Editing Resolution

{{WIP}}
'''Resolution''' is the measure in which how many pixels are displayed on the screen.

For emulation of 2D systems, the resolution can only be upscaled, making the pixels more apparent. For emulation of 5th generation consoles and newer, the internal resolution can be increased to make the game look sharper.

;Color encoding
On systems connected with a composite, s-video or rf cable the color of the video signal is encoded using either NTSC or PAL. While NTSC and PAL has become synonymous with 60 and 50hz, the color encoding is independent of refresh rate, with the Dreamcast popularising "PAL-60" modes in PAL regions. Note that a RGB or component video signal is not inherently NTSC or PAL coded. When playing on an emulator, [[NTSC filters]] can be used to produce an image similar to playing on a TV. 

SECAM is a third color standard but due to the many of countries that used it were [[wikipedia:Second World|Second World]] and [[wikipedia:Third World|Third World]] few consoles would use that format, and consoles and home computers released in France would often use RGB SCART cables instead. See this [[wikipedia:SECAM#Countries_and_territories_that_use_SECAM|Wikipedia article]] for a list of current and former SECAM countries

;Colorspaces
The overwhelming majority of consoles uses the RGB colorspace, storing colors as color triplets, often resulting in colordepths powers of 8 (64, 512, 4096, 32768 and so on). 
A few systems, such as those by Atari as well as the NES, instead used a Color/Luminance scheme, with 4 bits determining the hue, utilising a property of NTSC/PAL encoding by delaying the color subcarrier, with one or more values instead omitting the signal resulting in a greyscale image, with the remaining bits determining the brightness.

;Integer Scaling
{{Main|Scaling}}
Upscaling the resolution will only look good if you scale it by integers (2x, 3x, 4x, etc.). If you are scaling with non-integers, you can make the image look better using the [[Shaders_and_Filters#Pixellate|Pixellate]] shader.
==Consoles==
===2D Consoles===
;2D consoles generally are consoles from the 2nd to 4th generation of video game consoles.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! scope="col"|System
! scope="col"|Native Resolution (<abbr title="Width">W</abbr>x<abbr title="Height">H</abbr>)
! scope="col"|Color depth and color space
! scope="col"|Video display resolution
! scope="col"|Native Refresh Rate (Hz)
|-
|[[CHIP-8 emulators|CHIP-8]]
|64x32 (original)<br>Extensions: 64x48, 64x64, 64x128, 128x64, 256x192<ref group=N name=CHIP-8_RES>[https://chip-8.github.io/extensions/ Sourced from here]: '''64x32''' (Original CHIP-8), '''64x48''' (CHIP-8 for ETI-660) '''64x64''' (Two-page display for CHIP-8, Two-page display for CHIP-8X, CHIP-8 for ETI-660 with high resolution, CHIP-8 AE (ACE Extended), CHIP-BETA). '''64x128''' (HI-RES CHIP-8, Hi-res CHIP-8X, CHIP-8 AE (ACE Extended)), '''128x64''' (CHIP-VDU / CHIP-8 for the ACE VDU, CHIP-10, CHIP-8 AE (ACE Extended), S-CHIP) '''256x192''' (Megachip)</ref>
|Monochrome (original)<br>Extensions: 4 colours, 16 colours, 255 colours.<ref group=N name=CHIP-8_COL>1-bit monochrome (original), 2-bit 4 colors (XO-CHIP), 4-bit 16 colors (HYPERCHIP-64) 8-bit 255 colors (Megachip).</ref>
|
|
|-
|[[Fairchild Channel F emulators|Fairchild Channel F]]
|102x58
|8 colors
|240p
|60 (NTSC), 50 (PAL)<ref group=N name=five>Preliminary or approximate value.</ref>
|-
|[[Atari 2600 emulators|Atari 2600]]
|160×192<ref group=N name=one>This is a rough figure given for simplicity's sake. In reality, the Atari 2600 doesn't really output pixels, and it has no limits on the number of lines it can display. However, it did have a hard limit on the number of horizontal color clocks for drawing the picture (160), and most games only output 192 lines, hence the commonly given resolution of 160x192.</ref>
|128 (NTSC)/104 (PAL) colors, Color/Luminance
|240p
|59.922751013551 (NTSC), 49.860759671615 (PAL)
|-
|[[Atari 7800 emulators|Atari 7800]]
|160×192, 320x192, 160x224, 320x224<ref group=N name=7800video>As with the Atari 2600, the vertical resolution is determined by the game, typically between 192 and 224</ref>
|256 colors, Color/Luminance
|240p
|60 (NTSC), 50 (PAL)<ref group=N name=five>Preliminary or approximate value.</ref>
|-
|[[Astrocade|Bally Astrocade]]
|160x104
|256 colors, Color/Luminance
|240p
|60 (NTSC)<ref group=N name=five>Preliminary or approximate value.</ref>
|-
|[[Intellivision emulators|Mattel Intellivision]]
|160×192
|16 colors
|240p
|60 (NTSC), 50 (PAL)<ref group=N name=five></ref>
|-
|[[Nintendo Entertainment System emulators|NES]]
|256×240
|52 colors, Color/Luminance<ref group=N name=nes>The NES has a 6-bit palette, but not all of the 64 possible entries maps to unique colors.</ref>
|240p
|60.098813897441 (NTSC), 50.006978908189 (PAL)
|-
|[[Master System emulators|Sega Master System]]
|256×192, 256×224, 256x240 (some PAL games) <ref group=N name=sms>When horizontally scrolling, the leftmost 8 pixels are blanked out, resulting in an effective 248x192 resolution. The 224 and 240 line modes have limited compatibility, in general SMS2 supports them while SMS1 and Megadrive in SMS backwards compatibility mode don't</ref>
|64 colors, RGB
|240p
|59.922751013551 (NTSC), 49.701460119948 (PAL)
|-
|[[PC Engine (TurboGrafx-16) emulators|NEC PC Engine]]
|256×224, 336x224, 512x224, 512x240
|512 colors, RGB
|240p
|60 (NTSC), 50 (PAL)<ref group=N name=five></ref>
|-
|[[Super Nintendo emulators|SNES]]
|256×224, 256×239, 512×224, 512×239
512×448, 512×478
|15-bit, RGB
|240p, 480i
|60.098813897441 (NTSC), 50.006978908189 (PAL)
|-
|[[Sega Genesis emulators|Sega Genesis]]
|320×224, 256×224, 320x240 (some PAL games), 256x240 (some PAL games),
320×448, 256×448, 320x480 (some PAL games), 256x480 (some PAL games)
|512 colors, RGB
|240p, 480i
|59.922751013551 (NTSC), 49.701460119948 (PAL)
|}

===3D Consoles===
;3D consoles generally are consoles from the 5th generation and later.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! scope="col"|System
! scope="col"|Native Resolution (<abbr title="Width">W</abbr>x<abbr title="Height">H</abbr>)
! scope="col"|Color depth and color space
! scope="col"|Video display resolution
! scope="col"|Native Refresh Rate (Hz)
|-
|[[Nintendo 64 emulators|Nintendo 64]]
|320x200, 320x400, 320x240, 320x480, 640x200, 640×240, 640x400, 640×480<ref group=O name=two>While N64 games ran at various resolutions internally, in practice the hardware's VI component always doubled the scale horizontally, and output in either 640x240p or 640x480i, though there is letterboxing at times.</ref>
|15-bit/21-bit, RGB<ref group=O name=n64>The N64 can use either either 18-bit (15 bits of RGB and 3 bits of alpha) or 32-bit framebuffer, however the DAC is only capable of outputting 21-bit RGB</ref>
|240p, 480i (NTSC), 576i (PAL)
|60 (NTSC), 50 (PAL)<ref group=O name=five>Preliminary or approximate value.</ref>
|-
|[[Sega Saturn emulators|Sega Saturn]]
|320×224, 320×240, 320×256, 352×224, 352×240, 352×256, 640×224, 640×240, 640×256, 704x224, 704×240
320×448, 320×480, 320×512, 352×448, 320×480, 352×512, 640×448, 640×480, 640×512, 704×448, 704×480, 704×512
|15-bit/24-bit, RGB
|240p, 480i (NTSC), 480p, 576i (PAL)
|60 (NTSC), 50 (PAL)<ref group=O name=five></ref>
|-
|[[PlayStation emulators|PlayStation]]
|256×224, 256x240, 320x224, 320×240, 368x224, 368x240, 512x224, 512×240, 640x224, 640x240, 704x224, 704x240
256x448, 256x480, 320x448, 320x480, 368x448, 368x480, 512x448, 512x480, 640x448, 640×480, 704x448, 704x480 <ref group=O name=psxres>https://www.problemkaputt.de/psxspx-gpu-status-register.htm https://www.psdevwiki.com/ps3/Emulation#PS1_Native_resolution</ref>
|16-bit/24-bit, RGB<ref group=O name=psx>The PSX can use a 16-bit or 24-bit framebuffer, however most of the GPU's commands can only render onto a 16-bit framebuffer</ref>
|240p, 480i (NTSC), 480p, <ref group=O name=playstation>The PSX does support 480p mode if you use an RGB SCART (or VGA) cable, see [https://www.psxdev.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=1352]</ref> 576i (PAL)
|59.940060138702 (NTSC), 50.00028192997 (PAL)
|-
|[[PlayStation 2 emulators|PlayStation 2]]
|256x192, 256x224, 256x240, 256x440, 256x480, 256x540, 320x192, 320x224, 300x240, 320x200, 256x384, 320x240, 320x400, 320x480, 320x440, 320x270, 320x540, 300x480, 400x240, 400x480, 400x250, 640x200, 800x250, 800x240, 512x224, 512x384, 512x192, 512x440, 512x540, 400x500, 600x480, 640x512, 640x240, 640x270, 800x500, 640x224, 640x400, 640x440, 640×480, 640x540, 800x480, 576x768, 640x864, 640x960
|24-bit, RGB
|240p, 480i (NTSC), 480p, 576i (PAL), 576p, 720p, 960i (GSM Selector), 1080i (Gran Turismo 4)
|59.94 (NTSC), 50 (PAL)<ref group=O name=five></ref>
|-
|[[Sega Dreamcast emulators|Sega Dreamcast]]
|320x240, 256x224, 256x240, 512x224, 512x240, 640×480, 512x448, 512x480, 672x480, 544x608, 400x240, 416x768, 384x864, 320x960, 1024x960 <ref group=O name=dc2>These are from the DreamHAL documentation, as a rule 1. the Dreamcast has a fixed pixel clock, adding more vertical lines or increasing the refresh rate will reduce the horizontal resolution, 2. if PowerVR is to be used, the resolution needs to be a multiple of 32 due to tiling</ref>
|24-bit, RGB
|240p, 480i (NTSC), 480p, 576i (PAL), 576p, 720p, 960p <ref group=O name=dcvga>A variety of display moves are possible for homebrew programs, see [https://dcemulation.org/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=105441]</ref>
|60 (NTSC), 50 (PAL)<ref group=O name=five></ref>, 75Hz, 120Hz <ref group=O name=dc2></ref>
|-
|[[GameCube emulators|GameCube]] and [[Wii emulators|Wii]]
|596×448
608×456
640x480, 640×576<ref group=O name=three>Similar to N64, games ran at various resolutions internally[https://tcrf.net/Help:Contents/Taking_Screenshots#GameCube/Wii], though output is usually in 480p.</ref>
etc
|24-bit, RGB
|240p, 480i (NTSC), 480p, 576i (PAL), 576p, <ref group=O name=wii>https://wiibrew.org/wiki/Video_output</ref> 960i, 1080i, 1152i (through Swiss)
|60 (NTSC), 50 (PAL)<ref group=O name=five></ref>
|-
|[[Xbox emulators|Xbox]]
|640×480, 640x576, 720x480, 720x576, 1024x768, 1280x720, 1280x1024, 1920x1080, 2048x1536
|24-bit, RGB
|480i (NTSC), 576i (PAL), 480p, 720p, 1080i <ref group=O name=xbox>480p and higher resolutions only available on NTSC and modified Xboxes</ref>
|59.94 (NTSC), 50 (PAL)<ref group=O name=five></ref>
|-
||[[Xbox 360 emulators|Xbox 360]]
|640x480, 720x576, 1280x720, 1920x1080<ref group=O name=xb360>The Xbox 360's GPU is very flexible when it comes to the resolutions it can use, scaling it on the fly without needing a separate framebuffer</ref>
|24-bit, RGB
|480i (NTSC), 576i (PAL), 480p, 576p, 720p, 1080i, 1080p
|59.94 (NTSC), 50 (PAL)<ref group=O name=five></ref>
|-
|[[PlayStation 3 emulators|PlayStation 3]]
|640x480, 640x576, 720x480, 720x576, 960x720, 1280x720, 960x1080, 1280x1080, 1440x1080, 1440x1152, 1600x1080, 1600x1200, 1920x1080, 1920x1200, 1920x1280, 1920x1440, 2048x1152, 2048x1536, 2560x1600<ref group=O name=ps3res>[https://forum.beyond3d.com/threads/list-of-rendering-resolutions.41152/]</ref>
|24-bit, RGB
|480i (NTSC), 576i (PAL), 480p, 576p, 720p, 1080i, 1080p<ref group=O name=ps3out>PS3 does '''not''' output 240p [https://www.retrorgb.com/playstation3.html][https://youtu.be/f7fCTHu99bk My Life in Gaming RGB206]</ref>
|59.94 (NTSC), 50 (PAL)<ref group=O name=five></ref>, 75Hz, 120Hz
|}

===Portables===
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! scope="col"|System
! scope="col"|Native Resolution (<abbr title="Width">W</abbr>x<abbr title="Height">H</abbr>)
! scope="col"|Color depth and color space
! scope="col"|Video display resolution 
! scope="col"|Native Refresh Rate (Hz)
|-
|[[Virtual Boy emulators|Virtual Boy]]
|384×224 (per screen)
|4 shades of red
|240p
|50.273487773488
|-
|[[Game Boy/Game Boy Color emulators|Game Boy/Color]]
|160×144
|15-bit, RGB (4 shades of grey for non-color games)
|144p
|59.727500569606
|-
|[[Master System emulators|Sega Game Gear]]
|160x144 (native GG mode), 256x192 downscaled (SMS backwards compatible mode)
|4096 colors, RGB (64 color in SMS backwards compatibility mode)
|144p
|59.922751013551
|-
|[[Neo Geo Pocket emulators|SNK Neo Geo Pocket Color]]
|160x152
|4096 colors, RGB
|152p
|60<ref group=P name=five>Preliminary or approximate value.</ref>
|-
|[[WonderSwan emulators|WonderSwan]]
|224×144
|4096 colors, RGB
|144p
|75.471698113207
|-
|[[Game Boy Advance emulators|Game Boy Advance]]
|240×160
|15-bit, RGB 
|160p
|59.727500569606
|-
|[[Pokémon mini emulators|Pokémon Mini]]
|96×64
|1-bit monochrome
|?
|N/A
|-
|[[Nintendo DS emulators|Nintendo DS]]
|256×192 (per screen)
|18-bit, RGB
|2x192p
|59.826098288081
|-
|[[PlayStation Portable emulators|PlayStation Portable]]
|480×272
|24-bit, RGB
|272p, 480i, 480p (PSP-2000 and 3000 models with video cables)
|60<ref group=P name=five>Preliminary or approximate value.</ref>
|-
|[[Nintendo 3DS emulators|Nintendo 3DS]]
|800x240 top screen<ref group=P name=four>This is the "true" resolution of the top screen and what games will be rendered at in full 3d mode, however, due to said 3d effect the horizontal resolution is effectively halved. Each eye will only see 400x240 and games run in 2d mode will (normally) be rendered at 400x240 [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nintendo_3DS#Hardware]. However the homebrew [https://www.gamebrew.org/wiki/Hori-HD_Image_Gallery_3DS Hori HD] allows the full 800 pixel resolution to be used in 2D mode.</ref>
320x240 bottom screen
|24-bit, RGB
|2x240p
|60<ref group=P name=five></ref>
|}

==Home computers==
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! scope="col"|System
! scope="col"|Native Resolution (<abbr title="Width">W</abbr>x<abbr title="Height">H</abbr>)
! scope="col"|Color depth and color space
! scope="col"|Video display resolution
! scope="col"|Native Refresh Rate (Hz)
|-
|[[Apple II line|Apple II]]
|280x192
|6 colors (high res), 15 colors (low res) <ref group=Q name=apple>The original Apple II doesn't actually implement color in hardware, instead utilising a quirk of how NTSC displays video to generate color, as the pixel clock is the same as the NTSC subcarrier. As a consequence, PAL Apple IIs would display in black and white unless a separate PAL color card was added</ref>
|240p, 288p
|60 (NTSC), 50 (PAL)<ref group=Q name=five>Preliminary or approximate value.</ref>
|-
|[[Atari 8-bit|Atari 8-bit]]
|160x192, 320x192
|128/256 colors, Color/Luminance <ref group=Q name=atari>The early Atari 400/800 models used the CTIA chip which supports 128 colors, models manufactured after 1981 used the updated GTIA chip which increases this to 256</ref>
|240p, 288p
|60 (NTSC), 50 (PAL)<ref group=Q name=five></ref>
|-
|[[POS (Pong Consoles) CPUs and Other Chips#x86 CPUs|IBM PC (CGA)]]
|320x200, 640x200
|16 colors, RGBI <ref group=Q name=cga>This is with the digital CGA connector. Demos have managed to display 1024 colors with CGA over composite video [https://int10h.org/blog/2015/04/cga-in-1024-colors-new-mode-illustrated/]</ref>
|240p
|60<ref group=Q name=five>Preliminary or approximate value.</ref>
|-
|[[VIC-20|Commodore VIC-20]]
|176x184 <ref group=Q name=vic20>This is the standard resolution with 22x23 characters. Demos have managed to output resolutions as high as 224x280 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPXcp61Bg2I</ref>
|16 colors
|240p, 288p
|60 (NTSC), 50 (PAL)<ref group=Q name=five></ref>
|-
|[[Commodore 64 emulators|Commodore 64]]
|160x200, 320x200 <ref group=Q name=c64>It is possible to trick the VIC-II chip into drawing sprites outside this area, yielding a higher resolution</ref>
|16 colors
|240p, 288p
|60 (NTSC), 50 (PAL)<ref group=Q name=five></ref>
|-
|[[Commodore Plus4 Emulators|Commodore Plus/4]]
|160x200, 320x200 
|121 colors, Color/Luminance <ref group=Q name=ted>15 colors with 8 shades plus black</ref>
|240p, 288p
|60 (NTSC), 50 (PAL)<ref group=Q name=five></ref>
|-
|[[ZX Spectrum line|Sinclair ZX Spectrum]]
|256x192
|15 colors, RGBI
|288p
|50 (PAL)<ref group=Q name=five></ref>
|-
|[[BBC Micro emulators|BBC Micro/Acorn Electron]]
|160x256, 320x256, 640x256 <ref group=Q name=bbcmicro>In addition to these graphics modes, BBC Micro but not the cheaper Atom Electron has a teletext-based video mode. This has an effective resolution of 480x500 but only supports alphanumerical characters and coarse block-based graphics</ref>
|8 colors, RGB
|288p
|50 (PAL)<ref group=Q name=five></ref>
|-
|[[Amstrad CPC emulators|Amstrad CPC464/664/6128]]
|160x200, 320x200, 640x200 <ref group=Q name=cpc>These are the standard resolutions usable by the system, by reprogramming the CRTC resolutions as high as 768x272 are possible</ref>
|27 colors, RGB
|288p
|50 (PAL)<ref group=Q name=five></ref>
|-
|[[Amstrad CPC emulators|Amstrad 464+/6128+]]
|160x200, 320x200, 640x200
|4096 colors, RGB
|288p
|50 (PAL)<ref group=Q name=five></ref>
|-
|[[MSX emulators|MSX1]]
TI 99/4A
|256x192 <ref group=Q name=msxres>The 40 column text mode has an effective resolution of 240x192, multicolor mode has 64x48 pixels</ref>
|15 colors
|240p, 288p
|60 (NTSC), 50 (PAL)<ref group=Q name=five></ref>
|-
|[[MSX emulators|MSX2]]
|256x192, 256x212, 512x212, 256x424, 512x424
|512 colors, RGB <ref group=Q name=msxyjk>The MSX2+ adds additional screen modes with up to 19268 colors. https://map.grauw.nl/articles/yjk/</ref>
|240p, 288p, 480i, 576i
|60 (NTSC), 50 (PAL)<ref group=Q name=five></ref>
|-
|[[POS (Pong Consoles) CPUs and Other Chips#x86 CPUs|IBM PC (EGA)]]
|320x200, 640x200, 640x350
|16 colors (200 line modes), 64 colors (350 line modes), RGB
|240p, 350p
|60<ref group=Q name=five>Preliminary or approximate value.</ref>
|-
|[[Apple IIGS emulators|Apple IIGS]]
|320x200, 640x200
|4096 colors, RGB
|240p, 288p
|60 (NTSC), 50 (PAL)<ref group=Q name=five></ref>
|-
|[[Amiga line|Commodore Amiga]]
|320x200, 640x200, 640x400, 320x256, 640x256, 640x512
|4096 colors, RGB
|240p, 288p, 480i, 576i
|60 (NTSC), 50 (PAL)<ref group=Q name=five></ref>
|}

==Fantasy systems==
Fantasy consoles and computers are intended to replicate the experience of older video game consoles.
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! scope="col"|System
! scope="col"|Native Resolution (<abbr title="Width">W</abbr>x<abbr title="Height">H</abbr>)
! scope="col"|Color depth and color space
|-
|4BoD
|16x16
|1-bit monochrome 
|-
|Mini Micro
|960x640
|-
|[[Fantasy_system_emulators#PICO-8|PICO-8]]
|128x128
|16 colors
|-
|[[Fantasy_system_emulators#Vircon32|Vircon32]]
|640x360
|24-bit, RGB
|-
|[[Fantasy_system_emulators#TIC-80|TIC-80]]
|240x136
|16 colors
|}

==External links==
[[Wikipedia:List_of_common_resolutions#Analog_systems|Wikipedia - List of common resolutions: Analog systems]]
==Notes==
<font size="5"><b>Notes (consoles)</b></font>
;Notes (2D consoles)
<references group=N />
;Notes (3D consoles)
<references group=O />
;Notes (Portable consoles)
<references group=P />
<font size="5"><b>Notes (computers)</b></font>
<references group=Q />
[[Category:FAQs]]