does the arcadevga runs the latest MAME?

[Denverlatino]

This may be more a hardware than software question but i want to build another cab for my room and i was wondering if the arcadevga card runs the latest MAME with no problems, Thanks for reading and for your help.

[ahofle]

Yes (I'm using he AVGA2, AGP version)

[Denverlatino]

thank you

[DeLuSioNal29]

I am using version .119 of MAME with the Arcade VGA2 PCIe version.

[Minwah]

What video settings are people using for this?  I've had a guess at it, not tried it out on the AVGA yet tho...

[ahofle]

In general, video=ddraw, nohstretch, switchres.  And then pick the resolution closest to the game's resolution.

[Minwah]

In general, video=ddraw, nohstretch, switchres.  And then pick the resolution closest to the game's resolution.

Thank you.  I recall when v0.107 came out there was some problem with using d3d which is probably why you say use ddraw.  Can you remind me what is the problem with d3d?

[ahofle]

D3D always seems to 'scale' the game to the screen resolution resulting in some blurring.  This is actually good when running a high resolution LCD or CRT (takes the edginess out of the game), but sucks when you are trying to run an arcade monitor at the same low resolution as the game.  With ddraw and no hardware stretch, MAME will not scale anything and you will get a pixel perfect image.

[Minwah]

D3D always seems to 'scale' the game to the screen resolution resulting in some blurring.

Ah ok...presumably not such an issue if you have a video mode available to exactly match the games mode, but this is often not the case.

Thanks again!

[ahofle]

D3D always seems to 'scale' the game to the screen resolution resulting in some blurring.

Ah ok...presumably not such an issue if you have a video mode available to exactly match the games mode, but this is often not the case.

I actually have yet to find a D3D resolution setting that doesn't show the scaling/blurring.  I still don't understand why that is. 

[DeLuSioNal29]

You should take a peek at the AVGA installation page found here:
http://www.ultimarc.com/avgainst.html

In it is a section that outlines the changes that Ahofle mentioned for MAME:


# VIDEO OPTIONS
#
video ddraw
numscreens 1
window 0
maximize 1
keepaspect 1
prescale 1
effect none
pause_brightness 0.65
waitvsync 0
syncrefresh 0

#
# DIRECTDRAW-SPECIFIC OPTIONS
#
hwstretch 0

#
# FULL SCREEN OPTIONS
#
triplebuffer 0
switchres 1

Hope this helps!

~ DeLuSioNaL

[northerngames]

also the AVRES tool automaticly sorts and checks to display the correct screen res for that particular game choosen instead of doing them one by one manually setting the res's for each.

[Minwah]

I actually have yet to find a D3D resolution setting that doesn't show the scaling/blurring.  I still don't understand why that is. 

I see what you mean. I tried it, at 256x240 which is the correct resolution for the game I ran (Buggy Boy), and it looked very odd, like it was using a resolution even smaller and squashing the image to fit on thus missing bits out.

Works great with ddraw tho 

[MAME TIME]

Triple buffer works better with older versions ie 106, 110. any higher i get sound stutter in games, Mind you i have a beefy system

[Jdurg]

Triple buffer works better with older versions ie 106, 110. any higher i get sound stutter in games, Mind you i have a beefy system

That's because the newer versions of MAME have tied the emulation into the video aspect of the game so if your display has a refresh rate lower than the refresh rate of the game, it won't matter how beefy your system is the games will stutter.  So to correct this, you just need to make sure that your screen's refresh rate is equal to or higher than the refresh rate of the game.  (E.G. if the game runs at 60.1 Hz, you will need to have your screen's refreshrate at 60.1 Hz or higher in order to avoid sound stuttering).

Why was this change made?  Because it is far more accurate to how the arcade games ran.

[Minwah]

That's because the newer versions of MAME have tied the emulation into the video aspect of the game so if your display has a refresh rate lower than the refresh rate of the game, it won't matter how beefy your system is the games will stutter.

I am not disagreeing, but I *always* found this to be the case with MAME.  Especially when I first started using the AVGA card.

  So to correct this, you just need to make sure that your screen's refresh rate is equal to or higher than the refresh rate of the game.  (E.G. if the game runs at 60.1 Hz, you will need to have your screen's refreshrate at 60.1 Hz or higher in order to avoid sound stuttering).

Yes I agree.  I improved my 'MAME Resolution Tool' to allow exactly this some years ago.