CRTEmuDriver for Windows 7 test results

[8BitMonk]

Ok seemed to run fine with those turned off, thanks. Must've just been the anycatalyst giving it a problem.

Calamity, did you  notice that 2560x496 is listed twice?

[Calamity]

Ok seemed to run fine with those turned off, thanks. Must've just been the anycatalyst giving it a problem.

Calamity, did you  notice that 2560x496 is listed twice?

Yeah, I already fixed that in the updated files: http://geedorah.com/eiusdemmodi/forum/viewtopic.php?id=65

[8BitMonk]

It's still duped in the ResList - super.txt file in that download.

2560 x 496 @ 60.000000 super
2560 x 496 @ 60.000000 super

[cools]

It's fixed in the driver download, just not in the separated VMMaker/OSD one.

[Calamity]

It's fixed in the driver download, just not in the separated VMMaker/OSD one.

Thanks, I'll fix it.

[blontic]

Anybody having any issues with win7 and hyperspin? I am using super resolutions and I can load groovymame directly and games look great. But Hyperspin just doesn't start. If I remote to the PC it works so it does seem like a driver issue.

[Sledge]

Win7 and Hyperspin work fine for me..

[lettuce]

Ok seemed to run fine with those turned off, thanks. Must've just been the anycatalyst giving it a problem.

Calamity, did you  notice that 2560x496 is listed twice?

Ok excuses my ignorance but why would you want a res that's 2560???

[Calamity]

Anybody having any issues with win7 and hyperspin? I am using super resolutions and I can load groovymame directly and games look great. But Hyperspin just doesn't start. If I remote to the PC it works so it does seem like a driver issue.

How many custom video modes are listed by ArcadeOSD (or how many lines do you have inside Modeline.txt)?

[Calamity]

Ok excuses my ignorance but why would you want a res that's 2560???

Because at such a high resolution you can do fractional stretching on the horizontal axis without any visible artifacts while keeping the vertical integer scaled.

[adder]

Hi Lettuce, have a read of this lot linked below, some really good information here which helped me as i was quite lost with groovymame and related tools, but this lot below helps
http://geedorah.com/eiusdemmodi/forum/viewforum.php?id=1

[adder]

....at such a high resolution you can do fractional stretching on the horizontal axis without any visible artifacts while keeping the vertical integer scaled.

Calamity, i was wondering regarding this scaling, does it make no difference in the 'quality' of this scaling depending on if you are using direct3d or directdraw?

[lettuce]

Ok excuses my ignorance but why would you want a res that's 2560???

Because at such a high resolution you can do fractional stretching on the horizontal axis without any visible artifacts while keeping the vertical integer scaled.

ah so its for 31hz monitors to achieve a 15khz resolution?

[blontic]

Anybody having any issues with win7 and hyperspin? I am using super resolutions and I can load groovymame directly and games look great. But Hyperspin just doesn't start. If I remote to the PC it works so it does seem like a driver issue.

How many custom video modes are listed by ArcadeOSD (or how many lines do you have inside Modeline.txt)?

Hi Calamity,

I have 14 lines in my modeline.txt file. Groovymame is running correctly it's just Hyperspin doesn't even start. When I installed the GPU drivers I had to install the MS Visual C++ 2010 redist before it would work otherwise I would get errors. http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=26999

Hyperspin works if I RDP to the PC just not when ran locally.

The driver install said it only installed 1 driver but in Add/Remove programs I can see 3 (see attachment) Just wondering if it's correct.

I also added the following lines to the top of my ume.ini file. Not sure if that's correct
      resolution 2560x0
      cleanstretch 2

Thanks,

b

[Sledge]

Ok excuses my ignorance but why would you want a res that's 2560???

Because at such a high resolution you can do fractional stretching on the horizontal axis without any visible artifacts while keeping the vertical integer scaled.

ah so its for 31hz monitors to achieve a 15khz resolution?

Not at all...
If i understand it correctly (kind of)... it's just an ultrawide resolution but with the correct height.. and the picture we want is 'plonked' in the middle with the 'extra' horizontal lines stretching off the sides of the screen...

[cools]

....at such a high resolution you can do fractional stretching on the horizontal axis without any visible artifacts while keeping the vertical integer scaled.

Calamity, i was wondering regarding this scaling, does it make no difference in the 'quality' of this scaling depending on if you are using direct3d or directdraw?

I'm using directdraw here (Win 7) and there are no scaling artifacts.

[lettuce]

Ok excuses my ignorance but why would you want a res that's 2560???

Because at such a high resolution you can do fractional stretching on the horizontal axis without any visible artifacts while keeping the vertical integer scaled.

ah so its for 31hz monitors to achieve a 15khz resolution?

Not at all...
If i understand it correctly (kind of)... it's just an ultrawide resolution but with the correct height.. and the picture we want is 'plonked' in the middle with the 'extra' horizontal lines stretching off the sides of the screen...

Right ok, so what's the benefit of doing this then over having a normal 4:3 resolution?, I take it this is 100% safe to use on 15khz monitors then?

[cools]

The CRT_Emudriver benefit is you only need half a dozen resolutions in the registry. There's no significant benefit to this other than Windows 7 loading more quickly. There are some* (* I don't remember which) games that have black side borders when an exact width mode isn't available natively. On a super resolution setup these go full screen width.

Depending on your monitor, you may only need (once there's a GM bug fixed) 1 or 2 custom "super" resolutions in the registry to support every game in MAME.

However, on a *non* ATi supported card - provided you can create a custom "super" resolution (Intel and Nvidia drivers support this) you can get excellent GroovyMAME results without resolution switching by using cleanstretch 2 and this super res. You run Windows and GM in 2560x480@60, and a good percentage of games behave properly (bar some being too fast/too slow) - this also avoids the picture/sync collapse you get when moving from frontend to game and back.

[lettuce]

The CRT_Emudriver benefit is you only need half a dozen resolutions in the registry. There's no significant benefit to this other than Windows 7 loading more quickly. There are some* (* I don't remember which) games that have black side borders when an exact width mode isn't available natively. On a super resolution setup these go full screen width.

Depending on your monitor, you may only need (once there's a GM bug fixed) 1 or 2 custom "super" resolutions in the registry to support every game in MAME.

However, on a *non* ATi supported card - provided you can create a custom "super" resolution (Intel and Nvidia drivers support this) you can get excellent GroovyMAME results without resolution switching by using cleanstretch 2 and this super res. You run Windows and GM in 2560x480@60, and a good percentage of games behave properly (bar some being too fast/too slow) - this also avoids the picture/sync collapse you get when moving from frontend to game and back.

Thanks Cools

When Claimity officially releases 0.155 ill start playing around with this on my new 15khz monitor, just need to decided weather Win 7 or XP x64 is best.

Did you ever get a satisfactory outcome when you were trying a 31khz monitor to play 15khz games back last year?

[cools]

Yes, it didn't require these but I'm using them anyway for the boot speed. The settings are all documented on the new forum.

[Sledge]

So, if the drivers are installed, the 'super' resolutions are available in arcadeOSD, but mame gives an error of 'no suitable resolution could be found that meets your specs' etc..
Where would we look to fix it?
Gmame is being run as admin of course.. as far as i know the ini is correct..

[Calamity]

Where would we look to fix it?

Maybe in the logs?

[Sledge]

Where would we look to fix it?

Maybe in the logs?

Yep.. Waiting for him to send them to me, but was wondering if there was a common mistake made that would cause it..

[Sledge]

Setting lock unsupported modes to zero fixed it..
Does that always have to be turned off?

[premuto]

test:

ati hd 4550 on port dvi
windows 7 ultimate x64

drivers and instalation all ok

hyperspin work fine, but groovymame dont start in hyperspin,

anyone have a optimize mame.ini with all changes (resolution 2560x0, cleanstrech 2, etc)?

[blontic]

Anybody having any issues with win7 and hyperspin? I am using super resolutions and I can load groovymame directly and games look great. But Hyperspin just doesn't start. If I remote to the PC it works so it does seem like a driver issue.

How many custom video modes are listed by ArcadeOSD (or how many lines do you have inside Modeline.txt)?

Hi Calamity,

I have 14 lines in my modeline.txt file. Groovymame is running correctly it's just Hyperspin doesn't even start. When I installed the GPU drivers I had to install the MS Visual C++ 2010 redist before it would work otherwise I would get errors. http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=26999

Hyperspin works if I RDP to the PC just not when ran locally.

The driver install said it only installed 1 driver but in Add/Remove programs I can see 3 (see attachment) Just wondering if it's correct.

I also added the following lines to the top of my ume.ini file. Not sure if that's correct
      resolution 2560x0
      cleanstretch 2

Thanks,

b

So i tested this again on a fresh build and it's the drivers that break Hyperspin. I install them and Hyperspin doesn't load. I remove them and use the Windows driver and it works. This is without even running VMMaker. If I run VMMaker it doesn't make a difference.
I don't get any errors when installing the drivers and it boots into test mode. Any ideas? I run the driver install as admin.

[Sledge]

Tried a fresh install of hyperspin?
I was having issues once.. had to do a fresh install of HS for it to work again..
http://www.hyperspin-fe.com/forum/showthread.php?29481-How-to-install-HyperSpin

[Calamity]

So i tested this again on a fresh build and it's the drivers that break Hyperspin. I install them and Hyperspin doesn't load. I remove them and use the Windows driver and it works. This is without even running VMMaker. If I run VMMaker it doesn't make a difference.
I don't get any errors when installing the drivers and it boots into test mode. Any ideas? I run the driver install as admin.

Hi Blontic,

Try disabling Flash hardware acceleration as explained here: http://geedorah.com/eiusdemmodi/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=379#p379

[blontic]

So i tested this again on a fresh build and it's the drivers that break Hyperspin. I install them and Hyperspin doesn't load. I remove them and use the Windows driver and it works. This is without even running VMMaker. If I run VMMaker it doesn't make a difference.
I don't get any errors when installing the drivers and it boots into test mode. Any ideas? I run the driver install as admin.

Hi Blontic,

Try disabling Flash hardware acceleration as explained here: http://geedorah.com/eiusdemmodi/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=379#p379

Thanks Calamity,

I installed Firefox and disabled hardware acceleration but it still doesn't make a difference. Hyperspin doesn't start at all. Youtube doesn't have much flash content so I just used this link instead http://helpx.adobe.com/flash-player.html#main_Find_Flash_Player_version_type_and_capabilities__Flash_developers_only_

This is the only error I see which is in my app event log

Activation context generation failed for "D:/HyperSpin/HyperSpin.exe".Error in manifest or policy file "D:/HyperSpin/HyperSpin.exe" on line 0. Invalid Xml syntax.

[Calamity]

Check this, (the final post): https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/windows/en-US/376f1310-94c4-43a4-8376-32a16c3e091b/error-in-manifest-or-policy-file-side-by-side-error-59?forum=w7itproperf

[blontic]

Check this, (the final post): https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/windows/en-US/376f1310-94c4-43a4-8376-32a16c3e091b/error-in-manifest-or-policy-file-side-by-side-error-59?forum=w7itproperf

Thanks i'll take a look. I found I had to have MS Visual C++ 2010 redist installed otherwise I would get an error installing the driver. Could you tell me what versions I should have installed?

[Thamiel]

Having a go with a Windows 7 setup at the moment.

Setup:

* Windows 7 x64 Ultimate
* 4350 HD
* 31k Arcade Monitor (using lcd to setup atm)

Getting the msvcr100.dll error even after installing the c++ redist package. Installer says one of the 4 devices installed correctly, attempt to run VM before restarting and it dosn't find a compatible driver and dosn't update the registry. PC restarts in low res modes, have to get into safe mode to uninstall the driver. Tried AnyCatalyst 1 and still the same issue.

[Sledge]

Are you running all the programs/installers with admin rights?

[Thamiel]

Thanks for the reply, yeah definitely installing/running everything with admin rights.

[Calamity]

Thamiel, just ignore the msvcr100.dll error. Only 1 device must get installed. If you run VMMaker before restart, you need to point to the proper \\.\DISPLAY#, which is not "1" until you restart... so run VMMaker, see the proper display number prompted in its window (e.g. \\.\DISPLAY7), then edit vmmaker.ini with it and re-run VMMaker. This way it will be able to point to the proper registry key and you'll get 31 kHz after restart. Since, then, restore the display number in vmmaker to the proper value.

[cools]

Useful for removing the test mode watermark? http://deepxw.blogspot.co.uk/2008/12/remove-watermark-v03-build-20081210.html

[Thamiel]

Thamiel, just ignore the msvcr100.dll error. Only 1 device must get installed. If you run VMMaker before restart, you need to point to the proper \\.\DISPLAY#, which is not "1" until you restart... so run VMMaker, see the proper display number prompted in its window (e.g. \\.\DISPLAY7), then edit vmmaker.ini with it and re-run VMMaker. This way it will be able to point to the proper registry key and you'll get 31 kHz after restart. Since, then, restore the display number in vmmaker to the proper value.

Gave it a go with a fresh install of Win7.

-Installed Win7
-Installed CRTEMU drivers as admin, .dll error occurs, driver not signed error occurs, installer says drivers installed correctly.
-Run VMMAKER as admin, 4 displays listed (display1, displayv1, displayv2, displayv3) only display1 listed as connected. VMMAKER cannot find a compatible driver so nothing is written to the registry. 20 modes generated from my super resolutions (same as cools ones, worked fine on my XP machine).
-Restart PC, black screen after Windows loading logo. Switched monitors to try and see whats going in, Windows is using a 240p resolution. Definitely not the standard 640x480 31k res from my ReslList.

This is the error I get at the end of the CRTEMU driver install: http://www.64k-tec.de/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/unsigned_driver.png

That wording, not the specific driver I linked to obviously. Is it possible my Windows 7 copy is quarantining the driver and that's why VMMAKER can't find it?

[krick]

@Thamiel

Here's the install instructions from the driver download page (currently down, but there is a link to a mirror site in my signature)...

When installing CRT Emudriver in Windows 7, some extra caution must be taken:

1.- Run the Setup program with ADMIN RIGHTS enabled.
2.- DO NOT restart the system when W7 prompts you to do so, let the Setup program finish, allow it to set TEST mode on.
3.- CRT Emudriver for W7 doesn't boot in 15 kHz automatically after restart. You need to manually enable a 15 kHz mode from Arcade OSD.
4.- Remind to always run VMMaker with ADMIN RIGHTS.
5.- Windows 7 does not support "magic" resolutions. Use "super" resolutions instead.

[Thamiel]

@krick

Thanks mate, defintely done that a few times though.

UPDATE: Restarted the PC in safe mode to uninstall the drivers and have another crack, upon getting back into normal Windows (in test mode) it automatically installed a video driver and told me to restart. Restarted and checked the driver in device manager and it had automatically installed Calamitys' drivers...ran VMMAKER just to see what would happen, sure enough it found the catalyst driver correctly and generated a mode list from cools super resolutions. Just copying some roms across now to see if it's handling things correctly. Utterly bizarre chain of events...

UPDATE2: GM is picking the right resolutions! Also comparing between WinXP 64 and Win7 64 there's quite a performance boost. Ibara and Pink Sweets are running 100% constantly without the need for triple buffer.

[Calamity]

-Installed CRTEMU drivers as admin, .dll error occurs, driver not signed error occurs, installer says drivers installed correctly.

Signature error? Are you using the latest package (the one you can get from Krick's mirror) or the "beta" package linked previously in this thread?