Emudriver Custom Resolutions Explained / Examples?

[RVZ]

Just when I thought I had crt emudriver and groovymame running properly, I get more issues.  A couple of days ago I finally managed to get groovymame running properly from my ATI 6770, HDMI out to HMDI converter to Component on an LG CRT TV.  Thanks again for all the advice from other forum members! 

So apart from groovymame running fine, I couldn't get sound in Hyperspin, and when I closed a game from groovymame, the sound would get all distorted until I restarted the pc.  My onboard sound didn't work, so tried with the sound via HMDI and bought a usb soundcard.  I had the same issues on both.  Then also had random crashes where Windows would just reboot.  These just increased over time and just couldn't find what was causing it.  I reloaded Windows probably around 10 times during the last week, switching back and forth between Windows 7 and 10.

Anyways, so yesterday I decided to dump the core2duo setup I had and bought a secondhand i3 motherboard and cpu, but still using the same gpu.  Installed Windows 10 and emudrivers again and groovymame is running fine again.  Something I've noticed, that with the previous setup, I had to choose PAL50 from the VMMaker setup to get it working.  Now that doesn't work, but the Arcade15 works fine.  Sound works ok now, although it sounds a bit pitchy, but will look at that later. 

My current issue is now again with getting a custom resolution working for Windows / Hyperspin.  Previously someone suggested to add 768x512 to the super resolutions file to generate, which worked.  Now that doesn't work, it's flickers a lot and not really usable.  So I'm trying to understand how the custom resolutions works and what I should be trying.  For example, if I add 720x576 in the file, VMMaker generates 720x496, or with 720x480, it generates 720x470.  All interlaced.  So how does this work, and which resolutions should I try?  I can't seem to get a stable image for Windows.  I've also read in the forum about someone saying they run Hyperspin in 2560x240?  Unfortunately he didn't go into any details.  Should that be possible?

[RVZ]

Looks like I was looking at this all wrong.  I didn't want to use any super resolutions for Windows, because I thought that Hyperspin will be all stretched out as well.  But I've found that even though Windows looks horrible, when you start up Hyperspin, it's perfect.  So using 720 x 240 now and it's working perfectly.

Only 'issue' left is, even after modifying the modelines in the mame.ini file, I still have to move and adjust the stretch of each game individually to fit into the screen.  Is there not an easier way to do this?

*update* 
So this doesn't actually work that well.  When I set the resolution through OSD and set it as my desktop resolution, it works great, but as soon as I restart Windows, it's all scrambled again.  Is there a way to fix this apart from going into OSD every time to set it?

[buttersoft]

Scrambled how? No stable picture? Wrong resolution? Letterboxed?

in general, you could try stopping and disabling the service called AMD External Events Utility, and turning off Windows fast start.

[RVZ]

Scrambled how? No stable picture? Wrong resolution? Letterboxed?

in general, you could try stopping and disabling the service called AMD External Events Utility, and turning off Windows fast start.

See attached, this is the image I get after restarting.  It works perfectly if I set it in OSD.  I disabled both AMD External Events Utility and Windows Fast Start.

Is there not a command line version of OSD that I can add to my startup every time, maybe that will work?

*update*
Starting a game in groovymame and then exiting again also fixes it.

[RVZ]

Is there a specific reason why the super resolutions are using 2560 for horizontal?  Why not anything else?  When I use something like 2560x240 for example, the screen is too far to the right, so I have to modify the modelines in mame.ini.  And then it would still have quite a bit of overscan, so I have to adjust the vertical and horizontal stretch and position for each game in GM.  I'm been trying different solutions and found that if I use 800x240 instead, then it's more or less centered.  Am I missing something obvious here? 

I've been getting issues with Windows crashing and rebooting randomly again.  Sometimes I can be busy playing a game for 15 minutes and it would just crash and reboot, other times I will be busy in Windows to configure things and it would crash.  Is it maybe related to the lower resolutions I'm using?  I'm running Windows in 960x240 for Hyperspin, and the games where it crashed were running on 800x240.  To make it easier to configure option in Windows, I set it to 960x480, and also getting crashes then.  Or is it maybe a faulty card?  I installed an Nvida 450 card and didn't get any reboots, but then obviously not using CRT Emudriver.  Also not with the onboard VGA (Intel).

I'm still using the HDMI to Component converter.  I've read somewhere about lower dotclocks not working on HDMI, not sure if that is related to this?

Will try to get a different GPU, just difficult now with lockdown. 

[Calamity]

Windows blue screens can happen due to a loose pcie connection, specially if you're not using a box for the pc, the video card can move. I had this issue until I got a pcie extension cable. It's a hardware issue with 99.9% of probability. Faulty ram may be the culprit too.

2560 was chosen because it was an integer multiple of several common resolutions and wide enough to provide seamless stretching. You can get perfect centering with super resolutions. You're only getting better results with 800x by chance: its lower precission is falling in the lucky side. What you have to do is use ArcadeOSD to center 2560x240 horizontally, then copy the modeline to clipboard, and use the horizontal values in copied crt_range to edit mame.ini (only front and back horizontal porches, for the rest use the defaults in the arcade_15 preset). And set "monitor custom" in mame.ini for it to take effect.

[RVZ]

Windows blue screens can happen due to a loose pcie connection, specially if you're not using a box for the pc, the video card can move. I had this issue until I got a pcie extension cable. It's a hardware issue with 99.9% of probability. Faulty ram may be the culprit too.

2560 was chosen because it was an integer multiple of several common resolutions and wide enough to provide seamless stretching. You can get perfect centering with super resolutions. You're only getting better results with 800x by chance: its lower precission is falling in the lucky side. What you have to do is use ArcadeOSD to center 2560x240 horizontally, then copy the modeline to clipboard, and use the horizontal values in copied crt_range to edit mame.ini (only front and back horizontal porches, for the rest use the defaults in the arcade_15 preset). And set "monitor custom" in mame.ini for it to take effect.

Thanks for the information.  I fastened the GPU a bit more so that it's now more stable.  Don't think it's ram, because I had the same issue with my previous motherboard, cpu & ram.  I also realized that I moved the HDMI cable to the HDMI port on the GPU before I started getting the constant reboots.  So I moved it back to the DVI port (with a DVI to HDMI adapter).  It's definitely a lot better than before.  I had it running today for around 7 hours and it only restarted twice, once while playing a game, another time while it was just in Hyperspin. 

In the Event Viewer it shows 'the system rebooted from a bug check'.  From what I could find, this is normally related to driver issues.  Anything else I could try? 

[Calamity]

RVZ,

What version of the Emudriver are you using? I hope it's the one based on Crimson 16.2.1.

Anyway, without more information on how your GPU is "fastened" I can't be more accurate. But it's a terrible idea to have a monster card just plugged into a mother board that's sitting flat without a box inside an arcade cabinet that is going to suffer vibrations. I didn't get rid of blue screens in mine until I got a pcie extension cable.

[RVZ]

RVZ,

What version of the Emudriver are you using? I hope it's the one based on Crimson 16.2.1.

Anyway, without more information on how your GPU is "fastened" I can't be more accurate. But it's a terrible idea to have a monster card just plugged into a mother board that's sitting flat without a box inside an arcade cabinet that is going to suffer vibrations. I didn't get rid of blue screens in mine until I got a pcie extension cable.

I'm using this one:  crt_emudriver_&_tools_2.0_beta_15_16.2.1_W.7.8.10-64

I decided to investigate into the crashes, and found the cause.  It's cause by an ATI driver file, atikmdag.sys.  Is this a file used by Emudriver?

crash dump file: C:\Windows\Minidump\041520-9031-01.dmp
This was probably caused by the following module: atikmdag.sys (0xFFFFF8016B404015)
Bugcheck code: 0x1000007E (0xFFFFFFFFC0000094, 0xFFFFF8016B404015, 0xFFFFED087DD99688, 0xFFFFED087DD98ED0)
Error: SYSTEM_THREAD_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED_M
file path: C:\Windows\system32\drivers\atikmdag.sys
product: ATI Radeon Family
company: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.
description: ATI Radeon Kernel Mode Driver
Bug check description: This indicates that a system thread generated an exception which the error handler did not catch.
This appears to be a typical software driver bug and is not likely to be caused by a hardware problem.
A third party driver was identified as the probable root cause of this system error. It is suggested you look for an update for the following driver: atikmdag.sys (ATI Radeon Kernel Mode Driver, Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.).
Google query: atikmdag.sys Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. SYSTEM_THREAD_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED_M

[Calamity]

That's the core Ati driver (Emudriver), yes. But it's not necessarily caused by a bug in Emudriver (it could be). It can be a problem in your hardware (video card, pcie related) that causes Emudriver to blow up. E.g. if the pcie bus temporarily fails atikmdag.sys will fail to read gpu's resources and die.

I have reasons to believe it's a problem in your hardware:

- I have experienced it in my own setup before
- You mentioned that using a different connector/cable makes a difference, which points to mechanical conditions having an influence.
- The driver doesn't blue screen randomly for hundrends or other users.

Of course we can't discard a bug in the drivers (not necessarily Emudriver but the ATI driver itself), but chances that this can be fixed at this point in time are few. On the other hand, you can try a pcie extension cable for a few dollars.

[RVZ]

That's the core Ati driver (Emudriver), yes. But it's not necessarily caused by a bug in Emudriver (it could be). It can be a problem in your hardware (video card, pcie related) that causes Emudriver to blow up. E.g. if the pcie bus temporarily fails atikmdag.sys will fail to read gpu's resources and die.

I have reasons to believe it's a problem in your hardware:

- I have experienced it in my own setup before
- You mentioned that using a different connector/cable makes a difference, which points to mechanical conditions having an influence.
- The driver doesn't blue screen randomly for hundrends or other users.

Of course we can't discard a bug in the drivers (not necessarily Emudriver but the ATI driver itself), but chances that this can be fixed at this point in time are few. On the other hand, you can try a pcie extension cable for a few dollars.

Thanks for your quick replies. 

Unfortunately I can't get hold of a pcie extension cable, since we're on lockdown.  Only essential items are sold.  So I'm trying to rule out everything else, just in case.  Since it's working fine with an Nvidia card fitted the same way, I'm guessing then it's a problem with the card itself?  Or a compatibility issue with this card and the driver?  Would it be worth it to try installing Windows 7 instead of 10, or do you think I'm likely to get the same issue with 7?

[buttersoft]

Can you order one delivered from the internets?

[RVZ]

Can you order one delivered from the internets?

Nope, the only deliveries allowed are for essential items as well.

I decided to give Windows 7 a try.  So far its been running for 4 hours today without a reboot.  So I'm hoping it was just a Windows 10 driver or compatility issue. 

[Calamity]

I decided to give Windows 7 a try.  So far its been running for 4 hours today without a reboot.  So I'm hoping it was just a Windows 10 driver or compatility issue.

Hopefully it was that.

There is something that is never explained when people in the forums just blindly recommend "go for an older ATI card". Video cards are a very special type of hardware in that they're designed to support a specific version of DirectX which indirectly ties them to a specific version of Microsoft Windows. In an ideal world, DirectX 11 capable cards would be used in Windows 7/8.1, and only DirectX 12 capable cards would be used in Windows 10. Anyway this more a guess based on common sense and experience than a valid explanation.

[RVZ]

I decided to give Windows 7 a try.  So far its been running for 4 hours today without a reboot.  So I'm hoping it was just a Windows 10 driver or compatility issue.

Hopefully it was that.

There is something that is never explained when people in the forums just blindly recommend "go for an older ATI card". Video cards are a very special type of hardware in that they're designed to support a specific version of DirectX which indirectly ties them to a specific version of Microsoft Windows. In an ideal world, DirectX 11 capable cards would be used in Windows 7/8.1, and only DirectX 12 capable cards would be used in Windows 10. Anyway this more a guess based on common sense and experience than a valid explanation.

Unfortunately it wasn't this and Windows 7 also crashed shortly after.  Couldn't get the crash information from Windows 7, but assume it's the same thing.  I'm wondering if it's not maybe the card overheating or something?  It seems that as soon as I get one crash, the following crashes happens soon after, sometimes immediately after a reboot again. 

Anyways, looks like I can't do anything about it for now.  As soon as this lockdown ends, I'll try to get a different card, as well as an PCIE extender cable.  I've even contemplated on just using composite on a different graphics card, since I don't get the crashes on NVidia cards, but it just looks horrible in comparison.

Thanks for all the assistance again.

[peterson65]

did you ever fix this? having the same problem random crash and reboot windows 7 and memory dump shows atimdag.sys crash.

[Zebidee]

In addition to Calamity's advice above, try swapping the PSU for a known good one. If there is a fan on the card, make sure it is working too.

[peterson65]

well knock on wood but I think I fixed it. took out the card and cleaned the contacts with a pencil eraser and removed the fan and put new thermal paste and made sure the fan was clean. have ran it for a few nights in attract mode and no crash.