Retro Hackers LogoGuestLog in

Summer Tree
News
Database
Users
Projects
Game Ports
Videos
Music
Material
Feedback

FFT Slowdown Fix and Unstretch Screen Patch

Original game : Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions

Platform : PSP

Author : NoOneee

Release date : 09 September 2016

Category : Bug Fix

Patch version : 1.1

Modifications : G, O

Downloads : 17851

ROM Information

Any USA or EUR ISO (patch targets executable file).

Hack description

This fixes the slowdown in battle animation and unstretches
the screen to the original 4:3 format.
This is a conversion of Archemic's slowdown and screen unstretch patches to PPF format for those who can't use the plugin.

Check the README file for more details and instructions.

(Original patch by endrift)

Screenshots

Contributions

ContributorType of contributionDescription
NoOneeeHacking

Reviews

Slowdown patch is essential; Unstretch patch is good for hardware but not emulatorMartze2022-01-09Version 1.1

The slowdown patch is essential if you're going to play this game. Get it!

The unstretch patch will make the game run at a 1:1 pixel aspect ratio on PSP hardware. It does this at the cost of windowboxing the game, making the image fairly small, but this is a reasonable sacrifice to make, as it makes the game look sharp and clean and makes the pixel art "pop" instead of looking blurry like the unpatched game. The retail release really should have included this as an option.

I do have to nitpick one thing, though; the claim that it restores the game to "the original 4:3 format" is incorrect. The original game ran at 256 by 240 on PS1 hardware. You may notice that 256:240 simplifies to 16:15, not 4:3. In the original game, pixels weren't square; on original PS1 hardware hooked up to a television from the era, the image was horizontally stretched from 16:15 to 4:3.

The retail version of WotL horizontally stretches pixels by the same amount the original PS1 version did, preserving the original pixel aspect ratio. Additionally, the unpatched version offers "true widescreen," meaning that the extra horizontal space is used to render additional screen real estate. This is a good thing. The unstretch screen patch keeps this extra rendered material, which is also a good thing. Thus, compared to the original PS1 game, WotL with the unstretch patch applied has both the extra widescreen content, and the image compressed horizontally to a 1:1 aspect ratio, resulting in a 340x240 screen size for a 17:12 aspect ratio, which is slightly wider than the 4:3 the description of this patch advertises. Again, this is not a bad thing, and if you're playing on hardware it's a very reasonable patch to apply-it's just not what the description of this patch claims it to be.

If you're playing on an emulator, don't bother with the unstretch patch. It'll windowbox the game and compress it horizontally for no benefit.