240p test suite

A place where you can keep others updated about your NES-related projects through screenshots, videos or information in general.

Moderator: Moderators

tepples
Posts: 22821
Joined: Sun Sep 19, 2004 11:12 pm
Location: NE Indiana, USA (NTSC)
Contact:

Re: 240p test suite

Post by tepples »

"PLUGE" is one of the tests:
The PLUGE (picture line-up generation equipment) pattern is used to adjust the TV's "brightness" or black level.

The inner bars are a signal level slightly lower than standard black, which causes some TVs to distort or even lose sync. The outer bars are the darkest mix of colors the NES can show.

You should adjust brightness until the outer bars are clearly visible and inner bars are not.
But how would the shark image be used with the PLUGE test?
User avatar
orlaisadog
Posts: 166
Joined: Thu May 31, 2018 11:12 am
Location: Bristol, England

Re: 240p test suite

Post by orlaisadog »

It was the filename.
tepples
Posts: 22821
Joined: Sun Sep 19, 2004 11:12 pm
Location: NE Indiana, USA (NTSC)
Contact:

Re: 240p test suite

Post by tepples »

I know about the filename. But where would a shark appear in a PLUGE pattern?
tepples
Posts: 22821
Joined: Sun Sep 19, 2004 11:12 pm
Location: NE Indiana, USA (NTSC)
Contact:

Re: 240p test suite

Post by tepples »

Would it be a good idea to add a screensaver that begins after five minutes of inactivity, draws a bouncing logo, and plays a fanfare whenever it hits the corner?
tepples
Posts: 22821
Joined: Sun Sep 19, 2004 11:12 pm
Location: NE Indiana, USA (NTSC)
Contact:

Re: 240p test suite

Post by tepples »

240p Test Suite (NES, GB, GBA) v0.18

Add one new test from the Genesis version. This time it was the NES version's turn for size optimization.

Highlights on all platforms:
  • PLUGE: Add PLUGE Contrast sub-test with shark graphic (Genesis 1.16 parity)
  • Want your name in the credits? Become a patron
Highlights on specific platforms:
  • GB: Mention worse smearing on Game Boy Pocket and other help tweaks
  • Overscan (NES): Select to invert grays; border contrasts with BG
  • Sharpness (NES): Pixel-align emblem at center
  • Manual lag (NES): Remove misleading DDR-style grading
Behind the scenes:
  • VWF (GB): Glyph address calculation uses 16-bit shift instruction
  • VWF labels (GB): Reduce stack use, including moving tile width from stack to register C (requested by ISSOtm)
  • PB16 (GB): Fix padding for odd-length packets
  • gbcnamtool (GB): Fix vertical flip and conversion without incruniq
  • GB: More refactoring and other size optimizations (with ISSOtm's help)
  • Help (NES): Compress text with DTE; update Gus look to match GBA
  • Linearity, Sharpness, Stopwatch, Crosstalk (NES): Compress map with new iu53 codec
  • NES: Move several tests' code to UNROM bank 2 to make room in fixed bank
  • Linearity (NES): Construct grid CHR from gridless CHR
  • Stopwatch (NES): Reduce tiles of sprite circles (the "hand")
  • NES: Move rectfill-based screen layouts to UNROM bank 1
  • NES: Organize "library" code shared by my other projects into a separate part of the fixed bank
  • NES: Move most local variables to zero page for smaller code size: now below 40 KiB
  • NES: Rename some source files to match their GB/GBA counterparts
Download: GitHub release or ROM+source zipfile (below)
Attachments
240p-test-mini-0.18.zip
(500.75 KiB) Downloaded 1157 times
tepples
Posts: 22821
Joined: Sun Sep 19, 2004 11:12 pm
Location: NE Indiana, USA (NTSC)
Contact:

Re: 240p test suite

Post by tepples »

240p Test Suite (NES, GB, and GBA) v0.19 is out

It took another heroic compression effort, but I freed enough space to add a Super Game Boy border and colorization to all tests that would benefit from it. Not a lot of changes on NES and GBA though.

Highlights on all platforms:
  • Stopwatch: Bolder digits
  • Help: Standardize phrasing: "stuck pixels", "hide or show", "start or stop"
  • Help: List patrons as of release time
Highlights on specific platforms:
  • GB: Super Game Boy colorization and border
  • Backlight zone (NES, GB): Increase starting size to 2 pixels
  • Color bleed (GBA): Fix frame # covering everything
  • PLUGE Contrast and Vertical scroll (GBA): Center pattern horizontally
  • README (GB, GBA): Explain rationale behind "144p" and "160p" titles
Behind the scenes:
  • Help (NES, GB): Integrate Johnathan Roatch's faster DTE compressor written in C
  • Linearity (GB): Compress with reflection
  • GB: Improve incruniq tilemap compression
  • GB: Compress font and large graphics with nibble-wise Huffman coding
  • GB: Move variables to HRAM; other code size optimizations
  • GBA: Use a more common makefile
  • GBA: Specify each PNG's conversion settings in a grit file
Download: GitHub release or the ROM and source zipfile below
Attachments
240p-test-mini-0.19.zip
(540.24 KiB) Downloaded 902 times
frantik
Posts: 377
Joined: Tue Mar 03, 2009 3:56 pm

Re: 240p test suite

Post by frantik »

thanks, have been getting back into crts lately, will give this a go on my powerpak with some tvs
frantik
Posts: 377
Joined: Tue Mar 03, 2009 3:56 pm

Re: 240p test suite

Post by frantik »

every once in a while on the plunge test the top and bottom bars are green instead of grey. the easiest way to reproduce it is to rapidly press start during this test to switch in and out of the info window and the plunge test
tepples
Posts: 22821
Joined: Sun Sep 19, 2004 11:12 pm
Location: NE Indiana, USA (NTSC)
Contact:

Re: 240p test suite

Post by tepples »

240p Test Suite (NES, GB, GBA) v0.20

I wanted to get a few changes in before the deadline for inclusion on an NES multicart.

Highlights:
  • NES, GBA: Add Convergence test
  • NES: Add MDFourier tone generator
  • GB: Add SGB-only Chroma crosstalk test
  • Vertical scroll test (GBA): Display the correct help page
  • Help (GB, GBA): Blink Gus's eyes
  • Help (GB): Wait to draw status line until Huffman decoding finishes
Behind the scenes:
  • GB: Move common routines to RSTs
Download below or from the GitHub release
Attachments
240p-test-mini-0.20.zip
(567.63 KiB) Downloaded 670 times
sdm2
Posts: 46
Joined: Wed Feb 05, 2020 12:59 pm
Location: Poland

Re: 240p test suite

Post by sdm2 »

Is it possible to add some flickering of different colors every frame, or some interlacing effect to check if the LCD TV works fully with 240p signal?

My two LCDs unfortunately cut off half frames (all 25 odd frames) and the graphic effects changed every frame are displayed incorrectly (like sprite flicker, fast color change).

https://www.hdretrovision.com/240p/
Even when HDTVs are capable of accepting a 240 video signal, they might not process it correctly for display. This can result in visual artifacts appearing on the screen during rapid motion. 240 content is displayed at 60fps. Computer generated content, such as video games, utilize this capability to their fullest by rapidly changing parts of the screen every single frame, usually to convey a message to the player. A common example is your character "getting hit" or "taking damage". In many games, this causes your character to flash on and off rapidly at the 60fps rate.

240p video signals are electrically equivalent to 480i signals, except for that special timing signal described above. Because of this, improperly designed TVs can misinterpret 240 signals as 480i signals. This results in the 240 signal running through a processing path which it wasn't meant for. Assuming a 60fps flashing object, several different things can happen as a consequence:

Every other frame, the even frames (arbitrarily), are completely dropped so that a flashing object appears solid.

The other set of frames, the odd frames, are completely dropped so the object has disappeared.

The frames are merged and the object appears combed.
tepples
Posts: 22821
Joined: Sun Sep 19, 2004 11:12 pm
Location: NE Indiana, USA (NTSC)
Contact:

Re: 240p test suite

Post by tepples »

Nothing with "different colors", but these tests have 25/30 Hz flicker to make "YouTube syndrome" in a scaler easy to spot:
  • Color bleed (hold a direction, turn the stripes with A)
  • Shadow sprite (toggle even/odd with A)
  • Stopwatch (press Up twice to enable the blinking ruler)
  • Grid scroll test (press Up three times to set it to full speed of a half cell per field)
  • Full screen stripes (hold a direction)
tepples
Posts: 22821
Joined: Sun Sep 19, 2004 11:12 pm
Location: NE Indiana, USA (NTSC)
Contact:

Re: 240p test suite

Post by tepples »

240p Test Suite (NES, GB, GBA) v0.21

Highlights:
  • NES: Build-time option to exit to menu if included in Action 53 multicart, either from menu or pressing Reset twice
  • PLUGE (NES): Draw center grays in correct colors after closing help
  • MDFourier (NES): Hold Start at boot to skip to this activity; warn for reduced precision (triangle phase differs from power-up state) and add tones to indicate it for profile v7 and v8; fix stuck note after pressing B to stop; caution that Famicom expansions are not tested; NSF version
  • GB: Add Convergence pattern
  • Overscan (GB): Change WX in hblank to hide a 1-line-tall glitch (reported by LIJI32)
  • Stopwatch (GB): Make hours digit work
  • Lame boy (GB): Glove contrast; vest and sleeve trail; squash bottom when on ground; involve the abdominal and back muscles
  • Help (NES): Add shading detail to Gus's shirt and cap (GBA parity)
  • Help (GB, GBA): Make some descriptions more concise (with Artemio's help)
  • SGB border: Simplify title to reuse more tiles and more closely match the recent Genesis version
Behind the scenes:
  • Disable -static when building DTE encoder on macOS (#24)
  • Vertical scroll (GB): Compress tilemap with PB16
  • Help: Move non-ASCII symbols to $18-$1F to free DTE codes; coalesce repeated lines of text; compress each line of text twice and keep the smaller; assume no document has more than 9 pages
  • GB: Share code for "Select: Invert grays" and for scroll tests' speed control
  • SGB packet sending: Use ring counter
  • GB: Switch to smaller ADC/DAA binary to decimal converter
  • GB: Numerous micro-optimizations
  • GB unused.py: Recognize more optimization opportunities
  • GB: Allow use of out-of-PATH copy of RGBDS
  • GBA: Compile with -fno-common for GCC 10 compatibility
Download below or from the GitHub release
Attachments
240p-test-mini-0.21.zip
(585.35 KiB) Downloaded 632 times
tepples
Posts: 22821
Joined: Sun Sep 19, 2004 11:12 pm
Location: NE Indiana, USA (NTSC)
Contact:

Re: 240p test suite

Post by tepples »

240p Test Suite (NES, GB, and GBA) v0.22

This release adds MDFourier to the Game Boy port and fixes a longstanding inaccuracy in the SMPTE color bars on NES.

Highlights:
  • NES: Add Safe areas pattern
  • SMPTE bars (NES): Move I and Q to correct hues ($0C and $03)
  • Color bars (GB, GBA): A to toggle NTSC 7.5% setup
  • Color bleed: Rearrange to 10 rectangles
  • GB: Add MDFourier audio test
  • MDFourier (NES): Run automatically if Start+A held during Reset
  • Help (NES): Improve antialiasing of Gus's outline
  • Add a back story for Gus
  • NES: Begin work on printable manual
  • Document deliberately replaced assets
Behind the scenes:
  • NES, GB: Change random formula to reflect new cc65
  • GB: Continuing micro-optimizations
  • GB: Free space occupied by RSTs and interrupts that won't be used
  • GB: Migrate to RGBDS 0.4.0 (no dedent, no duplicate section names, rename GLOBAL to EXPORT)
Download below or from the GitHub release
Attachments
240p-test-mini-0.22.zip
(690.46 KiB) Downloaded 874 times
tepples
Posts: 22821
Joined: Sun Sep 19, 2004 11:12 pm
Location: NE Indiana, USA (NTSC)
Contact:

Re: 240p test suite

Post by tepples »

This is a prerelease build of what will be the long-awaited 240p Test Suite 0.23. A draft change log:
  • Monoscope test by khmr33
  • Solid color screen: Select to windowbox
  • Safe areas: rename PocketNES to Post-1985 and fix size typo
  • Chroma crosstalk: add health warning
  • Stopwatch: be up front about gaining a second per 10 minutes
  • Rename Manual lag test to Timing and reflex test to reflect how it is used
  • Backlight zones: add speed control and inverted video
  • Add input test with serial analyzer, standard controllers including FC microphone, Four Score, Super NES controller and mouse, Power Pad, and Arkanoid controller
  • MDFourier: play sync pattern when menu opens
  • Add standalone 4096-byte MDFourier ROM for the smallest flash carts
  • Add a FamicomBox header
  • Port to MMC1 (SGROM board) and MMC3 (TGROM board)
I'd like people to bang on the new features, try the MMC1 and MMC3 ports on hardware, and see whether it boots in a FamicomBox.
Attachments
240pSuite-NES-v0.22-132.7z
built from commit 8660715
(39.06 KiB) Downloaded 198 times
tepples
Posts: 22821
Joined: Sun Sep 19, 2004 11:12 pm
Location: NE Indiana, USA (NTSC)
Contact:

Re: 240p test suite

Post by tepples »

240p Test Suite (NES, GB, GBA) v0.23

It's been a long time coming.

Changes:
  • GBA Help: fix blink sprite alignment
  • Credits: Display version from Git commit tag and ID
  • Credits: Pino has moved to the Fediverse
  • NES: Replace Grid and Linearity with khmr33's Monoscope
  • NES Solid color screen: Select to windowbox (requested by khmr33 and Tianfeng)
  • NES Safe areas: rename PocketNES to Post-1985 and fix size typo
  • Motion blur, Chroma crosstalk: add health warning
  • Motion blur: increase duration cap to 60 frames (requested by zeta0134)
  • GBA Motion blur: do not edit parameters while running
  • NES Chroma crosstalk: simplify pattern (SGB parity)
  • Shadow sprite: add Donna (GB, GBA); remove Gus (GB)
  • NES Stopwatch: be up front about gaining a second per 10 minutes (requested by zeta0134)
  • Rename Manual lag test to Timing and reflex test to reflect how it is used
  • GBA Hill zone scroll test: Switch from laggy libgba IRQs to HDMA to reduce split artifacts
  • Backlight zones: add speed control
  • NES Backlight zones: add inverted video (GB parity)
  • NES: add input test with serial analyzer, standard controllers including FC microphone, Four Score, Super NES controller and mouse, Power Pad, and Arkanoid controller
  • Add SGB sound test
  • NES sound test: don't move cursor when returning
  • GB sound test: add surround option
  • MDFourier: play sync pattern when menu opens
  • NES: Add standalone 4096-byte MDFourier ROM for the smallest flash carts
  • NES: Port to MMC1 (SGROM board) and MMC3 (TGROM board)
  • Delay SGB detection by 8 frames for increased compatibility
  • GB: continuing size optimization
  • Add continued fraction tool for pixel aspect ratio experiments
Download below or in GitHub release
Attachments
240p-test-mini-0.23.zip
ROM and source code
(710.46 KiB) Downloaded 294 times
Input test: Illustration of four NES game controllers, each with a 4-way Control Pad and Select, Start, B, and A buttons. White circles show three buttons pressed, one on each of three controllers.
Input test: Illustration of four NES game controllers, each with a 4-way Control Pad and Select, Start, B, and A buttons. White circles show three buttons pressed, one on each of three controllers.
Input test: Illustration of a light gray floor mat labeled "Power Pad" with 12 blue and red circles and an electronics box with a cord sticking out the top. White circles show two sensors pressed.
Input test: Illustration of a light gray floor mat labeled "Power Pad" with 12 blue and red circles and an electronics box with a cord sticking out the top. White circles show two sensors pressed.
Monoscope: On a black background, a dark gray grid of dots, large red squares, and an outer rectangle of boxes with horizontal and vertical line patterns, for testing screen geometry and color convergence. By Keith Raney (khmr33)
Monoscope: On a black background, a dark gray grid of dots, large red squares, and an outer rectangle of boxes with horizontal and vertical line patterns, for testing screen geometry and color convergence. By Keith Raney (khmr33)
Illustration of Donna, a red-haired woman wearing glasses, a yellow short-sleeved shirt, and blue jeans, leaning on a TV. By Jose Salot
Illustration of Donna, a red-haired woman wearing glasses, a yellow short-sleeved shirt, and blue jeans, leaning on a TV. By Jose Salot
Post Reply