Soft15khz alternative?

[ultrageek]

I stumbled across the Nvidia Control Panel a couple days ago, purely by accident. I have a Dell D630 laptop with an Nvidia Quadro NVS 135M video card.

I don't run mame on my laptop, but the configuration app that came with the card looks like it has a lot of the same abilities as Soft15khz (which I have never used  :-))

I tried setting the resolution to unusual resolutions and refresh rates (without jeopardizing my hardware) like 200V x 480 H and 480V x 200 H, both at 60hz refresh.

Neither one looked good on my laptop LCD, but they seemed to be functional.

I'm just wondering if anyone else has seen and tried this on a their cab?
I'm quite used to being told that things I say are big "DUH!" monents.

Screen shots...

[Malenko]

dig a little deeper, 15Khz is the horizontal scan rate

[ahofle]

dig a little deeper, 15Khz is the horizontal scan rate

Check his 2nd to last screen shot with the advanced settings.  Looks like you could potentially come up with some 15khz modes with this.  Interesting.

[Malenko]

Check his 2nd to last screen shot with the advanced settings.  Looks like you could potentially come up with some 15khz modes with this.  Interesting.

I dont see where it allows for adjustment, maybe I'm missing something ?

[ahofle]

Looks like I have this same nvidia control panel on my work laptop too.  I was able to get this calculated 15khz mode (but of course no way of testing it).  This page explains how to get the various parameters from a modeline.  Not sure if I did it right though.  I hope someone that has this hooked up to an arcade monitor can try it out...

I would be willing to bet NVidia got the idea for this from SailorSat!

[Ummon]

I think that's why it's called 'Forceware', because back in the day people needed this functionality.  I've tried it but never come out with anything that worked, at least when I tried to set the desktop to the resolution I was creating, but that I know my monitor can do.

In geek's case, I'm betting his LCD scaled it up, but I'm not sure it 'took', either. Need the right display to know.

[MonMotha]

I have tried to do this in the older drivers.  It would let you input timings for standard res compatible modes (~15kHz), but it would not let you add them without first "testing" them.  The "test" button would IMMEDIATELY return "test failed" for any mode below about 29kHz.  I'm guessing there's some check in there that just assumes you're on a PC monitor that can't go below VGA and fails the "test".

SailorSat's "Soft15kHZ" just seems to dump a bunch of these custom modes into the nVidia software via registry entries that bypasses all the "test" garbage.  The hardware is clearly capable of doing it; I've been using modelines to pull this kind of stuff off on Linux since the GeForce4 Ti days.  Just seems to be dumb limitations typical of vendor drivers.

If you want to try it, just ask for 640x480 visible interlaced.  GTF should work fine.  If you check, it should result in a pixel clock of about 12.5MHz and a horizontal scanrate of ~15.5kHz.  Hit the test button.  If it doesn't bail with "test failed", you may have a winner.

[Ummon]

Trying on this rig - geforce 6200 - it always fails, but it won't go below 29khz - or, rather, it seems to prefer double-scanned modes, as you'll notice by how it automatically sets the horizontal total about double.

I did once get it to run at 15khz by switching to manual and setting some things, then toggling back to 'auto', but I think I screwed up the sync because it tested but wouldn't sync and my monitor shut down.

It might work if you have all the porches and stuff correct, but I forget how to determine these.

[Ummon]

AHA. Okay, I was able to add 15khz modes via the forceware, and this is what I did:

- I cheated, and ran powerstrip: custom modes>entered resolution (256x240) and let it generate the porches, etc.  I did not add the resolution.

- the forceware asks for the front porches (only - not the back), the sync widths, and totals. Powerstrip supplies the porches and sync widths, but not the totals so I took these from the soft15 stock modeline list: 336, 261 .

- I tested, and it said my desktop had changed, but nothing changed. I pressed 'ok'. Then I pressed the 'OK' button on the box, looked in the resolution list via the task bar icon pull-up list, and it was there. I selected it, and it switched and synced properly.


- note 1 : it automatically puts positive sync for both, which works on my monitor. I went and changed it to negative sync, and that works on my monitor, too. I wasn't surprised.

- note 2 : the mode displays differently than Advancemame auto runs it. I dunno.

- note 3 : I then deleted the mode from the list in the nvidia control panel utility, but this didn't get rid of the mode in the driver. Restart is required.

- note 4 : there is no restart needed after adding modes via the forceware; only after deleting them.


Using the forceware seems the most expedient route - if you can get hold of the proper values, first.


My forceware is different than your two's.

- Geek: what drivers are you using?

- ahofle: what card and drivers are you using?


Supplemental: using powerstrip to install modes was, like most have experienced, troublesome. While the values seemed fine, and worked for the forceware, something didn't sync right or whatever and my monitor shut down.

[Ummon]

minor update above

[ahofle]

- ahofle: what card and drivers are you using?

It's an NVIDA Quadro NVS 160M, whatever that is (this is a laptop).  NVIDIA Driver 6.14.11.  My arcade monitor setup has an ATI card so I wasn't able to test this on it.

[Ummon]

- ahofle: what card and drivers are you using?

It's an NVIDA Quadro NVS 160M, whatever that is (this is a laptop).  NVIDIA Driver 6.14.11.  My arcade monitor setup has an ATI card so I wasn't able to test this on it.

Mm, so same family as the OP's card. I'm using a 6200 (so, desktop) with 93.71 .  I'm waiting for SS to chime in with how to figure out the data for manual operation, or with some way to have the forceware figure it out right.

[ultrageek]

Sorry for the delay in responding... My driver details

Driver Provider - NVidia
Driver Date - 2/22/2008
Driver Version - 6.14.11.7431
Card - NVidia Quadro NVS 135M

[Ummon]

geek: damn, them is old drivers.

andy: you missed the last four numbers that distingish the set.


...although, I bet both your's'll work if you did what I did, or some other way provide the needed data. Again, SS.....

[SailorSat]

back porch = total - sync width - front porch
iirc

[Ummon]

back porch = total - sync width - front porch
iirc

Man, I'm totally deflated......

[ahofle]

As I mentioned above, this page has the equations you need to calculate the values:
http://www.knowplace.org/pages/howtos/xfree86_modelines_conversion_guide.php

[Ummon]

OH. I missed that link. Still, going to all that trouble negates the majority of the utility of the feature.