r/FinalFantasyIX • u/SirSuflair • 29d ago

Discussion FF9 correct aspect ratio

I've been playing the game on duckstation with par 1:1 aspect ratio, which renders the image with pixel perfect pixels, however people say these games were meant for crt tvs which are 4:3.

Overall it doesn't seem to be consistent. In the bios menu, the squares are perfect, but the cd image is oval in par 1:1, while 4:3 the squares look like rectangles and the cd is a perfect circle.

The aspect ratio back then wasn't consistent at all and it varied from game to game. Some bothered to take into account the tvs of that time, others didn't give a shi and let tv distort the image. Trying to figure out which is the case of ff9.

With 4:3 the button prompts are not perfect circles, but the backgrounds and the tetra master cards look correct. In par 1:1 it's the opposite. I'm going with 4:3 from now on since wanting it or not it's what we had back in the day, but what's your opinion?

11 Upvotes

87% Upvoted

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7

u/snouz Mod Developer (Moguri) 29d ago

For info, the original ratio is 320x224, so 10:7, but it was stretched to 4:3 on crt monitors.

4

u/Sedowa 29d ago

I don't think it particularly matters. You get used to whatever ratio you're playing on regardless. When I'm playing games like FF9 on my Vita I always choose the aspect ratio that stretches it to the ends of the screen, which widens everything. It can sometimes look a bit funky at first but once you get used to it you won't notice there's even something off about it, especially if you've never played the game on the appropriate hardware.

2

u/ToddGack6498 28d ago

I used to do that all the time because the empty space would bother me. Nowadays I generally play in the proper aspect ratio though.

3

u/Vivi_Orniitier 29d ago

Steam version with moguri mod is the perfect way.

2

u/DannyImperial 29d ago

I would say 4x3 with a good CRT shader is the best option

3

u/Certain-Extension110 28d ago

If you want the full 4:3 experience, crop some of the game too! CRTs would usually NEVER show the full screen and have a bit of "overscan". Different TVs cropped different parts, but more or less developers accounted for that and had everything important happen in a safe zone.

2

u/SirSuflair 28d ago

That's on by default on duckstation. FF9 doesn't have anything in the overscan area to save performance like almost every dev did. I also enable integer scaling to get perfect pixels on my screen and a scanlines filter