Soft-15KHz - slim new tool for 15KHz on normal vga cards

[Jollywest]

Hi,

Does Soft-15khz support Vista 64-bit yet? I see in the wiki FAQ that it says it should but it doesn't as of yet, but I not sure how up to date the FAQ is.

I could use Vista Home Premium 64-bit and XP 32-bit as I have both, and I would love to use Soft-15khz rather than Powerstrip as it looks like a cracking peice of software.
I would prefer to use Vista because of the FPS improvements you get from using 64 bit OS's with MAME64, as the following site points out;

MAME Benchmarks

[SailorSat]

You can also use XP64 to get 64bit.

No Vista.

[Gray_Area]

You can also use XP64 to get 64bit.

No Vista.

I don't know why people are still using Vista, really.

[newmanfamilyvlogs]

As far as I can tell by vista she also means win7. I don't think I've heard one person use it on win7 properly.

[dmarcum99]

Hi SailorSat!

Are there are downsides to using the ATI 4350 like pixel clock limitations or resolution limitations?  Just checking before I buy a 2nd hand card.

Thanks!

[mikev43]

Hi,

I have a Matrox Millennium G400 dual head and a radeon hd 2600 pro both AGP..

Do either of these work?  I tried it with the Matrox and it doesn't let me select a card.  Will the radeon work?

thanks!

edit...

got it working as I installed the latest drivers directly from matrox... windows default which was mentioned don't work..

[SailorSat]

Are there are downsides to using the ATI 4350 like pixel clock limitations or resolution limitations?

None that I know of

I have a Matrox Millennium G400 dual head and a radeon hd 2600 pro both AGP..

The HD2600 should work fine.
For the Matrox you'll need to use the "old" PowerDesk 5.96 or something like that.

[Jollywest]

You can also use XP64 to get 64bit.

No Vista.

Thanks for the reply.

I am going to try to utilise the OS's I have so will try XP 32-bit with Soft-15khz and a compiled version of MAME and see how the performance is first, and then go from there.

Cheers.

[BigDaddyE]

Salior Sat-

Alot of people on this board have been trying to help me and before I buy a new graphics card, I thought I would ask your opinion.

I have struggled over a month with a new mobo. I have an AMD 890GX Chipset with ATI Radeon HD 4290 and I also use this to run a CRT arcade monitor. I can use WIn 7 64 (preferred), however, I could also use Win XP 32 or 64 (not perferred.

It has been mentioned in passing that Win 7 is not nice to Soft 15, just wanted to know your thoughts.

Thanks.

Eric

[SailorSat]

Use XP (32 or 64 doesn't matter)
Oh an don't use the "newest" driver =)

[mikev43]

I have a question...

After I run soft15k and install it how exactly do I know the game uses whatever the game was intended to?  Using tab I know brings up the menu and you can select screen type but not sure about resolution..

I'm using GameEX to launch my games also.. does this force certain resolutions etc?  How much better is it with this program?

btw I'm using a 19" crt monitor made by cybervision.. it's a REALLY sweet monitor..

[BigDaddyE]

Use XP (32 or 64 doesn't matter)
Oh an don't use the "newest" driver =)

Just to be clear, newest driver for the Radon card. If that is the case, that shouldn't be an issue, I will load the drivers that came with the MOBO, which are at least 3 months old.

Thanks

Eric

[0raid]

hello guys!

i am try to setup my mame cabin , i have connect the jpac and the keyboard is running perfectly now (thanks andy for the help)

now i have a problem with the soft15khz , i have nvidia 7600gt , i am getting a windows picture in 640x480 but the picture is very blur and is interlacing a lot!!

how i can get a prograssive stable picture at 640x480??

ps1 my arcade monitor is the hantarex polo 25

ps2 the drivers that i have is the 162.18 (with more new driver i get wrong picture)

ps3 the resolutions that is working very good (stable , clear pictture is 368x240 , 320x240 ,304x240 , all the other resolution i get wrong picture or with lines)

Thank you!

[MonMotha]

OK, I'd really like to know what's up with the 1024x768 50Hz interlace option in the "15kHz" list.  The math on that doesn't seem to work out: even with no vsync or blanking intervals, you still end up at 19.2kHz, which is a little higher than I'd normally be willing to push a standard res monitor.  Adding in at least a few lines for vsync and a couple blanked lines on the top and bottom pushes you up even further into the 20kHz type range.

You'd need about a 40Hz field rate to get the horizontal scanrate down to 15kHz, which is 1) going to flicker terribly, and 2) probably outside the design range for vertical refresh on most monitors, anyway.

Can anyone shed some light on this?

[SailorSat]

1024x768 is more like 1024x600 with virtual scrolling.
some applications don't work with lower resolution (for example the setup tool for some keyboard encoder...)

[MonMotha]

OK, so it is panned?  That makes things work.

I ask because someone recently had a monitor die while running in this mode.  While I haven't gotten a chance to look over it, it sounds like the classic "fed it too high frequency and blew up the horizontal output stage" thing, and I couldn't figure out how 1024x768 50Hz could get anywhere near 15kHz.  Perhaps the failure was coincidental.

[BigDaddyE]

Hey all, again, I hope that the community will be able to help me.

Thought I would drop a line in this thread, since my posts on the monitor/video haven't gotten much response.

Here is what I have for CPU and hardware:

Biostar 890 GXB mobo
AMD Quadcore
ATI Radeon 4250 HD on board graphics
Catalyst
         Driver Packaging Version   8.70-100113a-095110C  
         2D Driver Version   6.14.10.7050  
         Direct3D Version   6.14.10.0728  
         OpenGL Version   6.14.10.9405  
         Catalyst™ Control Center Version   2010.0113.2208.39662  
Soft 15 - build 50
Nieman 24.5" monitor
MAME 0.140

Long story on how I got here, private email me if you want more or check the Win7 64 thread I have on the software thread.

I have a stable picture running at 640 x 480, I am using only the 15 kHz option soft 15. However, once I command line MAME in games, when MAME automatically switches the res, I get rolling screens or worse.

On some games, like MAPPY, I can adjust with vertical hold to stabilize the screen, however, this screws the desktop up, among other things.

I have attached a few pics of various games (Brubber, Lady Bug, Mappy, Mario Bros). I adjusted hold for Mappy (no reason, just the first one I picked).

I have used ARCADEVGA2 in the past with no issues.

Let me know what other info is needed, I will do my best to supply it.

Thank You very much.

Eric

[SailorSat]

Windows 7? Won't work

[BigDaddyE]

Sorry for the confusion, poorly written blog.

The pictures taken were with the above specs and the Win XP 32 SP3 OS.

Thanks.

Eric

[BigDaddyE]

Any idea on how to remove all traces of soft15 out of the registry?

In working with Andy and my VGA2 card, it seems that the card is thinking that my monitor is a 15, 25 and 31 kHz, vs just a 15 kHz. When I was playing around with soft15, I did play with all 3 buttons and I found no good way to remove soft15.

This maybe what the issue is, right now.

Thanks.

Eric

[doldrim]

Maybe someone can help me with my current issue. I have just installed a JPAC in my MK2 cab with winxp running soft15khz and cabmame, using a geforce 6800 GT.

I get the split screen during boot on my arcade monitor and my PC monitor goes out of range when soft15khz is running, while in the arcade monitor using quickres I can get a stable 640x480 desktop, so i'm guessing that means soft15khz and my jpac are working fine. When i run cabmame, however, things are not as nice.

Basically, it seems that in any resolution other than 640x480 my screen goes crazy. 320x240 seems to be split into 4 screens in each corner with slight distortions (using switchres 1 in cabmame, or using quickres). Some other resolutions are completely scrambled while others are better, but almost all are unusable outside of 640x480. When I switch cabmame's switchres 0 using a 640x480 desktop in quickres, i am able to run games fine, however they are now placed inside a small window in the middle of the screen.

I saw some people saying they had 6800 GT and they ended up buying ATI cards, but I wanted to make sure this is not a settings thing before I go out and buy another card (and have the same problem). Some screenshots attached, if anyone has ideas about my set up or knows if 6800 GT will not work, let me know. Thanks.

[SailorSat]

What driver are you using? You COULD try an older one, like 71.84.

[doldrim]

What driver are you using? You COULD try an older one, like 71.84.

I believe i'm on 93.71. I've also tried on latest driver with no luck.

I'll try out 71.84 when I get back from work, thanks.

[DumpsterMax]

Using soft 15khz and cabmame I can get any horizontal game to look and sound awesome on my cabinet (horizontal monitor). When I first got my cabinet and started setting it up I thought the games would look decent, but honestly it blows me away how good games look using this combination of programs! 

 But when I try to play a vertical game (rotated appropriately for my horizontal monitor) one of two things happens.. either the game is stretched to the complete horizontal width of the screen (looks crappy IMO) or the game is just floating in the middle with thick black borders around it. I've tried changing settings around in mame.ini to get it to stretch to the top and bottom edges, but the game doesn't look very crisp like this, and this configuration messes up how good my horizontal games look.

I've also tried changing the resolutions in my mame.xml file but it never seems to change anything unless I rotate the game 90 degrees, as if I had it vertically oriented.

Any feedback would help a lot.

[SailorSat]

Thats actually a not-yet-implemented feature of cabmame. I haven't figured out a decent logic on selecting resolutions.

[DumpsterMax]

So the settings inside my mame.xml won't change anything if the game is being rotated 90 degrees?

[maiki]

OK just for curiosity, can somebody post images of ADVV where his SCART RGB TV displays 240 active lines at 60 Hz? And then show a video mode running on the same TV at 55 Hz? As far as I know, TVs will swtich basically between "2 modes" one being for 50 hZ PAL and second one for 60 Hz "PAL/NTSC". The switching is very visible and affects the vertical active portion of the screen. As I said in the past in this thread. I tested 2 TVs and bopth failed to display 240 scanlines at 60 Hz. They were out of picture no matter what I did with the display settings... I was just lucky to get 224+ scanlines at 60 Hz.... YOu know, making a thread here is one thing, but we have to clearly say, TV is not an arcade monitor...

edit: should have been put into SCART as a hobby but never mind...

[rjpe]

Hi SailorSat,

Finally got a 28'' TV that works / syncs the original resolutions with soft15KHz and AVGA! (Crown ACTV 7298).  
It cost me 50€ in a local on-line auction, it has 3 years old and the image is great.

Besides frogger (it syncs in a very high resolution, have to check why), all games display those beautiful scanlines, and the games look authentic... but... none of them fits correctly in full screen.
I can choose one resolution, arrange the geometry and so, but I will still have problems on all the others.

For instance:
- bubble bobble, double dragon and black tiger look too thin (like a vertical game) - horizontal black stripes;
- golden axe has 1 inch black frame around it;
- indiana jones and Pang don't fit the screen (overscan);

maybe the ones that look better are marvel super heroes and ghouls n ghosts.

My question is: is there a way of making all the resolutions fit the screen?  
I suspect that the only way is with hardware strecth... but I must check with the best experts  

 

[SailorSat]

Well basically it could be done for the horizontal part, as one scanline is one scanline is one scanline.
It doesn't matter how often the scanline changes color, so you can have pretty much endless modes pixel width wise.

However this won't work for the amount of scanlines.

Short version. Horizontal "equality" is possible, but you will need to live with black bars above and below for some games.

Arcade games (technically) were never supposed to be changed every 5 minutes. So the operator usually would adjust the screen once the game was changed.

[rjpe]

Thanks SailorSat.

What normally is done in scart tv cabinets? From your answer I assume that for real Arcade Monitors the problem is the same?

Either your CabMAME or some mame linux distros are said to be ideal for arcade monitors or scart tv setups, but what does this means is terms of resolutions? Special modelines?

Thanks in advance

[milhouse]

Two questions, as I am thinking of switching from an older ArcadeVGA to Soft-15KHZ. Main reasons - AAE and Sega Model 2 emulator.

1. Does anyone have a custom15khz.txt they could share for a Betson Imperial Tri-Sync (Technically, 27" DIGITAL MULTI SYNC RAW THRL. Item #: IMP 44-4070-RT)

2. I am planning on using a Radeon X800GTO that I already have.  Can anyone tell me which catalyst drivers I should use? I know it shouldn't be the "latest" drivers, but thats relative.

Thanks.

[Mellor]

Wondering if anyone can help me with a graphics card choice.

I have used my Radeon X1950 XTX before with soft 15khz with no problems, I was outputting to a 15khz Nanao monitor with only 15khz installed and all was good! I'm on a new build now with a Pentranic Tri-Sync monitor. All 3 modes were installed and I selected 640x480 with Quickres and then put it in my cab. The signal killed my monitor, not had a look yet but more than likely the HOT.

Now I spoke to a very competent monitor repair guy and he says it is likely the card is outputting over 60hz or 31khz, even though its in them modes. The chassis is a Rodotron 666a and will not take anything above that, something I was trying to be safe with by removing all above 480 modes in a custom31khz.txt!

Do we know of a graphics card that is definitely safe and compatible with Soft 15khz, one that will run Street Fighter 4 in 640x480 with V-sync??

Thanks

[Brenry]

.

[Tlk269]

Help me here please
I have a 25" monitor in my cabinet
I bought the J-pac and i have a pc with a Ati 4550
I installed the last drivers and cataclysm
I installed Soft 15khz and set it to the 15Khz
i canīt change the resolution under 640*480 not even with quickres
When the cabinet boots i get the sync light and i can see the windows xp logo in double
but when it get to windows the sync light on j-pac turns off and canīt see anything...
i tried with and without hyperspin on startup
can anyone help me pleaseeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

[SailorSat]

First: Try the other output (might need a DVI-to-VGA Adapter)

Second: Try older drivers.

[Tlk269]

First: Try the other output (might need a DVI-to-VGA Adapter)

Second: Try older drivers.

I am going to try it when i get home after work
But will i need to put the resolution under 640*480 or is it ok to keep it that way?
Hope that works i am going crazy

[Tlk269]

Help me here please (sorry for bad english..)
After i use a vga to dvi adaptar the image actually appear
the problem is the image is too much to the right..
i put a custom15khz.txt in my desktop where i have soft15khz program with this lines:

modeline '240x240-15,750KHz-59,885Hz' 5,16592 240 264 288 328 240 243 246 263 -hsync -vsync
modeline '256x240-15,750KHz-59,885Hz' 5,417916 256 280 304 344 240 243 246 263 -hsync -vsync
modeline '288x240-15,750KHz-59,885Hz' 6,173904 288 320 352 392 240 243 246 263 -hsync -vsync
modeline '296x240-15,750KHz-59,885Hz' 6,299902 296 328 360 400 240 243 246 263 -hsync -vsync
modeline '304x240-15,750KHz-59,885Hz' 6,551898 304 336 368 416 240 243 246 263 -hsync -vsync
modeline '320x240-15,750KHz-59,885Hz' 6,803894 320 352 384 432 240 243 246 263 -hsync -vsync
modeline '336x240-15,750KHz-59,885Hz' 7,181888 336 368 400 456 240 243 246 263 -hsync -vsync
modeline '368x240-15,750KHz-59,885Hz' 7,811878 368 408 440 496 240 243 246 263 -hsync -vsync
modeline '392x240-15,750KHz-59,885Hz' 8,315871 392 432 472 528 240 243 246 263 -hsync -vsync
modeline '448x240-15,750KHz-59,885Hz' 9,575851 448 496 544 608 240 243 246 263 -hsync -vsync
modeline '512x240-15,750KHz-59,885Hz' 10,961829 512 568 616 696 240 243 246 263 -hsync -vsync
modeline '640x240-15,750KHz-59,885Hz' 13,607788 640 704 768 864 240 243 246 263 -hsync -vsync
modeline '256x256-15,750KHz-55,456Hz' 5,417829 256 280 304 344 256 260 264 284 -hsync -vsync
modeline '320x256-15,750KHz-55,456Hz' 6,803786 320 352 384 432 256 260 264 284 -hsync -vsync
modeline '352x256-15,750KHz-55,456Hz' 7,559762 352 392 424 480 256 260 264 284 -hsync -vsync
modeline '400x256-15,750KHz-54,686Hz' 8,567765 400 440 480 544 256 261 266 288 -hsync -vsync
modeline '256x264-15,750KHz-54,497Hz' 5,417874 256 280 304 344 264 268 272 289 -hsync -vsync
modeline '352x264-15,750KHz-54,497Hz' 7,559824 352 392 424 480 264 268 272 289 -hsync -vsync
modeline '632x264-15,750KHz-54,497Hz' 13,481686 632 696 760 856 264 268 272 289 -hsync -vsync
modeline '352x288-15,750KHz-50,808Hz' 7,56023 352 392 424 480 288 291 294 310 -hsync -vsync
modeline '384x288-15,750KHz-50,808Hz' 8,19025 384 424 464 520 288 291 294 310 -hsync -vsync
modeline '512x288-15,750KHz-50,808Hz' 10,962334 512 568 616 696 288 291 294 310 -hsync -vsync
modeline '640x288-15,750KHz-50,808Hz' 13,608415 640 704 768 864 288 291 294 310 -hsync -vsync

and using 320x240 as resolution, then reboot and still didnīt work

Help me pleaseeee
thanks

[tony.silveira]

hey sailor sat,

been using soft 15 for a while now (thank you so much).  i recently moved and changed my room around and am trying to get things working differently.

with soft 15, i am using interlaced 1024x768 at 84hz (i believe) on my arcade machine.  but i also have my machine feeding video to my home office desk area and also a projector.  the projector is fine as i am using the hdmi out on my video card and mirroring the display to that port.

but to my desk area, where i would like to use the pc in my arcade machine as a desktop, my monitor can't synch with the video being output by soft 15.

so long story to get to a feature request (if it's even possible).  hot keys to change resolutions?  i have them in my ati control panel but i think soft 15 is over riding anything i do in there.

thank again for such a fine tool

[SailorSat]

Hm.. I'll look into it.

[Tlk269]

SailorSat, please help me in the problem above
tell me how to have my image centered please
Thanks for your time