02-16-2017, 01:02 AM
Yeah, I have done a lot of research on LCDs for this project. Here are some key points.
It is a very intentional choice not to use a higher resolution LCD. That might sound odd at first, but it's very important for the way the screen is used in this handheld. If we used a higher resolution screen, the processor would not be able to keep up. Consider that if we doubled the X resolution and the Y resolution, that would actually be 4x more pixels to process per frame. The Pi Zero would not be able to push that data quick enough, and it would result in a way worse user experience.
I'm going to talk about a "problem" here that I think is mainly cosmetic. What I mean by that is the issue is mostly noticeable in menus and other such places that don't actually impact the gaming experience. Of course this is not absolutely true, as we don't control what the games do. A game could exhibit this in a noticeable way, but I have not seen it impact playability.
From your quick mention of "choppy," I assume that you are talking about the diagonal tearing you see when the GUI menus fade in and out during transitions. There are 2 reasons for this. First, the LCD is actually meant to be used in a portrait mode. Most small LCDs are made like this now, because most of the small devices we use are portrait (as opposed to landscape) format. The second problem that combines with the portrait issue is that we, currently, have no way to get feedback from the LCD about where in a refresh cycle it is. That means we can only push data to the LCD at the desired rate even if the LCD is mid-refresh. Ideally, we would get information from the LCD that would allow us to sync our writes with the refresh cycle. So, the refresh problem leads to tearing, and the portrait mode leads to that tearing showing up as diagonal artifacts.
I have not yet been able to find an LCD that is suitable that would seem to fix these problems (without adding worse ones). I will say, though, that this is an ongoing effort for me. I have very recently looked pretty closely at a couple other LCDs that I thought might work. So far, I've not found anything better.
It is a very intentional choice not to use a higher resolution LCD. That might sound odd at first, but it's very important for the way the screen is used in this handheld. If we used a higher resolution screen, the processor would not be able to keep up. Consider that if we doubled the X resolution and the Y resolution, that would actually be 4x more pixels to process per frame. The Pi Zero would not be able to push that data quick enough, and it would result in a way worse user experience.
I'm going to talk about a "problem" here that I think is mainly cosmetic. What I mean by that is the issue is mostly noticeable in menus and other such places that don't actually impact the gaming experience. Of course this is not absolutely true, as we don't control what the games do. A game could exhibit this in a noticeable way, but I have not seen it impact playability.
From your quick mention of "choppy," I assume that you are talking about the diagonal tearing you see when the GUI menus fade in and out during transitions. There are 2 reasons for this. First, the LCD is actually meant to be used in a portrait mode. Most small LCDs are made like this now, because most of the small devices we use are portrait (as opposed to landscape) format. The second problem that combines with the portrait issue is that we, currently, have no way to get feedback from the LCD about where in a refresh cycle it is. That means we can only push data to the LCD at the desired rate even if the LCD is mid-refresh. Ideally, we would get information from the LCD that would allow us to sync our writes with the refresh cycle. So, the refresh problem leads to tearing, and the portrait mode leads to that tearing showing up as diagonal artifacts.
I have not yet been able to find an LCD that is suitable that would seem to fix these problems (without adding worse ones). I will say, though, that this is an ongoing effort for me. I have very recently looked pretty closely at a couple other LCDs that I thought might work. So far, I've not found anything better.
Card Fighters' Clash 2 English Translation ( http://cfc2english.blogspot.com/ )
Neo Geo Pocket Flash Cart and Linker Project ( http://www.flashmasta.com/ )
Avatar art thanks to Trev-Mun ( http://trevmun.deviantart.com/ )
Neo Geo Pocket Flash Cart and Linker Project ( http://www.flashmasta.com/ )
Avatar art thanks to Trev-Mun ( http://trevmun.deviantart.com/ )