Aspect Ratio Correction on FM Towns Games

[filipetolhuizen]

This is really great. It should be implemented at least as a switchable option in the official version.

I'm glad to hear that you enjoy this feature.
I have enjoyed implementing it .

However, in order to add this to the official version, I need a volunteer to test this in Loom.
See detailed explanation at viewtopic.php?p=88663&sid=1ba9bed289e83 ... b02#p88663
The short explanation - I'm afraid that there are bugs in Loom with this feature, and I don't want to add buggy feature to the official ScummVM version.
Therefore, I need someone to play Loom from beginning to end, and either report bugs (with savegames), or update that it's great, and there are no problems.

Playing Loom with a walkthrough should take less than 3 hours. Coding this took much more than 3 hours, so, I think it's a fair bargain

Hmm, I haven't played much Loom, I'll try to get my hands on the FM Towns version.
Whether it's buggy or not, IMHO it wouldn't hurt to add it as a switchable feature, at least for the working titles.

[SirYodaJedi]

Wow, thank you for taking the initiative to handle this long overdue request.
One thing I'm curious about as I read of your implementation: does this solution take into account the "double resolution" of Kanji mode compared to English mode? From my limited understanding, Kanji mode would rasterize the text at 640x480 while the game itself remained at 320x240, which ScummVM handles by doing an integer upscale on the game to match the text size.
I don't have the Kanji version of any of the games to test — digital distributions of Zak only have english and I'm not enough of a weeb (yet) to track down a physical copy — but this seemed like something that could break.

I appreciate the approach of cropping to 1.6:1 so that it stretches out to 1.33:1. I would have just stretched it to 1.11:1 and called it a day

[ZvikaZ]

Wow, thank you for taking the initiative to handle this long overdue request.
One thing I'm curious about as I read of your implementation: does this solution take into account the "double resolution" of Kanji mode compared to English mode? From my limited understanding, Kanji mode would rasterize the text at 640x480 while the game itself remained at 320x240, which ScummVM handles by doing an integer upscale on the game to match the text size.
I don't have the Kanji version of any of the games to test — digital distributions of Zak only have english and I'm not enough of a weeb (yet) to track down a physical copy — but this seemed like something that could break.

I appreciate the approach of cropping to 1.6:1 so that it stretches out to 1.33:1. I would have just stretched it to 1.11:1 and called it a day

Well, that's a good question...
I haven't thought about the Kanji versions. I assume that this feature won't work for them.
But we'll need to wait for someone to test, as I don't have them.

[Raziel]

@ZvikaZ

On it.
I got Zak and Indy 3 FM-Towns.
Need to build your latest sources first, though...

[Raziel]

From my non-existing understanding of Japanese (may it be language, Kanji reading/writing, food, culture etc.) i'd say it looks pretty nice.
Indy:

Zak:


Then again, i don't see any difference to the original build.
Seems i f*cked something up while compöiling.
Is _v7 still the latest version?
Could you again give the details on how to checkout and build?
I know i had it working with _v2, but it seems i lost track...

[ZvikaZ]

From my non-existing understanding of Japanese (may it be language, Kanji reading/writing, food, culture etc.) i'd say it looks pretty nice.
Indy:

Zak:


Then again, i don't see any difference to the original build.
Seems i f*cked something up while compöiling.
Is _v7 still the latest version?
Could you again give the details on how to checkout and build?
I know i had it working with _v2, but it seems i lost track...

I don't think that it's your mistake.
It makes sense, as I said - I assumed it won't work.
If the Japanese indeed uses double resolution, then my code is irrelevant - it crops from 320*240 to 320*200, that's all.
When it's 320*200, then ScummVM-already-built-aspect-ratio-correction-mechanism can be turned on, to stretch from 320*200 to 320*240.
(We started with 320*240 and ended with 320*240, but it's completely different, of course)

Now, if the Japanese code is using 640*480 - my code shouldn't do anything. And anyway, it won't help, because (as far as I know) we don't have stretching from 640*400 to 640*480.

But, it's good to hear that I didn't made any *harm* to the Japanese version.

Just to make sure - please try with English titles, and see if there is any difference.
If you'll see difference with the English, and no difference with Japanese - great - that's the expected behaviour.
If you'll see no difference in English - I will repeat the compilation instructions
If in any situation there will be problems in Japanese - that's not good...

[Raziel]

@ZvikaZ

I meant to say that there is no difference, even in the english versions.
All looks the same, just as the release builds.
The really big black space underneath is still there and the game iscreen looks squished.

I am SURE it was me fault

[ZvikaZ]

OK, so here are the detailed instructions:

Code: Select all

git clone https://github.com/ZvikaZ/scummvm
git checkout z_zm_height_200_v7

Now run each of the games that you want, and return to the launcher - this will cause ScummVM to re-read the updated possible settings for the games.
Then, from the launcher, `Edit Game...`, there should be a new tab - `engine`, enable `Trim FM-TOWNS games to 200 pixels height (EXPERIMENTAL)`.
Now, you can enable or disable the regular aspect ration correction settings. In both cases you'll see a 320x200 game - either stretched or not.

[Raziel]

Thanks for the help.

I'd say, don't fix anything

Indy (English)

Indy (Japanese)

Zak(English)

Zak(Japanese)

[ZvikaZ]

Thanks for the help.

I'd say, don't fix anything

Indy (English)

Indy (Japanese)

Zak(English)

Zak(Japanese)

Well, "if it's not broken - don't fix it!" - thanks for testing
Still, it's interesting what's going on with the Japanese version - what's the resolution.
I don't have time to check it now, but hopefully, I will remember to take a look on the code when I will have more time.

[Raziel]

Well, "if it's not broken - don't fix it!" - thanks for testing
Still, it's interesting what's going on with the Japanese version - what's the resolution.
I don't have time to check it now, but hopefully, I will remember to take a look on the code when I will have more time.

You could, if that makes it easier for you (probably not) , add some debug output to your code which prints the resolution and, well everything you want to know, to the console.
I run the games and post the output

[ZvikaZ]

So, can anyone give feedback for this feature?
Has anyone tested it, more than 3 minutes play?
I'd be glad to hear...

[OmerMor]

I played a bit with the Hybrid FM-Towns / Hebrew version of Loom and the following binary:
https://github.com/ZvikaZ/scummvm/relea ... -K22Im2EwU

The only problem I noticed so far (I didn't play much) was at Cygna's grave:

scummvm-loom-fm-00002.png (50.96 KiB) Viewed 10017 times

You mentioned it was fixed in z_zm_height_200_v4, so it might be a regression.

[ZvikaZ]

Hi.
This is indeed a problematic screen. I don't see a better solution here...
Unless you have some feasible idea?

[Raziel]

Maybe split the text up in junks of three lines max. each and display it one after the other, delay based, just like the long subtitles do...if that is doable, of course.

Or start this one text only at a lower x coordinate, again, if it is doable.