120hz LCD

[filimpan]

I'm trying to get GroovyMAME working on my 120hz LCD, but I can neither seem to find help on this forum nor figure it out myself. I had the same problem last year when I gave GM a try before giving up and going to ShmupMAME.

The issue is I can't seem to get 120hz working, which I want for black frame insertion. I also can't seem to get the correct aspect ratio, even with fiddling with ini options.

Help would be appreciated

[Calamity]

So what happens exactly? Any chance to see a log?

[filimpan]

I get the error message: "SwitchRes: could not find a video mode that meets your specs". My error.log shows: "Physical width 1920, height 1080      Soft reset".

In "CORE SWITCHRES OPTIONS", I set monitor to "lcd", and I've also tried cleanstretch 1 and aspect 16:9 to try and get the aspect right. The game is Street Fighter III 3rd Strike.

[Calamity]

Once you get that error message Switchres is turned off so all other options don't work. First figure out why it's failing. Post a log as explained in the main thread: groovymame.exe romname -v >romname.txt

[filimpan]

I did try after your last post, "mame64.exe sfiii3ur1 -v >sfiii3ur1.txt" (my groovymame is still called mame64), but nothing happened?

[Calamity]

In the folder where mame64.exe is you should have a text file named sfiii3ur1.txt that is the one I'd like to see. Assuming you're running this from command line, inside the executable's folder.

[filimpan]

Ah here we go, sorry about that. I was trying to do it from a shortcut rather than command prompt. I assumed it would work because just "mame64.exe sfiii3ur1" worked fine from a shortcut.

I think the log file is listing my refresh rates, and if so the 119hz option refers to a custom refresh rate of 119.17hz which I made using: http://www.monitortests.com/forum/Thread-Custom-Resolution-Utility-CRU. I usually play 3s on other MAMEs with this refresh rate.

[Calamity]

Ok that's quite informative. Please keep using the command line while testing.

First try modifying the lcd_range option: "lcd_range 60-121".

If that doesn't work, we'll try with a custom crt_range.

[filimpan]

Oh, that worked haha. Aspect ratio is correct, and black frame insertion is working. The catch is, at the (more) correct refresh rate of 119.17hz, there's a crt-like strobing effect. I don't mean the actual black frame insertion, I mean there's a lighter coloured horizontal bar crawling up the screen. With 120hz it isn't there, and the whole screen (most of it - I'll get to that) is uniformly dark, as I think it should. A benchmarking program shows that the game is running at 120fps with 120hz though, which isn't ideal.

Also in both cases there's a permanent horizontal bar near the top of the screen that doesn't seem to be affected by black frame insertion. That part of the screen looks just like it does with the option disabled.

I've attached the details of my custom resolution in case there might be something relevant there.

[Calamity]

Are you running this with -syncrefresh enabled?
(try from command line)

[filimpan]

Syncrefresh was disabled (unless it was automatically being selected), but I just tried with it enabled and both issues persisted.

[Calamity]

Are you sure your monitor can handle custom refresh rates natively? If your monitor is stuck at 120 Hz, it's worthless to use a custom output refresh of 119.17 Hz. That would explain the artifact you're seeing at 119 but not at 120.

[filimpan]

I have to admit, I have no idea. It looked fine whenever I used it, though I guess that's no answer at all. Still, the horizontal bar near the top of the screen exists in 120hz as well.

[Calamity]

You don't have -frame_delay enabled have you?

[filimpan]

Yes! That was it. I've now got everything working at 120hz, thank you.