I finally got this to work w/ my Sharp TV. It looks fantastic! Thanks for the help rCadeGaming.
I got the Crescendo transcoder you recommended. I haven't made any adjustments yet (i.e. V-Width, H-Width, or gamma). Did you adjust the transcoder or just use PowerStrip?
You'll notice in the TC1600 manual (pdf can be found on the website) that these settings are set to an automatic mode. You can open it up and change a jumper to get full control of this, but I'd recommend leaving it in auto. It's best to make all the adjustments on the computer end, so that they'll be associated with individual resolutions.
BTW, these transcoders can be used to get RGB video out of your PC Engine/TurboGrafx, Genesis/Megadrive, SNES, Saturn, PS1,2,3, or Gamecube with the proper wiring; along with anything else that can do straight VGA of course, like the Dreamcast or XBox/XBox 360.
I still need to figure out how to use PowerStrip to adjust the geometry. Using Windows in 320x240 is kinda painful. Any tips for this step?
For windows, you can normally use 480i on the TV, but if you're adjusting specific resolutions in Powerstrip you will have to use it in whatever res you're working with. Get Powerstrip into advanced timing options, and scroll the window to the numeric horizontal and vertical adjustments. Make adjustments here, not with the arrows. It will be more useful and you'll learn more. You should read up on what all of these values mean.
To set up a specific res for a game, it can be useful to get Windows and the game running in the same res, so you can alt-tab between to Powerstrip and the game to adjust and test on the fly. Also don't forget that a lot of games have useful test patterns in the service menus.
Also, it looks like there are dozens of different 15khz resolutions used by arcade games. Do I need to use Power Strip to adjust the geometry for each one?
Yes, kind of.
Note that most games run on hardware that's shared with a lot of other games. For example, Street Fighter II runs on CPS-2 hardware, so once you've tweaked up Street Fighter II just right, you can tell MAME to use those setting for all CPS-2 games, as well as CPS-1 and CPS-3 since it uses the same resolution.
Same thing with NEO GEO, once you've set up one NEO GEO game, you're done tweaking for all of them, etc. There's not too many games you'll be concerned with that ran on totally unique hardware.
For example, right click on Super Street Fighter II in MAME. Instead of clicking "Properties," click "Properties for cps2.c." The changes made here will apply to all CPS-2 games (unless they are overruled by changes made for specific games, watch out for this).
After you've set up a CPS-2 game, open MAME's folder list. Select "Source" and you'll see a list of all the different types of hardware in MAME. Click on "cps2.c" to find all the CPS-2 games.
Note that to really get things running perfectly, you should be matching the refresh rate you're outputting to the original refresh rate of the game.
Right click a game and select "Properties" to see the game's native resolution and refresh rate, listed as "screen."
Geometry changes in Powerstrip will alter the refresh rate. Set your geometry first and then tweak the refresh rate. This can be done without affecting geometry by adjusting vertical front porch. I think, it might be back porch. Anyway, I haven't worked on this in a few months, it's one of those and it could vary depending on your display.
As you're adjusting things, the screen may start warping, then flickering, then just freaking out. This is because you're reaching the limits of what horizontal or vertical scan rates the TV can display. Learn what values can adjust scan rates without affecting geometry. Then, when your geometry seems to reach its limit, use that value to bring the scan rate back in line, and then you may be able to push the geometry a little further.
When you start messing with a resolution, take note of what the original values were in case you need to go back.
In advanced timing options, you can right click on the little icon just to right to of the cancel button to create a desktop shortcut to the current settings.
When you get good enough with Powerstrip, you can move around the numeric values with tab and shift-tab and adjust with the arrow keys to adjust blindly. This can be used to tune in some resolutions that don't seem to work at first. If you want to try this, it's very helpful to have a firm grasp of what all the values mean. Try starting with a resolution from Soft15kHz that looks like it just barely doesn't work.
Now, you may notice that you might need two different versions of the same resolution so you can have different geometry or refresh rates for different games. You'll have to either make compromises, or get into GroovyMAME or AdvanceMAME to deal with this. I might be coding this into my custom Front-End but that is a long way off.
***If anyone has any tricks for two timings of the same resolution in Powerstrip, speak up!***
If you read the way the shortcuts work, it looks like you may be able to control Powerstrip through the command prompt, but I haven't played with this yet.
Example: "C:\Program Files\PowerStrip\PStrip.exe" /t:1280,54,136,130,720,33,3,25,59921,336
Also, you can use MAME's slider controls (press TAB in game, go down to slider controls) to adjust the picture up/down/left/right a little for individual games. ONLY use the position controls, as the stretch controls will ruin your native res. Leave these at 1.00.
Edit: Powerstrip will list refresh rate as halved (around 30Hz) for interlaced resolutions because it's referring to the number of complete frames per second. You're still putting out around 60 fields per second whether you're running in interlaced or progressive. It's just that in progressive one field = one frame, whereas in interlaced every two fields are combined to produce one frame.
Frustration town over here in the Notbillcosby world...
I went to the post office to pick up my Radeon 9200SE PCI card that I ordered. What's the sticker on the bottom say?
Radeon 9250
...which is the card I already own and can't get working. I want to punch someone in the mouth. Hopefully my computer will recognize it as a 9200se magically somehow... Otherwise, I really hope those modified drivers listed above work for me, and that I can get a refund on this bunk Ebay purchase. Now I have to wait 12 more hours before I can install the card and see what Windows has to say about it. Yuck.
That's lame. Try octopus's drivers. Hopefully the sticker is wrong somehow, but if you were mislead into buying something other than what was advertised I would lean hard on that guy. He should pay a full refund including shipping and return shipping.
-
Here are some important MAME settings. Set MAME's defaults to this (Options -> Default Game Options, or mame.ini), and make further adjustment per hardware or per game. This should usually involve just setting the resolution.
#
# CORE PERFORMANCE OPTIONS
#
autoframeskip 0 <---depends on game
frameskip 0
seconds_to_run 0
throttle 1 <--- can't remember about this one, this is how I have it working currently
sleep 0
speed 1.0
refreshspeed 0 <---important, leave this at 0
#
# WINDOWS VIDEO OPTIONS
#
video ddraw <---extremely important
numscreens 1
window 0
maximize 1
keepaspect 1
prescale 1
effect none
waitvsync 0
syncrefresh 1 <---important, leave this at 1
#
# DIRECTDRAW-SPECIFIC OPTIONS
#
hwstretch 0 <---extremely important, leave this at 0
#
# FULL SCREEN OPTIONS
#
triplebuffer 0 <---don't use this, it causes lag
switchres 1
full_screen_brightness 1.0
full_screen_contrast 1.0
full_screen_gamma 1.0Keep autoframeskip at 0 if your pc can handle it. If it can't run a game at 100% use auto by setting it to 1.
Using directdraw with hardware stretch off will ensure native resolutions.
Syncrefresh runs the game at your output refresh speed, and prevents tearing. If you get audio stuttering, it's because you haven't matched your refresh rate closely enough the game's original rate. Autoframeskip is a workaround to fix this, but it's best to match refresh rates.
-
Finally, one very important final note. You will find that you can't actually get every singe arcade resolution running. You don't have to, you just need something close, but a bit larger.
After setting MAME up to use directdraw with hardware stretch off, trying running a CPS-2 game in 640x480 (480i if you're on the TV). You should see that the native res is being displayed in the center with a lot of black pixels around the sides to fill out the rest of the resolution. This is very useful. (You may not see this if the display resolution is double or more the native, it may still stretch)
I can't get the CPS-2's 384x224 working on my setup. What I do is run it in 392x240, which works very nicely. I adjust the geometry of this resolution so the black letterbox is outside the physical viewing area of the TV. The result is that I'm seeing the game on the TV in perfect native res. Each original pixel is reproduced 1 for 1. It just happens that there are extra black pixels around the sides, but I can't see them.
Similarly, I run NEO-GEO games (320x224) in 320x240.
Home
Help
Search
Login
Register
Send this topic
Print
Topic: Newbie TV walkthrough, please! (Read 94592 times)
