Widescreen aspect ratio?

So... I had an intresting idea, but I am really doubting that it is possible.

Baisicly, It is to change the aspect ratio of the original Cave Story to that of a wider screen...

Original Resolution:

Widescreen Resolution:

Those images are just simple edits... I understand that alot would have to be rewritten in order to do this. A few examples may be the rendering system for... Everything, It would also need a different background rendering system that supports wider images...

 

Well, if the PSP port can do it, why can't we apply the same changes to the PC port?

 

Good point. But the PSP port is somewhat of a rewrite to the original from what I can tell. So simply porting over that stuff wouldn't be an easy task at all.

 

If you know ASM, you could probably do it.
I think there's something about backgrounds, rendering, etc. in the Compendium.

 

I have an extreme lack of knowladge to asm.

But maybe it's just a simple code that sets the resolution. I dunno...

 

If it was a simple line of code that changed the resolution, it would've been done by now.


Even if it was a simple line of code that sets the resolution, you still might have to change a ton of other things.

 

In fullscreen mode CS forces the computer to display at 640x480 resolution while the program is active. Every graphics card supports 640x480 resolution, but finding consistent support (or any at all) for 800x480 resolution sounds like it would be a minefield. So you would have to try and force CS to work fullscreen in a common resolution. That means that 1xRes will be 320x200, 2xRes will be 640x400, and fullscreen will be 1280x800 and will be 4xRes. This means that rather than the viewport growing wider you will have instead made it less tall. Although if you can get around the rounding issues (1281x801) then 427x267 at 1xRes and fullscreen at 3xRes hay be your best shot. What about 1440x900? Fullscreen could be rendered at 3xRes, while 1xRes could be rendered at 480x300, which is a little more reasonable. Although I don't know how widespread this resolution is.

Of course when you make the screen wider characters can disappear before walking offscreen in a cutscene (like Igor, Toroko, and Curly), so that needs to be fixed as well.

 

@andwhyisit

That makes enough sense. Really, I can live without fullscreen. As long as there is a working windowed mode, I'm fine. Hopefully one day we will achieve such amounts of amazingness for resolution.

 

Well if 427x267 instead of 400x240 is an acceptable compromise then there's no reason why you can't theoretically, so long as it is fine that the 3xRes image is 1px higher and wider than the resolution that it is to be presented in.

Also while you may prefer widescreen in windowed mode, there is little advantage in making it happen for anyone else. Most people would want a widescreen CS to fix the slightly stretched look of playing a fullscreen 4:3 game on a widescreen monitor.

 

If no-one else is going to attempt this, I might have a go
I recently got Cave Story to run at '3x' (960x720) windowed - that's still 4:3 aspect though.

Also, does it actually run at 640x480 in fullscreen? It looks kinda blurry for me...

 

If you press the Print Screen button while Cave Story's at Full Screen and paste it on a photo editing software (MSPaint, Paint.net, Photoshop), it'll be in 640x480 aspect.

 

It runs at 640x480, but it's stretched to fit your monitor

 

I should clarify dunc's statement in that the monitor does the stretching, not the computer or the graphics card. Fullscreen CS is always 640x480, it's just that when it is running and active your everything else is 640x480 too.

 

Not entirely sure if this is the sort of thing you're looking for, but:
http://www.cavestory.org/forums/posts/186735

I know it's about the Steam Overlay, but X-Calibar said he got it to run in 1680x1050.

Might help, but IDK.

 

Good news! I more or less figured out how to do this.

Expect a screenshot if I get it to work, followed by the actual hack.

 

Will it work in fullscreen mode?

 

Will it work in fullscreen mode?

I think so, but most monitors only support fairly high widescreen resolutions.
The native resolution of my display is 1440x900, so I'll probably use that.
EDIT: 1280x800 might be a better option, it's still the same aspect ration

 

The native resolution of my display is 1440x900, so I'll probably use that.

Pretty sure widescreen is considered 16:9, not 16:10

 

Pretty sure widescreen is considered 16:9, not 16:10

In my opinion, both are widescreen. 16:9 is more popular now though.

 

The hardest part would be extending the view range, How on earth would someone do that?