WinUAE - Filter Setup for Full Screen 4:3 or 16:9 Display - by LemonAmiga.com
146In this video, I compare the Amigas standard output to the emulated output, and also show you how to remove the borders - for a full height 4:3 display, or a full width 16:9 display, on modern screens.
►Null Filter - Default/Noscaling/TV Max, Auto Centre = Normal Amiga border, unfiltered.
►Null Filter - Auto Scaling + 16:9 Aspect Ratio = borderless 4:3 on a 16:9 screen.
►Null Filter - Auto Scaling + No Aspect Ratio = Fit display to your entire screen, e.g. 16:9 widescreen.
Production Notes:
===============
Ripped: 6th Jan 2018
Edited: 11th Jan 2018
12:07 - I mean 16:9.
The Amiga's display screens are variable, so no two people experienced the Amiga in the same way. Back in the day, I used to put the Amiga into full overscan screen mode, and then use the Vertical and Horizontal hold rotation dials on my screen to make the image fit my particular TV. (yes I had a 14" TV as my display back then). I made my games full screen, with no borders. I've seen youtube videos with displays with massive borders, and they then go on to play games with the same black border around everything, and this isnt how I remember the games when I played them back in the day, when my display touched the edges of my 4:3 screen. But this is all personal preference, and to some users this is fine. For others, there may be ways to get a better picture.
For one thing, Amiga games were designed to be seen in 4:3. They appeared that way on American NTSC screens - with NTSC games appearing 4:3/full screen, with no borders, because thats how they stretched it out to full screen. PAL games, like most Team 17 titles, are full screen 4:3 on PAL displays. But there is a problem, because you cant display an NTSC game on a PAL display, or a PAL game on an NTSC display, without borders appearing or parts being chopped off the screen. But it goes deeper! - because many games coded in PAL land were actually coded in NTSC, so that the game would ship to America without needing to be converted. These PAL games would only look three-quarter height on a PAL machine, but would be full screen on an NTSC display - so only American NTSC users got to see our PAL games in full screen!! Not anymore...
Almost half of the games in the Lemon top 100 list have black borders, due to this 'half asked" process of going half way in terms of screen output. Only maybe a few % of games include a PAL/NTSC toggle within the game. When I played Knights of the Sky, they included a toggle in Workbench, with an icon showing this size difference, but most PAL users didnt even know this meant the game would run faster and be full screen, and we though this three-quarter PAL output was what game was meant to look like.
Now we have emulation, the general Amiga using public still use their Amiga everywhere they go: and still have the game in a small screen surrounded by borders, as this is how they thought the game was. But Americans didnt see them this way, they saw them in full screen, and so with emulation its possible to change a number of hidden filter options, to be able to automatically set each game to full screen. Either 4:3, which is the Amiga's native output (well I know its not actually 4:3, but we'll say it is because its easier than being correct), or 16:9 - which means the 4:3 display is scaled to 16:9 to full your whole screen.
If you were used to 4:3 games being full screen back in the day, as they were meant to be, then this is a way to see all the games at this size and aspect. Alternatively, if you were always used to the borders around games, many PAL games output actually looks 16:9, so when the image is scaled up to full screen 16:9, each pixel is just as you remember it, only the game is full screen and borderless. To be honest, this is how I play games, although I always record them in 4:3 so that people can see what I saw when I played them in 4:3 back in the day. I still have my old 4:3 CRT, and the output is borderless 4:3 on it.
The idea for this arrived after another Shot97 video. So I finally got to making something to show what all the emulation filters mean, and what these 'mid-Atlantic half-conversion' PAL games looked like for Americans in full screen. Lotus 2 is a Pal game, Lotus 1 is an NTSC-wannabe, so it looks really good in 16:9.
I tried to record this by showing the emulation side-by-side of the options, but this didnt record clearly, so I had to re-record the UAE options again, and overlay that over the original output, and fudge it so they matched for speed. During the games footage, you can see the original output as recorded. The music and game ducking was also cropped down, and most game SFX got buried as a result. It was all edited and voiced in one day, but I'm using a brand new Windows 10 setup for this, and so I had to play around with the narration quite a bit to make it clear and audible. No idea why the sound breaks up when I speak louder, and it might take a while before I get used to the new system.