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

[SailorSat]

You should use 321x240 as your "centering" resolution, as it covers all other 240 line modes, as well as the 480 line modes.

As for the interlaced resolutions... Well yeah it differs from screen to screen, but most arcade games run in 240 lines progressive, so it doesn`t matter at all.

[Sorex]

ok, thanks for the tip but when using (an old) mame32 (the one with the build in menu) I seem to lose parts of the screen at the bottom.

using one of the other modes brings it back, maybe it's mame32 that not keeping my original resolution altho I disabled mode and aspect ratio switching.

male start in some 16 color mode it seems but way higher resolution than my 320x240 and the text is unreadable small
games run in wrong modes aswell (1942 turns out purple & green instead of gray)

I guess I need to mess around with it some more but it's kinda hard at 320x240 as most setup forms are bigger than that screen size 

[retrometro]

SailorSat, if you don't mind me asking... what do you do for a living?  Is it in a related field?

[SailorSat]

SailorSat, if you don't mind me asking... what do you do for a living?  Is it in a related field?

Hehe, well I'm working as an electrician at a local company.
But that sounds way more "special" as it is... Just swaping defective lights or replacing power cords on various equipment.

[retrometro]

SailorSat, if you don't mind me asking... what do you do for a living?  Is it in a related field?

Hehe, well I'm working as an electrician at a local company.
But that sounds way more "special" as it is... Just swaping defective lights or replacing power cords on various equipment.

I doubt those are your only responsibilities!  Maybe you write all the system drivers for SAP!

[Ummon]

Ever wondered about the difference between RGB (maybe Component too) and a normal TV-Out (Composite)?

Well... Take a close look



P.S. Yeah I know, pretty bad ass example

What was your set-up that produced these and how did you get screenshots?

[Malenko]

got it up and running, looks great except for some flickering, I cant seem to make any adjustmenrs to get rid of it. Also, the text looks kinda awful under windows unless I pick some tiny resolution, which Id be fine with if it werent for MAME32.

Speakin of, most games look fine (except for the blurred text thingie mentioned above) except MKII, it kinda looks crappy on the select screen and again the picture flickers a little.  IS this because I tied the  H and V syncs together? would I be better off pinning the V sync separate?

Im still super impressed!

[SailorSat]

Depends on your monitor and graphics card combination.
Some monitors flicker more than others and various cards output interlace different than others. (Especially many really old cards used to flicker)

Sadly there's no adjustment for the interlace flicker, and it won't help to seperate the sync lines either.

Please note that the "highres" modes (i.e. everything with more than 400 lines) do work fine with emulation, videos etc., but are not suitable to work with text for a longer time.

I'd use a good frontend or a larger font in MAME32.

[sham69]

HI,
I am completely new to this so be gentle.
I am trying to get my pc to output to a philips 21" tv (pal)
I currently have onboard graphics (intel) and a ATI Rage II PCI (4mb I think).
When i load up soft 15khz it doesnt support the card?
I have tried about a dozen other applications to try to get the pc to output to 15khz with no success.
I think I need a new graphics card and was wondering what is the best option for me?
I will be running mame through windows (XP), I won't be running through dos.
I won't be using the pc for anything else.
I need the cheapest option available.
Thanks,

[Haggar]

Now with usermodes working people might want to give these a whirl.

Wow and thanks.
Will soft-15KHz really "Eat" all these custom resolutions also with nvidia cards? I remember that there was a limit.

Sailorsat, I think the non-plus-ultra feature this software can have, is a tool like "ADVV" (Advance Project) to set custom resolutions and test/save them "on the fly". Do you think it will be possible?

[SailorSat]

HI,
I am completely new to this so be gentle.
I am trying to get my pc to output to a philips 21" tv (pal)
I currently have onboard graphics (intel) and a ATI Rage II PCI (4mb I think).

Hm... Depends on the Onboard Intel, but the Rage2 isn`t support for sure.
I think you should look for a ATI Radeon 9200 or something like that.

Will soft-15KHz really "Eat" all these custom resolutions also with nvidia cards? I remember that there was a limit.

Sailorsat, I think the non-plus-ultra feature this software can have, is a tool like "ADVV" (Advance Project) to set custom resolutions and test/save them "on the fly". Do you think it will be possible?

Hm... NVidia cards (still) have a 32 mode limit.

As for live testing... Well I though about forcing windows to "reload" the drivers, but I don`t know for sure how to do that yet.
Various "Tweaking Tools" have such a feature (RiveTuner for example).

[Haggar]

Sailorsat, I think the non-plus-ultra feature this software can have, is a tool like "ADVV" (Advance Project) to set custom resolutions and test/save them "on the fly". Do you think it will be possible?

As for live testing... Well I though about forcing windows to "reload" the drivers, but I don`t know for sure how to do that yet.
Various "Tweaking Tools" have such a feature (RiveTuner for example).

But with RivaTuner I can't save the changes on the custom.txt, right?

[SailorSat]

Thats not the point, I want to change the registry, then reset the driver so it can show the "new" modes from the registry instantly.

[SailorSat]

To a complete different topic

What do all nvidia forceware drivers (okay I tested only 4 from 78.01 to 163.xx) in common?

They clear a 2944 byte area just before reading "CUST_MODE" from the registry.
Just need to try what happens if I change the buffer size!

[Malenko]

so should I uninstall soft then update my drivers? I think Im using an older version of the nvidia drivers.

And how do I add custom  resolutions/refreshes? the point of using the arcadde monitor was for arcade resolutions (like for Mortal Kombat and stuff)

[SailorSat]

When you install soft15khz you'll get plenty of custom resolutions. For anything else, take a look in the FAQ section linked in my sig.

As for the buffer... Well, It doesn't work the way I want. Still only works with up to 32 resolutions on nvidia

[Twin-X]

Still only works with up to 32 resolutions on nvidia

Can't this be hacked?

[bent98]

Salior

any progress with getting soft 15 to work with vista 64?

[SailorSat]

Can't this be hacked?

Sure. But I don't have the required skills. Took quite some time to find that stupid buffer.

any progress with getting soft 15 to work with vista 64?

Nope. Didn't even try to yet.

[sham69]

After days of trying to find a shop that still sells normal PCI and AGP cards (not PCI-E)
I found somewhere that stocks the follwing cards..

Sapphire Radeon 7000 pci 64mb
Sapphire Radeon 9250 pci 128 mb

Peak Grahics Radeon 7000 tv 64mb AGP
Asus Graphics Geforce 6200 128mb AGP

I am not sire which one to buy to suit outputting to a pal TV using either a vga to scart cable or S-video.

Any suggestions.
Thanks.

[SailorSat]

I'd recommend the 9250 PCI

[sham69]

Thanks I will buy that one.
Could you give me a second recommendation in case that one is not in stock.
Cheers.

[Ummon]

I'd look at ebay. Much better selection, and likely much better price. Also, if you can, get AGP. I think it's a toss-up between the 9250 pci and the 7000 AGP simply because of bus speed for each interface.

[Twin-X]

I'd look at ebay. Much better selection, and likely much better price. Also, if you can, get AGP. I think it's a toss-up between the 9250 pci and the 7000 AGP simply because of bus speed for each interface.

No he should get pci.
Pci fits all motherboards so you can use it on all types.

With agp you are bound to agp motherboards and if you wish to go quad or dual core you are doomed and have to buy a new video card.

[Haggar]

In order to use new resolutions, in wich directory have I to put the custom15khz.txt, custom25khz.txt, custom31khz.txt or usermodes.txt?

I have "C:\Soft-15KHz\soft15khz.exe".
Same directory for custom files?
If I change or add new resolutions in the "custom15khz.txt" for example, how can I get it running? Have I to do something particular?

[Twin-X]

In order to use new resolutions, in wich directory have I to put the custom15khz.txt, custom25khz.txt, custom31khz.txt or usermodes.txt?

I have "C:\Soft-15KHz\soft15khz.exe".
Same directory for custom files?
If I change or add new resolutions in the "custom15khz.txt" for example, how can I get it running? Have I to do something particular?

Yes in the same directory. Run soft15khz.exe and hit the uninstall button.
hit the 15khz button and your new lines are added after reboot.

[Jimbo]

Anyone tried this tool with a Radeon 4850 PCIe card?

Cheers 

[Ummon]

I'd look at ebay. Much better selection, and likely much better price. Also, if you can, get AGP. I think it's a toss-up between the 9250 pci and the 7000 AGP simply because of bus speed for each interface.

No he should get pci.
Pci fits all motherboards so you can use it on all types.

With agp you are bound to agp motherboards and if you wish to go quad or dual core you are doomed and have to buy a new video card.

??-?-?? If you're going new, either a) try to find a PCIe card that works with soft15, or b) don't use this program/don't do native. PCI is such a lame bus speed - even PIIs often have AGP. Maybe you're confusing PCI with PCIe?

[Twin-X]

Maybe you're confusing PCI with PCIe?

No i am not , you do not need alot of bus speed for mame games. It's not graphical intensive. You need cpu and memory but i probabby do not have to tell you this.

[Haggar]

In order to use new resolutions, in wich directory have I to put the custom15khz.txt, custom25khz.txt, custom31khz.txt or usermodes.txt?

I have "C:\Soft-15KHz\soft15khz.exe".
Same directory for custom files?
If I change or add new resolutions in the "custom15khz.txt" for example, how can I get it running? Have I to do something particular?

Yes in the same directory. Run soft15khz.exe and hit the uninstall button.
hit the 15khz button and your new lines are added after reboot.

Ok, thanks.
If in the "custom15khz.txt" I add a mode that's already in the built in resolutions, how it works?
How the "different refresh rates" for a same resolution works?

[SailorSat]

If in the "custom15khz.txt" I add a mode that's already in the built in resolutions, how it works?

It will override the old one.

How the "different refresh rates" for a same resolution works?

The same way, just use "usermodes.txt" instead of "custom15khz.txt".

(And install "USER" modes in Soft-15kHz)

[Haggar]

How the "different refresh rates" for a same resolution works?

The same way, just use "usermodes.txt" instead of "custom15khz.txt".

(And install "USER" modes in Soft-15kHz)

Thank you for your explanations.

If I hit "install USER modes" will it add modes to the builted in or will it only use modes in the "usermodes.txt"?

If I use an ArcadeVGA, can I add resoltutions with this method?

After that procedure, I can choose the different refresh rates from mame, but not from avres tool right?

How a "standard" emulator chooses between 2 same resolutions with different refresh rates?

Thanks for your patience.

[SailorSat]

If I hit "install USER modes" will it add modes to the builted in or will it only use modes in the "usermodes.txt"?

Nope, there are no built-in usermodes.
However if you hit Install 15kHz and then hit Install Usermodes, it will install both.

If I use an ArcadeVGA, can I add resoltutions with this method?

No.

After that procedure, I can choose the different refresh rates from mame, but not from avres tool right?

Well yeah, as the AVRES tool does not take refresh rates into account.

How a "standard" emulator chooses between 2 same resolutions with different refresh rates?

Most (if not all) emulators use 60Hz modes. Some (like WinUAE) let you select the refresh rate as well.

[SailorSat]

So I have some news on NVidia @ Vista.

It seems NVidia changed the driver structure completely, but I've allready figured out most of it, though it seems NVidia is still limited to 32 custom modes.

Right now I need to install a Vista System to try some stuff.

[Twin-X]

 though it seems NVidia is still limited to 32 custom modes.

CRAP!

But great you are on track for the vista drivers.

[northerngames]

I'd look at ebay. Much better selection, and likely much better price. Also, if you can, get AGP. I think it's a toss-up between the 9250 pci and the 7000 AGP simply because of bus speed for each interface.

No he should get pci.
Pci fits all motherboards so you can use it on all types.

With agp you are bound to agp motherboards and if you wish to go quad or dual core you are doomed and have to buy a new video card.

yeah but to get a $18.00 low end card and put it in a duel or quad core would be pretty silly and defeat the whole purpose of having a high end pc of today that is graphic limited up to the late 90's 

[SailorSat]

The flip side of the coin is that most "high end" cards (HD2400 and never ATI, and GeForce 8 series and later) don't work that good with low resolutions.

[Ummon]

I'd look at ebay. Much better selection, and likely much better price. Also, if you can, get AGP. I think it's a toss-up between the 9250 pci and the 7000 AGP simply because of bus speed for each interface.

No he should get pci.
Pci fits all motherboards so you can use it on all types.

With agp you are bound to agp motherboards and if you wish to go quad or dual core you are doomed and have to buy a new video card.

yeah but to get a $18.00 low end card and put it in a duel or quad core would be pretty silly and defeat the whole purpose of having a high end pc of today that is graphic limited up to the late 90's 

Yeah, what he said!

The flip side of the coin is that most "high end" cards (HD2400 and never ATI, and GeForce 8 series and later) don't work that good with low resolutions.

Never ATI, huh?  Heheh. Depends on how new, vs high-end. PCIe is not a brand new interface, and there's no reason not to get a card that is PCIe, as many work just fine with soft15.

[bent98]

Sailor, Have you tested the Nvidia 260x/280x or ATI 4870's yet?

[SailorSat]

Nope. I simply don't have the money to get new cards every month