Retrostone 2 - Resolution Issue

[umbongodrink]

Hi 

I have a new Retrostone 2, and have installed Retrorangepi, version 4.3, the build of 20th January 2020 (RetrOrangePi_v4.3_Armbian_Retrostone2_bionic_dev_5.3.13_desktop.img). 

The problem I am experiencing is that every game I try to play is displaying at the wrong resolution. I see massive black borders around the game, which is understandably frustrating. This happens when trying to play ROMs in either Game Boy Advance or MAME, for example. 

I have tried setting the resolution of the system and of the emulators (emulator cores) to 640x480 nearly everywhere I can think of. That's to say, I have done this in: 
- Retropie Configuration Editor > Configure basic libretro emulator options > Configure default options for all libretro emulators > Render Resolution (640x480)
- Retropie Configuration Editor > Configure additional options for all/retroarch > Configure default options for all libretro emulators > Render Resolution (640x480)

- the specific menu for each game by "pressing any button" during the launch of a game/ROM > Select Retroarch render res for lr-mame2000 (640x480) 

Nothing I do seems to make a difference to the final render resolution being correct for the games/ROMs, even though the menus of RetrorangePi or RetroPie or EmulationStation seem to all display full screen (at the correct resolution). I'm attaching some photos so you can see what I mean. 

Please can you help?

[Marco Verhoeven]

You can change the resolution when in-game and then press select+X. That brings the Retroarch menu. Then at video settings you can change the resolution. Also you can save the configurations.

[alexkidd]

Yes, follow Marco's suggestion, pressing Select + blue button will bring up configuration menu
In video settings, make sure aspect ratio is not c
Core Provided , change integer scale as well
When you're satisfied with the result, enter quick menu and select overrides then save per emulator or per game

While I understand frustration we tried to set full screen before and there were people complaining that it wasn't the original aspect ratio of the games

[umbongodrink]

Hi Marco and alexkidd

first of all thank you very much for your swift responses, I appreciate that!

I have followed your instructions and the combination of manually setting the Aspect Ratio to 4:3 and Setting the Integer Scale to OFF makes the game render at full screen. The ROMs that I have been trying to play (both GBA and MAME) are now rendering properly and filling the whole screen (no more black bars). Thank you for walking me through that, that's great. Is there any way of setting this as a universal setting for that emulator (e.g. all MAME games will have these two settings applied)? It's going to be a little frustrating otherwise! SNES and Megadrive seem to render correctly, which I'm assuming is down to the Emulator Core being used??? Please correct me if not.

Also, I am pretty sure I have a faulty RetroStone 2 unit. When navigating the Emulation Station interface, if I press UP I get moved LEFT (for example, if I have a list of ROMs, say for MAME) and I push DOWN, I go down the list, but when I push UP I get moved to the Emulator to the LEFT. This also happens during games and the sprite will move to the left instead of up. It is most frustrating, as you can imagine. I have tried remapping the controls via ES, and I have also installed the Operating System (v4.3, Jan 20th) on to a new (different) Memory Card and the problem persists. So I'm taking this as a hardward fault and I've logged the problem with 8bcraft.com by raising a ticket. I hope this is the right thing to do and I hope I will hear back from them to swap the unit...?

[alexkidd]

Please test new image with the system wide fix for fullscreen resolution, tested a couple MAME games, It worked
Also test controls again, maybe it's a software bug

http://orangepi.club/showthread.php?tid=3346

[umbongodrink]

Hi alexkidd,

once again I appreciate your fast response. Thank you. :-)

Yes I just installed the new image you posted on to a new memory card and the problem still persisted unfortunately with UP still being LEFT. That would point it to being a hardware fault wouldn't you agree?

Thanks for the potential fullscreen resolution fix. I will test as soon as I have a resolution to the hardware issue and report back. (Not sure when that will be if my unit needs to go back to China or if I get sent a new one). I logged the issue on an old ticket last night and didn't hear back today, so I started a new ticket just now so it doesn't get missed. Previously Nazmus Sakib at 8bcraft.com has been very responsive...

[umbongodrink]

Good evening alexkidd -

a positive update!

Ok so first of all with regards to my more immediate problem, the UP not working on the D-Pad, I opened up the RetroStone 2 case and re-sat the plastic inside, before putting it back together. This has fixed it I'm very pleased to say.

Secondly, running your new image (23-01-2020), it is MUCH better, thank you so much. Running all ROMs across different emulators, MAME, GBA, SNES, GB... they are all running very nicely full screen and look great. It really shows off the full size of the screen on RetroStone 2. So thank you very much.

I'll continue testing/playing over the next week and report back with any queries as I find them.
THANK YOU AGAIN. :-)