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You too can do KILLER vectors at 15khz!!

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Xiaou2:


 Where there is a will, there is a way.  Mame probably 'Could'  have a 'switch' to enable true
vector output.  However, that is very unlikely to happen.

 What I was stating... is that mame emulate the way in which a vector
draws.   A vector monitor drawing is kinda like a  'Plotter'  or a  CNC Router.

 They draw a pathway,  in a single complete Pathway.. and lift the pen/router up on
the way to the next coordinate.   If you turn up the Vector monitors voltage, you can see the entire line pathway, if I recall correctly.

 This could be simulated using raster graphics.  However, not sure if its really
worth it...because the timing may be too slow to really create any visible effect. Not sure.

 It also would probably kick up the needed horsepower required to run the vector games.
Not sure...


 For a separate emulator like AAE, it may prove to be much better doing it in a
"Vector Path" way... because then vector 'effects' could be better controlled.  As it stands... trying to use a raster picture with filters does not lead to realistic representations of a true vector monitor.


DJ_Izumi:


--- Quote from: CheffoJeffo on June 08, 2009, 09:12:07 pm ---Zektor ZVG card
--- End quote ---

*Googles*  Wow... Printer port.  Not how I thought such a thing would work, but yeah.  Though I imagine few go this far as there are so many raster games they'd wanna play in their cab.  But that look s pretty neat for getting as close to the real deal as possible. o.O

Ummon:

I'll restate....or whatever....what I was showing there and all: if you have a 15khz raster CRT, and wish to have decent vector display, or vector display at all, without having to use interlace....then Advancemame is the ticket. Regular mame produces immense overscan when displaying such games at or near their 'native resolution'. I don't know why. I also don't know how Advancemame gets around this.

For the record, my favorite configuration for vector games...especially for Tempest....is mame before the re-write, at XGA or SXGA, and fullscreen brightness at 1.5 . The vector lines are a little thicker, but on my monitors it produces the brightest, as well as thickest, 'glow'. (Newer mame is sharper, but can't match the luminosity....plus, the stars are, um, weird.)

However, there is something, brightness-wise, to be said for vectors (or even raster games - particularly when using scanline effects on a 25" or above CRT, or using a PC CRT) at VGA. And as Advancemame, for some odd reason, displays vectors rather dimly at higher resolutions (even with the intensity up, it about matches pre-re-write mame at stock settings), I let it select a 31khz mode.

Incidentally, I always remembered some kind of 'scan lines' on Tempest. I think RayB said this was due to the shadow mask, but they are there, as I saw a couple years ago on a local machine.

Jack Burton:

Color vectors use shadow masks?  Fascinating.  But I should have suspected as much. 

I have only ever seen a few Vector monitors, and that was well before I was informed of their nature and would remember the differences. 

The only Vector monitor I have seen recently was in the form of a very little Vectrex console with had to be a 8 or 9" screen.  The graphics in Asteroids were quite startling to me though in their brightness and smoothness.  I'm guessing since it was a black and white CRT that there was no shadow mask.  I can very much see how someone would want to emulate that look if they could.

Xiaou2:


--- Quote ---Incidentally, I always remembered some kind of 'scan lines' on Tempest. I think RayB said this was due to the shadow mask, but they are there, as I saw a couple years ago on a local machine.
--- End quote ---

 *Slaps Head*   :banghead:   :dizzy:

 Scan Lines are kinda formed from drawing each Line in rows.  (simplified)
These are not present on vector monitors, because vectors can start drawing anywhere on the screen, and follow a  shape  'pathway'.    NOT a Uniform row or column. 

 A vector monitor does not make a picture out of individual pixels/dots.  It would draw a
square in 4 movements.  Not 20 pixels from left to right, top to bottom.. such as a raster
monitor would.

 The lines you see "ARE" the Shadowmask lines.  The mask is a grill that holds the
individual color phosphors.   The black and white vector needs no mask, as the entire
monitor is simply coated in a single phosphor that glows white when excited.
 


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