MAME Display Issues

[jpfloyd84]

I really don't know where to post this on this forum but I figured this is a good start... any help is much appreciated! I am having some difficulty displaying MAME with my ArcadeVGA 3000 card. I have this hooked up to a 19 inch arcade LCD monitor and am using Hyperspin as my frontend. I know this is a MAME issue because Hyperspin works perfect and the issues only arise when MAME opens up to play a game.

I edited my MAME.ini file as Ultimarc said to do in order to get the most out of the ArcadeVGA (direct draw, hardware stretching off, and switchres on). When MAME starts up the window is right in the middle of the screen and there is a black border all the way around (I have attached a picture of this issue). I am wanting to get my picture to full screen and get the most out of the ArcadeVGA so I am hoping someone can help me out. I am at a dead end with my research and am looking to forums for help. Surely someone has encountered this issue before. Thanks ahead of time for the help!

[Applekid]

On the Ultimarc page, it warns that some LCDs can't display the Mortal Kombat resolutions (400x256).  Who did your get your monitor from?

Are you sure it's switching to the right resolution? For me, vanilla MAME doesn't select the right resolution on my ArcadeVGA for me. The picture is squashed in the horizontal and the timings on the OSD aren't in the ballpark, so I wonder if your LCD is compensating along the vertical to match.

Just to be sure it's not something simple like that, replace "resolution auto" in your mame.ini with "resolution 400x256" and see if it works out.

[matsadona]

Isn't the main benefit with the ArcadeVGA boards lost when using a LCD monitor?

[sandheaver]

Isn't the main benefit with the ArcadeVGA boards lost when using a LCD monitor?

It's an arcade LCD monitor, it should behave exactly as an arcade monitor in all respects, and it will be limited in the ways that LCDs are limited and capable of things that CRT arcade monitors are not.

That said, blue VGA cable from a standard video card would probably work more smoothly if you don't want to fiddle with MAME resolution settings per-game.

[mgb]

It definitely looks like your resolution is set wrong.
Make sure you don't have some crazy resolution set in the mame.ini

Also have you tried messing with a program like Mame Resolution Tool?
  I used that for setting up ini files for each game so that they play in their native resolution. 
 It's a great program and you can experiment and tweak the resolutions nice.

[matsadona]

Isn't the main benefit with the ArcadeVGA boards lost when using a LCD monitor?

It's an arcade LCD monitor, it should behave exactly as an arcade monitor in all respects, and it will be limited in the ways that LCDs are limited and capable of things that CRT arcade monitors are not.

In some aspect I would disagree since a LCD screen has a fixed set of pixels in the panel. Depending on the hardware, which I don’t know any details about, it might be better to do the scaling in MAME – I.e. always use the native resolution for the monitor. But maybe there is some advanced scaling features in the hardware that can benefit from receiving very specific and non-standard resolutions.
Just because the vendor says it is an “arcade monitor” it doesn’t necessary behave like a CRT monitor. That is basically what I was aiming for in my initial post.

[sandheaver]

Right, but these are industrial monitors.  They are designed to work, without intervention (except minor adjustment), in arcade cabinets, just like CRT monitors, and not necessarily MAME, just like CRT monitors.

Arcade LCD monitors should scale up the display if the signal being sent to it is supported. 

If the blue VGA cable is being used (and maybe it is) then I agree with you that the PC should always send the native monitor resolution and size the image before the monitor sees it. 

If the monitor is acting as an RGB arcade monitor, then the arcade monitor should be doing all of the scaling to native resolution.

If the monitor is connected as RGB and MAME is sending a signal that is not supported by the monitor, then it is MAME's fault this is occurring; MAME should pick a better resolution to send.  That can/should be done if this is the case.

If the monitor is connected via RGB and MAME is sending the proper signal for that game, then that signal is not supported by that monitor, and the ArcadeVGA should be replaced with a normal card and the blue VGA cable should be used.

The proper test/proof would be to connect the monitor to an actual MK board with RGB and observe the results.  If that display is good then MAME is at fault.  If the display is the same (shrunken) then the monitor does not support something about that signal and VGA should be utilized.

AppleKid's response should be heeded.