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Launchbox very big after quitting some emulators


s_busby_uk

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Hi all,

I did a quick sweep of forum posts to find a solution to this and otherwise couldn't think of what to search for, so apologise if it's come up before.

My issue is that when I quit out of some emulators, Launchbox appears to be heavily zoomed in/big, presumably as it's not reverted back to the desktop resolution correctly. (See attached image, where you can see how big it is compared to the size of the Windows 10 taskbar).

Is there a way to fix this or at least a button I can click on to reset Launchobx to the native Windows resolution if it goes wrong? If not, do I need to reconfigure some emulator settings?

Fwiw, my PC is hooked up to a Sony Bravia TV (2016 or 2017 model) and Windows' resolution is set to 3840x2160 (720 and 1080 look blurry for some reason), and I have a GTX 970.

Thanks in advance,

Simon

Screen Shot 2017-09-10 at 17.50.45.png

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The problem is most likely the emulator, what emulators specifically are giving you this problem ? Some emulators can have a fairly simple fix in the settings of it while others may not be so easy.

As for why 720 and 1080 resolution looking blurry it is because of how modern displays work, they don't look good at resolutions below their native which in this case is 4K.

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32 minutes ago, lordmonkus said:

The problem is most likely the emulator, what emulators specifically are giving you this problem ? Some emulators can have a fairly simple fix in the settings of it while others may not be so easy.

As for why 720 and 1080 resolution looking blurry it is because of how modern displays work, they don't look good at resolutions below their native which in this case is 4K.

Yeah I'd sort of assumed that was why the 720/1080 stuff looked bad – oh well!

I think it was coming out of epsxe that caused the issue, but I feel like some of the other emulators have caused a similar issue (currently Dolphin, PCSX2 and Snes9x).

My question is, how come the rest of Windows reverts back to normal resolution fine but Launchbox doesn't? Even after I restart the program?

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Hi all, just to add to this...

I created a ticket for this very same issue about a month ago but it wasn't responded to. I found and reported that Epsxe has this problem whenever you use the auto hotkey script to exit the emulator. When you remove the auto hot key script from launch box and epsxe, the problem goes away. For me, The resolution issue with epsxe only occurs inside launch-box when using the auto hot key script. When you exit epsxe outside of launch box, the issue does not occur- so it seems the issue to be launchbox and autohotkey script specific only.. not the emulator itself. at least in my case.. I appreciate any heads up to Jason or someone at least looking into this.... please remember some of us use our 55 inch+ 4K displays and not arcade cabinets with launch box... 

This being said, launch Box is truly amazing and I appreciate it and all the hard work that it takes to bring it to us... it changes the way I game on my htpc !

Edited by MazJohn [Mr Arcade]
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This is not a Launchbox issue and it really is not even an ePSXe issue but more a setting in ePSXe issue. In your video plugin set your desktop resolution to match your monitor / TV and when it exits it will be fine.

I did some messing around with ePSXe and it's set to something like 640x480 or 800x600 it messes up the desktop resolution on exit even if it's just the "Escape" key. Setting the proper desktop resolution in ePSXe fixed it.

2017-09-10 16_06_57-Configure ePSXe Core GPU.png

2017-09-10 16_07_11-Configure Pete GL2 Core.png

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21 minutes ago, lordmonkus said:

This is not a Launchbox issue and it really is not even an ePSXe issue but more a setting in ePSXe issue. In your video plugin set your desktop resolution to match your monitor / TV and when it exits it will be fine.

I did some messing around with ePSXe and it's set to something like 640x480 or 800x600 it messes up the desktop resolution on exit even if it's just the "Escape" key. Setting the proper desktop resolution in ePSXe fixed it.

I like my emulation resolutions to be fairly close to the originals though - if I configure the fullscreen/desktop resolution setting to match my actual desktop resolution, won't that give me a super-crisp image instead? Or is that not how this all works?

(Resolutions are definitely a bit of a mindfield for me to understand!)

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The "Desktop Resolution" setting in ePSXe is not your actual output resolution. No matter what you do you are going to have to scale the game to your display because the actual resolution (depending on the console) is going to be in the 320x240 neighbourhood. If you were to actually output at the consoles native resolution you would be playing in a tiny window.

Now depending on which video plugin you use for ePSXe you may have to fiddle around with some of the various settings to get the precise desired effect. But setting the desktop resolution should solve your desktop size issue when exiting ePSXe. I am assuming you are after a more natural resolution and look so for that I would suggest using the "Core GPU" plugin which is the top screenshot I posted above. Copy those settings I have but don't use the CRT-Hyllian shader, set that to 0 which is default if you don't want CRT scanlines. Also uncheck "Screen Filtering" if you want a really sharp look.

2017-09-10 16_44_07-ePSXe - Enhanced PSX emulator.png

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11 minutes ago, lordmonkus said:

The "Desktop Resolution" setting in ePSXe is not your actual output resolution. No matter what you do you are going to have to scale the game to your display because the actual resolution (depending on the console) is going to be in the 320x240 neighbourhood. If you were to actually output at the consoles native resolution you would be playing in a tiny window.

Now depending on which video plugin you use for ePSXe you may have to fiddle around with some of the various settings to get the precise desired effect. But setting the desktop resolution should solve your desktop size issue when exiting ePSXe. I am assuming you are after a more natural resolution and look so for that I would suggest using the "Core GPU" plugin which is the top screenshot I posted above. Copy those settings I have but don't use the CRT-Hyllian shader, set that to 0 which is default if you don't want CRT scanlines. Also uncheck "Screen Filtering" if you want a really sharp look.

Amazing, thanks lormonkus. Will give it a shot!

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No problem and good luck. Resolution stuff is just going to be a bit of a problem on modern displays because they don't do that "natural and relatively seemless" transition like the CRTs used to do. Scaling is just a part of doing business with them, this is why hooking up old consoles to modern displays are so problematic.

Some emulators though will have some oddball switching issues and those are on the emulator itself. The 2 really awkward ones that come to mind are Kat5200 and Fusion.

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Just tested out your setup and I remember now why I didn't set it to my desktop resolution originally. Check the attached image - for some reason all I can see on the screen is the bottom left corner, enlarged at what looks like a quarter of the whole screen.

Any ideas what's going on here?

Capture.PNG

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Just now, lordmonkus said:

What resolution are you actually running your desktop at ?

I have seen this problem but I cannot remember the fix for it. Have you given any thought to using Retroarch and the Mednafen PSX core in it ? It is equally good in terms of actual emulation but handles resolution stuff so much better than ePSXe.

3840x2160. As I mentioned above, if I set it to anything lower than that things start to look blurry.

I've not tested any alternatives yet, no, mainly because I've used ePSXe in the past so went with what was familiar (before I turned my PC into a TV-based console-type experience). Retroarch I find a bit intimidating, but sounds like it's worth investigating!

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Retroarch can be a bit daunting but it's not that bad once youget used to it and ePSXe 2.05 is a fine emulator but I (and others around here) find it to be extremely good and better in certain aspects than many (not all) stand alone emulators.

Check out my written guide on getting started with it if you want.

 

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