Widescreen hacks discussion

Discussion in 'Discussion & Q&A' started by DeltaWooloo, Feb 24, 2021.

  1. DeltaWooloo

    DeltaWooloo The noob next door Member

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    Recently, a Twitter post made by heyjoeway (the creator behind Sonic 2 Community's Cut) has released a patcher that allows us to patch Sonic 1 ROM hacks (only) to be widescreen. I believe a tool that can make the game feel close to the Taxman ports is insane, and I would like to thank him for doing so. So you may be asking, why am I making this thread? So everyone can show off your hacks in widescreen and show everyone else here and see how it holds up.

    How to apply the tool to the hack?

    If you would jump here, you can open up a ROM, and the tool would patch for you. But before you open it, don't expect to use Fusion or BlastEM; use RetroArch (BizHawk works but the video settings need reworking) since it's compatible with a .dll file you need for widescreen hacks, and I'll link it here. It would be best if you loaded the .dll by loading the core in RetroArch, and then you can open the ROM by selecting "load content", and that's it!

    How does it turn out?

    Pretty darn nice and fun to experiment and have fun with, I tried it on my 3 ROM hacks, and it worked swimmingly; here are my images for reference:

    retro1.PNG
    Cancelled Sonic ReOne sequel hack

    retro2.PNG
    Sonic ReOne

    retro3.PNG
    Sonic 1 hack (more details will be revealed next month)

    The only bugs I've found are with the HUD which you can see in the top and bottom one due to me modifying the code to the HUD such as using Sonic 2's object or moving the HUD. I know there are other issues that I didn't mention but if I find something else I'll mention.

    Again I want to give a special thanks to heyjoeway for making this mod as it can bring lives to many of our ROM hacks by giving it that awesome widescreen effect. He did promise a Sonic 2 version of this but as of writing this, he hasn't released it yet.

    Now let's see how other hacks can take this awesome feature!
     
    Last edited: Feb 24, 2021
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  2. TomTalker

    TomTalker Newcomer Prospect

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    [someone delete this if possible please]
     
    Last edited: Feb 25, 2021
  3. Soldaten

    Soldaten The Coilgun Root Admin

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    I'm reminded of a discussion that was had regarding hacks and widescreen just under a year ago.
    HUD modifications clearly aren't taken into account, this would break scrolling effects and a variety of other things depending on what a hack could be doing.

    It's a bit of a pandora's box, this one. Wouldn't be so keen to jump on this especially when one would need to essentially design their hacks for a specific emulator and library in order to make the most use of this, limiting platform options and my (personal) gripe, leaning away from learning and understanding the hardware and trying to make the most out of it.

    I will also add the that looking at their twitter I'm seeing Megamix and Next Level having been put through this. These hacks push the capabilities of stock hardware which is quite a task in and of itself, and them now having widescreen in some fashion is what will get fawned over instead of the underlying technical workings and knowledge that allowed such hacks to even exist....
     
    Last edited: Feb 24, 2021
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  4. Clownacy

    Clownacy Retired Staff lolololo Member

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    At last - if we combine this with Gens/GS S2HD Edition, we can finally have Sonic the Hedgehog 21:9 144FPS 8K Edition. Just imagine the possibilities.
     
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  5. Nick46

    Nick46 Resident Moron Member

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    Looks pretty neat to experiment with, though I do have to agree with one of the above responses. Specifically, the portion about it having to be designed for a specific emulator. I can't imagine this being too much more than a novelty to be honest, though again, it's cool that it exists.
     
  6. rika_chou

    rika_chou Adopt Member

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    I wonder if a disassembly could be set up to spit out two versions of a rom, one normal and one with the needed widescreen changes.

    There's a few hacks I would love to play in widescreen.
     
    Last edited: Feb 25, 2021
  7. kenny0989

    kenny0989 Well-known idiot Member

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    The thing keeps me away is that RetroArch emulator no longer works on Windows 10 after some security update, sh..t.
     
  8. jubbalub

    jubbalub Mania fanboy Member

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    This is making me appreciate certain ROM hacks a lot more. I recently played through Sonic Scorched Quest through the Sonic 2 CX executable after patching it with this tool, and it was extremely refreshing to play through the entire hack without an ounce of slowdown. The S Factor as well.

    I do think this presents a bit of a crossroads for developers if this becomes more widespread. But for the moment, this is a very neat tool that, for me, is breathing new life into ROM hacks.
     
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  9. Ronald Rose

    Ronald Rose Newcomer In Limbo

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    I wish we get the Sonic 3 & Knuckles patch Cause I saw that Sonic 3 & Knuckles in Sonic Origins is getting the widescreen support even Sonic 3 A.I.R.