31k Issue

[joeblade2]

Hi Guys, bit of an odd one here.....

Got a win xp64 version of GM with attract mode setup along with mame 0.163.

Worked fine on my old dell pc monitor but i am now using a Pioneer pdp v402 plasma, it can run 640x480 no probs but now only some of the games work as opposed to all on the dell.

VMMaker set to "VGA", Mame config set to arcade31, same as previous but still having issues

RType: Can't sync goes out of range
Xexex: Can't sync goes out of range
Final Fight: Can't sync goes out of range
Puzzle bobble: Works fine
Elevator action returns: Works fine
Double dragon: Works fine

.......what gives? any ideas?

Thanks fellas

[joeblade2]

Mmmm tried a few more today and all i can think is that this plasma is a strict 640x480 31k @60hz so leaves very little room for minor range/sync/resolution intolerances....

Is there anyway I can adjust GM to stay within a certain range only? I noticed the VMMaker config has min xres and yres values which are way below my screen.

Any thoughts would be much appreciated, I could post a log of one of the "out of sync/range" games if needed.

[machyavel]

Hello, yes you should post a log so experts (not me...) can have a look.

Also fyi the manual mentions:

2. Synchronizing frequency:
AT-compatible: 31.5 kHz (horizontal), 59.9 Hz (vertical)
37.9 kHz (horizontal), 72.8 Hz (vertical)
37.5 kHz (horizontal), 75 Hz (vertical)
Macintosh:
35 kHz (horizontal), 66.7 Hz (vertical)
PC-9800:
24.8 kHz (horizontal), 56.4 Hz (vertical)
31.5 kHz (horizontal), 70.1 Hz (vertical)

[joeblade2]

Thanks machyavel, I was actually gonna post the manual up to but I thought It might complicate things further.

I will post some logs of the non working titles then.

[pubjoe]

Hey Joe

I've been meaning to write a post here regarding Groovymame on the v402 as I was very impressed with it.

I have a cab PC configured to 15khz with super resolutions.  Out of curiosity I just plugged it straight in to the v402 and was very surprised that it worked - beautifully.  I was under the assumption that it wouldn't handle the various refresh rates, that the non-integer scaling to a 640x480 fixed panel would be awful, and that it may not even accept 15k over VGA at all.  I'm pleased to have been very wrong on all counts.  It even worked with super resolutions, which I had forgotten to turn off as I was certain that it wouldn't know what to do with 2560 x 240.  They're unnecessary on this screen, but still.

Perhaps in 15k mode it supports a wider range of frequencies than you found with 31khz.  CPS games were fine but unfortunately R-type was out of range for me too.  I experimented with the modeline editing in Arcade OSD and it seems to be ok with arcade refresh rates of about 58hz and upward.

As for the scaling.  The RGB matrix is arranged in perfect straight lines, so quite similarly to a CRT, vertical scaling would be very obvious but horizontal scaling is passable.  I don't know if this is the norm for plasmas but on the v402 vertical resolution is line doubled and fixed, while horizontal resolution is scaled fairly well across the lines of RGB sub pixels and is user adjustable.  This gives a great result in most cases except single pixel white lines.  Small white-on-black text gives it away.

I tested it with a VGA splitter next to a CRT and took a photo of the synchronisation of F-Zero's timer between the screens.  There is 1 frame of lag in comparison.  I believe that's very good for a plasma.

I only tested it briefly. R-type (and therefore a few other games) not working at 57hz (or whatever it is, I can't remember) was a slight disappointment, but only because I was so surprised with everything else working so well, R-Type was a test too far.

[joeblade2]

Hey Joe

I've been meaning to write a post here regarding Groovymame on the v402 as I was very impressed with it.

I have a cab PC configured to 15khz with super resolutions.  Out of curiosity I just plugged it straight in to the v402 and was very surprised that it worked - beautifully.  I was under the assumption that it wouldn't handle the various refresh rates, that the non-integer scaling to a 640x480 fixed panel would be awful, and that it may not even accept 15k over VGA at all.  I'm pleased to have been very wrong on all counts.  It even worked with super resolutions, which I had forgotten to turn off as I was certain that it wouldn't know what to do with 2560 x 240.  They're unnecessary on this screen, but still.

Perhaps in 15k mode it supports a wider range of frequencies than you found with 31khz.  CPS games were fine but unfortunately R-type was out of range for me too.  I experimented with the modeline editing in Arcade OSD and it seems to be ok with arcade refresh rates of about 58hz and upward.

As for the scaling.  The RGB matrix is arranged in perfect straight lines, so quite similarly to a CRT, vertical scaling would be very obvious but horizontal scaling is passable.  I don't know if this is the norm for plasmas but on the v402 vertical resolution is line doubled and fixed, while horizontal resolution is scaled fairly well across the lines of RGB sub pixels and is user adjustable.  This gives a great result in most cases except single pixel white lines.  Small white-on-black text gives it away.

I tested it with a VGA splitter next to a CRT and took a photo of the synchronisation of F-Zero's timer between the screens.  There is 1 frame of lag in comparison.  I believe that's very good for a plasma.

I only tested it briefly. R-type (and therefore a few other games) not working at 57hz (or whatever it is, I can't remember) was a slight disappointment, but only because I was so surprised with everything else working so well, R-Type was a test too far.

Wow thanks for going into so much detail Joe....I really appreciate it mate and Im glad to hear you've still got your v402!! 

Im shocked too about the level of arcade 15k compatability so im gonna switch over to arcade_15 on the mame config side to check and use the "Generic" setting for vmmaker.

Will report back with some logs too just to help.

[joeblade2]

Ok after a further bit of tinkering I switched over to 15k, ran vmmaker, only generated 24 modes (I think because im running vertical games in the middle of a horizontal screen ie non native).

As Joe said more working now but I've still got issues with some and seem to have a few more issues with vertical games now too.

Below are my logs, I hope the naming is obvious....thanks again fellas

[machyavel]

So according to joepub your monitor won't accept refresh rates under 58Hz, while all your logs show that GM picked resolutions with refresh rates below 58Hz.
You could try raising the lower value in the monitor range from 50 to 58Hz then.

[pubjoe]

I only had a quick play, but that sounds good.  I'm hoping there might be other frequency options too.  It was the first time I've adjusted modes with arcadeOSD.  I just tried a few steps until I noticed a limit near 58hz.  It also supports 50hz (interlaced at least) as I have used it with a PAL GameCube through VGA*.  Also the manual says it supports 24khz @ 56.4hz.  Perhaps there are some options for a more versatile custom monitor preset.  Can someone tell me how these are created by the way?  By feeling through steps of modelines with something like ArcadeOSD or is there another method?

* The GameCube happens to be the reason I tested my 15khz PC in the first place.  I wanted to check if the v402 could handle 15k over VGA before modding a GC component cable.  I'd read that most monitors won't do it and people with a GC and VGA-modded cable have to navigate the bios blindly.

[pubjoe]

Joe, how did you think 15k Mame input looked in comparison to 31k?  Any noticeable difference in quality between the v402's and Groovymame's scaling?  I guess that with Groovy configured with cleanstretch 2 they would both do the same thing.  I wonder if the difference is noticeable.

Im glad to hear you've still got your v402!! 

Oh, it's a keeper.  It's in my eldest son's room.  He likes old school consoles (not that he has a choice) and it's currently used mostly for the GameCube at 1:1 resolution, which was some work to set up but it looks stunning.

You still have the other one of the two v402s I picked up near me don't you (via wigsplitta)?  I was pleased to hear that you finally got one.  Just curious, have you checked the hours used on it?  I didn't bother checking which screen was best when I grabbed one of the pair.  I think mine has around fifteen thousand hours on it.  It's possible yours is the same as they likely lived a long working life together.

Have you found a decent stand or wall mount solution?

[joeblade2]

dammit I typed a load of stuff then got an internal error!!

Thanks for the suggestion machyavel, will need to find out the best way to alter that.
Not sure now if "GENERIC" is the best setting for this tbh....may try CGA later and see?

Forgot to mention Xexex actually is working in 15k so it must just be at the edge of the allowed range, fired it up again last night accidentally and this time it worked.


@Joe tbh mate I could see barely any difference between 31 or 15 but If I was being super critical I'd say 15 was a tad sharper.

Hope i can get these games up and running as i'd like this to be my goto mame build with this screen. Also im using this screen for my densha de go setup, pc only at the mo but soon I'll connect my ps2 to this screen hopefully too, but would also like to incorporate pc model2 emulation on it as i had that setup on my previous panel and loved it!!

I actually had one of these before and foolishly sold it but wigsplitta was kind enough to offer me his and as luck would have it he managed to find another one two!!

Sounds like your getting a lot of use outta your one too Joe which im glad to hear...I do love this screen.

As for hours I can't remember how I managed to get into the extended menu but if and when I do i'll let you know..

[pubjoe]

That's good to hear that you didn't notice any difference.  This screen displays 15k extremely well (provided it accepts it).

Xexex worked?! Doesn't that use the same screen mode as R-Type?  When I said I 'experimented' with modelines in ArcadeOSD, perhaps that sounded overly scientific.  Fumbled would have been a better word.  I wouldn't rule anything out without proper testing.  I was wondering if perhaps it's not the low refresh rate of R-Type that's the problem, but the 256 lines of pixels.  I've used homebrew software that forces various outputs from the GC and I've noticed this screen is happy with PAL interlaced (576i @ 50hz) but not when forced to progressive (576p @ 50hz).  I know it can de-interlace but it can't scale vertically so perhaps it can't handle extended resolution.  I did try running r-type with -resolution 2560x240 and it went out of range again but that's as far as I got.

I had mine stored for a year or two but it's been getting good use for a while now.  It seems to be the ultimate set to play all those pixelgasmic Indie games on, like Undertale and Crypt of the Necrodancer, so it's ideal for my son.  Pixel worship.

Yeah Wigsplitta found a great screen.  About £40 I think, local and came with the feet.  It was listed as faulty on ebay but even just for the feet it was worth a punt.  Turns out it works fine (I guess the previous owner couldn't connect anything to it), brilliant condition with just a few hundred hours on it.

By the way, I don't have a remote but I've only just discovered that you don't actually need one to enter the service menu.  Using the buttons on the side with the screen on standby (make sure the little red light isn't still flashing as it does for a few seconds), just press menu, wait one second, then press standby.  It will turn on and bring you straight to the service menu.  You can scroll down through 3 or 4 pages.  It's useful for changing the screen position defaults which have a greater range than the standard settings allow, activating "MP MODE" (dithering) if you're noticing an annoying oil effect on moving gradients, tweaking the RGB channels (I haven't touched these!) and checking the hour usage.  Each input mode stores seperate settings.

[joeblade2]

Yeah xexex works, not everytime but every couple of boots it syncs, tried the same with rtype but no joy after 5 boots

just checked xexex, if I understand the log correctly, this is what it's tried to use instead, that would explain why it looked very soft/blurred when it worked:
saving: 512x512_55 15.76KHz 55.39Hz
updating: 512x512_55 15.65KHz 54.25Hz
(interlaced I believe)

Not too sure how to read the logs as there's entirely way too many entries for video modes!
But it does looks like they have the same res so i've no idea why one works and not the other!

It's frustrating coz if we could get the other games to work by forcing them into a working modeline that wasn't too far away all we'd have to put up with is a bit of speed difference I think.

Good call on the indie titles mate, big fan of broforce and I bet that would look killer on this screen

I actually was lucky and mangaed to get some feet for mine, off ebay would you believe!

I've also got two remotes, one that wigsplitta had and one I picked up, both different but both compatible, you can have one if you like mate.

Will enter the service menu tonight and have a squiz at hours and let ya know, so have you got your MP MODE on then?

Also as this screen can only do 16mil colours, do I need to pop it into 16 bit mode instead of 32 on the pc?

[joeblade2]

Mmmm ok i've just noticed something, not sure why but my 640x480 pc res doesn't fill the monitor width wise full screen, there's about 10mm either side of black?

Not sure if this just happened because of GM and a sync issue or whether it's always been like that tbh?

@Joe just gone into service mate and can't find that MP MODE? Looks like my set has done 12400hrs btw 

[pubjoe]

Argh!!! I was typing this reply on and off for the last hour and lost it too!    Here I go again...

That's interesting about Xexex.  Perhaps if I'd tried an interlaced mode then R-Type would have worked.  Ideally I'd like it in progressive though this screen does de-interlace quite well, especially when it's restoring interlaced low res games, according to Fudoh on shmups.  The blurrines is more likely because it's a 512 line image.  The GameCube looks blurry at 576i too, while at 480i it looks very sharp despite the interlaced signal.  Either way, I think cropping R-Type to 480 would look best.  Sacrificing the top and bottom 8 pixels.

It's frustrating coz if we could get the other games to work by forcing them into a working modeline that wasn't too far away all we'd have to put up with is a bit of speed difference I think.

As I understand it, if we can create a proper monitor preset then groovymame will pick the best mode to do as you describe.

Good call on the indie titles mate, big fan of broforce and I bet that would look killer on this screen

I bet it would.  I don't know about Broforce but many Indie games are 640x480.  While I love how the v402 displays true 8/16-bit games, they are sometimes displayed a bit too well.  They were designed for and on CRTs after all - and they sometimes relied on CRT quirks to hide messiness or enhance effects.  Pixely Indie Games however are more of a Pixel Renaissance and the artists intend to expose every detail in full clarity.  The v402 has a natural scanline-ish texture.  It doesn't have the razor-edged upscaled pixels of HD sets or the forgiving blur of CRT scanlines.  For admiring pixel art, it's in the perfect middle.  In my opinion.

I actually was lucky and mangaed to get some feet for mine, off ebay would you believe!

I've also got two remotes, one that wigsplitta had and one I picked up, both different but both compatible, you can have one if you like mate.

that would be great!  Thank you.  Are they both Pioneer remotes?  I've seen some cheap v402 remotes on US shops and ebay, but the postage is triple the cost of the remote itself.  I tried linking a Sky remote to it but I could only get standby and input buttons working.  No menu control.

Will enter the service menu tonight and have a squiz at hours and let ya know, so have you got your MP MODE on then?

You're going to regret asking!  It's one of those annoying things that you do not notice until you notice, and then you can't not notice anymore. 

On a progressive image, grey and low-saturated gradients seem to have a coloured banding or oily effect when in motion.  I didn't notice this for a long time on colourful games like Mario Sunshine, but for some parts of Metroid Prime and for about the entirety of Ikaruga it's very obvious.  MP Mode removes it by dithering the gradients, but it replaces one annoyance with another.  The dithering is much less noticeable than the coat of oil on those two games, especially at a distance from the screen.  I think newer plasmas do this kind of dithering as standard but they get away with it due to the higher resolution.

Anyway, we leave it off most of the time but it definitely needs turning on for Prime and Ikaruga.  I've never seen the issue occur with 2D games from the computer or PC Engine that have been used with the screen.  I expect MP mode is best left off for Mame.

MP mode
When animations such as those used in games are reproduced in the input of non-interlaced signals, including non- interlaced computer signals, the “stripe-like shadow” may appear in parts of the resulting image. Known as pseudo- contour, this phenomenon results from the method of gradation expression used to express. Changing the MP mode to ON can greatly reduce pseudo-contour, though gradation expression may be less sharp, depending on the particular input signal.

Also as this screen can only do 16mil colours, do I need to pop it into 16 bit mode instead of 32 on the pc?

No.  16-bit colour is 4,096 colours.  Keep Windows set to 32-bit.

-------

Mmmm ok i've just noticed something, not sure why but my 640x480 pc res doesn't fill the monitor width wise full screen, there's about 10mm either side of black?

Not sure if this just happened because of GM and a sync issue or whether it's always been like that tbh?

@Joe just gone into service mate and can't find that MP MODE? Looks like my set has done 12400hrs btw 

You can tweak the width and horizontal position with the TV settings: Clk.frq. and Hor.Pos. and then Clk.phs to fine tune the width until it nicely pops into perfect.

A correct monitor preset would also do it I think.

MP mode is on the last page if you keep scrolling down.  Perhaps the option is only available with certain input types.  It's only needed with certain input types after all.

12400 hours.  ---steaming pile of meadow muffin---, I better double check mine. 

By the way, early plasma's phosphors were rated to have a half life of 30,000 hours by the manufacturers.  That's since been upped to 100,000 hours.  Who knows if that's because of better technology in modern plasmas or simply because they've now had enough testing time to fix their estimations.  Lifespan always seems to be cautiously underestimated.  IE: Pioneer's Kuro sets are far too aggressive with the compensatory voltage increase that activates over time.  Users have to enter the service mode to remove it.

Anyway, I'm sure these displays will last us a very long time to come.

[joeblade2]

Fookin balls, mine timed out again, internal server 500!!

Thanks for your long reply Joe and sorry you had to retype it mate, I know it's so frustrating!

Looks like my set doesn't have mp mode or maybe doesn't show when using vga? Will have another check tonight but pretty sure I didn't see it!

Both of the remotes are pioneer, they both work with my set but I can't guarantee they are the exact matching remote for this set but if you still want one shoot us a pm with your addy and i'll get it off to you mate!

Think I found the cause of my screen prob, I think i've fooked my crt driver/vmmaker install on one of my pc's as I plugged my spare GM build pc in last night, also configured to 640x480 and it seems to work fine and also stretches to the edge of the screen and final fight works fine now to at 31, rtype still doesn't work though, nor does raidendx, although that's a vert title running hori.

Incidentally I went back to 31k last night as it looks so good with a scanline effect on top, unfortunately the same cannot be said when you play a vert title on the hori screen with the same scanline effect running....looks awful, heavy banding present!

I also think my 28 modelines message on the other pc was related to the probs running some of the games and possibly the screen fit issue too. Oh well, reinstall on the other pc for GM....ahhhh happy days!!

Seems finding a "sweet spot" for GM on this panel is gonna be tricky one!
Totally agree on the rtype solution, don't think 8px is gonna make much difference...

On the hours issue, I think that's a fair bit of usage for mine but surprisingly no burn...

[krick]

What browser are you guys using?  I'm pretty sure that Firefox will restore your text if you just hit back on the browser after a server error.  If not, then just get in the habit of hitting CTRL-A CTRL-C before hitting the "Post" button.

[PL1]

I'm pretty sure that Firefox will restore your text if you just hit back on the browser after a server error. 

On my system, "Back" then "Forward" in Firefox flushes the text.

If you get a "500" error:
  1.  Wait until the system is available -- the 4 a.m. outage usually lasts about 30 minutes
  2.  Press CTRL-R (reload) and confirm in the popup window that you want to resend the data   

If not, then just get in the habit of hitting CTRL-A CTRL-C before hitting the "Post" button.

Definitely a good plan, especially if your internet connection isn't stable.   


Scott

[joeblade2]

What browser are you guys using?  I'm pretty sure that Firefox will restore your text if you just hit back on the browser after a server error.  If not, then just get in the habit of hitting CTRL-A CTRL-C before hitting the "Post" button.

I am using firefox and it doesn't retore text from this site once it's back up and running.
But your absolutely right I need to start CTRL-C a lot more....

I also tried PL1s solution yesterday and waited but after it came back online and I refreshed it had kicked me out and i had to login again!

Thanks for the replies though guys....

[PL1]

I also tried PL1s solution yesterday and waited but after it came back online and I refreshed it had kicked me out and i had to login again!

I guess it only works when you check the "Always stay logged in:" box.   


Scott

[pubjoe]

tragically I was copying but I lost connection when I copied that Pioneer quote to the clipboard.  I should have pasted my text as a note. 

[joeblade2]

Well the story continues.....soooo I reinstalled the crt emudriver on my xp64 machine that wasn't working properly, then put the settings on vmmaker to "VGA" (as they originally were), ran it and it found 27 modelines and dropped one. Set the desktop to 640x480p through arcade OSD and saved and once again all is well.

However, now I have more games working but, there are far more set to "interlaced" instead of native. The three main culprits are Final Fight, Double Dragon and Street Fighter II.

It would seem it has once again taken a different decision on what the actual "best" output for these games should be...?

Oh yes and Rtype still isn't syncing, nor for that matter is Xexex anymore

Will add logs soon

EDIT: Well that was last night!!

Today GM has decided to revert back to displaying double dragon properly, however final fight and street fighter II are now out of sync....jeeeez, WTF is going on?

[pubjoe]

I think Groovymame sometimes ignores your mame.ini and reverts to default mame settings when something goes wrong.  The other day I tried rtype -resolution 640x480, it ran but at 60hz and without any of the features that makes groovymame groovymame.  It had wobbly scrolling and a blurry, vertically stretched image. I ran Ghouls n Ghosts afterwards to get over the horror and it looked smooth and sharp and sexy.

[joeblade2]

I think Groovymame sometimes ignores your mame.ini and reverts to default mame settings when something goes wrong.  The other day I tried rtype -resolution 640x480, it ran but at 60hz and without any of the features that makes groovymame groovymame.  It had wobbly scrolling and a blurry, vertically stretched image. I ran Ghouls n Ghosts afterwards to get over the horror and it looked smooth and sharp and sexy.

Mmmmh do you think it's the mame.ini it's ignoring or the mame.xml?

It's such a pain with this screen as I thought it would work just like a pc monitor with the VGA setting but it doesn't because it's flexibility on 31k is quite narrow and im not sure if there's any point to setting it back to 15 or even trying tri-sync for that matter as each range is so limited....

Looks like I may have to leave GM on this one and go back to a different build of mame, maybe MAMEUIFX or something?

[pubjoe]

Maybe.  I don't know what exactly it does, I was just thinking that perhaps the times you had Xexex work were because it didn't attempt to sync to the correct refresh.

To be honest I had different expectations.  This screen does a lot more than I expected from a flat panel but I still use Groovy with a CRT.

[joeblade2]

Maybe.  I don't know what exactly it does, I was just thinking that perhaps the times you had Xexex work were because it didn't attempt to sync to the correct refresh.

To be honest I had different expectations.  This screen does a lot more than I expected from a flat panel but I still use Groovy with a CRT.

Yeah good point mate, I may shelve the 402 for mame and just enjoy densha pc/ps2 shizzle on it.

CRT is always the way the go really for authenticity...

[cools]

Do either of you have the PDA-4003 board installed?

[joeblade2]

Do either of you have the PDA-4003 board installed?

Nope, don't have the downconverter mate....

[cools]

I'm wondering if it'll take 25K. The manual suggests that's possible and it shouldn't need the downconvertor to do that.

You could then run 768i and have 256line games stretched x3 on the vertical. It might look a bit weird but it'd get you closer to the required refresh for Xexex / R-Type. Assuming it supports it.

You should be able to get 256p in 15KHz though. I'd be surprised if you could get anything more (288p would need a V402E I expect). Might require some playing around with ArcadeOSD to find out what will actually sync.

Try setting VMMaker and MAME to output 25K?

[joeblade2]

Ok thanks for the suggestion mr cools, just to confirm, vmmaker set to "EGA"? mame.ini set to arcade_25?

[pubjoe]

Hi cools.

Joe, thank you for the remote!  It arrived today. 

[edited a few times due to temporary madness]

I've been hoping to post before now but I'm still waiting to get some time with the screen.  I did try something very briefly, and might as well mention this.

I used ArcadeOSD and edited some ~31khz modes.  640x400 and then 512x478.  I adjusted the dotclock to reduce vsync below 60hz and pressed 5 to test it worked as it should each time.  They worked, smoothly, for everything I tried: 56hz,55hz,54hz,53hz etc.  I dipped below 50hz and at each step ArcadeOSD confirmed that the vsync was (approximately) displaying the target speed.  I didn't see it go out of range at all.

So, then I tried rtype -resolution 640x400 and 512x478 but it went out of range.  I didn't try changing any other mame settings so (unless I'm missing something about those ArcadeOSD trials) hopefully it can work with a tweak.  Or maybe it'd work for now if the desktop resolution was changed to the intended resolution first.

I feel silly having not followed this through yet.   Recently I've spent minutes with the screen yet hours talking about it!  The problem with it being in my son's room is I can't use it in the middle of the night when I tend to do stuff like this.  I should get a chance over the weekend, or hopefully you'll get it going Joe.

Regarding 25khz interlaced, I did try.  It wasn't pretty but it worked.  Why this displayed with Groovymame while the progressive modes (that worked with ArcadeOSD) went out of range I don't know.  But hopefully we don't have to settle for interlaced.

[cools]

Editing ArcadeOSD modes won't alter MAME behaviour - Groovy generates its own modes unless you tell it otherwise.

Sounds like custom presets are required: http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,116023.0.html

[pubjoe]

I didn't think it'd modify Mame's behaviour but I did mistakenly think that as the v402 was capable of displaying 512x478@55hz then it might just work when groovy generates it too.

Either way, if ArcadeOSD can successfully get the screen to display between 50-60hz at 31k then I guess that's good news for the possibility of everything working with a monitor preset?

[cools]

Yep. Put on your techie hat and get reading

[pubjoe]

[pubjoe]

The pic above was taken after quite a bit of trial and error.  It looks great and the scrolling is smooth.  No stutter from incorrect frame rate, or scwobble from aliasing in motion.  The latter required the display settings for both Groovymame and the v402 to be just right - at one point I didn't think it was achievable without filtering but in the end it turned out as smoothly animated as my CRT.  To my eyes anyway.

I'll check my settings later and add them here.



However, here's the catch:

maybe it'd work for now if the desktop resolution was changed to the intended resolution first.

...This is the only way I've got it working.  The screen will happily display 31khz @ 55hz if switched by ArcadeOSD or Windows' display settings.  From here Groovymame can take over in the same mode.  But if Groovymame switches from another mode then the screen goes out of range.  And worse, if I have this mode running and turn the screen off and on again with the standby button, it goes out of range again.  It feels as though the v402 is being forced a bit further than it's happy about.  I haven't created a custom preset but I don't know if that would help.

Worst case scenario, it could probably be launched from a batch file to automate a resolution switch before and after running GM rtype.  I launch Demul like this on my cab - although that's just for convenience whereas here it'd be a dirty trick to pursuade the screen to loosen up.

[joeblade2]

  I go away for a few days and look what I miss!!! 

Well done for all the testing Joe, bloody awesome matey...

I really can't understand why Arcade OSD happily switches and yet Groovy can't, this is a real shame as I guess they'll never be a really easy way to boot the pc up and go straight into attractmode then....

So what do I need to do and what settings do I need to set to get it working the way you did mate?