Super Street Fighter II X/Turbo in 240p

[FinalBaton]

So here's a good one for you shmupers on this fine day :

What's the best solution to enjoy SSF2X in 240p(or with emulated scanlines maybe) on my multisync crt monitor(syncs up to SXGA)?



1- The PS1 and Saturn versions load like crazy, and that's really putting me off those

2- I don't think I'll be buying a 3DO and modding it just for one game, lol


So with the 240p versions out of the way, let's look at the other options now :


3- Forcing the PS2 port to 240p via GSM or Hex Editor won't work according to my researches. So moving on.

4- There's the option of downscaling the PS2 or Dreamcast port. Buying an Extron Emotia or an other scan converter, however, is not gonna happen right now. I have other areas to invest money in

5- Also with the two ports mentionned above : I guess one can put a SLG-3000 in the chain, but how will it look on my setup? (AKA : will a 480p signal with emulated scanlines on my monitor look very close to a 15kHz signal? Or will the "blanked" lines look diferrent(wider or darker etc)).

6- Then there's the option of running MAME with a 15kHz output from a pc. This requires a lot of software tweaking and frankly I find it a bit daunting. I've read on the subject I think I would get in over my head if I was to jump into this. I'm a casual when it comes to computers, so I think I'll pass haha

7- Lastly : since my crt monitor picks up higher resolutions, could I simply apply a scanline shader in the emulator and just plug the pc as it is (with its current graphic card)in my crt monitor? I mean without going the route of buying a low-res graphic card and the rest like I mentionned above. Just using regular ass windows 7, booting the emulator and voilà.

So : what do you think is my best option considering my constraints?
And secondly, what would YOU do to get the game running on such a multisync CRT in your setup? I'm curious to know what route you guys and gals would go with this

[Fudoh]

The DC port plays good, but it doesn't look very nice. The downscaling from 384 to 320 on the horizontal hurt the graphics a lot. Checkerboard patterns or ugly and in general the graphic quality took a big hit by this. Scanlines using a SLG unit will look good though.

MAME with HLSL (or it's OpenGL variant) will look and play best on monitors that support HD resolutions. SXGA should be enough to get reasonable results.

[FinalBaton]

Thanks Fudoh, that's some awesome info right off the bat!

I will try the second option you mentionned for sure.

A question regarding that : will I need to set the desired resolution in both MAME and the operating system(Windows 7)? Or only in MAME?

[Fudoh]

will I need to set the desired resolution in both MAME and the operating system(Windows 7)? Or only in MAME?

I haven't used newer MAME versions in a while, but I guess you choose the output resolution for each driver seperately?

[FinalBaton]

I'll definitly try Fudoh's suggestion. But I'm curious to see what options would other people use

[Fudoh]

do you happen to know how loading times on the Saturn are affected by using a Rhea/Phoebe board ? PSIO is out as well.

[airs]

Maybe you should just get the real deal on CPS2.

[FinalBaton]

do you happen to know how loading times on the Saturn are affected by using a Rhea/Phoebe board ? PSIO is out as well.

Nope I haven't stumbled upon articles/post regarding the Rhea, sadly. Do you think that this platform actually cuts some of the loading time off?

[FinalBaton]

Maybe you should just get the real deal on CPS2.

Sorry but I'm just not gonna get a supergun and start buying pcbs right now.
It's out of my AV buget.
It would be at great solution touh! So that's why I value your recommendation
But as of right now... yeah, it has to be on a console I currently own, wich are Saturn, PSX, Dreamcast, PS2 or PC emulation.

[BuckoA51]

Rhea basically behaves like a CD-ROM where there's always 0 seek time so yeah games load faster.

[airs]

Maybe you should just get the real deal on CPS2.

Sorry but I'm just not gonna get a supergun and start buying pcbs right now.
It's out of my AV buget.
It would be at great solution touh! So that's why I value your recommendation
But as of right now... yeah, it has to be on a console I currently own, wich are Saturn, PSX, Dreamcast, PS2 or PC emulation.

I would go with emulation in that case. It'll also give you the option of honing your skills on ggpo.

[Hoagtech]

I love the 3do version because of its cd audio soundtrack.

I was going to mod it for RGB but it supports 240p through s-video and looks fantastic.

I like to play on original hardware but super street fighter 2 xbox360 arcade has a 480p mode and a reskinned 1080p mode (not reccomended)

[airs]

I love the 3do version because of its cd audio soundtrack.

I was going to mod it for RGB but it supports 240p through s-video and looks fantastic.

I like to play on original hardware but super street fighter 2 xbox360 arcade has a 480p mode and a reskinned 1080p mode (not reccomended)

Did you mod your 3DO to enable 240p output?

[Hoagtech]

No. The 3do outputs 240p natively through composite s-video. I would say it's the clearest s-video output compared to other consoles S-video output.

This YouTube capture comparison doesn't do it justice but I can't tell the difference in person.



http://youtu.be/yYJPTqI8yME

[Fudoh]

But the 3DO used for the video has TWO mods. One for RGB and another for 240p, so I would assume that SSFIIX is running in 480i on an unmodded 3DO. But on the other hand I know little about the 3DO, so you're saying that SSFIIX runs natively in 240p ?

[airs]

No. The 3do outputs 240p natively through composite s-video. I would say it's the clearest s-video output compared to other consoles S-video output.

This YouTube capture comparison doesn't do it justice but I can't tell the difference in person.

http://youtu.be/yYJPTqI8yME

I made that video - the 3DO does not output in any resolution other than 480i unless you mod it.

[Strider77]

I didn't really find the loading anything out of the ordinary or bad on the PS1.

[_rm_]

What's the best solution to enjoy SSF2X in 240p(or with emulated scanlines maybe) on my multisync crt monitor(syncs up to SXGA)?

That would be a CPS2 board with a supergun

[FinalBaton]

What's the best solution to enjoy SSF2X in 240p(or with emulated scanlines maybe) on my multisync crt monitor(syncs up to SXGA)?

That would be a CPS2 board with a supergun

Yeah I know
But right now I don't have the money, so I'm looking at a port

If I ever come across a 3D0 for dirt cheap (wich I don't think I will), I think I'll grab that since that SSF2T port look and sound pretty damn great
In the meantime I think I'll settle for SF2T on the SNES. Yeah it's not the same game, but it's still one I think is very fun, plus I am nostalgic towards it. The sound on that version, in my mind, is how it "sould" sound like (because of nostalgia lol. I know it's not faithful to the arcade). Listening to that again, I find that the music is a little feeble. Needs more weight. But the sound effects are absolutely MASSIVE and it feels so good unleashing hell on your opponent. Overall a very fun port.

[airs]

I thought we were trying to come up with the best version of SSF2X that runs in 240p? Usually I think of "best" to mean closest to the original game, which in this case was made on CPS2. While fun, the SNES versions are abominations of the arcade compared to the other platforms available to you.

[FinalBaton]

Snes game I mentionned is a consolation prize, obviously.

As I wrote in the post : eventually I'll buy the cps2 board
And if I find a cheap 3do I'll go with that

Also : I'll try and burn the dreamcast port tonight. My monitor lets me stretch the picture, so I'll be able to correct the aspect ratio. If it looks good, I might consider buying a scanline generator to add scanlines to that port.

[FinalBaton]

Well the Dreamcast port looks gorgeous. Haven't notice, Shoryuken wiki says that there's 1 frame at times but didn't seem to happen to me yet

I actually quite like how it looks in 480p on the NEC. but I might still get an SLG-3000 from AF or a SLR from BBS, to add scanlines

[R2-2D]

Play it on Fightcade for some fierce competition!

[FinalBaton]

Well Fightcade is a ton of fun, lol

And it looks real good on the NEC monitor too.

I use the scanline effect built-into Fightcade and... that's it!

No other software required. I just plug the computer's VGA output into the NEC.
Beautiful scanlined image. The blanked lines are quite thin and faint, but I like it this way. You can still perceived the added texture from playing distance.
I had some tweaking to do (matching resolutions, disabling some effects, chosing DD instead of Direct 3D,etc. I can detail these steps if anyone is interested)but now I've got it where I want and I'm very happy with the results.

The "Emulator into CRT" rig is really winning me over, I'll try to get a multi-console emulator running now.

[antron]

For true 240p another option might be a Wii running an arcade emulator. If you are limited to RGB you can set the region to Europe.

[hanasu]

Dreamcast is the only console port even worth considering. It's very close to perfect.

Fightcade/Final Burn are great for netplay reasons but as far as 'accuracy' to the original it's pretty far off. For example the standard Fightcade speed is turbo 1 to replicate offline turbo 3.

[Strider77]

Honestly if one is willing to settle on Super on the SNES I would think the PS1 port alone would satisfy. I'm still trying to figure out the intolerable loading times part also.

[FinalBaton]

Honestly if one is willing to settle on Super on the SNES I would think the PS1 port alone would satisfy. I'm still trying to figure out the intolerable loading times part also.

Actually playing on Dreamcast and on fightcade right now.

I like both. DC port is awesome. I haven't tried the ps1/saturn version yet. Aside from being 240p, do those two have any advantage over the DC one?

fightcade is great for online play. And it runs well in both offline and online mode.

[FBX]

There's also the "HD Remix" for the PS3 and xbox. Or is it not quite what you're looking for?

[Strider77]

No, the PS1 version looks the part but there are some game play imperfections if you are a purist. Saturn version has a little slowdown on a stage or 2.