FORCING MAME TO LAUNCH ALL GAMES WITH PIXEL ASPECT VIDEO MODE

[BamBam]

I am running MAME 0.128 through the latest version of MALA.  Is there a way to have MAME or MALA force all games to launch in pixel aspect video mode?  As it stands now, my games are launching with all artwork and backgrounds by default, which makes the playing screen too small for my system.
Thanks.

[u_rebelscum]

"pixel aspect video mode"?  "I do not think it means what you think it means."

How about just disabling the artwork?  Or removing the art files?


You see, there are many issues you can run into trying to go "pixel perfect".  Mame's defaults are generally what's best for most computers.  I could go into details, but... what monitor are you using?  If it's LCD, let mame and directX scale it.

[LeedsFan]

All you have to do is go into your Mame folder and locate your Mame.ini. In that text file you will find a section for the artwork including things like Backgrounds, Bezels, Overlays etc.

0=off and 1=on. Just change and save as you see fit. I personally find that the bezels are the ones that make the gameplay area change. Space Invaders and Mr.Do have the gameplay area go very small with Bezels on, though they do look very nice.

[BamBam]

After launching a game I hit "Tab", which brings up the configuration window.  I then select "video" where I have options for "4x3"; Pixel Perfect, "Bezels" etc.  When I select "Pixel Perfect, I like the look of it on my CRT 19" monitor.

[SGT]

I don't have an option "Pixel Perfect" in the latest Mame.  Did you mean "Pixel Aspect 7:8"?

Find a cfg (in the mame/cfg) folder for a game that you changed to the aspect ratio that you like.   Open this cfg file and see what setting is in there.

It may have a line like:

Code: [Select]

view="Pixel Aspect (7:8)"

That tells you what line in mame.ini file that you need to change in order to make this change for ALL roms.  If you don't have a mame.ini file, you can create one from a command line with:

Code: [Select]

mame -cc
Edit mame.ini with notepad and depending up what you found in that specific roms cfg file make the change.  For example:

Code: [Select]

view          "Pixel Aspect (7:8)"
Save it and restart Mame.   This example may not be applicable depending upon what version of Mame you are running.

[u_rebelscum]

I don't have an option "Pixel Perfect" in the latest Mame.  Did you mean "Pixel Aspect 7:8"?

oh, that pixel aspect.

Those numbers vary game to game; it's based on the original resolution, so there are over one hundred of different numbers.  Luckily mame is okay at guessing:

view "Pixel Aspect ("

Should do it for all games.  (At least it worked on the two games I tried with 0.134.)

I hope you have a multires CRT monitor.

[SGT]

I didn't realize that varied from game to game.  Hey what does that "(" mean?   Is that a wildcard character?

[u_rebelscum]

Nothing special.

Mame tries to figure out "close" misses.  The "(" was the first one in your example, or the last character I used from your exammple, depending how you look at it.  I tried it without it (just "Pixel Aspect") and mame couldn't figure it out.  With it, mame was able to in the two games I tried (smashtv & arkanoid).    Go figure.

[SGT]

Nothing special.

Mame tries to figure out "close" misses.  The "(" was the first one in your example, or the last character I used from your exammple, depending how you look at it.  I tried it without it (just "Pixel Aspect") and mame couldn't figure it out.  With it, mame was able to in the two games I tried (smashtv & arkanoid).    Go figure.

Yep, I am an idiot.  I forgot that the 7:8 had parentheses around it.  Thanks u_rebelscum.

[BamBam]

So does that mean that I need to edit the Mame.ini to reflect the "view "Pixel Aspect ("" mode?
Thanks for the replies on this.

[SGT]

So does that mean that I need to edit the Mame.ini to reflect the "view "Pixel Aspect ("" mode?
Thanks for the replies on this.

Yeah, find the view line and change it to:

Code: [Select]

view "Pixel Aspect ("

[BamBam]

Thanks SGT.  I'll give that a whirl.

[DeLuSioNal29]

Sorry to revive and old topic:  But for some reason I can't get Gorf to display in 4:3.

Here's my issue:  When in the game I hit tab and select Standard (4:3) and it looks great, but then when I exit the game and go back in, I have to do it all over again.  Changes are not saved.

Any idea what the command would be for the .ini file?

The command view "Pixel Aspect (" works but it defaults to 15:22.  I would like it to be at 4:3.

Thanks in advance!

DeLuSioNaL29

[Yenome]

go into the cfg folder and find gorf.ini and add this
 <video>
            <target index="0" view="Pixel Aspect (4:3)" />
        </video>

mine is under system and above counters. also check the write permission on the folder. make sure its not all read only

[DeLuSioNal29]

Thanks for the advice.  I tried copying and pasting it and it turns out it didn't work.  I also checked to make sure the directories are not read only.

I ended up updating the gorf.ini file to the following:

"Pixel Aspect ("
effect none

It defaults to the h15:22 aspect, which is fine, but the effect scanlines divides the screen in two.  So I needed to disable the effect in order for it to look good.  I'll take it at this point.   

Thanks for your help everyone.

D

[Yenome]

yea not sure how close those files follow the format ruling it might have to be formatted right. but least you found something that works. tho im not satisfied with it for you if that makes sense lol.