RetroPie Easily Make PS1 Games Look Better

[@ETAPRIME]

I was informed that there is an EASY way of making your PS1 game look better. I’ve always done it the hard way so if you followed my last video I’m sorry for that but this makes life so much simpler

[@FeralFoodieGuy]

ETA PRIME Can you help me get a retro video game setup for my TV and portably?

[@ETAPRIME]

+Justin Walters Variety what are you looking for?

[@FeralFoodieGuy]

ETA PRIME Just a good retro video game setup that is made out of something like RetroPie.

[@FeralFoodieGuy]

Also something that is portable with a big screen but can also be played on a TV!

[@ETAPRIME]

+Justin Walters Variety the best thing that's portable and can be used on a tv easily. Is the gpd xd or the Nvidia shield portable

[@Charlebb]

Playing on an updated version of RetroPie on a Pi 4 and the new path would be Main Menu>Quick Menu>Core Options>GPU Plugin then turn Enhanced Resolution On and Enhanced Resolution Speed Hack On. You'll then back up to the Main Menu>Settings>Video>Scaling then turn Bilinear Filtering On. Back out to the Main Menu>Configuration File>Save Current Configuration. Have fun!

[@BrianB77]

thank you

[@shiftingchords]

The button you need to press is the button you assigned as the hotkey enable button. In your case it may be select but I have mine set as the playstation button. I was beating my head into the pavement trying to figure out why it wasn't working. So please put a note that clarifies this. The community needs to come together to make a step by step guide for setting up retropie for people that actually need to use the instructions.

[@Tashyp]

Yeah the guy in the vid doesnt even mention this...I dunno what the hotkey is, I followed his guide and my game reset.

[@smartinez281]

Coming back to this video from December 2022. So glad I found it again!

[@f_arcade1768]

The difference in Tenchu 2 with this mods was incredible! Very usefull! Thanks a lot for that!

[@naxnaxnax1868]

Thank you a million ETA Prime.....you're my only resource for anything retropie on the raspberry pi and you have helped me a ton and rekindled my love of retro games. Keep up the awesome things that you do.

[@cutty02]

I don't get those options in my menu 1.7.5

[@EggChen6DemonBag]

Kinda hard to tell, you should have made a side by side comparison. :)

[@TylerSteven9]

Yes, was disappointed when there wasn't any like the thumbnail implied.

[@synaesthesia2010]

the difference was immediately clear to me

[@Baby_boodle]

If y'all watch some FMVs (i.e. Chrono Cross) it's very apparent both in terms of text and smoothing out all of the textures. I found that the speed hack did create a glitchy flicker effect with the loading screens.

[@lainarkou]

ROFL, THERE IS NO DIFFERENCE. Only added blur thanks to the billinear filtering. Looks a lot better without it. The maker of this video is tard. If you're gonna change experimental setting you need to reset the core before you see any effect.

[@SpaceSloth707]

Well, I can tell you, I tried this with Gran Turismo 1. First it looked very pixelated, but after I changed the settings as seen in this video, it looked much better. Of course it some parts of the game still look pixelated, but that's just because the PS1 is an old system.

[@allenwest1986]

I actually like it when you make videos on how to do stuff the hard way because sometimes the GUI doesn't work correctly ,or I will run into a bug that can only be fixed through terminal commands.

[@dinierto]

This is a great trick, but unfortunately the speed hack (which is needed on the Pi 3) causes graphical glitches in many games, so you really have to use those option in a case by case basis.

[@Sithel_]

Also noticed this specially on the street fighter games with weird vertical lines in the sprites and SotN with the flickering. Just to name a few.

[@Tailslol]

works in recalbox too!

[@jketterman6054]

Yep, I did notice it with a lot of the 2D games.

[@dinierto]

Yes Symphony of the Night and MK Trilogy both have small glitches off the top of my head

[@thecommunistgamer9017]

Yea those weird color pixels in symphony of the night...

[@stretchmusic4946]

Dude the amount of videos you have and how clear they are for retropie. Thank you so much🤜🤛

[@RJ-cq8dd]

I wouldn't recommend this for most games. Ps1 games were not designed to be this sharp. This means you will see some strange things in games.. things you were not meant to see. (For example in Destruction derby 2 cars morph into boxes when they're a bit further in the distance.) Ps1 games look great with normal resolution in combination with a crt filter. The games where I have enabled the enhanced resolution are: Crash 1,2,3 , Wipeout 2097 and Wipeout 3. These games do really benefit from this feature.

[@JoelTheWhite]

RJ 100% agree. I was playing Mortal Kombat Trilogy and it made the characters have a box and lines around them.

[@malcolmelliott3471]

I love your videos. I have set up RetroPie on several raspberry pi’s for family and myself thanks to your tutorials

[@brgodsey]

Eta, you make the best videos and your voice is calm and soothing. I think you could talk about potted plants and I would watch each video. I am new to the retropie community and just got a zero w with a ton of games that I use with my 8bitdo. Take care!

[@patricktuetken7718]

Very well done. Worked like a charm, immediately improved the picture quality greatly.

[@one-armvlogs259]

This worked for me. Thanks for the help ETA.

[@arkyoptrix]

My PSX games looked grainy before I discovered this video. My Pi 3B+ is overclocked to 1.5Ghz (thanks to another of your vids) so there's practically no slowdown on the games I've tested (mostly Medievil and Spyro 1, which I know isn't a representative sample). Thank you!

[@josepablitoaurar7051]

I have the newest retropie installed and it doesnt Look like yours?

[@lamNoJedi]

Thanks for this. Games look better! I did this on the other emulators and everything looks way better

[@paulmorrell5995]

This helped my setup. Thank you for taking the time to post it.

[@cplcummins]

Hey u there.. Eta prime... U sir.. Are a legend.. This looks unreal.. Neil from Ireland :)

[@MyJaderocks]

thanks my game looks less garbage now :D

[@jblack5728]

Worked great for me! Thanks man! Loved it! Playing FF8 right now and it smoothed it out a lot!

[@oneminutefixed5003]

it does improve the graphis but it sloooooowwwwsss the games down, this is especially true in gran turismo games

[@sam64evo]

not on pc it dont you can insall this on windows

[@sam64evo]

@@lovelorn88nick yeah but retropie can be used on windows and pie is basically computer

[@BaldoFlores_godmetal]

Works like charm!!! thanks bro!!

[@designiconline]

thank you ETA PRIME me too i was using the old settings, so happy now with the result :)

[@chfgn]

Does anybody else think 32 bit 3D games look *way* better at their original resolution? They almost always look terrible rendered in HD, no matter how much texture filtering you apply to them.

[@fryncyaryorvjink2140]

chfgn in the real world yes, but i was watching a video of Driver 2 running on Unity at a high resolution and the graphics hold up better than I thought. I was watching on my phone though

[@vguyver2]

They will inherently look bad. aside from the jaggies resulting from the limited polygons, many of these games are in a very low CRT resolution to begin with. Blowing up something from the original 240p or 420p consoles just looks bad on HD. Upscaling does help, but blurs them. Then there is the bleemcasting and retroarch texture smoothing that can improve the graphics, but tend to currupt the game in emulation.

[@amyo]

Man thank you for this! Day and night difference!!

[@chegouquemfaltava]

Your help is over 8000 :) Thank you

[@Rentphotographer]

Hey thanks man. Made Resident Evil 3 graphics look way better.

[@marcotten7721]

Thank you ETA PRIME

[@jblack5728]

Yay! lol I was in the middle of the last one and boom. Gone. Glad this is here haha

[@ETAPRIME]

+JBlack sorry about that. I actually had one of my viewers message me on Facebook about the option. I'm glad it's there because on all of my builds I was doing it the hard way.

[@jblack5728]

ETA PRIME Its all good! This was is easier and I needed SSh and the other program installed anyway. I do have a question though. My controller is set up via github and when I hit select x all that it does it restart the "PlayStation" any idea what I'm doing wrong?

[@ETAPRIME]

+JBlack what button did you map as your X button in the controller configuration

[@jblack5728]

ETA PRIME I was being dumb and thought you mean x on the ps controller haha I hit "triangle" which is mapped X and it brought it up. Haha my bad

[@jblack5728]

ETA PRIME Got it figured out. I wasn't thinking right. Lol thanks ETA. Been using your vids lately to set up my rasppie exactly right and the way I like! Thanks! Also overclocked from your setting and runs perfect (some n64 too). Thanks man!

[@celestialbody6890]

Thanks ETA PRIME !

[@ThirstWorldTTV]

Ps2 with component cables, playing a ps1 game is.... amazing

[@sudacagamer]

ps1 + super video cable + 1080i monitor. Looks great. I would say better than PS2-component on a full hd screen.

[@optimalprime3895]

S-Video (rounded connector with pins). Although I remember testing out my PS2 a while back using component, composite and S-Video and the component looked very good and didn't seem bad even in comparison to the S-Video. Composite was very noticeable as you'd expect to be inferior.

[@ThirstWorldTTV]

Optimal Prime oh, my entire game room is setup in svideo, ive done numerous videos about how svideo is awesome, just never herd it called super video lol, svideo stands for separate video

[@collect_the_dead1934]

Are you saying a PS1 + S-Video + 1080i CRT is better than a PS2 running the same PS1 game + component + 1080i CRT?

[@ThirstWorldTTV]

i use both, depends, i got 1 ps1 hooked up to my crt in s-video, and i got my ps2 hooked up into my lcd flatscreen in component, i also have a ps1 hooked up to my pvm in rgb

[@lordkratos1989]

Omg thank you some much for this it greatly helps performance on the raspberry pi 4 ps1 core thank u !!!

[@Ninjedo]

I would also suggest to select an anti-aliasing shader (I use Advanced AA) to get an even sharper result!

[@hypolyxa7207]

How do you enable that? I cannot find it anywere in the settings.

[@Ninjedo]

@@hypolyxa7207 Once you launch a game, there's an option in the quick menu called "Shaders", where you can select the shader you want

[@stradlemonkey444]

Excellent work! If you by chance redo this vid, could you add a few seconds of side-by-side?

[@theretrobro]

Oh wow! Thanks for the video

[@wabbit234]

Never liked upscaling PS1 games. It only makes it's limitations with no floating point calculations more apparent (jiggly polygons) Chunky pixels and unfiltered textures is something I've always really liked about the way PS1 games look but maybe I'm weird. I just think it looks good in it's own way.

[@segaboy9894]

Agreed, but I do like to apply the CRT filter.

[@azax9287]

Thank you very much but I already knew this. It would have been great if you had made a Splitscreen at the end of the video to see the difference between the two settings. Keep on the good work

[@bobbywebb4151]

Do the new settings remain saved, or is this a process you must do each time you boot the game? Your videos are super helpful to all us noobs, thank you so much.

[@ShrimpZoo]

Great video :)

[@FLYNN_TAGGART]

Great for some 3D games, but I've had performance issues with it on an OC'd Pi 3 B. Also needs game-specific configuration for 3D games only - don't do this on something like SotN, Tales of Phantasia, Mega Man, etc. Also, this will kill your performance for some games on some systems, but you should really really disable Threaded Video (known as video_smoothing in the config). It improves latency SO MUCH. Also try to enable RunAhead and Second-Instance mode if you have the extra performance to spare so that you can achieve even better latency. Finally, I really like the crt-pi or zfast-standard shaders on all systems (aside from handhelds - you'll want an LCD shader, but I haven't found a good one yet. lcd-shader.glslp works great on normal computers, but the Pi definitely can't handle it. Oh, and DEFINITELY disable Bilinear Filtering for any 2D/Pixel art games. Looks fine on 3D games (if you have the performance to spare) and great for pre-rendered games like DKC - otherwise, definitely don't use BF in SotN, Metal Slug, NES Games, etc.

[@Tasosdio21]

Firstly, I would like to thank you, @ETA PRIME for the great tutorials! Comparing the PSX graphics of your setup to those of my setup, I feel as I am missing something. I keep getting pixelated opening cinematics and the in-game graphics are not as sharp and nice as those yoy have achieved. Could you help me??? My setup: Raspberry Pi 3 Model B, Samsung 4K 55', Xbox 360 controller, Retropie v4.2. I have set the "render resolution" to "display output resolution" and "video smoothing" to true to all emulators, via the configuration editor and I have also enabled enhanced resolution, speed hack and billinear filtering as well. The aspect ration I have chosen is 16:10. Do I have to choose a specific video mode via the Runcommand Launch ? Thank you!

[@hongkaiyuan]

Is it just me or does Symphony of the Night generates some weird artefacts at the top of the screen when a save file is loaded with the upscaling done as per this video.

[@msfakianos]

Just tried it on THPS 2 and THPS 3. The results were very good. As others say , I tried also MK trilogy which was buggy, so I just used Bilinear filtering there.

[@needlethread4715]

how do you make this option appear in raspberry pi 4? when i press select and x the game exits. thanks.

[@msfakianos]

@@needlethread4715 in my case it is select & triangle

[@needlethread4715]

@@msfakianos ill try it now

[@needlethread4715]

@@msfakianos it worked! thank you very much! ;)

[@CR0NO-NL]

do you have to do this on every pxs rom you launch? or is this just a one time setup that works for all your psx roms in retropie?

[@Liofa73]

I know it's pedantic, however bilinear is pronounced similarly to bisexual i.e. bi-linear... You seemed to be in two minds how to pronounce it. Keep up the good work.

[@tobyb.3323]

Bi pedal or bi lateral

[@over00lordunknown12]

1:13 Does *ANYONE* know ANYTHING about what the "Enhanced Resolution Speed Hack" actually does???

[@bfigueroa75]

hi ETA Prime. My version of retroarch is updated and the menus seem different. when i launch a game the select X doesnt do anything. Is there another way? i can get the same menu but at the retropie menus where you select a system. btw i love your videos, they are awesome and the best!

[@jacks7239]

Make sure you have a hotkey enabled in controller setup, and press the hot key, select, and X to get to the menu from the game. I know there has to be a better, simpler solution someone else may know, but I had your same problem, and this fixed it.

[@raddypex]

You don't need select, only whatever you've set as the hotkey for controller setup. Hotkey+X opens the menu for me. Mine is set as the XBOX button on the One controller.

[@dreday5880]

Hotkey Triangle on my setup

[@ady1234uk]

How do you do this on the pc setup as the option is not there

[@haxorcomputerservices]

Im stuck too, did you figure it out?

[@2791mkelly]

This works and the games look great! However, some cutscenes the models are transparent. It looked kind of funny playing Dino Crisis 2, amd the T-Rex looking like a ghost

[@omegadiek]

Thanks from México.

[@justincase3738]

Perfect! 4k TV this set the res to 2880x2160. Looks great

[@TheGameBeaters]

This is a nice easy tutorial. Thanks. Though I find the bilinear filter makes it looks a little less bright. Otherwise awesome. I've heard of a hack that allows the ps1 to render widescreen gameplay but perhaps that isn't available on the pi?

[@TheMrfrodough]

Any settings recommendations for the other major systems?

[@10Pkids]

What about adjusting video quality for systems like snes, genesis or N64?

[@chrisconnollyofficial]

I don’t see these options on my menus. 👀 running retropie on Linux mint

[@ae86miami]

Do these setting work for all games doing it one time like this, or do you have to do it individually for every game?

[@duarteolival4177]

A really easy way to smoth games is scanlines... can it be done with retropie?

[@be2Gee]

Holy crap, it actually looks a lot better. Thanks man.

[@MrFixer1983]

Great video! I will try that out. Now I have only scanlines on. But with some games I get some greenish color though picture. I have this with 2 games. Cash Bandicot 3 and Medievel.

[@jeffbrantley8631]

Thanks for the video prime, great as always. Does this work for the dreamcast, N64?

[@SB-qm5wg]

That does look good!

[@bviptech]

Thanks for making this. somehow these settings were already on. Guess mine just looks crap. I am only running on a 24" tv as well. I am on a pi2 and want to try and get a pi3 soon. Would this explain the slows in both psi and ones? Thanks for making the video mate.

[@irregularmana6216]

i did this one my psone game im playing and it looks soo much better

[@dinop7488]

So if you do these changes on 1 game Will it automatically fix all the ps1 games too? Or do you have to go through each individual game?

[@glazed_vaseline]

Do I have to do this to each game every time I play a ps1 game or 1 time does it ?

[@ClaytonBloom]

Someone has probably already asked this, but how does one adjust the audio that sometimes breaks during this change?

[@Vanpotheosis]

1:34 eeeeewww Bilinear filtering is almost as bad as chromatic aberration... It makes your games look pretty bad.

[@StanMoi]

Great! Thanks ! Tins works event on CM3

[@linker75]

It’s better look. It’s valid for all retropie’s console?

[@ll_ubermensch_ll]

This works very very fine on rpi4

[@kyleday5026]

hi eta i am playing final fantasy viii as a pbp file im loading my save state using retroarch not the game option and when i get to disk 4 after i defeat seifer and im in lunatic pandora i cannot go to the next area i have a black screen then it keeps going to the retropie game selection screen. i cannot get past this and when i try entering the samearea sometimes the characters flash and it goes to the retropie game selection screen this is the only problem iv had. can you help.

[@thecommunistgamer9017]

Ive also found that within retropi config/core opinions/playstation, you can change video value to "true"

[@That_Handle]

TheCommunistGamer To what ends does that setting produce?

[@thecommunistgamer9017]

Just2Options? Irrational: FearOrExuberance? - Not sure. But it was one of the things that I happened to fiddle with in my quest for making ps1 look good. I have it like that now and my ps1 games look good on a 1080p big screen.

[@amyo]

expected time of arrival

[@CloudOmegaVII]

Final Fantasy 8 battle transition with graphics enhanced is never fixed. So many years.

[@3dmaster205]

So, the whole PS1 game(s) was/were put on the SD Card, yes? And I'm wondering if you other systems on there, how much storage can you get on an SD card; seems you're gonna run out of storage pretty quickly. So, I was wondering, do you know of any external storage solutions for the Pi?

[@denfox08]

PSX games is like 600-700 Mb each, sometimes even smaller. Nes ROMs small as hell, about 1 Mb. I have all best games for nes, Sega, and something about five or six PSX games on my retropie. It not even filled 16 gigs SD. So, I think, 32 or 64 gigs SD is really enough.

[@3dmaster205]

Yeah, but I would want the CD content.

[@buffalo7169]

Anyway to sharpen up arcade games within retroarch?

[@TheGamebino]

How is bloody roar running so smoothly, my pi3b+ PSX emulation is so stuttery

[@DancingMad17]

This was able to fix the freezing on my final fantasy 7 rom. thanks!

[@mustangmckraken1150]

For anyone seeing this and using it with Final Fantasy 7 - beware I've read in quite a few places that it causes the world map to glitch out if you use enhanced resolution.

[@TMGremlin]

I was playing Tales of Destiny and it works fine but my pi was giving me a temperature warning. I have heat sinks on that came with it, do I need a fan too? Have you encountered this as well? Thanks.

[@WanderigInCircles]

Fyi the way bilinear is pronounced is "by linear" :) Love your videos! Thanks for this one too. I am going to make this change asap.

[@bendermagiver2979]

I cant even access the retro arch menu . Select + x doesn't work . Nothing works

[@gsoliz25]

Select x deoes nothing for me. When i go to retro arch there is no quick menu, help

[@jimfindley1004]

still looks better than playing ps1 games on a ps3 for me the pixels are huge and characters are barely identifiable

[@hurddude]

good stuff!

[@CodyShell]

What do i do if enhanced resolution is not in my settings?? :o

[@FernandoSilva-zh1tk]

Hey ETA PRIME ¿Does it works just on PS1 Games? or ¿it will work too with some N64?

[@signedelacroix7213]

Thanks. Does it stay that way when you reload the games on PS1?

[@jonnyboy1925]

Been doing this for a while, found that you have to disable this for some games though like Doom and Final Doom.

[@ekodarsa6946]

hey ETA Prime, do you play Crash Team Racing? why if i play 2 player mode, the enemy disappeard, and the rocket effect looks horrible? it happens when the enhanced resolution, speed hack and bilinear filtering ON,

[@mikekilkelly2138]

Didn't work for me, when I launch games now from the menu I lose video signal

[@chrisgonzales2747]

Thats really cool but its not working when I press select and x please help!

[@Casketkrusher_]

Is it also possible do edit individual games? I mean Doom PSX doesn't work with these settings, the textures are messed up.

[@RJ-cq8dd]

Doom Guy No for Doom you can't use this sadly.

[@kayanhashemi7419]

does it help with MAME or other systems resolution? if not is there a video for it? I have a B3+ Thanks :)

[@TomGeek1980]

I know this is OLD but i came across a PSX image on raspberry pi 3 B+ do you even touch any shaders at all?

[@izzie31]

I found yesterday a shader glsp HQ shader it lets you run the games in standard resolution but gives the look of enhanced without the performance hit, when running enhanced option certain games run bad final fantasy 8 and 9 battle lag games like symphony of the night and cotton have flashing bars top and botton screen, but this other shader looks beautiful while letting the resolution standard so no stutters or glitches.

[@RafaelPerez-iw8yo]

it only rescues a single game or all the psx ones, also this configuration is for all platforms or for each platform I have to do the same.

[@daniloguerrini1024]

Thanks!