Native Resolution vs Standard Resolution

[Maj]

Back in the day, a lot of arcade/console hardware ran at weird native resolutions like 384x224. When they were hooked up to a standard arcade monitor, the picture was automatically resized to standard 4:3 resolution.

We assume that the game designers intended their sprites to be viewed at 4:3 resolution. There's no real debate here because Capcom and other companies used to manufacture complete arcade cabinets, so they knew that the end result would be displayed at 4:3.

As a result, when you go from standard resolution to native resolution on an emulator, all the characters look fat and short. The whole screen also looks stretched because 384x224 is actually 12:7 resolution. That's a messed up ratio that doesn't make sense at all.

However, the main advantage to native resolution is that it represents every pixel. So for archival purposes, sometimes it's better to store screenshots at native resolution because it's easy to stretch that image to 4:3 later. On the other hand, there's no way to go back from 4:3 to native resolution because you can't tell what the original pixels were when you look at a 4:3 image. Resizing aspect ratios is inherely lossy.

But then again, compressed video is lossy too. So if you're going to show a video to a general audience, it's usually better to go with the intended 4:3 ratio. That's how everyone played it so that's what looks natural/familiar to everyone.

Some places like TASVideos demand native resolution as part of their requirements, but then they see themselves as an archival library. They're more concerned about preserving the game's native look rather than presenting it the way it was meant to be presented (and the way everyone remembers it).

So that's the debate here. What should our default guidelines be?

[error1]

tasvideos normally goes with native resolution but it gets a little complex with ds games and some psx games ( if they had accepted my toshindin run I guarantee the official encode wouldn't be at the native 640x240 because it would be unwatchable ). I normally prefer the native resolution but I think it looks fine ether way. Plus 12:7 is pretty close to HD 16:9

[Maj]

Plus 12:7 is pretty close to HD 16:9

Only based on the outer rectangle though. ST at native 12:7 resolution looks nothing like STHD at 16:9.

[Raine]

I like native res. However exceptions might have to be made in special cases like error1 mentioned, although I don't know how prevalent that is.

EDIT: I should note although that's my preference, I don't really care as it's not something I'd notice except in extreme cases.

[Rufus]

I think that the distinction to be made is primarily aesthetic, but that's not very useful if you want a policy.

[Maj]

Well, here's the heart of the matter. It's easier to stick with native resolution because it requires less work and no commitment. But if all of us start doing that, it'll gradually change the status quo to releasing videos that look wrong to everyone except emulator junkies.

I mean, i've been using emulators for a long time now, so i've gotten used to the fucked up 12:7 ratio. It's easy to forget that most of the people who played these games played them in an arcade machine or on a Saturn/PSX. When they watch a video like this, it looks warped to them and a lot of the oldschool players (legitimately) complain.

Now i can say "Oh i don't care, the only thing that matters to me are the pixels" but that basically turns me into a weirdo outcast. It sets a dangerous precedent which locks me (and everyone else who follows my example) into a narrow sub-niche. Why would i do that voluntarily?

That's still the only video i've ever made where i stuck with native res. And i feel like i had a pretty good reason, but again, the rest of the world remembers and expects 4:3 so it was important to go back to that and make it my default approach.

In fact i'm even considering stretching my screenshots to 4:3 (using HTML, not altering the actual image files). I'll probably start doing that with the new ones as soon as i'm done reposting all the old ones. Fresh start with ComboVid and all.

[Dammit]

Videos and moving pictures should always be 4:3 or however they were meant to be seen. Nothing says "emulator, lol" like the goofy aspect ratio. If possible, rescale losslessly (with the video container settings) rather than re-encoding which is lossy.

But, if you make a composed screenshot where the idea is to appreciate all the pixels, then leave it native. With educational screenshots it might be better to zoom, scale, and filter because the pixels can be distracting.

The PSX usually has 8:3 (half height) for 3D games and 4:3 for menus and 2D games. This is nice because scaling 3D graphics doesn't look bad, and it's integral anyway.

[Maj]

That about sums up my opinion too. Still waiting to hear Buttermaker's stance though.

So CPS1/CPS2 games are 384x224 natively, which means to convert them to 4:3 you'd either need 384x288 or just standard 320x240, etc. What about SNK games? Their native resolution is 320x224. Do they need to be stretched vertically as well? Or are there black bars across the top/bottom of the screen in Neo Geo arcade cabinets?

[Rufus]

That about sums up my opinion too. Still waiting to hear Buttermaker's stance though.

So CPS1/CPS2 games are 384x224 natively, which means to convert them to 4:3 you'd either need 384x288 or just standard 320x240, etc. What about SNK games? Their native resolution is 320x224. Do they need to be stretched vertically as well? Or are there black bars across the top/bottom of the screen in Neo Geo arcade cabinets?

Interlacing actually costs effective vertical resolution, though it's not clear exactly how much.

[Buttermaker]

There's no real debate here

That's my stance.

What about SNK games? Their native resolution is 320x224.

Neo-Geo is supposed to be 4:3. There are games that only use 304 of the 320 pixels.

[Dammit]

What about SNK games? Their native resolution is 320x224.

Neo-Geo is supposed to be 4:3. There are games that only use 304 of the 320 pixels.

Another example of this is the NES. The top and bottom 8 lines are not shown (at least on NTSC TVs) which means less stretching is required to get the right shape.

Considering how many screenshots we post, this might make for good discussion/opinion-type article, like this one.

[Maj]

Sure, why not?

I was gonna post something else but i'll save it for later. This seems like a good time to post this topic, right after last week's screenshot tutorial.