Okay, so heard back from Chriz on Discord, who's hopefully going to release their data soon. According to him it contains 62,497 playlogs of 594 games from 116 users. So it's pretty substantial. The data (using this game:
https://psxdatacenter.com/games/J/M/SLPS-02005.html) looks like:
| | Session | Game ID | Res@FR | TS (ms) | log TS |
+---+------------+-------------+--------------+-----------+---------------------+
| 1 | session_id | SLPS-02005 | 320x240p60 | 0 | 2022-02-09 03:48:35 |
| 2 | session_id | SLPS-02005 | 256x240p60 | 63 | 2022-02-09 03:48:35 |
| 3 | session_id | SLPS-02005 | 640x240p60 | 3752 | 2022-02-09 03:48:45 |
| 4 | session_id | SLPS-02005 | 640x480i60 | 3816 | 2022-02-09 03:48:45 |
| 5 | session_id | SLPS-02005 | 256x240p60 | 21902 | 2022-02-09 03:48:55 |
| 6 | session_id | SLPS-02005 | 320x240p60 | 21948 | 2022-02-09 03:48:55 |
| 7 | session_id | SLPS-02005 | 320x240p60-r | 51958 | 2022-02-09 03:49:25 |
| 8 | session_id | SLPS-02005 | RST_A_60 | 220731 | 2022-02-09 03:52:15 |
So it gives you time stamps, records the same junk resolutions you'll see in an emulator (these are usually during loads, games will just flick around to whatever the fuck for a frame or 10), but also gives a time stamp that can be used to assess if a resolution is useful, such as in the case of a menu. The -r indicates primary gameplay resolution. Hopefully we'll find a way to use this data to make something more actionable to laypeople.
NewSchoolBoxer wrote:That'd be cool if they release N64 resolutions too.
AFAIK, the N64 is much more standardized, it shouldn't be the effort this is. Mostly just a matter of flagging which games aren't 320x240 or whatever the standard is. Probably games that run interlaced? Not sure. N64 isn't my thing.
NewSchoolBoxer wrote:Way I resolution hunted in DuckStation was try out the different game modes and menus and check if displayed resolution on the top right of screen changes. Thus there is chance of human error. If the game ending has a different resolution then, well, not going to see. I imagine there could be a Lua script to auto-record resolution changes.
This is the same as the Xebra methodology, then. It's cumbersome, and yeah, as you say, some screens will be ambiguous (something Chriz's data will probably help with)
NewSchoolBoxer wrote:SotN, I meant to finally start that. In first 15 minutes I found:
--Short animated jingle with Konami logo on startup..................| 320x240 progressive
--Title screen and scrolling text narration after scene with Death | 512x240 progressive
--All menus..........................................................................| 368x240 progressive
--Normal gameplay.............................................................. | 256x240 progressive
Good choice lol. DuckStation calls it Castlevania - Symphony of the Night (USA) (SLUS-00067)
320x240 is what Konami's Suikoden II (USA) (SLUS-00958) boots in and stays in through intro scene, equip menu and first battle. Not ruling out possibility of more resolutions given Konami's apparent creativity.
So we're saying 368 is really 364 pillarboxed to Sony's recommendation. I'm just reporting what emulator says and you're welcome to put 364 in spreadsheet.
Yeah, this is what makes SotN just a good example. 368 is a synonym of 384, with a 384 pixel active area, as explained by FBX. 364 is, for whatever reason, how some emulator report it. We dug through old Sony documentation and the documentation of a few emulators and couldn't find an obvious source. It seems as though it was an error or perhaps a misleading name for the spec early on that ended up being adopted inadvertently by emulator devs, who have now stuck with it because it really doesn't make a difference.
NewSchoolBoxer wrote:Fantastic Night Dreams - Cotton Original (Japan) (SLPS-02034) is interesting. Gameplay and cutscenes are 320x240 progressive, while loading screens including bootup are 320x480 interlaced. I suppose digital scaler dropping for a second or two on switch is not a gameplay issue.
I think using DuckStation is better. I tried pSX v1.13 and brought up resolution with tab but the cluttered white text doesn't show on Cotton's loading screen. DuckStation resolution shows on bottom window but I prefer enabling it on the top right as well:
pSX
DuckStation
DuckStation
If I recall correctly, Cotton Original gave me issues in pSX, which is why it's not in the list despite the fact I have a copy of this game somewhere. It's one of the ones I'm looking forward to seeing the PS1Digital data for.
Syntax wrote:I don't see why this data cannot be accumulated using a script to mount the images and scan them for the known resolution registers like the eXo team do.
It could, but hasn't. Couple reasons.
1. I'm dumb and have absolutely no math or coding chops. I'm just not well suited to doing this sort of work, though I'd be happy to facilitate the effort of someone else.
2. When I initially started this project, there wasn't a ton of interest, it was mostly my own frustration with using trial and error to find the correct resolution on my OSSC profiles and a few conversations in the R3 discord that led me here. I've gotten a handful of people who mention using it to me since then but in general it's pretty niche, so there wasn't ever an impetus to try to attract someone interested in doing the coding work.
And now, with Chriz's effort, we basically have that anyway. And with the timestamps, in a way that largely ignores some of the issues I had anticipated when initially conceptualizing how I might automate this if given the chance (mostly, avoiding junk resolutions while keeping every resolution used for a menu, splash screen, intro cutscene, etc.).