Mame Resolution/Size & Screen Settings

[deano728]

Hi all,

I've never been efficient at finding the correct resolution for a given game.  Usually, I go into Mame32 and then go to the game, click on properties and then look at the games best resolution.  This is the point where I lose any structure...

Questions I have:
1. why is there a "properties" option and then "properties for contra.c" with each having different screen resolutions?
2. What does the "switch resolutions to fit" option do?

I feel if I understood how these all relate to each other, I might be able to get more efficient at changing the resolution to best fit the monitor.  It seems that many games are very small on the screen, squiggly and unplayable, or in the case of contra, too small and hanging off of the screen so you can't see the bottom level of gameplay.  As in the case of Contra, I've spent 20 minutes and am no closer to playing than when I started.

Thanks in advance!
Dean

[UFO]

Are you trying to match your PC screen resolution to that of the game?

I have never needed to mess with any individual game resolutions, they just run on the monitor resolution I have set in Windows.

Is this what you are asking?

[deano728]

I should have added more detail initially, sorry.

I have a MAME cab with a multi-resolution 19" arcade monitor.  So half of my games need to have the resolution on the computer adjusted so that it displays correctly. For some reason, I've been having more trouble lately and I never really understood what the different settings were in Mame32, I just would keep modifying things until it works.  The kids have just got to the age of exploring new games and sometimes, they appear super small on the monitor.  It sure would be nice to have some guidance on how to match up the resolution so that it displays correctly on the monitor.

Thanks for asking a clarifying question - it was my bad for not including enough info so that people knew what I was talking about.

Dean

[adder]

are you using direct3d or directdraw video mode in the mame32 Display settings?

'properties for contra.c' would change all the games which use the contra.c driver in mame, which in this case would be all the contra clones including gryzor, so it would allow you to change properties for all of those games at once, as opposed to changing properties for just one game at a time when u just choose 'properties' (instead of 'properties for contra.c')

'switch resolutions to fit' is a feature in mame which tells mame to use one of the several different resolutions available in windows to display the game (some people have hundreds of different resolutions at hand in order to display the huge amount of different resolutions found in mame). if you disable this feature, then, when mame runs a game, it will only use whatever your current desktop resolution is set at (eg. 1024x768) to display ALL games.

if you dont want to lose any parts of the screen, use the direct3d video mode in mame32, and disable 'switch resolutions to fit'. all games you play will now fill your entire screen (vertically at least.. horizontally, perhaps some black borders on the left and right).. however, to achieve this, mame will apply stretching/scaling of the image. this bothers some people, others dont care.

edit: i just noticed u say u are using an arcade monitor? i was assuming you were using a regular pc monitor. would need more information then. what os u are using, which version of mame, what other software are u running, and what hardware (video card). how are u connecting the arcade monitor to your pc, what are your arcade monitor specs (if not sure, what model is it), and what you hope to achieve in the end (eg. 1. every game in mame looking perfect and how you remember them in the arcades, or instead, 2. just get everything to fill the screen, and not bothered about some stretching/scaling) ... if 1.. perhaps an arcadevga video card would make your life easier. if 2. perhaps just use a pc monitor instead of an arcade monitor. you'll see less visible stretching/scaling on a pc monitor because it can handle much higher resolutions as opposed to arcade monitors (low res arcade monitors look awful when scaling/stretching is applied. its just too noticeable. you could use an interlace mode on the arcade monitor to help reduce the visible scaling/stretching, but a lot of people dont like interlace mode due to the often excessive flicker for one thing)

[deano728]

Hi, jadder, thanks for the response.  Here are the answers…
1.  Windows XP
2.  ArcadeVGA3000 to connect the monitor via usb
3.  Not sure of the MAME – I compiled it a few years ago.  Is there an easy way to find out?
4.  I bought my monitor 25” trimode in 2008 from Nieman Displays - http://niemandisplays.com/

My goal is not to be perfect, just to find how good I can get it more efficiently 

The detailed answer you provided was very informative - thanks so much for taking the time to pass along that great information.  I really appreciate it...

Dean

[adder]

hi again your monitor seems decent and sounds like it can handle a lot of different screen modes
it should be easy to find out what version of mame you are running, just launch mame32, click on the 'help' menu then click 'about'

the arcadevga3000 should take some of the workload off you hopefully (i havnt used one myself but hopefully it generally picks the correct resolutions for you)

it's a bit hard to give specific instructions on how you should proceed but i'd say just try to get stuck in and read up as much as you can and experiment with settings. if you get stuck at certain points of the project hopefully the good folks here can help =] im not sure exactly why you are having problems with eg. contra.. i guess u will have to just keep experimenting with mame video settings and resolutions. try to determine what resolution contra is trying to run in which is causing the display to look funny, and then avoid using that resolution (it sounds like for contra mame is switching to a certain resolution which your monitor doesnt like)