What is 'CRT Emu Driver' : An Alternative ArcadeVGA and Soft 15Khz?

[c0dehunter]

Hello All,
In regards to the following post:

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=116371.0

ahofle says, and I quote: "Soft15khz is great, but honestly I don't understand why anyone would use it now that CRT Emu Driver is around.  You just install it, tell it what type of monitor you have and it generates correct resolutions with CORRECT REFRESH RATES for you. http://mame.groovy.org/"

I need to know if that these are series of video graphics drivers for any video card or not, and how to them?

Is it tied in with GroovyMAME?

Thanks a lot in advance!

[mazinger-z]

CRT EmuDriver only works with cards compatible with ATi Catalyst 6.5 / 9.3, because it's a patched version of those drivers. It expands the number of video modes your system can have (up to 200 with Catalyst 6.5 and XP 32bit, 120 with any other combination) and comes with VideoModeMaker, a powerful tool that will generate all the modelines for you based on:
- Your arcade monitor's specifications
- Your video card's lower limits (pixel clock and resolution)
- The modelines needed by the version of MAME you use, and ...
- A further set of desired modes that you can specify in a text file called ResList.txt
It also has the ability of updating the driver itself with the generated modelines, so you have them nice and ready the next time you install the driver.
CRT EmuDriver is great for any emulator, but GroovyMame really gets the best of it, because you can tell it your monitor's limits and it is able to alter the existing modelines on the fly (when starting a game), thus giving you a virtually unlimited number of modelines. If your hardware can't handle the needed video mode, it will choose the next best available mode and slightly alter the speed of the emulation, to keep it synchronized to the screen's refresh. This is also great for running vertical games on horizontal screens.
The nice news is that there's no need to set or tweak single modelines anymore, you tell these programs what you need, what hardware you have, and they will do all the work for you.

The only reason I can find for using Soft15KHz instead of CRT EmuDriver is not having a suitable video card for the latter.

[Gray_Area]

Even programming a couple/few particular modes with Soft15 is WAY less effort than using GroovyMAME and stuff.

[mazinger-z]

Even programming a couple/few particular modes with Soft15 is WAY less effort than using GroovyMAME and stuff.

I don't agree. Although CRT EmuDriver is oriented to the automatic generation of modelines rather than custom modeline programming, there are very simple ways to create, delete and edit resolutions.
With Soft15KHz, you add and remove resolutions by editing some text files. If you choose CRT EmuDriver instead, you can add and remove resolutions with an external application called WinModelines, and the effort is pretty much the same, as you are presented with a list of modelines that you edit like you were in a text editor. Furthermore, you can use ArcadeOSD (included in CRT EmuDriver) to edit your resolutions in realtime. Finally, there's the already mentioned ResList.txt, but that won't give you full control over the generated modes (the author says it will eventually, as development advances).
But I'd like to point out that the aim of CRT EmuDriver is reducing the need for particular modes to the minimum. For instance, emulators other than MAME. I had to create a custom 50Hz resolution for WinUAE which, by the way, is very arcade-monitor friendly and performs great in a cabinet.

[Calamity]

Even programming a couple/few particular modes with Soft15 is WAY less effort than using GroovyMAME and stuff.

Only problem being you need create more than a hundred particular modes...

[Gray_Area]

I did what was asked, and it didn't figure my monitor out. That was enough for me.

[ahofle]

It doesn't figure your monitor out, you describe it to the software.  Having used both, while I was able to get native resolutions with Soft15khz, I was never able to get perfect ones with exact refresh rates with no screen tearing.  It's amazing to see the games running at their correct resolutions/refresh rates.

[maiki]

I think using Windows for emulation is quite a nonsence in the first place. The real vsynced deals should be running in custom "ring 0" systems...

[Gray_Area]

I think using Windows for emulation is quite a nonsence in the first place. The real vsynced deals should be running in custom "ring 0" systems...

I think we....no, I'm sure.....we all know what you're talking about.....

[Calamity]

I think using Windows for emulation is quite a nonsence in the first place. The real vsynced deals should be running in custom "ring 0" systems...

I won't say that Windows is the best OS for emulation: it is not. You need to fight Windows in order to achieve custom video modes, etc.

But saying that you need to run in ring 0 for getting proper vsync is plain absurd.

16.7 ms is a lot of time for a modern computer. And you don't really need to be accurate to the third decimal place, you actually have a window of tolerance of about 1.28 ms (the duration of the vertical blanking interval). We're not talking of the Plank scale here. Any "recent" PC (5 years old) should be capable of doing perfect vsync under Windows XP.

However the ultimate video emulation should be synchronized to hsync rather than vsync. This would be too much for Windows, that's true. Existing emulators wouldn't support it anyway.

[Zebra]

Would anyone mind explaining what benefits I would get from using a "ring 0" system over one with Windows?

I am currently switching over from a Windows 7 / arcade vga setup to an XP / Crt emu one with a radeon 4890. I can't live with not being able to use accurate resolutions and refresh rates with the arcade vga. What could I do with ring 0 that I can't with crt emu?

As a man who values accurate emulation, I don't like the idea that there is a better option that I don't know about. Every time I think I have got the best emulation setup there is, I read about something better and I am no longer satisfied with what I have.

Btw, does anyone know if there is a disadvantage to using windows 7 over XP for crt emu drivers? My PC doesn't seem to want to install XP and keeps blue screening when I try (even with sata mode off or on IDE).

A part of me thinks it is a waste to use a copy of windows on a pc that only runs mame. I heard that free versions of Linux are just as user friendly and offer more flexibility. It seems like getting 15khz 240p from a Linux machine requires more technical knowledge though.

[bulbousbeard]

I won't say that Windows is the best OS for emulation: it is not.

It effectively is. Every high quality emulator runs as well as it possibly can on Windows, and other operating systems are missing many of the best emulators.

Windows still has the best support for various hardware configurations, and Windows has the most frontends of any operating system.

So yes, Windows is the best OS for emulation.