Hey everyone ! I don't know if this is the right place (I'm new), but I would like to share my findings about aspect ratio for certain gamecube games. After playing metroid prime on dolphin, I always felt that something was slighty wrong compared to my various playthroughs on the original gc. Never quite understood what was wrong, but yesterday I finally realized that everything is juuuust a little squashed. You can notice that with the aim reticule when you lock on enemies, it's not a circle but an oval, even if it's not easy to notice that.
Interested, I started searching for original screenshot from back in the day of the game and found out that my impressions was actually correct, aspect ratio in pics coming from official sources was different. After some investigations, it turned out that metroid prime, among other games (I found a list here: https://orcaapp.herokuapp.com/gc) doesn't have a native resolution of 4:3, but a peculiar 646x480, aka 4.04:3 according to my calculations. No aspect ratio option in dolphin displays that resolution correctly. Even using gecko codes or the widescreen hack, the game becomes 16:9, while still keeping the incorrect squashed proportions of game elements, hub etc. I was wrapping my mind on how to fix this issue and after hours of trial and error, maths etc I managed to find a solution to play the game in full screen, 16:9 (well, sorta) with exactly the same proportioned image quality of the original game.
First, you have to use the gecko code for widescreen (using the widescreen hack will force real 16:9, which destroys the purpose because that aspect ratio has incorrect proportions).
The gecko code is this one (for whoever whants to try):
Open dolphin, and under graphics config select "Stretch to window" under aspect ratio. (Gecko code allow us to actually strech the rendered game, while widescreen hack has fixed aspect ratio).
Then, set a custom resolution through nvidia control panel (or you corresponding software, I have a nvidia card). The resolution you have to set is 1920x1010 (I calculated this resolution by doing adjustments in window mode, using the above mentioned screenshots and some new screenshot I took of dolphin running at 646x480 res as reference, aligning new screenshot above those, try after try until the hud was pixel perfect)
Open the game in fullscreen mode. Now you can enjoy the game correctly proportioned in widescreen.
I don't know if dolphin's developers are already aware of this/interested about this topic, but if there's a way this can reach them is this forum and that would be great, as I think allowing more practical ways to adjust the aspect ratio to be more faithful to the original machine would be great (similar to the 4:3, 8:7 conversation about snes).
Doing this was quite a mess but I hope someone find these informations useful
Cheers !
Interested, I started searching for original screenshot from back in the day of the game and found out that my impressions was actually correct, aspect ratio in pics coming from official sources was different. After some investigations, it turned out that metroid prime, among other games (I found a list here: https://orcaapp.herokuapp.com/gc) doesn't have a native resolution of 4:3, but a peculiar 646x480, aka 4.04:3 according to my calculations. No aspect ratio option in dolphin displays that resolution correctly. Even using gecko codes or the widescreen hack, the game becomes 16:9, while still keeping the incorrect squashed proportions of game elements, hub etc. I was wrapping my mind on how to fix this issue and after hours of trial and error, maths etc I managed to find a solution to play the game in full screen, 16:9 (well, sorta) with exactly the same proportioned image quality of the original game.
First, you have to use the gecko code for widescreen (using the widescreen hack will force real 16:9, which destroys the purpose because that aspect ratio has incorrect proportions).
The gecko code is this one (for whoever whants to try):
Spoiler:
Open dolphin, and under graphics config select "Stretch to window" under aspect ratio. (Gecko code allow us to actually strech the rendered game, while widescreen hack has fixed aspect ratio).
Then, set a custom resolution through nvidia control panel (or you corresponding software, I have a nvidia card). The resolution you have to set is 1920x1010 (I calculated this resolution by doing adjustments in window mode, using the above mentioned screenshots and some new screenshot I took of dolphin running at 646x480 res as reference, aligning new screenshot above those, try after try until the hud was pixel perfect)
Open the game in fullscreen mode. Now you can enjoy the game correctly proportioned in widescreen.
I don't know if dolphin's developers are already aware of this/interested about this topic, but if there's a way this can reach them is this forum and that would be great, as I think allowing more practical ways to adjust the aspect ratio to be more faithful to the original machine would be great (similar to the 4:3, 8:7 conversation about snes).
Doing this was quite a mess but I hope someone find these informations useful
Cheers !