GroovyArcade + JPAC + G07CB0 monitor

[wollarintj]

Hey guys,

I just set up a GroovyArcade 2017 install on my PC. Here's the specs:
Core 2 Duo CPU
ATI Radeon 2600 XT
8gb RAM
J-PAC (USB model, only 15kHz jumper set)
Display connected via DVI to VGA -> J-PAC -> JAMMA

My cabinet monitor chassis is an Electrohome G07CB0 (CGA 15kHz)

The boot logo for GroovyArcade, gasetup, lxde, and all frontends display fine. The included wrally game is crystal clear... but basically every other game I try goes out of sync. Any Neo Geo game I've tried goes out of sync when you launch, but when exiting the menu is crystal clear again.

I have no problems displaying a real Neo Geo MVS-1 PCB or a Pandoras Box PCB, so I know it's not my monitor.

When I launch wrally.zip (displays perfectly), it loads with the following config:
SwitchRes: Entering switchres_modeline_setup
SwitchRes: v0.017b:[wrally.zip] Calculating best video mode for 368x232@60.000000 orientation: normal

SwitchRes: (   1)x(   1)_(60=60.000000Hz)
   rng(0):  368 x 232_60.000000p 15.660000 [integ] scale(1, 1, 1) diff(0.00, 0.00, 0.0000) ratio(1.000, 1.000)

SwitchRes: [wrally.zip] (1) horizontal (368x232@60.000000)->(368x232@60.000000)
   rng(0):  368 x 232_60.000000p 15.660000 [integ] scale(1, 1, 1) diff(0.00, 0.00, 0.0000) ratio(1.000, 1.000)
SwitchRes: Modeline "368x232_60 15.660000KHz 60.000000Hz" 7.391520 368 384 416 472 232 238 241 261   -hsync -vsync
Switchres: CRTC 0: mode 0x55, 648x480+0+0.
Switchres: xrandr mode (GM-368x232_60.000000) (0x4ca) 7.391520MHz



When I launch Neo Turf Masters (display is out of sync), it loads with the following config:
SwitchRes: Entering switchres_modeline_setup
SwitchRes: v0.017b:[turfmast.zip] Calculating best video mode for 320x224@59.185608 orientation: normal

SwitchRes: (   1)x(   1)_(60=60.000000Hz)
   rng(0):  320 x 224_59.185608p 15.625000 [integ] scale(1, 1, 1) diff(0.00, 0.00, 0.0000) ratio(1.000, 1.000)

SwitchRes: [turfmast.zip] (1) horizontal (320x224@59.185608)->(320x224@59.185608)
   rng(0):  320 x 224_59.185608p 15.625000 [integ] scale(1, 1, 1) diff(0.00, 0.00, 0.0000) ratio(1.000, 1.000)
SwitchRes: Modeline "320x224_60 15.625000KHz 59.185608Hz" 6.625000 320 336 368 424 224 235 238 264   -hsync -vsync
Switchres: CRTC 0: mode 0x55, 648x480+0+0.
Switchres: xrandr mode (GM-320x224_59.185608) (0x4c8) 6.625000MHz



Attached are my logs for each game. I've tried setting my monitor in gasetup to Generic 15kHz, Polo, and Arcade 15kHz standard, but they all show the same result on my monitor. I've also tried adjusting the horizontal sync on my chassis, but it doesn't help either.


What am I missing here? Why does a real Neo Geo PCB at the same resolution work fine and is in sync? I read several posts of people setting custom modeline entries, where do you do that?

[Calamity]

Edit mame.ini and set "dotclock_min 8.0". This should fix the problem.

[wollarintj]

Thanks Calamity, now it's staying in sync! But it's a centered window like you'd expect from a vertical game on horizontal monitor.

When the game launches, you see the white Mame border take up the whole screen, but then when the Neo Geo screen shows up, it's squished together. I tried a few different numbers here:

6.0 - out of sync
7.0 - small and centered
8.0 - small and centered
9.0 - small and centered

SwitchRes: v0.017b, Monitor: polo, Orientation: horizontal, Modeline generation: enabled
SwitchRes: Monitor range 15625.00-16670.00,49.50-65.00,2.000,4.700,8.000,0.064,0.160,1.056,0,0,192,288,448,576
SwitchRes: xrandr version 1.5
SwitchRes: Found output connector 'DVI-0'

SwitchRes: Entering switchres_modeline_setup
SwitchRes: v0.017b:[mslug.zip] Calculating best video mode for 320x224@59.185608 orientation: normal

SwitchRes: (   1)x(   1)_(60=60.000000Hz)
   rng(0):  640 x 224_59.185608p 15.625000 [integ] scale(2, 1, 1) diff(0.00, 0.00, 0.0000) ratio(1.000, 1.000)

SwitchRes: [mslug.zip] (1) horizontal (320x224@59.185608)->(640x224@59.185608)
   rng(0):  640 x 224_59.185608p 15.625000 [integ] scale(2, 1, 1) diff(0.00, 0.00, 0.0000) ratio(1.000, 1.000)
SwitchRes: Modeline "640x224_60 15.625000KHz 59.185608Hz" 13.000000 640 664 728 832 224 235 238 264   -hsync -vsync
Switchres: CRTC 0: mode 0x55, 648x480+0+0.
Switchres: xrandr mode (GM-640x224_59.185608) (0x4bc) 13.000000MHz

Attached is a pic and the log of trying to launch metal slug.

wrally.zip now runs windowed as well, launching at 736x232.

Is this an issue with my config, or do I need to buy an older video card to use the lower dot clock?

[wollarintj]

Just ordered a X600 card with DVI and VGA for $15 that hopefully will work better.

[Calamity]

Well, *that* should not be happening. x2 scaling used to work well under Linux. It's been long since I tested Linux builds I'm afraid.

[wollarintj]

I just figured it out... so if I hit F11 while a game was running, it was displaying at the proper resolution filling the screen. The game itself was exactly half the width and centered (since the horizontal res is doubled).

In mame.ini, I set "intscalex 2" and now it works!! Looks just like a Neo Geo PCB! I'll have to load some other roms and see how they react.

Thanks again for setting me in the right direction, Calamity!

[Calamity]

Yeah but inscalex should not be required to be forced, it should be applied automatically, it's not doing it for some reason. Anyway it's good you figured it out.

[wollarintj]

Last question for you -- will the X600 card have the same problem since it should support lower dotclock? Or will it actually be able to run at 320x224? I can see hard coding this to 2x could have problems with a lot of roms.

[Calamity]

The x600 will work well, though it's a very old card. MAME might complain about non-power-of-two textures (at least on Windows)

May you try if forcing -aspect 4:3 fixes the problem (leaving -intscalex with its default value)?

[wollarintj]

Reverting intscalex to zero in mame.ini and "-aspect 4:3" on the command line works. I tried adding "aspect 4:3" to mame.ini, but it didn't seem to pick it up. Is there a way to make that the default?

Edit: Looks like creating a file called neogo.ini in my roms directory and putting "aspect 4:3" works beautifully. Thanks for the suggestion!
Edit 2: Well, it works when using groovymame from command line, but not through Advance.
Edit 3: Found the issue... aspect was listed further down in mame.ini under "OSD PER-WINDOW VIDEO OPTIONS". Changing it here resolved all the issues.

[Calamity]

Yeah, it's a relief it was that. To those interested, the cause of this issue is GA desktop resolution being 648x480 instead of 640x480. When -aspect is set to auto, MAME takes the current resolution to figure out the monitor's aspect ratio. Because 648/480 is not exactly 4:3, MAME assumes a slightly wrong aspect ratio, and scaling is influenced by that. Forcing -aspect 4:3 fixes the problem.

[wollarintj]

I got my X600 installed, disabled the dotclock_min, set aspect back to auto, and everything is showing nicely... except the picture is shifted to the right, and the right side is bright where it's drawing back over on top. See pic. It's hard to tell, but the right side is brighter than the rest of the picture and its smashed against the right side of the screen. It does run vertical games now with no frame skipping!

Running my frontend/X11 with:
ModeLine          "648x480x60.00" 13.129200 648 672 736 840 480 482 488 521 -HSync -VSync interlace

A game (Metal Slug) ran with:
Modeline "320x224_60 15.625000KHz 59.185608Hz" 6.625000 320 336 368 424 224 235 238 264   -hsync -vsync

Attached is a log for running mslug. I don't see a pot for horizontal position on my chassis (G07) and the 2600XT was centered. There is a jumper for horizontal position, but I'm always afraid I'll get shocked mucking around with the chassis board. I played with the horizontal hold and got it to shift to the left, but then a resolution change knocks it out of sync. I've worked out the over drawing with horizontal hold, but it's still shifted to the right. Any thoughts? I've read about people adjusting the porch settings to fix this, but I'm not sure where I need to set those values, not to mention how to figure out the correct porch settings.

/home/arcade/switchres.conf only consists of 4 lines:
threads=1
ff=1
mo=0
monitor=arcade_15



Edit: Looking back at pics of the old setup, I guess it's about the same horizontally now. The super strong right edge was definitely different, but I think I got it to mostly even out with horizontal hold if I force vertical games at 640x400 (weird resolution, but any other goes out of horizontal sync). I'd still be interested to know if there's a way you can tweak the signal to make it center up... I've read some other posts about G07s hating resolution changes, and I think that's just the nature of the beast.

Man, I wish you could go buy a brand new tube and chassis. I'd love to have a multisync monitor with no burn-in some day.

[Calamity]

A bright and cropped right border means a too low horizontal front porch. Increase it a bit (e.g. from 2.0 to 4.0) and decrease the horizontal back porch accordingly (e.g. from 8.0 to 6.0). Check the monitor presets thread.

Alternatively you could compensate it with the horizontal centering adjustment (sometimes called horizontal phase) but don't touch the horizontal hold unless you want to adjust the horizontal frequency (that's used to achieve synchronization, not geometry related).