GroovyMAME + ArcadeVGA 3000 + Powerstrip

[sean_sk]

(Edit: comes from this thread: http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,134915.0.html)

Great thread Calamity.

Your post was single handedly responsible for motivating me to do the same.

One thing you did mention:

for a standard arcade monitor and a properly calibrated GroovyMAME setup, only V-SIZE is actually required in order to make all games fit the screen:

How would I go about properly calibrating GroovyMAME.

I'm running Windows 7 x64 with an ArcadeVGA 3000 and am using the following custom setting which I obtained from the values given to me by Powerstrip. I wasn't able to use ArcadeOSD as it doesn't seem to work with the AVGA due to the locked resolutions.

crt_range0                15625-16500, 49.50-65.00, 2.420, 4.840, 7.562, 0.064, 0.192, 1.024, 0, 0, 192, 288, 448, 576

This was based on 640x240 and seems to center 240 line games ok, but not perfectly. Other resolutions are usually off by a bit.

With Powerstrip I was able to center each resolution and then save the profile for that resolution. Unfortunately, with it not being purchased I get the "tips" nag screen on startup so I was thinking of buying it so I could get rid of the nags. But before doing so I was wondering if it were possible to add custom settings in mame.ini to center each resolution. Is this possible?

Thanks

[Calamity]

Hi sean_skroht,

I've split this topic because I think it's interesting to have a separate thread for this.

Short answer: currently, you can't use GroovyMAME to apply your own manual Powerstrip settings. In the near future, you will.

So, if you find you can use Powerstrip succesfully to adjust your ArcadeVGA modes, consider purchasing it.

Using a custom crt_range with the ArcadeVGA 3000 only makes sense if you've enabled the -powerstrip option too, which I'm assuming you have. Play with the front/back porches until you get a couple of values that works the best for most cases, it doesn't necessarily have to be the exact figures you got from Powerstrip. Sometimes increasing/reducing them by 10% is required to avoid that rounding to the nearest integer when calculating those values makes the result jump too far from the theoretical value. Leave the sync pulse as 4.700, that's the standard for TV.

[sean_sk]

Hi Calamity,

Thanks for your reply.

Short answer: currently, you can't use GroovyMAME to apply your own manual Powerstrip settings. In the near future, you will.

I'm REALLY looking forward to this feature.

The problem I'm having at the moment is that I have shelled Hyperspin on my arcade cabinet and have set it to start up Powerstrip in its "Startup Program" option, but Hyperspin is losing focus to Powerstrip, despite the fact it still stays full screen. So I have to get the mouse out and click on the button a couple of times so I can get it back into focus and start using the menu controls. In HyperHQ I have set Powerstrip to start "MINIMZED"  but it still doesn't help. I haven't been able to find a solution to this problem yet.

So if you are going to implement this feature it will solve my issue, since i won't have to use Hyerspin to run Powerstrip on system startup.

Using a custom crt_range with the ArcadeVGA 3000 only makes sense if you've enabled the -powerstrip option too, which I'm assuming you have.

Yep I have that on.

Leave the sync pulse as 4.700, that's the standard for TV.

This might seem like a stupid question but does this also apply to arcade CRT monitors, which I have in my arcade cab? It's just that you mentioned TV and wondered if you were referring to just a standard CRT television or whether you were referring to ALL CRT screens.

Thanks mate.

[Calamity]

This might seem like a stupid question but does this also apply to arcade CRT monitors, which I have in my arcade cab? It's just that you mentioned TV and wondered if you were referring to just a standard CRT television or whether you were referring to ALL CRT screens.

Arcade monitors originally were much like NTSC TVs because that was the technology available at the time, that's why arcade games used a video signal that was similar to the NTSC timing so they could work with those CRT devices. This is where the 4.7 microseconds value comes from:



(actual games will use different values, specially regarding the porch sizes because unlike arcade games, TV signal is supposed to be overscanned).

So the idea is this: the 4.7 value is somewhat universal, so any 15 kHz monitor will support it. But it's quite possible that if yours is a modern 15 kHz monitor it will be able to sync even with much shorter values.

[Sledge]

Using a custom crt_range with the ArcadeVGA 3000 only makes sense if you've enabled the -powerstrip option too, which I'm assuming you have.

Do you have to enable the -powerstrip option?
I only use the custom crt_range to limit the lines to 256
although now that i have the adjustable v-size pot set up, i won't need to do that either i guess.. switch back to the ms929 preset..

[sean_sk]

Using a custom crt_range with the ArcadeVGA 3000 only makes sense if you've enabled the -powerstrip option too, which I'm assuming you have.

Hi Calamity,

I've realized that I don't actually have -powerstrip option set to 1. When I did I was getting wobbly graphics in games. Powerstrip is also running in the background. What would cause that and how can I fix it?

Thanks mate.

[Calamity]

Using a custom crt_range with the ArcadeVGA 3000 only makes sense if you've enabled the -powerstrip option too, which I'm assuming you have.

Do you have to enable the -powerstrip option?
I only use the custom crt_range to limit the lines to 256
although now that i have the adjustable v-size pot set up, i won't need to do that either i guess.. switch back to the ms929 preset..

Ok, I was oversimplifying when I said that. You can certainly use custom crt_range lines without the -powerstrip options in order to define line limits, as you're saying.

[Calamity]

Hi Calamity,

I've realized that I don't actually have -powerstrip option set to 1. When I did I was getting wobbly graphics in games. Powerstrip is also running in the background. What would cause that and how can I fix it?

Thanks mate.

Yes, this has been confirmed by other AVGA 3000 users. Unfortunately we can't simply pass raw modelines through Powerstrip to an AVGA as we would do through the normal driver based method. If we do, chances are many of the selected dotclock values end up with unstable video. Only workaround is using manually precalculated modelines that we have succesfully tested through Powerstrip. But this is still not possible (it will).

[Calamity]

But this is still not possible (it will).

This is now possible