Software Support > GroovyMAME
GroovyMAME and vector games
krick:
I'll fiddle with the vertical shift tonight when I get home. It's possible that my monitor is just old and needs a cap kit. It's on my to-do list, but I'm afraid that I'll end up with something worse than what I started with, so I've been avoiding it.
The effect is as you say, once I get beyond a certain point with the vertical amplitude control, the interlaced images start to diverge and get progressively worse and more jumpy. Then if I keep going further, they align again, except it looks like there is a blank line, every-other line. I'll have to post a picture so you can see what it looks like. However, the image is so large that the top and bottom are severely cut off, so it's not usable for anything.
I want to experiment with some non-vector interlaced games to see if it's a vector problem or an interlace problem.
Can you suggest some interlaced vertical (and horizontal?) games that would be good to test with?
You never commented on the extra space at the top above the score. Is this normal, or is it a side effect of jamming a vertical game into a horizontal resolution?
Calamity:
For interlaced non-vector games, try running vertical games like: twincobr (54.8 Hz), donpachi (57.55Hz), 1945kiii (60 Hz).
The black gap on top of the tempest game seems to be by design, I can see it here too.
krick:
OK, I did a little more detective work with just vector games, and I think I figured out the problem.
My monitor has problems displaying certain interlaced resolutions over 50 Hz.
tempest, asteroid, and astdelux -- GroovyMAME picks: 768x512@60 -- all have the problem.
starwars, cchasm, mhavoc -- GroovyMAME picks: 768x576@50 (or 49.5) -- all are fine.
I didn't test every vector game, but the pattern so far is that any game with a refresh at 60 Hz, horizontal or vertical, has the problem on my monitor. So using my list of games in the first post of this thread, that would be...
horizontal @ 60Hz - astdelux, asteroid, bwidow, gravitar, redbaron, topgunnr
vertical @ 60Hz - quantum, raaspec, tempest
...again, this is just parent sets. Many of them have clones.
I tried manually forcing tempest to run at a different resolution, both from the command line and also from vector.ini and I wasn't successful, as I think GroovyMAME ignores the refresh rate.
I assume that any raster games running at these interlaced resolutions @60 Hz will also exhibit the same problem, but I haven't done any testing to be sure.
Also, during my testing, I found more games that display upside down and mirrored...
starcas, wotw, zektor, startrek, and spacfury (which I mentioned before)
...it seems like they're all 38 or 40 Hz games. The odd thing is that not all games in those two groups have the problem. I think that omegrace and bzone were OK, so I'm not sure what to make of that.
Calamity:
Hi krick, thanks for your tests.
--- Quote from: krick on January 08, 2013, 01:50:43 am ---OK, I did a little more detective work with just vector games, and I think I figured out the problem.
My monitor has problems displaying certain interlaced resolutions over 50 Hz.
tempest, asteroid, and astdelux -- GroovyMAME picks: 768x512@60 -- all have the problem.
starwars, cchasm, mhavoc -- GroovyMAME picks: 768x576@50 (or 49.5) -- all are fine.
--- End quote ---
Well it could be that, or possibly the horizontal frequency (being the vertical frequency a derived factor but not the cause). In order to discard this, if you had a chance test tempest and starwars, and see which horizontal frequency is calculated for each of them. If it's more or less the same, then the problem is definitely vertical refresh related.
--- Quote ---I tried manually forcing tempest to run at a different resolution, both from the command line and also from vector.ini and I wasn't successful, as I think GroovyMAME ignores the refresh rate.
--- End quote ---
Yeah, that will only work for the resolution, but the refresh is overridden by GM. There's something you can do however, you can define custom monitor specs in vector.ini that only affect the vertical games, and there redefine the vertical frequency work ranges.
--- Quote ---Also, during my testing, I found more games that display upside down and mirrored...
--- End quote ---
I definitely need to have a look at that, adding it to my to-do list.
krick:
--- Quote from: Calamity on January 09, 2013, 01:05:53 pm ---
Well it could be that, or possibly the horizontal frequency (being the vertical frequency a derived factor but not the cause). In order to discard this, if you had a chance test tempest and starwars, and see which horizontal frequency is calculated for each of them. If it's more or less the same, then the problem is definitely vertical refresh related.
--- End quote ---
I attached logs from both games earlier in this thread. I'm not sure where in the logs the chosen horizontal frequency shows up.
However, when diff-ing the two logs with BeyondCompare, I see that Tempest actually starts out at 640x480, then does a resolution switch to 480x640. Could this be relevant?
Also, why isn't Tempest defined with a vertical resolution in MAME in the first place?