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Screeen resolution hacks

paul_met - Oct 13, 2015

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paul_met

Oct 13, 2015

Lately I've been doing hacks to increase the screen resolution in games for Saturn. Here is one of the successful examples.
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This hack increases the screen resolution up to 352x256 (v1.3) + fixes some bugs of the original game!!!
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(Original page: www.emu-land.net/forum/index.php/topic,73835.msg11...)
Changes log:

Version 1.3:
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- The horizontal alignment of the screen in rooms "B2F 1-2".
- The horizontal alignment of menu items (option screen, save/load screen, ranking screen).
- Change the color of some menu items (option screen, save/load screen, ranking screen).
- The semi-transparent menu background is now limited to a transparent frame around the edges of the screen (instead of the full fill the screen).
- Unlock hidden option items (difficulty selection and view rating).
- Completely removed PAL screen optimization (intended for conversion PAL to NTSC version of the game).

Version 1.2:
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- Adjusted some coordinates (counter charges of magic, eye, background of HP bar).
- Corrected the coordinates of flames at the entrance of the room "B1F 4-3" in order to the hero could not get around flames left or right.
- Corrected the coordinates of the flames on the stairs out of the room "B1F 3-3" in order to the hero could not freely get around bonfires.
- Adjusted coordinates of plant as a spring in water of the room "B1F 2-3" in order to the hero could not jump over the platform.
- Adjusted coordinates vases and fountain on the platform in the upper left corner of the room "B1F 1-4" in order to the hero could not jump on it with the adjacent platform to the right.
- Corrected the coordinates of one of the flames on the platform at the bottom right corner of the room "B2F 4-1" in order to the hero could not jump on top of the flame.
- Corrected the coordinates of one of the flames near a large frozen fountain in the room "B3F 4-1", in order to the hero was not able to jump between the two flames.

Version 1.1:
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- Alignment of the menus, the status bar of the hero, the dialogue with the text, the title screens, cinematics.

Version 1.0:
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- Global change screen resolution to 352x256 (the original 320x256)
- Correction of the visible area for sprites (In order not to disappear after 320 pixels)
- Global correction of horizontal scrolling screen (In order to location is not repeated when the hero reaches the rightmost edge of it)
- Global horizontal alignment of the screen (In order to the hero was not shifted to the left)
- The horizontal alignment of the screen in rooms with the small size (in 4 rooms in different corners of the screen)

Installing the patch:

- Attention! This hack is designed exclusively for the European version of the game (PAL). But you can convert PAL to NTSC version with a patch in the folder "PAL-to-NTSC". However, you need to change region of your PAL iso by self.
- Open the original image of the game (PAL region) in the "CDMage" (attached).
- Insert all the file with extetion "BIN" and "LOW" in root directory to the image through "CDMage" (select the file in the list and by the right-clicking select item "Import file").

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Some screenshots:

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Link:
http://rghost.ru/download/7pH6GplXL/58c08fc5172c89...

		luisoft	Oct 14, 2015
		This is awessome! Hey , its possible hack the resolution of games like Resident Evil and tomb raider? You need only change the vdp1 resolution to 320 x 224 to 640 x 224

		paul_met	Oct 14, 2015
		For Resident Evil just will not work to increase the resolution. There are background images only 320x240. But for Tomb Raider maybe is possible. I have not tried.

		luisoft	Oct 14, 2015
		Yes i know the RE use low res on background but the main idea in this case is see how VDP1 will run a game like RE using high resolution see if the framerate will be nice or not. RE is a low poly game maybe can run with a nice framerate on 640x224 or 512x224.

		paul_met	Oct 14, 2015
		Saturn does not support 512 pixels for horizon resolution. It is useless. Here is how looks the image in resolution of 640x240 (single- and double-interlaces):

		luisoft	Oct 14, 2015
		NICE!!!!!!! Hey and the framerate? Slowdowns the game or same speed? Can you create a manual how to do this vdps hacks? I want to try it too . Tnx for the tests

		paul_met	Oct 16, 2015
		It is necessary to set a breakpoint on a memory write to address "0x5F80000" and look for the address where the value is written in charge of screen resolution. But before that, I advise you to check out the chapter "TV screen mode register" in manual of VDP2.

		paul_met	Nov 3, 2015
		Removing the black borders + increasing game resolution up to 352x240: ------------------- ----------- Shining Force III (S1)

		luisoft	Nov 3, 2015
		Good work! Try put Tomb Raider running at 640x240.

		vbt	Nov 4, 2015
		nice ! what's the result in the battle screens of sf3 ?

paul_met

Nov 4, 2015

	luisoft said:

What is special in version of the game for Saturn? In my opinion, a version for PS1 and PC will be better.

	vbt said:

The result is the same as in the normal mode. I still want to try to remove the huge black borders on the battle screen. While there may be no background behind them.

		paul_met	Nov 5, 2015
		Well, still under the black stripes has image. Here is the battle mode:

		paul_met	Nov 8, 2015
		Experimental true Hi-res mode (only on emulator with GPU support):

		luisoft	Nov 8, 2015
		Wow! Look really nice! You use the same resolution of Virtua Fighter 2 ? Its possible run on true hardware this hi-res game?

paul_met

Nov 8, 2015

	luisoft said:

Hi-res mode 704x480i. May be it is possible to run this hack on real hardware. But needs to fix all colors, because in soft mode you can see wrong palette.

		vbt	Nov 8, 2015
		maybe there are palettes limitations for 704x480 like 8 bits pal max

		luisoft	Nov 11, 2015
		Looking Dead or Alive on yabuse the game run at 704x240 maybe using this resolution can fix the bug pallete in SFIII

paul_met

Nov 12, 2015

	vbt said:

It looks like it. But I do not know yet how to convert a 16-bit color to 8-bit color or which specifies the bit depth of color.

		paul_met	Nov 20, 2015
		Story of Thor 2 news. Alignment of the: Menu items Status bar of the hero Dialogue with the text Title screens Cinematics ------------------- -------------------- --------- I have updated information and a link to the patch in the first post.

		paul_met	Nov 26, 2015
		Norse by Norsewest (Lost Vikings 2) - resolution 352x240. The characters panel had to move down due to the fact that under it was constantly flickering garbage. In SSF hack does not work, alas.

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