So this software beside authentic resolutions can also set all those refresh rates which are not exactly 60Hz, like Galaga: 224x288 @ 60.606061Hz, right? Is that X-windows based application, and so does it use desktop video drivers, or can it perhaps work without X-windows from the console via VESA or frame-buffer drivers maybe? If it only works with X-windows, does it then only work in some 'full-screen" mode or maybe the whole X-windows desktop changes to set resolution?
What version and kind of MAME you testing this with?
Is performance better, same or worse than on Windows?
If you can set the exact refresh rates as MAME, then you should have no problems to perfectly sync all those games with monitor V-sync, right? But can you get smooth scrolling and fluid animation even with the latest MAME and what are the important settings to make it all work nicely without any scroll tearing or choppiness, if possible? Finally, can this be used with PC CRT monitors, and are there any similar tool for DOS or Windows?
Thank you.
By the way, do you rememberer "Scitech Display Doctor"?
Yep, it can get pretty exact on the refresh rate used by most games in Mame, the more capable the monitor the closer it can get in both horizontal/vertical size and refresh rate.
There is a Windows version and Linux version, both the same code mostly, but in Windows we have to use registry custom modes like Soft15khz does, limited by amount of custom resolutions a card can accept for height/width but can customize any of those to any refresh rate we need. It also is right now really only working for 15khz mode with ATI cards, both Linux and Windows, although in Linux might be more capable of other cards.
It works really well in Linux, decent in Windows, in Linux for X Windows using xrandr and a custom kernel patch and such, you can get very precise resolutions and with a d9800 + ATI card pretty much spot on everything.
In Linux xrandr does all the resolution changing of the X Windows desktop, and can do it quite well. Performance for me has been better in Linux, others have reported it quite nice there too. Calamity can comment more on how it works in Windows, but I am guessing in Linux you'll always have a lighter load on the system, although I don't really have any proof of that myself so one would want to test the two side by side themselves to see.
There's no tearing when setup right, everything is smooth scrolling without choppiness, following the vsync of the monitor and and page flipping through interrupts with the ATI cards. In Linux it is great, in Windows it is quite good too.
The framebuffer in Linux unfortunately isn't really able to do the resolutions like through X windows and xrandr right now, there are quite a few limitations currently in the design of the framebuffer. Hopefully in the future that will change, something I someday would like to look at. They basically are hard to get exact dotclocks/pixelclock values, and are mostly limited to either hardwired modes or VESA ones (my patch puts in a few modes for 15khz so bootup/console is good).
It can work with PC CRT and LCD monitors, you might resort to doublescan and other virtualization or other less than optimal stuff, because there's just limitations to those monitors and modelines they can take and display. I run it in Linux on my LCD for testing sometimes, and can get some pretty nice/interesting results on a 16:9 monitor. Some games though don't work without a slight change in the width because there's some limitations on those monitors at times with things less than 320 pixels wide.
This all works upon the basic algorithms from Calamity for the modeline calculations, the methods of getting refresh rate changes in the Windows registry for ATI cards without a reboot. He basically is the one who knew how all this was possible, I've coded it into the mame version 0141u3 + patch currently, a modeline generator switchres and wrapper to other emulators, and a whole Linux distribution based around it with LiveCD capability to allow a person to avoid having to really collect all the parts in Linux themselves.