Video Options in Neo Geo games do nothing

[donluca]

MAME gives you a wide array of video choices when it comes down to Neo Geo games.
The problem is that the only one which works in GM beside the standard one is Cocktail (which is of no use to me).

My issue is with games which don't use the full Neo Geo resolution like Metal Slugs which give you black borders on the sides: some effects (like the screen flashing when you use the Shotgun in Metal Slug 2 or there are big explosions like when you defeat the mid boss of the first stage) are played over the black bars and it really distracts me.

So, here are the options available:

Screen 0 Standard (4:3)
Screen 0 Cropped (304x224)
Screen 0 Stretched (304x224)
Standard (4:3)
Pixel Aspect (10:7)
Cocktail

All these options do nothing beside the Cocktail one.

I don't want to stretch the picture over all the screen and the unused part, but I'd like to make sure these black bars on the sides remain black.

If needed, I can take a screenshot of this behavior.

[Calamity]

Confirmed, this hadn't been reported yet. It looks like the way GM manages the window size bypasses those scaling options. Probably there's no way to fix that, because as far as I see what you're seeing is the actual hardware behaviour, so that the arcade operator would hide the rubbish on the border using out of the screen into the overscan zone. You can replicate the operator's job by creating a custom monitor range with a somewhat lower horizontal back porch value and put it into a the neogeo driver's .ini.

[donluca]

Exactly.

I have a MVS board and I can confirm this, but I stretch the image horizontally with my monitor controls to hide the black bars.

This is something I "can't" do when I use MAME because I have to find "jack-of-all-trades" settings so that I don't have to tinker with the monitor geometry settings for each game.

I was hoping there was a way to hide the effects on the black bars. I can do this on SDL MAME on my Mac, the "Cropped" options does exactly this.

I was thinking about making a custom resolution and putting it into the neogeo.ini config, but then I'd lose part of the picture in games like Matrimelee which use the full resolution :|

Actually, reading this post http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,149488.msg1560049.html#msg1560049 you made in another thread, I think that this issue could be solved by clipping the game frame, so I can just remove the borders and solve the issue.

[Calamity]

I was thinking about making a custom resolution and putting it into the neogeo.ini config, but then I'd lose part of the picture in games like Matrimelee which use the full resolution :|

Then just make an ini for the games affected It's quite a simple fix, and less hacky than clippling the frame if you ask me.

[donluca]

ahhhh you're right, I can just do a search to see which NG games are affected and then create a script to automatically make the .ini files required.

I'll probably do that this weekend and report back!

Thanks!

[krick]

Wouldn't it be possible for someone to create a black artwork overlay to hide the stuff on the sides?
You'd still have black borders, but at least you wouldn't see the junk.

[haynor666]

I forced neo-geo driver to work with resolution 304x240 and video ddraw (to avoiding shrinking picture). Right now when ddraw is removed this trick can't be used :/

The same goes to some Konami games with black bars or thrash at the edges like TMNT games, Escape Kids, Violent Storm.

[m.andrade1]

Hello haynor666
Can you share with us how to do that, the line parameter for this, i mean make all neogeo games, run with a fixed 304x240 resolution.
Today i do the same thing, but i have to save it, for each individual Neogeo games.

Thanks
Marcos

[haynor666]

Create new ini neogeo.ini for neo-geo games in ini/source directory.

Put inside file this:

Code: [Select]

video ddraw
resolution 304x240
hwstretch 0
That should do it. Note that resolution 304x240 must be present in system

This will work up to mame 170. In next version ddraw will be removed so this trick will not work.

[donluca]

I thuought Neo Geo had 224 lines of vertical resolution. Shouldn't it be 304x224?

One more thing: does GM still apply the correct refresh rate when forcing the resolution this way?

[haynor666]

Yes, still black bars at the upper and lower part of screen.