Add additional aspect ratios & resolutions

[RobDavenport]

I think it would be benefecial to explore a bigger variety of aspect ratios.

Currently, the console is using a 16:9 aspect ratio, but it could be benefecial to also support others such as 4:3, 1:1, or other common sizes, such as tall or portrait style ones.

This can be done a few different ways:

1. modifying the Resolution enum to be a struct, and hold both a size (ultralow, medium, high, etc) and an aspect ratio (wide, square, standard etc).
2. Just additing/appending more supported resolutions, like LowSquare or HighWide
3. Opening it up to be completely custom, and have recommended resolutions via the GUI.
4. Something completely different with an extended preset list of resolutions.

It's important to choose resolutions which scale up to pixel perfect sizes, or can display cleanly on 16:9 displays though, as this is currently the target platforms.

This would likely break older versions, but I think it's worth getting this done now as opposed to later.

[RobDavenport]

Some additional thoughts on this topic: The current resolutions were picked due to their ability to scale perfectly into either 1080p , 720p, or both.

The currently supported resolutions are:

Resolution	Width x Height	Scale Ratio with 1080p	Scale Ratio with 720p	Total Pixels
UltraLow	128 x 72	15x	10x	9,216
VeryLow	160 x 90	12x	8x	14,400
Low	320 x 180	6x	4x	57,600
Medium	480 x 270	4x	Not divisible (2.667x)	129,600
High	640 x 360	3x	2x	230,400
VeryHigh	1280 x 720	Not divisible (1.5x)	1x	921,600
UltraHigh	1920 x 1080	1x	Not divisible (0.75x)	2,073,600

So with that in mind, we should target these resolutions

Resolution	Name	Aspect Ratio	Total Pixels
1440 x 1080	UltraHigh	4:3	1,555,200
960 x 720	VeryHigh	4:3	691,200
1080 x 1080	UltraHigh	1:1	1,166,400
720 x 720	VeryHigh	1:1	518,400

And work our way down.

Alternatively, we could just open up the resolutions and allow them to be input by the user, with some prevention of going over 1920 x 1080, and recommending those with pixel perfect scaling. Include useful data like aspect ratio, and some common recommended ones.

[erlend-sh]

Alternatively, we could just open up the resolutions and allow them to be input by the user

I think a stricter selection is better. An oft-cited benefit of developing for a virtual console is that it is helpfully constrained.

You may even consider determining a default resolution that’s already set for people who just wanna get going as quickly as possible. I reckon that ought to be either the Low or High resolution; can only be one though!

[RobDavenport]

The default resolution is currently the Low, 320x180 resolution @ 16:9 aspect ratio.

I think a stricter selection is better. An oft-cited benefit of developing for a virtual console is that it is helpfully constrained.

Yep exactly the reason for opening this up to discussion. Flexibility is good, but too much could let people shoot themselves in the foot and end up with huge black bars or bad scaling.. Consistency is good, but too much and everything is the same.

But I do think it would be great to add in some square resolutions, like

Name	Width	Height	Total Pixels
UltraLow	64	64	4,096
VeryLow	128	128	16,384
Low	256	256	65,536
Medium	512	512	262,144
High	720	720	518,400
VeryHigh	1024	1024	1,048,576
UltraHigh	1080	1080	1,166,400

And potentially some 4:3 ones... but there are ~12 decent resolutions we could use to cover flexibility back towards the 1920x1080 target with good scaling. Some of the iconic classics like 320x240, 640x480, would likely be OK, but 800x600, 1024x768, are too big and would end up with borders.

[RobDavenport]

Took a second pass at 4:3 resolutions...

Name	Width	Height	1080 Scaling	720 Scaling	Total Pixels
UltraLow	120	90	12	8	10,800
VeryLow	160	120	9	6	19,200
Low	240	180	6	4	43,200
Medium	360	270	4	2.666666667	97,200
High	480	360	3	2	172,800
VeryHigh	960	720	1.5	1	691,200
UltraHigh	1440	1080	1	0.666666667	1,555,200

We lose those "iconic" resolutions from previous times, but make up for it with solid consistency and a similar distribution against the standard 16:9 ones.

Square resolutions can be:

Name	Width	Height	1080 Scaling	720 Scaling	Total Pixels
UltraLow	64	64	16.875	11.25	4,096
VeryLow	128	128	8.4375	5.625	16,384
Low	256	256	4.21875	2.8125	65,536
Medium	384	384	2.8125	1.875	147,456
High	512	512	2.109375	1.40625	262,144
VeryHigh	768	768	1.40625	0.9375	589,824
UltraHigh	1024	1024	1.0546875	0.703125	1,048,576

Squares are kinda a special case andI'm fine with them having borders around the edges. Also I decided against including 720x720 and 1080x1080 just to keep with the "powers of 2-ish" theme. I think in the farther future we could add something like "Exotic Resolutions" for advanced usesrs, and use things like 720 and 1080 squares, portrait resolutions, and those iconic 4:3 ones which just don't scale well these days.

Anyway, I think breaking this into a selection process of (1) Aspect Ratio, then (2) Resolution helps keep it simple. Instead of bombarding the user with 21 new resolution choices, they are presented with the default 16:9, Low, and can adjust to Square or Retro (or Classic, the name for 4:3), and are still presented with the familiar Ultra/Low/Med/High settings.

[RobDavenport]

Closing this as it will be resolved in #98