Dreamcast Widescreen Hacks

[Archive]

posted by S4pph4rad on Aug 15, 2016:

Complete list of codes moved to Sega Retro Wiki:
https://segaretro.org/List_of_Dreamcast_Widescreen_Codes
It's a Wiki, so feel free to add additional codes as you make them.

Also, Esppiral wrote a tutorial on how to easily find Widescreen codes using DEmul and Cheat Engine:
http://assemblergames.com/l/threads/widescreen-hacks.58620/page-27#post-900119

Original post:
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These have been done on Gamecube, PS2, and even PS1, so I was wondering why nobody has attempted it on Dreamcast prior to now. I decided to do so, to give me an excuse to play though Shenmue 1 and 2 again. These are codebreaker codes, you still need the enable code for the respective game to use them. Tested on actual hardware, I can post a video if someone wants it for some reason.

Provided in 2 different forms, depending on which you prefer.

Shenmue 1 US: (Updated 2015-10-25)
02230250 43800000 (Original Code, best for VGA)
or
02230250 438E38E4 for equivalent to 720x480 (DVD resolution)
or
02230250 43700000 for equivalent to 854x480 (Actual 16x9)

Shenmue 2 EU: (Updated 2015-10-25)
0231186C 43800000 (Original Code, best for VGA)
or
0231186C 438E38E4 for equivalent to 720x480 (DVD resolution)
or
0231186C 43700000 for equivalent to 854x480 (Actual 16x9)

Before:

After:


Similar to the codes for other platforms, this is anamorphic widescreen so you're not getting higher resolution. Some additional changes could probably be made like shrinking the HUD too, but this is the simplest solution. Consider these version 1. There's still some pop-in occasionally near the edges of the screen, but it's not as bad as when you use an emulator to extend the visible area. That could probably be fixed with deeper analysis into how it decides when something goes out of range.

It's pretty much the equivalent to what happens when you enable widescreen hacks in Devolution when running Gamecube games on Wii U, that also modifies 3D view matrix without messing with the HUDs in various games.

Feel free to port the codes to other versions of the games, these were the versions I own.

Is this something other people are interested in?
 

[Archive]

posted by MonkeyBoyJoey on Oct 20, 2015:

To my understanding, many Dreamcast games are native widescreen (720x480p). The problem is that the image is 720x480p in a 640x480p window. Most VGA monitors mistake this for 640x480p and squish it to that resolution. I've seen some HDTVs accept it correctly and it looks great.
 

[Archive]

posted by -=FamilyGuy=- on Oct 20, 2015:

@darcagn could confirm this, but I think the DC outputs 720x480, but only 640x480 are actually not blank pixels.

This is a nice trick @S4pph4rad, mind telling us how you pulled this off?
Any increased lagging on real hardware from the extra detail? On Shenmue II per example?

Also, does anyone know how to interpret CB codes to figure how to patch the executable instead? IIRC saturn AR was kinda obvious, hopefully this is the same.
 

[Archive]

posted by wombat on Oct 21, 2015:

@S4pph4rad this is great! During the Dreamcast hey day I was very disappointed to find out only a view games supported 16:9, so what you demonstrated here is a wish coming true.

Hopefully your widescreen hacks can be interpreted into a patch, for easy usage (and especially for use with GDEMU)
 

[Archive]

posted by Anthony817 on Oct 21, 2015:

Wow! Great idea. I always wondered why more games didn't have the option to display in widescreen since the true resolution of the console is able to output in it.

Anyways, I think these should be able to be patched into backups of the games. Is that something that could be relatively easily done?

And yes please if you can do a video comparing both that would be great. Thanks.

Would be awesome to see this done on the games that work online like 4X4 Evo, Quake and PSO.
 

[Archive]

posted by shengoro86 on Oct 21, 2015:

Awesome S4pph4rad!!!! Thank you for this.
I am going to look into how we can prepatch the games now for widescreen (I do a LOT of Shenmue hacks)
www.youtube.com/lordcanti
 

[Archive]

posted by IlDucci on Oct 21, 2015:

I might have something to share. I have an (Edited: European) LG 32' LCD and the PAL copies of both games. On the original, unmodified versions, when I turn on the 60 Hz mode, it's like the screen crops itself top and down. Doesn't happen with 50Hz, where I get the usual black borders. That helps with the resolution thing?
 

[Archive]

posted by shengoro86 on Oct 21, 2015:

IlDucci said:






I might have something to share. I have an (Edited: European) LG 32' LCD and the PAL copies of both games. On the original, unmodified versions, when I turn on the 60 Hz mode, it's like the screen crops itself top and down. Doesn't happen with 50Hz, where I get the usual black borders. That helps with the resolution thing?

Interesting. I can port the PAL Hz switcher to the NTSC version and then test since we now have the RAM offsets. Worst case scenario, I might be able to firefack a trainer into Shenmue before it starts to toggle this codebreaker code.

Does anyone know if CDB uses encrypted codes? I know one of the code utilities does. Dont remember which one.
 

[Archive]

posted by shengoro86 on Oct 21, 2015:

Ok here is my solution to bake this in to the game itself.

1. I will port the PAL Hz switcher into the NTSC version of the game.
2. I'll (at hex level) try to figure out how it switches the Hz output
3. If it is done via RAM swapping, I'll change the RAM codes to match the codebreaker offsets (or the unencrypted ones)
4. I'll have someone else hack the textures of the menu to change what it says to show a "Resolution Picker" instead of a Hz picker.
5. I'll then just pack it up as a cdi with bootmake and release it as a Widescreen Shenmue.

S4pph4rad will be primarily credited of course.

I'll put up the work being done on my mods site.
 

[Archive]

posted by wombat on Oct 21, 2015:

If I understand your post correctly @shengoro86, does this mean you're planning to use the 50/60Hz selector as a 4:3 / 16:9 selector? If so, please take into consideration that players who use VGA won't see the selector show up and thus won't be able to take use of the widescreen hack.