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PSX SOTN

1. Best 2d Settings for SOTN.
2. There are black bars at the top and bottom.
3. This is how they designed it.
4. So one option it to use the following patch to increase screen size vertically.

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night - Quality hack

In searching for ways to increase screen size I first came across a ppf hack that increases vertical pixels that are displayed.
This is the best 4:3 ratio solution and removes black bars from top and bottom.
ppf Patch on romhacks web site Removes black bars on the top and bottom of the screen (ingame, menu, final scene)
This video talks about it. Youtube

ppf

ppf is some kind of patch file that has been arounnd for decades. This allow us to patch psx files. Still it doesn't seem to work on pbp. Only on bin/cue or iso. I hnavec confirmed the swanstation core can load these as long as ppf is same name as cue.

gameslist.xml

<emulator>libretro</emulator> <core>swanstation</core>

es_settings.cfg

<string name="psx.bezel" value="none" /> <string name="psx.internal_resolution" value="16x" /> <string name="psx["Castlevania - Symphony of the Night.cue"].shaderset" value="zfast" />

retroarch-core-options.cfg

swanstation_CDROM_LoadImagePatches = "true"

Custom Aspect Ratio

The above solution does nothing for a wide screen hack. There are none. However I came across this post That talks about custom aspect ratio that makes some good points. Mainly this game was not designed to show more pixels above or below so we don't really gain a lot with that hack on a 16:9 screen. Basically we are better off just cropping the tops and bottoms and increasing the width of the pixels to fill more of the screen. This can be done as follows:

1. Select + A to get into RGUI
2. RetroArch
3. Settings (below Main Menu back from Quick Menu)
4. Video
5. Scaling
6. Aspect Ratio
7. Custom
8. Custom Aspect Ratio (X Position) 100
9. Custom Aspect Ratio (Y Position) -100
10. Custom Aspect Ratio (Width) 1700
11. Custom Aspect Ratio (Height) 1242
12. These Numbers change based on something
13. Can't be screen res since I have mine set for 1920 X 1080
14. Kind of annoying that I can't figure out where these #'s comes from
15. The most important thing to understand is that we can adjust while in the RGUI with the screen in the background
16. For example press D-PAD Left and Right while on Custom Aspect Ratio Height
17. The background screen paused moves in real time making it simple to get the strecth we want

This makes the screen fuller to my eyes than the above hack. Almost wide screen. Still not sure however if map and other screens get clipped in this mode however. My Screen res is 1920 X 1080. But 1600 X 1200 still doesn't take up full screen. I don't understand how this custom aspect ratio works or is supposed to work?

Shaders

1. Shaders look better with integer scale on. So do 5x.
2. Save Game Overrides (Easiest Method)
3. Launch the Game – Open the game you want to create a specific configuration for.
4. Adjust Your Settings – Change any settings (aspect ratio, shaders, controls, etc.).
5. Save Game Overrides:
6. Open the Quick Menu (press F1 or navigate from the RetroArch menu).
7. Go to Overrides.
8. Select Save Game Overrides.
9. This saves a configuration file specifically for that game in:
10. RetroArch/config//.cfg
11. The next time you launch the game, it will load the saved settings automatically.

Save Game Override

\\renoir\_GAMES\emu\pc\RetroBat\emulators\retroarch\config\Beetle PSX HW\Castlevania - Symphony of the Night [U] [SLUS-00067].cfg aspect_ratio_index = "23" input_player10_joypad_index = "9" input_player10_mouse_index = "9" input_player11_joypad_index = "10" input_player11_mouse_index = "10" input_player12_joypad_index = "11" input_player12_mouse_index = "11" input_player13_joypad_index = "12" input_player13_mouse_index = "12" input_player14_joypad_index = "13" input_player14_mouse_index = "13" input_player15_joypad_index = "14" input_player15_mouse_index = "14" input_player16_joypad_index = "15" input_player16_mouse_index = "15" input_player2_mouse_index = "1" input_player3_mouse_index = "2" input_player4_mouse_index = "3" input_player5_mouse_index = "4" input_player6_joypad_index = "5" input_player6_mouse_index = "5" input_player7_joypad_index = "6" input_player7_mouse_index = "6" input_player8_joypad_index = "7" input_player8_mouse_index = "7" input_player9_joypad_index = "8" input_player9_mouse_index = "8" quick_menu_show_save_game_overrides = "true" quick_menu_show_shaders = "true" video_scale_integer = "true" video_shader_enable = "true"

gameslist.xml

<emulator>libretro</emulator> <core>mednafen_psx_hw</core