XM2960 not providing proper double'scan for medium resolution games.

[NightSprinter]

Hey Calamity, as you requested, I'm going to provide the  config file for groovymame and switchres to see if we can't find out what is causing the issues with medium resolution games being forced into 15KHz interlace.  ALso figure out why I'm getting limitations as to why groovymame cannot go beyond 48KHz horizontal for certain games.

thie configuration for the monitor is a challenge to get right, mostly due to several medium-res games being 512x384 (or in the case of a game like War Gods, having a vertical resolution of 400 lines).

[Calamity]

Hi NightSprinter,

Please post a log of the specific games, the logic behind the decisions is written in there, I have a slight idea of what's going on but better to see a log.

[NightSprinter]

No problem, here's quite a few logs, including ones from a couple of games that also use upwards of 480i natively (Popeye at 448i and Bloody Roar 2 at 480i, but the game locks up during the intro video.. CHD issue?).

[Calamity]

Ok, have a look at this log:

SwitchRes: Monitor range 15750.00-16250.00,45.00-80.00,0.900,4.700,8.400,0.062,0.062,0.740,0,0,160,288,320,448
SwitchRes: Monitor range 48363.00-50750.00,50.00-61.00,0.369,2.092,2.462,0.062,0.124,0.600,0,0,480,800,0,0

SwitchRes: v0.014b:[bnzabros] Calculating best video mode for 496x384@57.524158 orientation: normal

   rng(0):  496 x 384_57.524i 15.790 [integ] scale(1, 1, 1) diff(0.00, 0.00, 0.0000) ratio(1.000, 1.000)
   rng(1): 1072 x 800_57.524p 48.378 [fract] scale(2, 2, 1) diff(0.00, 11.41, 0.0000) ratio(2.161, 2.083)


You're defining crt_range0 to interlace input resolutions between 320-448. This means that 384 will be considered as a candidate to be interlaced in that range. So the first step is to set this range a bit higher, like this:

crt_range0 15750.00-16250.00,45.00-80.00,0.900,4.700,8.400,0.062,0.062,0.740,0,0,160,288,448,480

Second, you need to redirect those resolutions to the second range. You do this by lowering the progressive range there:

crt_range1 48363.00-50750.00,50.00-61.00,0.369,2.092,2.462,0.062,0.124,0.600,0,0,384,800,0,0

It's not quite clear to me why you want these resolutions doublescanned, shouldn't your monitor be able to show them at real 25 kHz (maybe you already tested this, I can't remember right now).

Regarding the games that originally run interlaced, like Popeye, we have a problem because MAME just reports 448@60Hz, so there's no way GM can figure out these were interlaced. The only workaround is to create an ini file for these games removing crt_range1 (set as "auto").

[NightSprinter]

Following your advice, things just start to get quite bizarre.  I'm going to include logs from both Bloody Roar 2 and Super Sprint after the changes were made.  The medium resolution games get squashed into what looks like a 16:9 letterbox, while games that can run at 640x480i get reduced to 512x480i.

[Calamity]

My fault!

crt_range0 15750.00-16250.00,45.00-80.00,0.900,4.700,8.400,0.062,0.062,0.740,0,0,160,288,448,480
crt_range1 48363.00-50750.00,50.00-61.00,0.369,2.092,2.462,0.062,0.124,0.600,0,0,448,800,0,0

By setting the progressive lines min value 384 in the second range I was telling GM that is was fine to do it as single-scan, regardless the absurd aspect ratio. Now it will be forced to upscale it to 768p.

So for 496x384, it will calculate two modelines:

- range0: 496x384 interlaced
- range1: 496x384 doublescan

-> range1 wins

Regarding the tekken3 / bloody roar, these games indeed are supposed to run at 512x480. They just switch resolutions while in game, and the one reported by MAME xml is just the "boot" resolution of those boards.

[NightSprinter]

Ok, we are definitely getting somewhere.  I'm still getting some really bizarre oddities.  Example being in this log from Rival Schools.  Also have throttling issues with SyncRefresh being disabled in games like War Gods.  Lastly, Popeye seems to be running to be running at 448p as both it and Tekken3 seem compressed slightly at top and bottom.  Also, for some reason I'm constantly having to put the system dpi back to 96 via command line whenever I run groovymame (or a game that would use a resolution I made with switchres).

[Calamity]

War Gods throttling issues may be the same ones people are seeing with Carnevil, both from Midway. I'm also seeing the problems here, it looks like it's related to how these games are emulated, nothing to do with the ranges.

Regarding Rival Schools, you didn't post the log.

Popeye is running as progressive because, as I explained, you'd need to use a custom preset for it to actually be interlaced. However, it's using 480 lines, same for Tekken, according to your logs.