Is it possible that my vid card doesn't support hardware stretching?

[quarterback]

This may be a waaaayyyy newbie question, but my games don't stretch to the full screen.   I guess the most embarrassing thing about this question is that I have to reveal that I've hardly played games on my cab since I put in the 21" monitor and got the computer all set up (months and months ago)

Because of this, I only recently noticed that games weren't filling the screen.   My understanding is that hardware strectching usually takes care of this, so I'm wondering if it's an issue with my 'hardware' (read: video card.   Or is there some other setting that I need to change?

Thanks

[Howard_Casto]

Well how are we supposed to answer you if you don't tell us what video card you are using?

[quarterback]

Well how are we supposed to answer you if you don't tell us what video card you are using?

    Well, I guess my question was really "are there cards out there that don't support it" and/or "is there some other software setting (besides hardware stretching) that I'm overlooking as a possible solution".  But, HC, your suggestion clearly has merit, so I will supply that missing information.

It is a Trident 3dImage 9750 AGP card.   It's old, it's crappy, it was cheap... and based on those things, it seems like it could be the problem.   Confirm?  Deny?

Thanks

[Popcorrin]

Yes it is possible.  I have had some older cards that did not support hardware stretching.

[Howard_Casto]

Trident doesn't support hw accel.  See give us info and we can give a definate answer. 

http://www.fujitsu-siemens.co.uk/rl/servicesupport/techsupport/boards/Graphic/Trident/Trident-9750.htm


Note it says dx5 compatable..... it's rare for a card to support hw accel natively unless it's dx6 or above.  At least, as it pertains to mame. 

[quarterback]

Thanks y'all. 

I figured that was the problem and now it's confirmed.   Time to go dig up another video card.
Thanks

[wpcmame]

Because of this, I only recently noticed that games weren't filling the screen.

[quarterback]

Thanks wpcmame, but those must be for later versions of MAME than mine.  I have .55 and .88  and they wouldn't take all those switches.


That being said, I've replace the video card.  I had an 8mb ATI Rage XL that I had pulled from another PC.  I got it installed and now hardware stretching works.  YEAH!

But I'm having problems with a lot of games, primarily verticals.   I'm using a 21" dell monitor (horizontally mounted) but most of the vertical games now sit low and to the left.  They don't go all the way to the top of the screen and they're shifted to the left of center.  Games affected include: Amidar, Arkanoid, Astro Blaster, Bagman, BombJack, DonkeyKong etc

And some of my horizontal games are having "low and to the left" problems as well.  Joust, Moon Patrol and Defender all are shorter than they should be and they're shifted to the left.

And then there are a smaller number of verticals that DO still reach the top, but are no longer centered left to right.  The couple I noticed were: DigDug and Galaga.

Any ideas?

[markrvp]

I'm having a similar problem.  It was much worse when the Windows resolution was set to 1024x768.  I reset it to 640x480 at 16bit color at 60 Hz refresh.  This seems to have improved the "centering" of games when MAME is launched.  However, the games are still not stretching as much as I would like for them to.

[quarterback]

I'm having a similar problem.  It was much worse when the Windows resolution was set to 1024x768.  I reset it to 640x480 at 16bit color at 60 Hz refresh.  This seems to have improved the "centering" of games when MAME is launched.  However, the games are still not stretching as much as I would like for them to.

Hmmm... I'll try messing with Windows' resolution, but I'd really rather not drop down to 640x480, cuz I do use this computer for other things.

The horizontal games are GREAT!   I'm psyched to be able to play Black Tiger with a FULL screen, and Berzerk as well.  It really makes a difference.    I was wondering if there are some settings that I can do on a game-by-game basis to make the other horizontals fully stretch (like Defender & Moon patrol)   

markvp, have you always had this problem or is it a new problem to you?  Just wondering if there's some other culpret.   I was also thinking about mess around with Mame32 since it's easier to trial-and-error with game-specific settings.  Maybe there's something in there that'll help.

[quarterback]

Well, the solution to my (and Marvp's?) problem was even simpler than I thought.

I just need to set my Dell monitor for every 'type' of game (type referring to whatever specific resolution issue I'm having)

So, I started up Defender and STRETCHED and recentered the screen as far as my Dell would let me.  Now Defender fills the screen as does Moon Patrol and Joust.

For all the games that were down and to the left, I 'zoomed' in on one of them and slid them over to the right and now ALL of those games fit correctly.

I'm not sure that this is the correct solution (particularly with Defender et al) because I really did tweak one of the directions from "52" to "100" at which point my monitor wouldn't let me move it anymore.  But it works until somebody can give me some better advice.   

And because each setting is resolution specific, it doesn't mess with my windows setup at all and I'm back to 1024x768.

[loadman]

I'm using a 21" dell monitor (horizontally mounted) but most of the vertical games now sit low and to the left.

[loadman]

Opps you got in there with the Answer before I sent my post.

[markrvp]

Well, the solution to my (and Marvp's?) problem was even simpler than I thought.

Yep, it really was that simple 

[Tiger-Heli]

Well, the solution to my (and Marvp's?) problem was even simpler than I thought.

Yep, it really was that simple

[quarterback]

Well, the solution to my (and Marvp's?) problem was even simpler than I thought.

Yep, it really was that simple 

Simple, but not correct???

What you are doing is letting MAME auto-select a resolution and then tweaking the monitor settings to make whatever MAME picks full screen. 

See, I knew I wasn't doing it the right way

Thanks for the link T-H.  It's a lot of info but I'll try and wade through it later this afternoon.

What you want to do it specify a specific MAME resolution for all games and let -hws and -preserve aspect take care of the rest.

Edit your mame.ini to specify a set resolution for all games.  I use 800x600, but 1024x768 or 640x480, or even arcade monitor resolutions should work.  (You will still need to set you monitor to display full-screen at this resolution, but you should only need to do it once.)

[Tiger-Heli]

Thanks for the link T-H.

[quarterback]

So, I reset the monitor back to it's 'defaults' and then opened up mame.ini   Sure enough, my resolution was set to 'auto'.   

This speicfic installation of MAME was set up a good while ago and worked perfectly on a totally different computer/monitor configuration.   Because of that, I had followed the "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" theory and hadn't ever worried about the resolution setting in mame.ini.   So when I copied it over to the computer in my cab, I figured I should be good to go... clearly I was wrong.

So I've now set resolution at 800x600 (or 640x480, I can't remember what I finally settled on) and did some minor tweaking of the monitor and it's all looking pretty good.  It certainly didn't require anything NEAR the amount of monitor-adjustment that I had to do previously.

Thanks all