BSNES (emulator) mod allows for HD rendering of Mode7 games

[GSR]

DerKoun on Reddit has put together a mod for byuu's bsnes emulator that lets it render Mode7 games at HD resolutions. This is pretty wild.

Download (Windows binary and changed source files):

http://s000.tinyupload.com/index.php?file_id=09097447083714923515

This is, of course, offered as-is.

If anyone could provide binaries for Mac, Linux or anything else it would be much appreciated.



This is a mod of bsnes 107.1 by byuu (high-level emulation for co-processors came right on time for this).

It performs Mode 7 transformations (incl. HDMA) at up to 4 times the horizontal and vertical resolution.

Optionally, for games with pseudo 3D perspectives, some limitations of the integer math used by the SNES can be avoided by more aggressive averaging.

This can be disabled in Settings/Emulator/Experimental, where you can also change the scale or disable this feature.

For best performance try different output modes in Settings/Driver/Video. (For me Direct3D performs best.)

Click to shrink...

I recommend checking out the comparison gallery here. Pilotwings in particular is nuts:

http://www.framecompare.com/image-compare/screenshotcomparison/EB9MNNNU

 

[alpha]

What the crap, that looks amazing.

 

[Nabs]

Insane.

 

[PetrCobra]

That's absolutely insane.

 

[Pooh]

Wow ... that looks so different...I'm not sure I like it in Mario Kart but it looks great in Pilotwings and F-Zero

 

[giancarlo123x]

F zero looks the most impressive. I want more examples.

 

[RedAhmed]

Wow, that's a huge improvement right there!

 

[LQX]

I haven't used an emulator in awhile but I could have sworn games looked better than the non-HD ones pictured

 

[alpha]

Wonder how the Mode 7 on CV4 would look with this.

 

[Perzeval]

Very impressive

 

[Ouroboros]

Get out of town. Wheres my starfox?

 

[Murfield]

Technically impressive but the low res F-zero textures makes it look like buildings. That illusion is lost.

 

[Kouriozan]

Wow this is amazing!

 

[BriGuy]

It's cool, but I kind of like the "noise" of regular mode 7. I think it does a good job of hiding the lack of fine details.

This reminds me of those super eagle SA2+ Turbo Edition filters that no one uses.

 

[Candescence]

Holy fuck that's a huge difference. I think the closest equivalent in modern games is the special stages in Sonic Mania, which are inspired by the special stages in Sonic CD.

 

[captmcblack]

I need this mod incorporated into like...every emulator ever, goddamn

 

[truncated_pachyderm]

So how does this work? Is it interpolating data to fill in more pixels, or is this data that's already present but obscured via Mode 7? Look at the Pilotwings comparison - there's a ton of detail on the landing strip that doesn't appear to exist no matter how hard you squint. Surely that can't be interpolation.

 

[BasilZero]

Holy smokes!

 

[Ayirek]

Holy fuck, that's something else. BSNES and the rest of byuu's emulator work has always been pretty impressive but this mod is next level.

 

[Jawmuncher]

Finally, SNES games can look even better.

 

[DC5remy]

It looks to be adding art?

 

[anexanhume]

The difference in those pilotwings screens is some CSI level enhance bullshit. Wow.

 

[Woylie]

Are there any videos of this running yet? Or is it more of a thing like early days of HD DS emulation where the screenshots look amazing but the games run super slow? Either way, I'm sure performance will be tweaked and improved over time. This is very cool, trying to think of other mode 7 games that would look good with this. Yoshi's Island? LTTP map?

 

[HarryDemeanor]

Xbox One X Enhanced

 

[mindatlarge]

byuu is a god among men. I have so much respect for him, admire his work and how he handles himself.

 

[JetstreamRorschach]

I'd kill for something like this regarding 3D GBA emulation. This is wild.

 

[Jebusman]

It looks to be adding art?

Click to shrink...

Do we have rips of the original textures? It's possible they were always relatively detailed but was lost in the mode7 rendering.

This reminds me of those super eagle SA2+ Turbo Edition filters that no one uses.

Click to shrink...

This seems a little different in that the default mode7 rendering was possibly removing detail from the actual image on the cart by rendering it at such a low resolution, pumping it up is actually restoring a lot of genuinely lost details.

 

[mntorankusu]

So how does this work? Is it interpolating data to fill in more pixels, or is this data that's already present but obscured via Mode 7? Look at the Pilotwings comparison - there's a ton of detail on the landing strip that doesn't appear to exist no matter how hard you squint. Surely that can't be interpolation.

Click to shrink...

What you're seeing in the original is a large 2D tilemap that has been scaled down. This is just taking the original graphics before they are scaled, and doing it at a higher resolution so that less detail is lost.

 

[Deleted member 721]

From wikipedia:
"Mode 7 games include the titles F-Zero, Terranigma, Pilotwings, Yoshi's Safari, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IV: Turtles in Time, Super Castlevania IV, Secret of Mana, Secret of Evermore, Final Fantasy IV, Final Fantasy V, Final Fantasy VI, Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars, DinoCity, HyperZone, Super Mario Kart, Super Mario World, Super Metroid, the Super Robot Wars series, Super Star Wars, Chrono Trigger, ActRaiser, Exhaust Heat, Skyblazer, 7th Saga, Mega Man 7, Kirby Super Star, Axelay, SOS, NCAA Basketball, NHL Stanley Cup, Al Unser Jr.'s Road to the Top, Rendering Ranger: R2, The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, and Zoku: The Legend of Bishin."

 

[Joqu]

Very impressive, I never realized there was so much detail present in the original files.

 

[Psxphile]

Flyhing around on Flammie in the Mana games is going to look pretty sweet with this.

 

[Aeana]

I'm curious how this will look in games that hide/show identical sprites on top of a mode 7 background seamlessly, like SCV4.

I can't say I'm a huge fan of how it looks, but it's cool that it'll be an option for people.

 

[Weltall Zero]

Technically impressive but the low res F-zero textures makes it look like buildings. That illusion is lost.

Click to shrink...

Actually, the low-res screenshot is just uncharacteristically flattering. In motion it has always looked pretty much as flat as the high-res screenshot and at best looked like weird circuitry.

 

[Deleted member 3010]

Excuse me?!?!?!

I didn't even know this was something possible!

 

[Leo]

Whoa so that's what all those colorful pixels in Fzero were meant to be!

 

[Myriotes]

Actually, the low-res screenshot is just uncharacteristically flattering. In motion it has always looked pretty much as flat as the high-res screenshot and at best looked like weird circuitry.

Click to shrink...

Never knew these were supposed to be buildings but thought those were circuitry/electronics, like you said.

 

[Joqu]

Zelda! :o

 

[jediyoshi]

That's hilarious

 

[Weltall Zero]

Never knew these were supposed to be buildings but thought those were circuitry/electronics, like you said.

Click to shrink...

It's really interesting because the example low res screenshot for F-Zero makes it look very convincing, with streets, blocks and even what looks a bit like 3D buildings, but in motion it looks flat because, well... it is flat due to Mode 7 limitations, and you're parallaxing all the time.

 

[Joyful]

this is pretty crazy upgrade

reminds me of when psx emulators added pgxp, hard to go back

 

[HardRojo]

Holy shit! That's a crazy upgrade!

 

[OmegaX]

Somebody make a comparison with Terranigma's overworld, please.

 

[Ardiloso]

This is insanity. I hope Snes9x implements this rendering too.
Now I'm wondering if it's possoble to do the same on the saturn emulators with VDP2's planes which are like mode 7 on steroids.

 

[B.K.]

I wonder what Final Fantasy VI's world map looks like.

 

[Hayama Akito]

Tested on Super Castlevania IV.

Sadly the spiral tower doesn't work, in fact the whole effect dies. I think is because this is not technically a Mode 7 effect, but the same technical stuff Konami used on Axelay.

I wonder what Final Fantasy VI's world map looks like.

Click to shrink...

Kinda disappointing.

 

[Ginger Hail]

Man, these look great, especially Pilotwings.

 

[Aeana]

Sadly the tower doesn't work, in fact the whole effect dies. I think is because this is not technically a Mode 7 effect, but the same technical stuff Konami used on Axelay.

Click to shrink...

Yes, I believe it's a line scrolling effect just like Axelay. Still cool though, thanks for testing.

 

[ASaiyan]

Well, that is pretty insane!!

 

[ditusjack]

Just grabbed from emugen:

 

[Komo]

It feels like that ds render upgrade, and how insanely high res some of those games were.