vector game issues

[ahofle]

I seem to be running into some strange behavior with vector games.  When I force resolution to 640x480 (the max for my CGA monitor), I get a blank screen.  I can hear the game running fine and I can even bring up the built-in MAME menus using tab so I know the resolution is correct.  But there is no game video.  Has anyone else experienced this?  This is using groovy143.

[Calamity]

So... what happens if you don't force any resolution??

[ahofle]

It picks a higher resolution which my monitor doesn't support.

[Calamity]

It picks a higher resolution which my monitor doesn't support.

Which resolution? You mean it doesn't support it because it's actually out of sync or just because it's higher than 640x480?

I'm asking this because 640x480 is not the maximum resolution for a CGA monitor. Arcade monitors just care about frequencies, they know nothing about resolutions, and that's what GroovyMAME is checking. It's true that horizontal frequency and vertical resolution are tightly related. But just be careful because 640x480 is not necessarily safe: 640x480@75Hz is well beyond your CGA monitor capabilities.

[ahofle]

I'm not sure, but I would guess it's trying 800x600i.  It's just rolling vertically whatever it is.
Is selecting 640x480 interlaced an issue?

[Calamity]

Many vector games work at odd refresh rates like 40 and such. Those will be calculated with the lowest frequency admitted by the range you use, say 50 Hz. If the mode is rolling vertically then it's very likely this is the issue. Try raising the lower vertical frequency limit in the monitor_specs line. That will pick a lower resolution and a higher refresh rate at once, that should be inside your monitor specs.

Forcing 640x480 interlaced shouldn't be a problem but for some reason it's causing that issue in your system.

[krick]

I'm not sure, but I would guess it's trying 800x600i.  It's just rolling vertically whatever it is.

Have you tried fiddling with your monitor controls (likely vertical hold) to see if you could stop the rolling?

[ahofle]

I'm not sure, but I would guess it's trying 800x600i.  It's just rolling vertically whatever it is.

Have you tried fiddling with your monitor controls (likely vertical hold) to see if you could stop the rolling?

I haven't, because I've finally gotten it to the point where every other resolution is perfect so I'm a little afraid to mess with the vertical hold for fear of causing some other resolution to roll.  I will give that a shot though.

The weird thing is when I manually pick 640x480, it doesn't appear that anything is wrong except for the blank screen.  As I mentioned, when I press 'tab' I can see the MAME menus perfectly.  Just no game video.

[krick]

Are you picking 640x480 interlaced?

Incidentally, my 15KHz arcade monitor (Hantarex Polo 25) can actually do 800x600 interlaced.

I've only tried it with my ArcadeVGA 3000 though.  I need to try it with a normal ATI card + Calamity's hacked drivers.

[ahofle]

Yeah 640x480 interlaced.  Well I got the 'auto' resolution working, but the screen is blank also just like it is when I force 640x480.  Again, I can hear the game, but no video.  I can see the MAME menus perfectly fine though.  Any ideas?

[krick]

If the MAME menus are working, then the resolution is working in GroovyMAME.

On my monitor, vector games are really dark, maybe you just need to adjust the display settings for vector games.

Try creating a vector.ini file with only the following contents as a starting point, then adjust to taste...

Code: [Select]

#
# CORE SCREEN OPTIONS
#
brightness 1.0
contrast 2.0
gamma 2.0
#
# CORE VECTOR OPTIONS
#
antialias 1
beam 2.0
flicker 0


[ahofle]

Yeah it's definitely not the brightness -- those settings didn't make a difference.  I also swapped out groovymame for a regular MAME build and it worked fine.  Weird, any ideas?  Worst case is I'll have to keep another MAME version for vector games.

[krick]

Try some older versions of GroovyMAME, maybe something is broken.

I know for a fact that asteroids worked on my cabinet with groovymame64_0142.012o.exe

Also try removing all artwork files, if you're using them with MAME.

And be sure you create a clean mame.ini

[Calamity]

Hi ahofle,

There is an issue that I've been able to reproduce, not exactly with vector games but definitely when trying to force a resolution. The screen gets blank as you say but the menus are ok. However I've noticed it works fine when using -video ddraw. I'll work to fix this but by now try if this workaround works for you.

[ahofle]

Thanks I'll give ddraw a shot and report back!
I was under the impression that d3d was required for magic_resolutions, is that not the case?

[Calamity]

Thanks I'll give ddraw a shot and report back!
I was under the impression that d3d was required for magic_resolutions, is that not the case?

Yes, some people reported problems when using magic resolutions + ddraw, but I've never experienced that myself. However, you can enable -video ddraw in vector.ini only, just in case.

[ahofle]

Well I believe that fixed it!  However, I can't seem to get 640x480 set again. 
What is the correct way to force 640x480?  I tried:
resolution 640x480
resolution0 640x480
magic_resolution 640x480
in vector.ini and it's still not working.

[Calamity]

Yes, it's a tricky thing to get a resolution forced in GroovyMAME, actually it's not designed for forcing things that way, I'll need to modify it so that this is possible.

The only option that more or less worked for me was:

- resolution 640x480

(if resolution0 was used it ended up recooking the resolution)

[ahofle]

Doesn't seem to be working.  I've attached the output from gmame...