Arcade monitor with windows/ mame

[Marky_1979]

When using mame and maewah with an arcade monitor what mode/ resolution should I select? im currently using 800 x 600 but my current set up is with a tv and will be swopping it over soon.

[ahofle]

What arcade monitor are you getting?
If just a standard CGA arcade monitor you will probably find 640x480 to be best.  If it's a multisync, then you can keep it at 800x600.
For the games themselves, you should use the native resolutions of course.

[Marky_1979]

Yes im gonna buy one of those arcade vga cards so that will automatically find the native resolutions wont it? Not sure what type of monitor it is to be honest.

[ahofle]

Most of the time MAME finds the correct resolution but not always.  In those cases it's just a simple matter of manually selecting the closest resolution yourself.  You can also use the "MAME resolution tool" to select all the appropriate resolutions.

[shorthair]

A lot of times Mame will select the right one. Sometimes you can find one that'll work - for example, I found that 480x240 works great for 224x256 vertical games. Some games, though, I haven't been able to find anything that'll work. I've gone in and written my own ini's, but they don't seem to wanna work. Even the generated ini's don't always work. Maybe it's my monitor. Also, I notice that when I select certain resolutions in Mame, when I bring up the monitor OSD, it shows something else. Even weirder is sometimes it's a number, sometimes it says 'user mode'. In either case, the res picked in Mame may or may not work. Still, the only game I've found that I like native res on is Tutankham.

[ahofle]

The native resolutions look pretty much perfect on my arcade monitor.   

[northerngames]

use 640X480 with http://www.ultimarc.com/avres.zip the mamewah res too sucked for me and it was more complicated this one is easy to use with mamewah and seems to work better anyhow becuase Avres was made more for the AGP then mamewah res tool for mamewah only lol.

mame stetch's without it and without manually picking it or using one of the above it will not display nativly.

http://www.ultimarc.com/avgainst.html

[shorthair]

Dunno, ahofle. Still checkin it out....like last, I played Mat Mania, and it immediately worked. There was a touch of nostalgia - though just a touch - and it was cute an all...till I switched it back to stretch, and it was like pulling a blanket from over my eyes. The scan lines (again, perhaps because it's a 27") really obscure the detail of the graphics. And anything from, at least as early as, '85 are so much neater. But I haven't rule native out, yet.

northern: actually, I have been using the avres. Though it doesn't generate the same resolutions as the games used, they often work anyway. Not all, though. Thinking over it, I think the main issue I'm having is trying to get vertical games to look good on a horizontal monitor. (Except DOT. This one's a bastard, despite being a horizontal game.) When I set those games for vertical, it shows em just right, right off.

[Marky_1979]

Can any one tell me if my mame config is correct? and will i also need to alter my mamewah to get arcade vga working? thanks



### mame.ini ###

### Frontend Related ###
clones                  1

### Windows path and directory options ###
rompath                 roms
samplepath              samples
# inipath               
cfg_directory           cfg
nvram_directory         nvram
memcard_directory       memcard
input_directory         inp
hiscore_directory       hi
state_directory         sta
artwork_directory       artwork
snapshot_directory      snap
diff_directory          diff
ctrlr_directory         ctrlr
cheat_file              cheat.dat
history_file            history.dat
mameinfo_file           mameinfo.dat

### Windows video options ###
autoframeskip           1
frameskip               0
waitvsync               0
triplebuffer            0
window                  0
ddraw                   1
direct3d                0
hwstretch               1
# screen                640x288
cleanstretch            auto
resolution              auto
refresh                 0
scanlines               0
switchres               1
switchbpp               1
maximize                1
keepaspect              1
matchrefresh            0
syncrefresh             0
throttle                1
full_screen_brightness   0.000000
frames_to_run           0
effect                  none
screen_aspect           4:3

### Windows Direct3D 2D video options ###
zoom                    2
d3dtexmanage            1
d3dfilter               1
d3dfeedback             0
d3dscan                 100
d3deffectrotate         1
d3dprescale             auto
d3deffect               none
# d3dcustom             <NULL> (not set)
# d3dexpert             <NULL> (not set)

### Windows misc options ###
sleep                   1
rdtsc                   0
high_priority           0

### Windows sound options ###
audio_latency           1
# wavwrite              <NULL> (not set)

### Input device options ###
mouse                   1
joystick                1
lightgun                1
dual_lightgun           1
offscreen_reload        0
steadykey               1
keyboard_leds           1
led_mode                ps/2
a2d_deadzone            0.300000
# ctrlr                 <NULL> (not set)
paddle_device           keyboard
adstick_device          keyboard
pedal_device            keyboard
dial_device             keyboard
trackball_device        keyboard
lightgun_device         keyboard
digital                 none

### Mame CORE video options ###
norotate                0
ror                     0
rol                     0
autoror                 0
autorol                 0
flipx                   0
flipy                   0
debug_resolution        auto
gamma                   1.000000
brightness              1.000000
pause_brightness        0.650000

### Mame CORE vector game options ###
antialias               1
translucency            1
beam                    1.000000
flicker                 0.000000
intensity               1.500000

### Mame CORE sound options ###
samplerate              44100
samples                 1
resamplefilter          1
sound                   1
volume                  0

### Mame CORE misc options ###
artwork                 1
use_backdrops           1
use_overlays            1
use_bezels              1
artwork_crop            0
artwork_resolution      0
cheat                   0
debug                   0
# debugscript           <NULL> (not set)
# playback              <NULL> (not set)
# record                <NULL> (not set)
log                     0
maxlogsize              10000
oslog                   0
skip_disclaimer         1
skip_gameinfo           1
skip_validitychecks     1
crconly                 0
bios                    default
# state                 <NULL> (not set)

### Configuration options ###
readconfig              1
verbose                 0

[ahofle]

You need to turn off hardware stretch:

hwstretch               1

should be

hwstretch               0

[Marky_1979]

Thanks buddy apart from that everything is spot on? Will mamewah need altering at all?

[Marky_1979]

I have set mame ini setting to 460 x 288 will I need to also alter the mamewah ini and will I need to make a mamewah background to 460 x 288? I am using an arcade monitor btw. Cheers guys.

[northerngames]

I have set mame ini setting to 460 x 288 will I need to also alter the mamewah ini and will I need to make a mamewah background to 460 x 288? I am using an arcade monitor btw. Cheers guys.

yes the ini and background should be set 460 x 288 in mamewah also if that is what your using and want it to run on I think it is set at 640 x 480 stock and you want 640 not 460.

[shorthair]

I don't understand why you're setting those to that res.....?

[Marky_1979]

I have set mame ini setting to 460 x 288 will I need to also alter the mamewah ini and will I need to make a mamewah background to 460 x 288? I am using an arcade monitor btw. Cheers guys.

yes the ini and background should be set 460 x 288 in mamewah also if that is what your using and want it to run on I think it is set at 640 x 480 stock and you want 640 not 460.

Yes sorry its 640 x 288 I am using this resolution as its the only one I find that works with Mame and my arcade monitor best. The normal windows resolution is 640 x 480 and it flickers on the monitor but that cant be helped or altered unfortunately.

[shorthair]

If it's a multi/tri-sync (and perhaps even a regular arcade) monitor, it can: go to Ultimarc and get the tri-sync utility.

[Marky_1979]

Im not sure if its got this feature but I do know that creating a background at this resolution is impossible or extremely tricky to say the least. Is this multi/tri  sync a bit of software? Just so I know how can I find out if my monitor is multi sync?

[ahofle]

If you don't know, chances are it's just a CGA monitor.  Do you know the model/make?

[Marky_1979]

This is my board

Its a POLO2 with a 25" Philips monitor

[ahofle]

Ahh, looks like it is a multisync (15khz/25khz). 

[Marky_1979]

So with this in mind do I keep my 460 x 288 resolution in the mame ini and change the mamewah ini to something like 640 x 460 so I can create some sensible sized mamewah backgrounds.

What will I need to do now download this multi sync software?

[ahofle]

So you have the ArcadeVGA?  The multisync patch is on Ultimarc's website, but you'd better check with Andy before installing it.  I believe the patch assumes your monitor can do 15khz/25khz/31khz like a Betson or Billlabs, but yours can't go up to 31khz so you could potentially damage something.  640x480 is a 31khz resolution -- yours goes up to 25khz or 512x384 assuming it really is a multisync.  Also, make sure you don't have to manually change a jumper or something on your monitor to go from 15 to 25khz.

If I were you, I'd just leave it as is without the multisync patch and go with 640x480 interlaced.  You will have some flicker in windows, but it shouldn't be too bad in your frontend...is it?  Also, why did you set mame.ini resolution to 640x288?  Just leave it as auto (simply omit that line) and adjust on a per game basis as need be.

[shorthair]

Marky: before you do anything, go research your monitor. You have all the information right there.

ahofle: you know, in GameEx, its default for the avga is 640x288. I forget now why this is so, but it seems to be a somewhat common thing in some cases. By the way, 31 khz progressive only covers VGA.

[ahofle]

ahofle: you know, in GameEx, its default for the avga is 640x288.

I wasn't referring to the front end, I was referring to MAME (ie mame.ini).  Why run all games at 640x288?

By the way, 31 khz progressive only covers VGA.

Is that supposed to contradict something I said? 

[Marky_1979]

yeah agreed I think it only flickers on windows im sure a mamewah background would be fine at a higher resolution. I selected that resolution strange resolution for mame as its the one which fits best with the monitor I have this was after much experimentation and advice on the forums.

[ahofle]

640x288 is OK for vertical games, but horizontal CGA games you should try to run near or at the original resolution of the game.  So if you were to run Robotron at 296x240 (one of the built in arcadeVGA resolutions) it wouldn't fit the screen?

[Marky_1979]

So what would you advice I do regarding my mame and mamewah set up I guess i'll need to redo my ini files?

[ahofle]

Well what you have above (with the hardware stretch fixed of course) looks good to me.  You have the resolution line commented out with '#'.  I thought you mentioned you changed it to force all games to 640x288 -- that I wouldn't do personally.  Other than that try it out.  If you find a particular game where the resolution chosen by MAME doesn't look right, create/edit a game specific ini file in the mame/ini directory and set the resolution in there (in centiped.ini for example, set resolution to 352x256).  You could also try one of the MAME resolution tools that creates the appropriate resolutions for every game automatically.  I haven't tried that though.  I'm pretty sure you don't have to do anything for mamewah, just run it at 640x480.

[shorthair]

Mamewah's just an fe - you can run it at any res your monitor can handle. I usually set any I use to the max res of the monitor/what the desktop is at.

ahofle: above you mentioned about 'the patch' and 15/25/31 khz - which are CGA/EGA/VGA. SVGA is 35khz, and XGA is 48khz. Just an FYI. Also, with respect to the running mame at one res, I noticed in GameEx that the default for using advancemame is 640x288. Again, just an FYI that might contribute to the discussion.

Edit: not only advancemame, but the AVGA settings in GE default at 640x288.

[ahofle]

Yeah the patch allows SVGA (forgot to mention that).

SVGA is 35khz,

Actually it's closer to 38Khz at 60 hz.

[shorthair]

Ah. Where's the patch? Or, do I have it included, as I have the most recent version, build 31, available at the page linked at the beginning of SS's thread.

[ahofle]

The patch can be found here (at the bottom):
http://ultimarc.com/download.html

It's only for the ArcadeVGA of course.  The OP still hasn't mentioned what video card he's using.

[shorthair]

Oh. I thought you meant the patch was for soft-15. I think I have that for the avga. You mean SS didn't say what card he's using?...above I think he mentions using an ATI 7000 in one case at least. I think he's tried many, perhaps more than a hundred. He still has integrated chipsets to figure, if he still wants to pursue that.

[ahofle]

I was actually referring to Marky_1979, the original poster (OP).

[shorthair]

Eohhh. Well there yeu go-w.

[Marky_1979]

Yes I got the arcade vga card from ultimarc