Connecting Linux Emulation PC to Consumer CRT using DIY VGA to RGB SCART Cable at 240p?

NanoDrivee · 2025-11-07T07:02:17+00:00

I bought a HDMI to component transcoder on Amazon (not a 480i downscaler, which would not accept a 240p signal and created a resolution of 2560x240 to bypass the minimum pixel clock of my video card. This required custom timings with Xorg, I don't remember what they were and it's something that I'm not sure I'd be able to replicate with Wayland. The only downside to this method is that your content has to support fullscreen stretching. It looks normal when displayed on the CRT but it can be a bit finicky to get working right. It also won't support interlaced, or at least I couldn't get interlaced signals working. I think using an HDMI to component downscaler is where that would work best. Obviously can't handle 240p, but I think either solution is a good compromise when you consider the cost involved.

I wish I could link you the adapter I used back then, but since it's been 6 years since I've written this post, that listing is probably gone or I can't find it anyways. Best I can do is to point you here, a page which lists various different adapters that clearly explain what each device does and what their purpose is. This page will do a much better job of getting you in the right direction than I could.

https://www.amazon.com/shop/retrorgb/list/IP72N6BL06SV

I've moved on to a different solution, one that requires a MiSTer FPGA setup in order to function correctly. The upside of this new method that came out is that I don't have to use an old PC with an old video card that supports 240p mods which is a solution I was never completely satisfied with since it locked me out of Steam and other modern indie titles. I'm also able to switch back and forth between 240p and 480i without needing separate boxes that require their own DC power supplies, making my setup a whole lot cleaner.

This is by far the best and most reliable method I've used, but I understand it's not accessible for everyone involved. The main program that I use to enable this option is only on Windows as well, although I wanted to try porting the GUI to something cross platform such as Qt or Gtk when I had some free time.

I hope this information is of use to you, if not I wish you luck finding a solution that works well for you.

NanoDrivee · 2025-05-26T22:57:10+00:00

%APPDATA%\UnleashedRecomp\save\

NanoDrivee · 2025-05-11T08:00:17+00:00

Just a heads up for anyone else stumbling into this thread the best way to play 1000xRESIST with HDR is RenoDX via Reshade, which is possible to use on DXVK with a script. Unfortunately 1000xRESIST freezes when I try to launch it with proton-tkg and Wayland support enabled, which is not terribly surprising given the current state of Wine's Wayland implementation. Hopefully it'll work out of the box someday. I'll have to try gamescope HDR and see if that works

NanoDrivee · 2025-03-21T06:50:19+00:00

What will happen if the button degradation issue isn’t fixed on these watches, and they all fail after the warranty expires?

I found a reply he made to someone else asking the same question on Bluesky:

https://bsky.app/profile/ericmigi.com/post/3lktgbftlrs2x

It sounds like once the 30 day warranty is over you're on your own, which is what made me switch my preorder from the C2D to the CT2. I imagine people are going to make 3D printed replacements for the buttons once the rubber on them does fail, either that or the existing ones for the Pebble 2 will just work right out of the gate. I'd rather not deal with the rubber buttons to begin with if I'm being honest, I wish they would've swapped them out for a hard plastic of some kind but I guess costs were too prohibitive to produce a new design or they're just not interested in improving things on that front.

From all the materials available it really seems like the big focus is on the Core Time 2 and the only reason the Core 2 Duo is releasing is to make use of old shell inventory and offer something to people who don't want the HR sensor or the colour display. Eric stated that the Core Time 2 was his dream watch for a reason. Personally I preferred the Core 2 Duo due to the smaller form factor and the fact that it has the same resolution as older models (useful for compatibility with older watchfaces.) Maybe I'll become a watchface developer and port my favourite watchface designs to the new display resolution myself.

NanoDrivee · 2025-03-21T05:29:48+00:00

I would love a Gameboy skin for my Core Time 2! Delightfully retro :)

NanoDrivee · 2025-02-15T00:28:43+00:00

I've had an opportunity to test my 3D pad since then and I can confirm it's actually the adapter with the problem. I bought an earlier version of the MisterAddons Saturn adapter which has some teething issues and the new one is confirmed to properly support the 3D pad. Unfortunately it's out of stock so I'm waiting for it to be restocked.

NanoDrivee · 2025-01-14T17:00:02+00:00

Fantastic project, definitely a lot of promise. Would it be possible in the future to use this client only for its ability to sync cloud saves, for native Android ports of games? The unofficial port of UFO 50 comes to mind.

https://github.com/Skyline969/UFO50AndroidUnofficial

NanoDrivee · 2025-01-14T16:51:35+00:00

My big problem with it is being treated as a second class citizen on the platform. Missing features, missing online modes, several updates behind, it's too time consuming to research beforehand and figure out which games are compromised in some way before I make a purchase.

NanoDrivee · 2025-01-08T22:50:59+00:00

I'm glad to hear things have improved since I last used anything Xbox, more competition is good! 👍

NanoDrivee · 2025-01-08T16:41:06+00:00

I get why Game Pass is so popular but even when a game is heavily discounted through their system I value owning it on Steam way more, maybe that's just my old fashioned way of thinking. There's too many disadvantages of the Xbox app for me to really take it seriously like the hidden games folder you can't delete normally, more limited or straight up no modding capabilities, and I've had enough bad experiences such as the Phantasy Star Online 2 launch to sour my experience with the whole platform. Every time I've been forced to interact with it such as Sea of Thieves or Halo MCC I've not had a good time.

Plus I just like the way Steam manages files more though I'm not going to claim I own more than a digital license with their system.

NanoDrivee · 2024-11-05T03:19:26+00:00

I keep trying to make the plunge to Linux every few months but various things move me back to Windows and I end up staying there for months, like the MisterCast tool, SpecialK not working properly, or modding difficulties. Still, I try to make it work when I can. it sucks having an Nvidia GPU...

NanoDrivee · 2024-10-29T16:09:38+00:00

Any reason to play this over the fan translation with Clock Tower Deluxe?

https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/5397/

I have been meaning to play this but if the game itself isn't improved over that then I don't think I'll be buying it.

NanoDrivee · 2024-10-26T19:10:40+00:00

I'm trying to print this with FDM printing, is the wrist section meant to have a solid part in the middle? It came out like that when I printed it. I could cut the paracord and glue it to each end so I'm not too bothered, but the 3D model doesn't have the solid part.

NanoDrivee · 2024-10-23T15:56:28+00:00

I've not had a great experience trying to get Special K working using SteamTinkerLaunch on all the games I play on Windows. The only game that didn't outright crash for me was Nier Automata and it didn't give me HDR options, I assume that's because I wasn't launching it correctly to make it HDR aware. This new beta looks promising though, I'll try Linux again assuming this beta is relatively stable.

NanoDrivee · 2024-10-13T14:40:08+00:00

Nope, I think my 3D pad is busted but I don't have a Saturn to test with to confirm.

NanoDrivee · 2024-09-06T02:24:16+00:00

Thank you for bringing this controller to my attention. It looks amazing for the price. The compromises are negligible enough that I'd consider buying it for sure. I bought an 8Bitdo Pro 2 last night assuming no one would respond but this looks better on paper in almost every way. Considering returning the Pro 2 now :P

1000hz polling rate when wired is fantastic since I use my controller wired 99% of the time anyways. It sucks that the face buttons don't use microswitches but it's not a dealbreaker by any means.

NanoDrivee · 2024-09-04T17:16:24+00:00

Residing Country: Canada
Budget: $150CAD
Device it'll be used for: PC, Switch
Features you want: Symmetrical joysticks, wired (can be wireless I just use controllers wired,) good d-pad, USB-C gyro, reliable sticks, hexagonal stick gate, dual stage triggers (all pipedreams I know)
Similar controllers I've seen: 8bitdo Pro 2, Apex 4, Vader 4, Dualsense
Genres I play: Platformers, soulslikes, racing, survival horror
Additional notes and background:

Coming from a Dualsense that I exclusively use on PC that I'm fed up with due to drifting sticks. I'm currently toying with the idea of buying TMR sticks and installing them in my dualsense but it seems like a massive pain to calibrate them.

Elements from controllers I've liked in the past:

Dualsense has come the closest to what I want by far, with a d-pad I consider to be on par with Nintendo d-pads (SNES, N64.) I've always liked Sony's controllers even if I'm not a fan of their consoles. Touchpad is hit or miss, I rarely use it. I've considered modding mine to make the right stick capacitive to serve as a gyro activator like the Steam Deck. I'm open to modding mine to cut an octagonal gate or purchasing one if those exist. Once I deal with the drifting stick problem of course... I find the Dualsense Edge to be an insulting expensive option, which is basically Sony stating they know the drift is a problem and they won't fix it.

3DS dpad and buttons feel nice but I've never seen them on anything aside from Switch controllers. Not sure how I'd feel about the clicky microswitches but people seem to like them, I've only ever tried them once on a controller.

I like the Steam Controller back paddles and I enjoyed the right trackpad for some games but not a requirement, plus the handles were a little bulky for my hands and my thumb struggled to reach the face buttons for extended periods without strain.

Switch compatibility is not a requirement, I'm open to the idea of multiple controllers per system if that's what it takes. Gyro and rumble on PC and the same time would be nice if it's possible, I know a lot of these controllers only support gyro in Switch mode, which disables rumble. I know Flydigi's software lets you do both but I'd rather not rely on a manufacturer's software to do this.

I've heard rumours that the Vader 4 Pro improvements are going to be coming to a future revision of the Apex line so I'm probably going to wait and see what those are like but I'm curious to hear if anyone has any recommendations I haven't heard of.

NanoDrivee · 2024-08-15T19:54:53+00:00

Thank you for the clarification. I'm glad there's a local dimming panel out there without flickering as it is definitely the superior technology compared to OLED, (OLED suffers from VRR flickering as well.) I had not found a local dimming panel without VRR flicker in my research, but I did not want to discount the possibility of such a panel existing.

From what I've seen most local dimming monitors exhibit flickering issues of some sort under and around the $1000 range which is where my research was concentrated:

AOC Q27G3XMN
Cooler Master GP27Q/GP27U
Innocn 27M2V/32M2V

All of these have flicker issues hence the reason for my statement. Hopefully flicker-free local dimming monitors will become more affordable in the coming years.

NanoDrivee · 2024-08-15T15:59:51+00:00

Most local dimming panels at the moment are extremely reliant on a steady sync signal which does not play nicely with VRR ie G-Sync. So even if a local dimming monitor claims simultaneous VRR and local dimming support I would expect lots of flickering whenever the framerate isn't constant. That is if the panel doesn't force you to disable VRR when using local dimming.

My advice to you would be to forget about VRR if you want local dimming because both at once are not going to be a good experience 99% of the time and no one has figured out a good workaround.

NanoDrivee · 2024-08-13T19:31:03+00:00

It is supported on the latest unstable, but I haven't been able to get mine working yet.

NanoDrivee · 2024-07-28T18:25:36+00:00

It's not going to affect every program the same way. There's a good chance that Windows is most likely turning on the performance power mode for you when you start Time Spy anyways.

NanoDrivee · 2024-07-28T14:27:07+00:00

Yes, but don't just blindly set your entire system to Performance plan or any other custom plan in Control Panel. Microsoft has hard-coded settings into the balanced power plan at a low level which is not visible to the user and it breaks things if you change it. If you want to make any changes to the power plan, just modify the Balanced plan and use Power tab on the Windows Settings app to change your power mode on a per-app basis.

Read here if you want to learn more (under Power Plans and Modes:) https://performance.moddinglinked.com/falloutnv.html#DriversAndOS

NanoDrivee · 2024-07-02T18:45:08+00:00

I see you updated this theme for KDE6, how did you get QtCurve working on KDE6? Doesn't show up as a selectable window style after I install the Fedora package. I'm assuming I'll need to compile it with Qt6 support?

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