How do I fix screen Tear and Glitches in MAME?

[parpunk]

  Hey everybody. i just got my MAME hooked up to a TV and its working great and looks good. But i seem to be having some screen tearing and glitches every now and then in my games.

By screen tearing - i mean that there is a clear horizontal line that sometimes shoots through the screen when there seems to be a lot going on in games like metal slug and some instense shooters, actually even sometimes in games like street fighter.

By glitches - i mean sometimes a game will like freeze for like a mili second. Isnt too bad and sometimes can almost go unnoticed, but you can notice it in a game like arkanoid, when the ball is flying toward ya, but then glitches for a second.
Also i experience a little slowdown if something intense is happening as well in games like metal slug, whenever like a million things blow up at once. I kinda think that may be common, but i was just wondering.

Anyways i hope anybody here could possibly help me out to fix these problems. And if you can heklp could you please walk me through the steps. Im still very new to all this. Thanks everybody for all the help!

Heres the set up im using for my project as well. hope this helps for anyone who might be able to figure out my problems>>

Heres the PCI card i bought>
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814161010

The computer im using is a

Hewlett Packard 533W Hp Pavilion
here are the specs>
CPU= Intel(R) Celeron (R) CPU 2.00GHz pentium 4 CPU speed = 2.0GHz RAM = 512mb Operating system = windows xp home edition (build 2600) Video Card = Intel(R) 82845G/GL Graphics Graphics Controller = Intel(R) 82845G/GL chip Video card driver= directX 9 driver number is 6.13.1.3119 Sound Card = Realtek AC' 97 Audio Hard drive = 60 GB CD= COMBI RW 16X10/DVD

Also i have Mame32 on my computer.

I hope i provided enough info for you guys to make some suggestions. thanks a lot!

[Jeff AMN]

Well, emulation isn't perfect. For all that MAME does, I don't fault it for the random tear here and there. I didn't know it was MAME's fault though, I just figured it was my monitor. As for the glitches, well, that's emulation.

I'd love to hear some techie come in and explain the tearing and how to reduce or remove it.

[shardian]

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=9195.msg67796#msg67796

That thread should help you understand tearing a little better.

[Chris G]

Thanks Shardian - I was curious about this too.  This contradicts Ultimarc's rule about turning off hardware stretch, but I'm willing to give it a try.

 
Chris

[RayB]

To prevent tearing you want to turn on screen Sync.
(vsync)

[parpunk]

ok checked out the old link, but it doesnt really make muh sense to me at the moment, because i dont really know how to get into those options in MAME. and im afraid if i mess with something i might screw it up. Im current using Mame2 wih no front end, does that make any difference, and is there possibly and easier way to get out these glitches and screen tearing? Any software for DL?

To prevent tearing you want to turn on screen Sync.
(vsync)

Ok sounds good and how would i go about doing this???

Thanks for all the help!

[ahofle]

vsync never really did anything noticable for me.  Before you go and hardware stretch, try turning 'triplebuffer' to on.  That fixes tearing for me on my arcade monitor when it's not running at the correct refresh rate.

[parpunk]

vsync never really did anything noticable for me.  Before you go and hardware stretch, try turning 'triplebuffer' to on.  That fixes tearing for me on my arcade monitor when it's not running at the correct refresh rate.

sounds good, what exact steps would i take to get to this point, lol, sorry bro im a total newbie at all this, thanks!

[ahofle]

I see you are using MAME32 (a recent version I am assuming).  To set default video options for all games, go to the 'options' menu, and then 'default game options'.  Then you will be presented with a dialog with several tabs on it.  Each tab has several settings.
On a TV, I found these settings to be best for horizontal games:

Display tab: videomode = DirectDraw, 'Stretch Using Hardware' = off
Advanced tab: 'triple buffering' = on 
Screen tab: Screen = '\\ \DISPLAY1', resolution = 640x480, switch resolutions to fit = on

For vertical games, uncheck the 'switch resolutions to fit'

[Knievel]

Triplebuffer is a godsend.

When I first tried using an LCD in a cabinet it was tearing like crazy, that fixed it 100%.

[parpunk]

ok great, ill try these changes and see if it fixes it. thanks guys!

[shorthair]

I haven't seen this tearing, yet, though I've still yet to hook up my avga.  Why would an LCD tear?

[dmckean]

I haven't seen this tearing, yet, though I've still yet to hook up my avga.  Why would an LCD tear?

Here's a good article that describes the problem:

http://retroblast.com/articles/winmamemon_1.html