in my previous post.

If Retrobat would change the resolution to the one expected by the game, we wouldn't have that

It's not that I haven't researched a bit before posting here. That's why I'm writing "with Teknoparrot", not "in Teknoparrot". Linguistics aside, there are workarounds for that. For example, for some older games you can use dgVoodoo to force any resolution for the game and more. However, there are some that are DX11, and dgVoodoo isn't compatible with those. There are also more convoluted workarounds even for such a case. Still, it would've been nice if Retrobat simply knew when to switch the display resolution (or could be asked to do so). I can also imagine several other cases where that might be needed too. Imagine a Demul or some other borderless-window emulator that you would want to use the native resolution on the CRT (say, 640x480). And the emulator doesn't provide facilities to alter the display mode. Wouldn't it be nice if Retrobat did just that? It would've made it much more versatile, I think.

I mean, judging from your posts, I get it that the team won't invest their time in that? Fair enough, although it would've been a really nice feature. Consider it a feature request then, haha

Have you seen how many systems and emulators are managed by Retrobat? Do you think we are a team of 150 people?

There are priorities and things that are doable, and others that are not.

Your requests are not among the priorities, but we keep them in mind for future developments.

Lots of people ask us lots of things, insist a lot, but don't want to understand that Retrobat:

- It's free.
- We are VERY small team.
- And that we do all this work in our free time.

Keep all this in mind

Nah nah, I'm not insisting on anything, actually.

I'm sorry if my text implied otherwise. I do really appreciate your work and since I went through the whole system and seen the way it's all configured - I appreciate it even more. There's a sound enough approach in everything.

I know it's not a huge team too! It's just I like the course Retrobat takes. I'm not a fan of dedicated systems for the sole purpose of retro gaming except for original hardware and hardware emulators. I get it why the other guys strive to create a walled system with pre-setup environment.

Yet, I'm able to configure all those shenanigans myself and properly integrate the pc into my entertainment system. Setting up each and every emulator for just a couple of games - that the whole other world. You'll grow old before you set up just the way like it. So I really enjoy the idea of preconfigured emulators from which I can derive what I need.

So it's absolutely not a command nor requirement for me to enjoy Retrobat. It's just a thing that would've been nice (I think) for some specific systems and use cases, like those mentioned above - and nothing else A humble contribution, if you will.

Well, that and also the post was created in the hopes I missed something somewhere - some little bit that would help me to set up the desktop mode.

I dont know where i found thèse files but i got patchs to run game in différents resolution
Thats pacths are the modified game. Exe  and i got 5or 6 différents, one by résolution
I juste remplacé the original Exe and its good


Check here:
https://www.emuline.org/topic/1461-tuto-teknoparrot-amd-nvidia-gpu-and-resolution-fixes-by-nezarn-and-others/

Yeah, thanks! Unfortunately, there's no patch for Luigi's Mansion there or anywhere else. I've also tried my best with that game but still no luck. Well, I mean, apart from changing the resolution to 1080p before launching Retrobat or the game

Are you on github ? Can you join ?

Hi, tartifless! Sorry, I somehow missed the forum notification. You mean me? Yeah, I do, nothing professional there though Would you like me to move that there to Github?

I was able to work around this with a batch file and an autohotkey script.

I dropped the following bat file in C:\RetroBat\emulationstation\.emulationstation\scripts\game-start
This batch file runs whenever a game is started but only takes action when the rom/game name contains LuigisMansion

Code:


@echo off
:: Get the first argument
set first_argument=%1

:: Check if the first argument contains "LuigisMansion"
echo %first_argument% | findstr /C:"LuigisMansion" >nul
if %errorlevel% equ 0 (
    C:\ahkscripts\LuigisMansion.ahk
)

If in the future I want to have autohotkey script for a different game I can just add an else if statement.

And the LuigisMansion.ahk file contains

Code:


#NoEnv  ; Recommended for performance and compatibility with future AutoHotkey releases.
#Warn  ; Enable warnings to assist with detecting common errors.
SendMode Input  ; Recommended for new scripts due to its superior speed and reliability.

Sleep 50

WinWaitActive, ahk_exe VACUUM.exe
ChangeResolution(1920, 1080)


Sleep 50
Send !{b}
Process, WaitClose, VACUUM.exe
ExitRoutine()

$Esc::ExitRoutine()

ChangeResolution(Screen_Width := 1920, Screen_Height := 1080, Color_Depth := 32)
{
   VarSetCapacity(Device_Mode,156,0)
   NumPut(156,Device_Mode,36)
   DllCall( "EnumDisplaySettingsA", UInt,0, UInt,-1, UInt,&Device_Mode )
   NumPut(0x5c0000,Device_Mode,40)
   NumPut(Color_Depth,Device_Mode,104)
   NumPut(Screen_Width,Device_Mode,108)
   NumPut(Screen_Height,Device_Mode,112)
   DllCall( "ChangeDisplaySettingsA", UInt,&Device_Mode, UInt,0 )
}

ExitRoutine()
{   
  ChangeResolution(3840, 2160)
  Send !{b}
  Sleep 100
  Send !{b}
  ExitApp
}