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Trick with using PC CRT

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Ummon:

Well, this may not be a secret to many here, but for the newer folks it might be. If you're thinking of using a PC CRT in your cab, check out the following:

- set your desktop to 640x480

- if using Mame before the rewrite, set it to DDraw+hwstretch, no effects

- if using Mame since the re-write you can take your pick between DDraw+hwstretch or D3D (again, no effects). Set the prescale to 0; 1 sharpens it up slightly such that it makes it look a little weird.

What this does is by setting to 640x480 on this type of monitor, you get natural hardware scanlines, and since it's a system configuration, it displays everything this way. And since switchres into being used, all the games fill the screen properly.

Of course there's a slight bit of distortion, but this helps to just slightly blur the graphics such that it doesn't look as much like it's on a PC CRT; and you don't have the brightness issues that even the new effects produce; it's very brilliant and fresh. Additionally, if run in vertical orientation, vertical games actually look good with the naturally produced scanlines.

The only snag I can see is having the desktop stuck at 640x480....but perhaps some kind of batch file or something could be created so that only when Mame games are started is the desktop switched. And you'd have to be mindful of the switch back, because Windows like to change the refresh rate to 85 or higher. Food for thought, though.

evilfuzzle:

interesting, i will have to give that a try :)

Minwah:

Isn't 640x480 with no effects pretty much the most basic setup for Mame anyway? That is what I always use with a PC monitor.

No need to set your desktop to this tho (unless you want to)...just set mame's resolution to 640x480 and switchres 1.

RandyT:

Also, IIRC, the pre-scale option pretty much does what it states.  It scales the graphics cleanly before applying the effects.  This prevents the effects from turning the pixels to fuzz when displayed on a high-res screen, and allows for a better representation of a low-res CRT pixel.  I'm not sure it provides much benefit when used in this manner, seeing as no effects are used?

RandyT

ahofle:

Also, how does prescale of 0 differ from 1 (the default and minimum value)?  Seems as though either 0 or 1 would not scale the image.  From the MAME docs:

-prescale <amount>
  102 
  103      Controls the size of the screen images when they are passed off to the
  104      graphics system for scaling. At the minimum setting of 1, the screen
  105      is rendered at its original resolution before being scaled. At higher
  106      settings, the screen is expanded by a factor of <amount> before being
  107      scaled. With -video ddraw or -video d3d, this produces a less blurry
  108      image at the expense of some speed. In -video ddraw mode, this also
  109      increases the effective resolution of non-screen elements such as
  110      artwork and fonts. The default is 1.



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