Which Q's and A's would you like to see included in a GroovyMAME FAQ?

[PL1]

Disclaimer:  I don't have the required depth of knowledge to compile and organize a decent GM FAQ.

Hopefully, someone who can do it will step up to this challenge.

I feel like a pinned thread with a FAQ is due.

That sounds like a volunteer statement.      
----------------
Calamity has helped tons of people over the years.

Here's a chance for everyone to "pay it forward" by sharing the GM-related questions and answers that you've found helpful.
- Bonus points for suggesting a cohesive general outline of topics for the FAQ.


Scott

[lilshawn]

I know nothing of groovymame other than people post here about it... some questions I would like to see answered in a sticky off the top of my head...

Is groovy mame for me? Should I use groovymame? Why shouldn't I use groovymame?

will groovymame work with my _______ monitor?

can I still use groovymame with an LCD monitor? more than 1 monitor? more than 2 monitors? a million monitors? if so, what can or can't be displayed on these additional monitors?

what's different about Groovymame vs regular plain vanilla mame? is the performance the same/better/worse?

what additional hardware requirements are needed to run groovymame?

where can I download/install/find a guide?

should I use the latest version? or is there an instance where using an older version is more appropriate?

[newmanfamilyvlogs]

I think there should also be some elaboration on the theory of operation wrapped into the answers as well. Questions such as how to "Fit X game on Y screen" feel like a good opportunity to discuss things like active lines of resolution, and why the default options in GroovyMame pick one resolution over another, etc. I've been using groovymame since the very earliest releases, I'd love to help contribute to some documentation.

Looking at Shawn's list, and trying to take a stab at outlining sections, and generalize some sections for questions...

What are GroovyMame and CRTEmudriver?
(Short high-level description of the modification to the emulator and the driver)

What hardware does GroovyMame require?
(Discussion of utilization with Arcade monitors, PVMs, TV, computer monitors, and LCDs), (discussion of known supported video cards).

How does GroovyMame work?
(Brief outline of flow of operation: Driver install, mode generation, instances where per-game command line options are applicable)
(Description of how super resolutions, why it's preferable to generating dozens of specific resolutions)
(Physical limitations of monitor image adjustment, discussion of front porch/back porch tweaking, etc)
(Considerations for mixing rotated vertical games with horizontal games)


An updated installation guide should probably include some specific examples of outdated methodologies of setting up the crtemudriver, since that's changed some over the years, particularly with the introduction of super resolutions.

[Calamity]

- My screen flickers! Why? Can I fix it?
- GM says "Swichres couldn't find a mode that meets your specs", how can I fix it?
- Why is GM picking 240p for my 224p games?
- Why are my vertical games cropped? How can I fix it?
- GM is picking a wrong interlaced resolution for my vertical games, how can I fix it?
- How can I fix overscan?
- Can I fix vertical overscan (even if 1000+ posts say otherwise)?
- I adjusted all my modes with Arcade OSD but my adjustments don't show in GM, why?
- What is frame delay? What value should I use?
- Do I really need to set a different value of frame delay per game?
- I have a very expensive CPU and I can't set frame delay to 9 on this game, how can I fix it?
- My games look nice but sound is distorted, like an old vinyl, how can I fix the sound? (It can't be my cpu, since baseline MAME's sound is perfect)
- I'd like this game to use a specific resolution, is it possible?
- I have a modeline I've adjusted by hand that I'd like GM to use, is it possible?
- What preset should I use for my monitor?
- I want to create a custom preset for my monitor, how can I find the right values?
- Will GM work with my Nvidia card?
- etc.

[cools]

(How do I create a log?) 

[Substring]

Funny to read that, for most people, GroovyMAME is a Windows thing

Beside GM specific questions, there is still the very basic boring stuff :
- what is a romset ?
- what is a split/merged/non-merged romset ? parent-only romset ?
- where should I drop roms ?
- why doesn't my rom work ?
- how can I validate my romset ?
- where can I ask for help/report a bug ?
- is there a detailed doc about mame config files ?
- which systems are available ?
- how can I help/contribute ?

[donluca]

Be careful tho, those questions are general MAME questions and, IMHO, they have absolutely nothing to do with GM.

GM FAQ should be about GM specific things.

Also, I see people maybe want to make a collaborative effort, in that case a Wiki page would be better so everyone can contribute.

We don't need anything complex, a single page wiki with an index at the top and the questions and replies below would suffice.

So that when someone comes here and asks for the billionth time about how to use super resolutions we can just copy-paste the Wiki page and lock the thread.

EDIT: I'm stuck behind with what's happening in GM and have no time to make (and most importantly) maintain a FAQ thread.
Another (risky) thing we can do is having a "FAQ" user shared among us so that when someone wants to update the FAQ thread he can login with the FAQ user and edit the post.

[keilmillerjr]

How groovymame/switchres works together, and differs between operating systems. What exactly is switchres?

[Substring]

Be careful tho, those questions are general MAME questions and, IMHO, they have absolutely nothing to do with GM.

GM FAQ should be about GM specific things.

Indeed. But the MAME doc says nothing about that. Eventually simply provide links, I wouldn't expect GM users to be MAME power users ...

[schmerzkaufen]

A lot of people are very, very confused about the whole input lag deal, how it's done/used in GM, and the differences it makes with baseline MAME and other popular solutions for lag mitigation.
The topic definitely needs clear and accessible explanation with examples, supported by a number of test figures and comparison.

[donluca]

I feel like some of the questions are more in-depth explanations of how things work in GM.

My idea of a FAQ was more of a tool where people that are having issues with GM correctly working can look for solutions without asking the same questions over and over again.

Maybe a wiki is definitely the way to go.

[Arroyo]

I like Newmanfamilyvlogs suggestion inline with lilshawn’s.  Keeping it to the basics and expanding from there will help address a lot of questions.

As for the Wiki isn’t the geedorah website already a wiki?

BTW I think this is a really good idea, when I started to get into GroovyMame and CRT Emudriver 8months ago I found that I had to bounce around between this site and geedorah to find even some of the most basic answers.  This site is difficult to navigate at times and this would have been invaluable when I started.

[donluca]

Fragmentation of the resources is another big issue. Ideally all the info should be in the same place and in very visible manner.

[Substring]

Need a free wiki  ? Should it be open to contributions ? In such case, a github wiki is the easiest way to go, despite its limitations

[donluca]

I was thinking more about the wiki, but I'm afraid that by adding a wiki, we're actually fragmenting the available information even more.

This is not something desirable, we should have *everything* GM related in a single place where people can:

1 - Download GM and all related tools (CRTemudriver, etc...)
2 - Read a quick start guide
3 - Troubleshoot issues without the need of registering a user and making a thread (pinned FAQ thread or text file embedded in the GM download)
4 - Solve issues which couldn't be handled by the FAQ

All of this should be in one place. IMHO.

EDIT: heck, we should just buy a domain like groovymame.net, install wordpress with news feed, download page, quick start guide and FAQ page and a link to this forum. That would be the best solution possible. The website will handle 99% of what most users need and then this forum will handle other issues.

EDIT 2: if you want I can host this on my network on theclassicgamer.net . I can just create a new subdomain like
gm.theclassicgamer.net
or
groovymame.theclassicgamer.net

I don't want/need any money for this, just say the word and it'll be done.

[Substring]

github pages ? https://pages.github.com/

[donluca]

Wow this seems like a fantastic solution!

If Calamity is willing to move all the GM stuff to Github he could use github pages and that would be it. I really like this solution!

[Jimbo]

Is it recommended for freesync or gsync setups?

If so... are there specific configuration steps for these?

[Arroyo]

Agreed with Jimbo.  Is this idea going to get up and running?  I think it would be very valuable to new folks and I’d be happy to contribute where I can.

[buttersoft]

Frame delay infos. Bit ---steaming pile of meadow muffin---, if someone wants to rewrite - http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,133194.msg1648384.html#msg1648384

Also maybe something about turning off fast start and win 10, and stopping and disabling the AMD external events utility - i keep answering questions for those. Maybe those are for a guide not an FAQ?

[Cowslanlr]

Also maybe something about turning off fast start and win 10, and stopping and disabling the AMD external events utility - i keep answering questions for those. Maybe those are for a guide not an FAQ?

How important is it to disable fast start and AMD EEU? I have not experienced any issues on my Windows 10 PC with these enabled. In fact, when I tried disabling fast start on my PC I began having an issue where my monitor would not wake back up after my computer had been in sleep mode forcing me to do a hard reboot. Once I enabled it again the issue went away.

[Sociopathos]

I would like to know if there's a Groovymame equivalent to HBMame.

[buttersoft]

How important is it to disable fast start and AMD EEU? I have not experienced any issues on my Windows 10 PC with these enabled. In fact, when I tried disabling fast start on my PC I began having an issue where my monitor would not wake back up after my computer had been in sleep mode forcing me to do a hard reboot. Once I enabled it again the issue went away.

If you're not having issues, don't worry. If at any time programs grabbing a 480p mode when there isn't one in the list, AMD EEU is the problem. If you ever get a half-height letter boxed screen on booting up Win10, fast start is the problem.

[keilmillerjr]

I created a gitlab group called arcademvs. Slowly movingg and revising my github repos over.

Original thread: http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,161029.0.html

Wiki: http://arcademvs.org

Substring mentioned perhaps posting here. Would anyone like to help contribute? Specifically for emulation on crt and crt emudriver? I will update soon on how to contribute. Took a while to do the windows 10 guide. I have a raspbian lite guide I need to revise and push. Even if some one wants to review what I write and provide feedback, that would help. This will be a long and slow project.

[Substring]

Documentation is something great !

It's even better when the community participates to its writing Someone made the step to make a nice doc, let's help him making a complete doc

[keilmillerjr]

Wiki now has some more content. Started a section for contributing - unfinished. Added a section for unix commands and raspbian lite (needs some editing, just a copy and paste from my notes). Shipping out my raspberry pi today in trade for a gamecube. Some hopefully some one can help add/edit for the latest rasbian. I have too many projects. Trying to slim down.

[keilmillerjr]

I have added more content. Compiling mame on unix might interest some in the groovymame section. I haven't successfully compiled for windows. Would like to hear some ones perspective on the topic since there is totally different methods. Perhaps could add a windows part. Calamity or Haynor666? I know you guys compile for windows.

Crt emudriver install guide will be on hold for a bit. I think my flyback went bad. Unless I can install it on my virtual box install. Probably better to use real hardware for device names.

[Substring]

your website is looking pretty weird, like full of bloated ads

[keilmillerjr]

your website is looking pretty weird, like full of bloated ads

Probably the *.com and not the *org. Domain was already taken. I tried guessing domain names for two days. People sitting on all the good names arcade related, to resell for top dollar.

[keilmillerjr]

I have been trying to add to the wiki @ http://arcademvs.org/ while coding for attract, lag testing, work and family. Anyone who wants to help with content, let me know!