Wii's Image Quality Is Fixed in 2023

Wii games have never looked so good on original hardware

To properly see the results we suggest watching on a larger display in full screen

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[pchris]

Removing the blur seems to bring up the same problems retro games designed to be displayed on CRTs have where the developer anticipated a certain level of blurriness and so they didn’t add any sort of anti-aliasing to their games.

[breadloaf]

I would also like to mention that you should turn on the 480p pixel patch for even better clarity (mostly in text), especially if you have an earlier model Wii.

[LocrianDorian]

The stretch is clearly taken into account for the final image, you can see that circular or square items are elongated once you return them to the original output. Unfortunate as it does look a lot clearer, but it is what it is.

[MisterSheeple]

In Mario Kart Wii with the framebuffer aspect ratio, it kind of makes stuff look skinnier. Mario looks slimmer than he should be and the item slot gui icon looks noticeably less square. I think you're definitely right and the intent differs from game to game, but personally I'd probably leave the stretch on for this reason.

[nathonso_edits]

I mean the Wii does have an option to be played in 4:3 as well as 16:9 in the standard menu, it was released at a weird time where CRTs were still in use everywhere but widescreen HD TVs were becoming more popular, I think towards the end of the Wii's life those games were definitely developed with the stretching in mind because widescreen TVs had become more commonplace by then

[Snugboy]

Hi GVG do you know any way I can make my copy of Twilight Princesss even MORE blurred and stretched? Would love a follow up episode so I can play it at it's most optimal aesthetic!!

[monkeywithocd]

With this, just as with the SNES, I am in the camp of "the output resolution is more correct than the internal resolution", as devs *should* have taken the stretch into account and that's what the games were viewed at at the time.

[hammerkirby]

One thing to keep in mind is that if you own a Retrotink or Ossc you can use them to correct the aspect ratio without making it as blurry as the framebuffer does.

[FelixSR]

Wow, I had no idea the Wii's image was stretched. Very informative video Jon. Thanks!! ^^

[NottJoeyOfficial]

I could tell you literally anything about the Wii and I was not aware of this. Thanks so much, the Wii is my favorite console ever and now it will look even better!

[OrionXIXI]

I wouldn't recommend the framebuffer setting personally, because the games were made with that bit of horizontal stretch in mind. Removing the stretching leaves you with an image that appears squashed a bit, and characters and such are noticeably skinnier looking.

[excadrillo]

I think that the de-flicker filter being able to be shut off is a massive game-changer for Wii video quality on digital displays, especially with something like a RetroTink5x being able to sharp scale it to either 960p or 1440p.

The stretching I could see being more divisive. It reminds me of SNES/Genesis games being either 256p or 320p wide, with circles being squished for those wider games in 4:3 mode. The Wii was a console made during the switch from CRTs to Digital displays, so I've always thought of 16:9 as being the aspect ratio that Nintendo always meant for it. I think it has to be done on a case by case basis if they meant for it to be stretched or not, and even then it's more of a personal preference.

[Srandista]

I can see one reason, why Nintendo introduce the filter (even I don't agree with that decision). The dithering is strong with this one... Twilight Princess and especially RE4 have really strong dither pattern. And I know, that some people are really allergic to it. Speaking of, is there some option in loader, which is trying to mitigate it like in Swiss on GC?

[antoinepersonnel]

We can see that RE4 take the stretch in consideration, the scope is not a circle anymore, same for the health counter on the HUD, and I kinda think it is too for MK Wii, because the box for items on the top left is now a rectangle with framebuffer, the box is taller, or, thiner depending on how you see your cup half filled or half empty x).

[KrisMagicPunch]

I was always a bit miffed on the image quality of Wii games, as I knew it wasn't really completely an issue with the system itself as Gamecube games still looked great on it, so I didn't know what the deal was

[MegaManNeo]

Man, you really make me wanna hook up my Wii again (truth to be told, I was going to do that anyway) but this is amazing.
I have component cables for it so I wonder how it makes difference on my TV.

[TitusSc]

I’m glad other people have mentioned the 480p pixel patch too! In games like Mario Kart Wii (that I always thought was suuuuper soft) it makes a huge difference. And if you have Priiloader you can turn it on in the Wii Menu too, it makes a huge difference there too haha

[legoboy]

My Wii is still hooked up to a 4:3 CRT TV, so I don't know how much this applies to me lol.

0:10 Also, Galaxy 2 there still looks quite nice even without these improvements, really says a lot to just how well done the visuals of the Galaxy games were for a Wii game and how much they can still hold up.

[obsidianchao]

Thanks for this video! Priiloader also has an option to disable the deflicker in the home menu too, which will make your homebrew menu appear nice and sharp. Now my Wii looks great on my HDTV!

[CinnamonOwO]

While there's an argument that disabling stretching for games that don't properly implement Anamorphic Widescreen is a good idea, for most games it isn't, unlike the SNES where it has the same issue but most games didn't account for the 8:7 to 4:3 stretching so it worked out very well with some exceptions. Also Wii mode doesn't fill the whole widescreen area, same with GameCube, you can see this by just forcing the TV to not modify the picture zoom (sometimes the full option still zooms in a bit)