Screeen resolution hacks

paul_met

Established Member
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.msg1165160.html)
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/58c08fc5172c89fe8262b446481e8b33fbf07db3/Patch v1.3 (ENG).zip
 
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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
 
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.
 
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.
 
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):
640x240-s.png 640x240-d.png
 
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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 :D. Tnx for the tests
 
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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.
 
Removing the black borders + increasing game resolution up to 352x240:
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Shining Force III (S1)
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218544383bbede8fd88e017d8b6fec91.png
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Good work! Try put Tomb Raider running at 640x240.
What is special in version of the game for Saturn? In my opinion, a version for PS1 and PC will be better.

nice ! what's the result in the battle screens of sf3 ?
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.
 
Wow! Look really nice! You use the same resolution of Virtua Fighter 2 ? Its possible run on true hardware this hi-res game?
 
Wow! Look really nice! You use the same resolution of Virtua Fighter 2 ? Its possible run on true hardware this hi-res game?
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.
e46ff3ba8df272287e2e2a754ab91d29.png
 
Looking Dead or Alive on yabuse the game run at 704x240 maybe using this resolution can fix the bug pallete in SFIII
 
Story of Thor 2 news.
Alignment of the:
  • Menu items
  • Status bar of the hero
  • Dialogue with the text
  • Title screens
  • Cinematics
82891934477b26aba499a143809a03f7.png
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f18bac60881732470614dcd256f3d35e.png
3abef3b93946ed5763181c05a604a699.png

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I have updated information and a link to the patch in the first post.
 
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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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