HELP! LAST ISSUE! Games not going full-screen?

[AGGIEZ]

This is the final issue I have with my cab before it's ready to go! (well, I have to get some tinted glass, but that's it). My 19" monitor is setup horizontally. I just switched PC's and the other PC I was using was stretching the games to fit the whole screen. With this new PC, some of the games fit the whole screen (Metal Slug) and others are really small (Marvel vs. Street Fighter, Pacman, Galage - see pic below)
 

What do I need to do to my new PC to make these games stretch so that they use the vull space of the monitor?


Running MAMEWAH if that matters

[whammoed]

One way is to enable hardware stretching.  Of course your video card has to support this.  Maybe that is your issue here...your other pc's video card supported hardware stretching but your new one does not, or you just don't have it enabled in your mame.ini.
The other option is to use something like advmame to set up a resolution that has a close or exact pixel ratio to the resolution of the game you want to play.

[AGGIEZ]

, or you just don't have it enabled in your mame.ini.

Is hwstretching not the defaulf in the mame.ini ? If I need to set it, first of all what is the mame.ini and how do I get to it to make this change?

If it IS the videocard, what kind of card would you recommend? Can you get a good card that would take care of this problem for fairly cheap?

[whammoed]

well, I just created the mame.ini with the command:
mame -createconfig
and it looks like it is the default:
hwstretch               1
So what kind of video card do you have?
If yours does not do hardware stretching, yes you can find a cheap video card that does.  I have used the Matrox G400 in the past and it was very good and cheap too.(it is no longer made)  I believe all of the radeon cards will do it too, and I'm sure a lot more.  If you are interested in the G400 I have one available for $25 plus shipping.  It really sounds like its your card.  Some games will look like they are taking up the whole screen because the pixel to pixel ratio is close to even when comparing the games resolution to your monitors resolution but some games don't match up too good.

[AGGIEZ]

well, I just created the mame.ini with the command:
mame -createconfig
and it looks like it is the default:
hwstretch               1
So what kind of video card do you have?
If yours does not do hardware stretching, yes you can find a cheap video card that does.  I have used the Matrox G400 in the past and it was very good and cheap too.(it is no longer made)  I believe all of the radeon cards will do it too, and I'm sure a lot more.  If you are interested in the G400 I have one available for $25 plus shipping.  It really sounds like its your card.  Some games will look like they are taking up the whole screen because the pixel to pixel ratio is close to even when comparing the games resolution to your monitors resolution but some games don't match up too good.

I got a pretty barebones PC. This is what it has in it.

 Video:     
- 3D graphic acceleration
- 8MB SVGA Memory Frame Buffer

Expansion Slots:
- Three 32-bit PCI Bus Master Slots
- One 16-bit ISA Slot

[whammoed]

Questions:
Is the video onboard the motherboard or is it a seperate card?
Do you have a free AGP slot?

[AGGIEZ]

Questions:
Is the video onboard the motherboard or is it a seperate card?
Do you have a free AGP slot?

The only slots I have are two 32-bit PCI bus master sots and one 16-bit ISA slot.

I guess I'll have to go with a PCI Video Card...

[theonemickfoley]

try using mame32 and and in the options menu choose stretch using hardware

again.

mame has NOTHING to do with the video card only if your using direct3D then it matters..

besides my PCI card is a one megabyte trident card and i get fullscreen on any horizotonial game..

the only ones i have problems with are those pac crap games..

[AGGIEZ]

try using mame32 and and in the options menu choose stretch using hardware

again.

mame has NOTHING to do with the video card only if your using direct3D then it matters..

besides my PCI card is a one megabyte trident card and i get fullscreen on any horizotonial game..

the only ones i have problems with are those pac crap games..

No thanks. MAME32 is pretty lame for a cab in my opinion. MAMEWAH is alot more friendly on the eye and just makes for a better experience. I think I'll have to go to Frys tomorrow and get a PCI video card.

[RayB]

Is the monitor a PC monitor or arcade?

[AGGIEZ]

Is the monitor a PC monitor or arcade?

PC

[whammoed]

I am not suggesting you use mame32 on your cab but just download it as suggested before to use as a diagnostic tool to check your video out.  If your card does not support hardware stretching, this option will be disabled in Mame32.  This way you know for sure if you need to go buy a pci video card that supports hardware stretching.

[AGGIEZ]

I am not suggesting you use mame32 on your cab but just download it as suggested before to use as a diagnostic tool to check your video out.  If your card does not support hardware stretching, this option will be disabled in Mame32.  This way you know for sure if you need to go buy a pci video card that supports hardware stretching.

Ahhhhhhh. Good idea. I'll give that a try...Thanks wahmmo!

[whammoed]

Just checked an ATI rage 128 and it has hardware stretching.  If you need a card this could be a good option as they are fairly cheap and I have seen them in PCI.

[SirPeale]

I'm guessing that your video is onboard.  Not *always* a bad thing, what's the chipset  for the video?

And to dispell a myth, sometimes the video card *does* matter.  I've got a couple of PCI cards that give me about 3 FPS.  Don't remember what their chipsets were, but they had like 512k RAM on board.  I had one with 2M that did the same.  Don't remember the chipset on that one either.

[AGGIEZ]

Just checked an ATI rage 128 and it has hardware stretching.  If you need a card this could be a good option as they are fairly cheap and I have seen them in PCI.

The "Stretch Using Hardware" option is greyed out in MAME32. I guess that means I need a PCI card then huh?


Peale - it IS onboard. I've pretty much decided to invest in a video card. This is the final piece of the puzzle that is keeping me from enjoying my cab.

[whammoed]

The "Stretch Using Hardware" option is greyed out in MAME32. I guess that means I need a PCI card then huh?

Yes, that is exactly what it means.  Off to the store with you!

[SirPeale]

You'll be better off.  You should be able to get one from eBay for like $10 shipped.

[RayB]

OR you could spend a bit more money on an arcade monitor and run the games in their native resolutions.
 

[AGGIEZ]

OR you could spend a bit more money on an arcade monitor and run the games in their native resolutions.
 

Hmmmmmm, $10 for a videocard on E-bay or $300 for an arcade monitor. I think I'll go with E-bay.  

[SirPeale]

$300 for an arcade monitor?

Oh, must be a D9200 or whatever.  Me?  I'd go with a CGA monitor.

[AGGIEZ]

HELP!

I'm not really sure what PCI video card to go with. I looked on E-bay and they have tons of these things. I don't want to buy one then install it only to see that it isn't compatible or doesn't have hardware stretching. I'm running Windows XP Pro. What PCI video cards will run well with XP??

[Sylentwulf]

I got a radeon 7200 for VERY cheap (might be $20 or so including shipping), and it's fast enough to run most PC games, MORE than enough for mame.

[AGGIEZ]

I got a radeon 7200 for VERY cheap (might be $20 or so including shipping), and it's fast enough to run most PC games, MORE than enough for mame.

Do they make that for PCI slots? Looks like it's only an AGP card...

[whammoed]

Radeon 7000 would work also:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=40158&item=5114447313&rd=1

[Pieman2004]

mame has NOTHING to do with the video card only if your using direct3D then it matters..

I am a new at all of this, so sorry if this is a stupid question. I am having similar problems as well. some games do not go full screen but also they are offset a little from center. I am using a radeon 7000 card and thought that radeon supported stretching. so now I wonder if the problem is with direct3D. I don't know though, as I said I am new to this

[Lilwolf]

btw, before you go much farther.

you MIGHT consider using SciDisplayDoctor (free) and dos.  It might give you all the resolutions you are looking for.

The initial problem you are having is you have a game that wants to run 320x200 (for instance) but mame thinks your smallest resolutions is 400x300.  So it goes to 400x300 and centers the game.

BUT.  SDD might give you ALL the resolutions normal for arcade games.  So afterwards you would play all games at full screen at native resolutions... And getting the DOS speed increase is also a plus.

It sounds like you have a slow system (based on the video card and lack of AGP port... Only reason I'm suggesting it.

Also.. if you have win98... you can have a dual boot type system pretty easy.

[Tiger-Heli]

Ok, first try the fixes I mentioned in this thread:

http://www.arcadecontrols.org/yabbse/index.php?board=1;action=display;threadid=22635;start=msg184126#msg184126

Although your MAME32 results do sound like lack of Hardware Stretching might be the problem.

BTW, you don't need a very good video card to make this work, I had an old 4M Rendition Verite PCI card and it did fine for this. . .