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DS development > GBA screensize question

#42341 - zubiac - Tue May 10, 2005 10:02 am

First of all: HI!

Would it be possible to gain (selectable via zoom feature similar to gameboy player for cube) fullscreen support for GBA games via an firmware update?

I'm just asking this out of curiousity cause it's beyond me why Nintendo didn't include that feature from the beginning.
_________________
Abusing Cube and DS with all sorts of homebrew and hacks.

#42342 - NoMis - Tue May 10, 2005 10:14 am

I don't know if it would be technically possible but I guess the results in Image quality wouldn't be any good.

NoMis

#42343 - zubiac - Tue May 10, 2005 10:22 am

NoMis wrote:
I don't know if it would be technically possible but I guess the results in Image quality wouldn't be any good.

NoMis


mmhh....it wouldn't be too bad I guess.
Look at the gameboyplayer for cube.

GBA screen: 240 x 160 pixels
DS sreen: 256 x 192 Pixels
_________________
Abusing Cube and DS with all sorts of homebrew and hacks.

#42344 - NoMis - Tue May 10, 2005 10:56 am

I think the problem is that you only have a few additional pixel to work with. That would make it hard to interpolate between the pixels.
On the GB Player you can easily double the screensize which makes interpolation easier.

It's the same with a TFT on a PC. They are made for a specific resolution so if you choose any other resolution you get a blury image.

NoMis

#42363 - josath - Tue May 10, 2005 5:49 pm

I'm not 100% sure, but I don't think it is possible...
I've done some tests, and once you switch into GBA mode, you lose all control over the DS hardware. The most i've been able to do, is get 4 pixels to be colored on the sides of the screen, but everything else I do is reset.

#42380 - Fatnickc - Tue May 10, 2005 8:05 pm

Also, On the GB Player, it doesn't use the whole screen, presumably so that they can just use a simple ratio rather than proper convertion..

#42417 - assassda - Wed May 11, 2005 3:05 am

256*170 would be largest to scale version but it wouls still lok crappy having only certain parts stretched

#42418 - dagamer34 - Wed May 11, 2005 3:09 am

Any stretching wouldn't really benefit from increasing the screen size unless you were able to do some post-processing(i.e. bilinear filtering) to make it look better.

In any case, the ratio is close enough so that it stretching the screen would have any additional benefit.
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Little kids and Playstation 2's don't mix. :(

#42744 - pixxel - Sat May 14, 2005 3:14 pm

i agree, the black border is pants, but i know why they did it...

if you scale from small to big, quiality isnt majorly lost...
ie, 320x240 ->640x480 - perfect, 1 normal pixel=2 scaled pixels
but 320x240 - >512x384 isnt perfect, because u would need half pixels.

if you go from gba->DS res, we are talking like
240 x 160 pixels
256 x 192 Pixels

1.0666x1.2 ratio... last time i checked, 1.2 pixels didnt exist ;)

plus basjing that into the internal system to play gba games aint gonna happen. the only way to d oit would be an emulator, so ud get even more overhead and probably end up with slower games with uglier looking screens. in this case, i can live with the border.