bsnes/docs/interface/higan-config.md

TODO: Rename this file to "higan-settings.md"

The Settings window
appears when you choose
one of the items at the bottom of
[the Settings menu](higan.md#the-settings-menu).
It contains less-frequently-modified configuration options.
Most of these can be safely ignored,
or set once and never changed again.

This window has a tab for each main category of options:

Video
=====

This tab contains options that affect
how higan displays
the emulated console's video output.

**Color Adjustment**
settings adjust the colour and brightness
of the emulated console's video output:

  - **Saturation** adjusts the vibrancy of colours displayed,
    where 0% makes things pure grey,
    100% is normal,
    and 200% is garishly brightly coloured.
  - **Gamma** adjusts how bright mid-range colours are
    compared to the brightest colours,
    where 100% is normal,
    and 200% makes mid-range colours much darker.
  - **Luminance** adjusts the overall brightness,
    where 100% is normal,
    and 0% is totally black.

**Overscan Mask**
removes parts of
the video output that would have been hidden
by the bezel around the edge of
a standard-definition television screen.

  - **Horizontal**
    removes pixels from the left and right of the video output.
  - **Vertical**
    removes pixels from the top and bottom of the video output.

Some games (particularly on the Famicom)
displayed random glitchy output in this area,
which can be distracting.
The units are "pixels in the emulated console's standard video-mode".
For example, setting "Horizontal" to 8
will clip 8/256ths from the left and right sides
of the Super Famicom's video output,
whether the Super Famicom is in
lo-res (256px) or hi-res (512px)
mode.

**Windowed Mode**
settings apply when higan is running
in a normal window.

  - **Aspect Correction**
    stretches the image to match the aspect ratio
    produced by the original console hardware,
    but can cause a "ripple" effect
    during horizontal scrolling,
    due to rounding errors.
    [Video shaders](../guides/shaders.md)
    can reduce this effect.
  - **Integral Scaling**
    makes higan draw the emulated video output
    at a whole-number multiple of the original size,
    rather than completely filling the available space.
    This means that every game pixel
    uses the same number of computer pixels,
    and avoids graphics looking chunky and uneven.
    Note that Aspect Correction
    is applied after integral scaling,
    so some unevenness may be visible
    even with this option enabled.
  - **Adaptive Sizing**
    automatically resizes the higan window
    to fit snugly around the emulated video output
    whenever it changes size
    (because the user loaded a game for a different console,
    chose a different option from
    the [Video Scale submenu](higan.md#the-settings-menu),
    toggled Aspect Correction, etc.)
    When disabled,
    higan generally respects manual resizing.

**Fullscreen Mode**
settings apply
when higan was started with the `--fullscreen`
[command-line option](higan-cli.md)
or when the user pressed
the Toggle Fullscreen [hotkey](higan-config.md#hotkeys).

  - **Aspect Correction**
    behaves the same way as in Windowed mode above.
  - **Integral Scaling**
    behaves the same way as in Windowed mode above.
  - **Exclusive Mode**
    requests exclusive access
    to the computer's video output
    when higan enters fullscreen mode.
    This prevents other applications
    or the operating system itself
    from drawing anything,
    and may also temporarily disable any kind of compositing.
    As of v104,
    only the Direct3D driver is capable of exclusive mode;
    with other drivers this option does nothing.

Audio
=====

This tab contains options that affect
how higan reproduces
the emulated console's audio output.

**Driver**
settings affect the
[the Audio driver](../guides/drivers.md).

  - **Device** allows you to choose
    which audio device higan sends
    the emulated game's audio to.
  - **Frequency** controls the sample-rate that higan will use
    when generating audio.
    If your PC's audio hardware has a "native" sample-rate
    and you know what it is,
    pick that.
    Otherwise,
    44.1kHz or 48kHz should be fine.
  - **Latency** controls how much audio output higan calculates in advance.
    Higher values reduce the chance of
    "popping" or "glitching" noises,
    but increase the delay between an action occurring on-screen
    and the corresponding sound-effect being played.
  - **Exclusive Mode** appears
    if the current audio driver
    allows higan to take exclusive control of your PC's audio output,
    so no other applications can play sounds.
    This can improve audio quality,
    and lower the effective audio latency.

**Effects**
are applied to the emulated audio output
before it is sent to your computer's speakers.

  - **Volume** controls the overall loudness of
    the emulated console's audio,
    where 100% is normal volume,
    and 0% is complete silence.
  - **Balance** controls the relative loudness of
    the left and right speakers,
    where 0% means only the left speaker produces sound,
    50% means both speakers produce sound equally,
    and 100% means only the right speaker produces sound.
  - **Reverb** adds a slight reverberation effect
    to the emulated console's audio output,
    as though the console were in a tunnel or small room.

Input
=====

This tab controls which PC inputs
are used for which emulated controllers.
The exact PC inputs that can be mapped
depend on [the input driver](../guides/drivers.md#input).

General input settings:

  - **Pause Emulation** automatically pauses emulation
    when the main higan window
    is not the current foreground window.
  - **Allow Input** can be ticked
    when "Pause Emulation" is *not* ticked,
    and allows configured inputs to keep affecting higan
    even when higan is running in the background.
    This is particularly relevant if
    you configure your PC keyboard to control higan:
    if you tick this box,
    and switch to a different application
    leaving higan running in the background,
    typing in that other application may affect
    the emulated game running in higan
    even though you can't see it!

Choosing which of the possible controllers to configure:

  - The console selector chooses which console's inputs
    to display in the mapping list below.
  - The port selector chooses which port of the selected console
    to display in the mapping list below.
  - The controller selector chooses which controller
    associated with the given console and port
    to display in the mapping list below.
    Note that some consoles only allow particular controllers
    to be used in a particular port.
    For example,
    the Super Scope controller for the Super Famicom
    only works in Controller Port 2.

Configuring the selected controller:

  - The mapping list includes
    every button and axis on the selected controller,
    and the PC inputs that are mapped to it
    when it is connected to the selected port of the selected console.
  - **Erase** removes the mapping
    for the selected button or axis.
  - **Reset** removes all the mappings currently in the list.

To map
a keyboard or gamepad button on your PC to
a controller button,
double-click the controller button in the list,
or select it and press Enter.
The window will grey out,
and a message will appear in the bottom left:
"Press a key or button to map [the button]".
Press the key or button you want to map,
and it should appear in the list
next to the controller button it is mapped to.

To map
a mouse button on your PC to
a controller button,
select the controller button in the list,
then click one of the "Mouse Left",
"Mouse Middle",
or "Mouse Right" buttons in the bottom-left of the window.

To map
a joystick axis on your PC to
a controller axis,
double-click the axis in the list,
or select it and press Enter.
The window will grey out,
and a message will appear in the bottom left:
"Press a key or button to map [the axis]".
Press the joystick in the direction you want to map,
and it should appear in the list
next to the controller button it is mapped to.

To map
a mouse axis on your PC to
a controller axis,
select the axis in the list,
then click one of the
"Mouse X-axis",
or "Mouse Y-axis"
buttons in the bottom-left of the window.

If you start mapping a button or axis,
but decide you don't want to,
you can press Escape
to exit the "Press a key or button to map..." mode
without actually mapping anything.

The "Rumble" setting
for the Game Boy 
and Game Boy Advance
is treated like a button,
and can be mapped to a PC gamepad.
When the emulated Game Boy Advance
tries to use the rumble feature
of the Game Boy Player,
higan will turn on the force-feedback
of whatever gamepad the mapped button is part of.

**Note:**
Once you've configured which computer inputs
higan should route to which controllers,
make sure the controller in question
is actually connected to the correct controller port
in [the console menu](higan.md#the-console-menu).


Hotkeys
=======

This tab is like "Inputs" above,
except it contains controls for higan itself,
instead of for the emulated console.

  - **Toggle Fullscreen** puts higan into fullscreen mode,
    where the menu and status bar are hidden,
    and the emulated console's video output
    is enlarged to cover the entire screen.
    Toggling fullscreen also automatically captures the mouse.
  - **Toggle Mouse Capture** hides the usual mouse-cursor,
    and captures the mouse so it cannot leave the higan window.
    This is useful when the mouse is being used to emulate
    a light-gun controller like the Super Scope.
  - **Save Quick State** saves the current state of the emulated console
    to the currently-selected Quick State slot.
  - **Load Quick State** restores the emulated console
    to the state saved in the currently-selected Quick State slot.
  - **Decrement Quick State** selects the previous Quick State slot.
    The status bar will briefly display the new current slot number.
  - **Increment Quick State** selects the next Quick State slot.
    The status bar will briefly display the new current slot number.
  - **Pause Emulation** pauses the emulated console
    until the Pause Emulation hotkey is pressed a second time.
  - **Fast Forward** disables audio and video synchronisation
    for as long as it's held down,
    so emulation proceeds as quickly as possible.
    If your PC struggles to hit "real time"
    (60fps for most emulated consoles),
    this likely won't have any effect.
  - **Power Cycle** turns the emulated console off and back on,
    (a "hard reset"),
    just like the "Power Cycle" menu item
    in [the console menu](higan.md#the-console-menu).
  - **Rotate Display** will toggle the display
    of the Game Boy Advance
    and WonderSwan (Color)
    between the usual landscape orientation
    and a portrait orientation (90° counter-clockwise).
    These consoles have games
    that expect the player to hold the console
    in a different way.

Advanced
========

This tab contains all the settings
that didn't fit into one of the other categories.

**Driver Selection**
tells higan how to
accept input,
display video,
and play sound
on this computer.

  - **Video** controls how higan will draw
    the emulated console's video output
    to the PC screen.
    "None" means no video will be drawn.
  - **Audio** controls how higan will present
    the emulated console's audio output.
    "None" means no audio will be played.
  - **Input** controls how higan checks for input
    from the PC's input devices.
    "None" means the emulated console cannot be controlled.

See [Choosing drivers](../guides/drivers.md)
for help choosing which drivers you should use.

**Game Library**
configures how higan interacts
with the [Game Library](../concepts/game-library.md).

  - **Location** selects where the Game Library
    looks for games to load.
    See [Moving the Game Library](../concepts/game-library.md#moving-the-game-library)
    for more information.
  - **Ignore Manifests** makes higan ignore
    the [manifest](../concepts/manifests.md) file
    in the loaded game's
    [game folder](../concepts/game-folders.md)
    in favour of asking icarus
    to guess a manifest on the fly.
    See [Ignoring manifests](../concepts/manifests.md#ignoring-manifests)
    for details.