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Software Support => GroovyMAME => Topic started by: horihori on March 17, 2017, 04:31:20 pm

Title: nearly there, issue with a few low frequency games
Post by: horihori on March 17, 2017, 04:31:20 pm

long time lurker, firstly big shout to Calamity for such a fine project.

After hours of reading got everything set up, Windows, MAME, GroovyMame, mame.ini, CRT Emudriver with VMMAKER pointing to GroovyMame v182
Tested some normal games and problem games, all fine and verified with a good resolution and correct frequency (MK2, Toki, Rtype, Snow Bros, 1942, Galaga, Pacman, Elevator Action, etc) I was surprised at how tolerant my NTSC Trinitron is, accepting Vertical frequencies as low as 54Hz (MK2) with no problems, running nice and smooth.

Examples of 2 good working games..

      C:\MAME182>groovymame64.exe mk2
      SwitchRes: [mk2] (1) horizontal (400x254@54.706841)->(400x256@54.706841)    Average speed: 99.95% (8 seconds)

      C:\MAME182>groovymame64.exe rtype
      SwitchRes: [rtype] (1) horizontal (384x256@55.017605)->(384x256@55.017605)  Average speed: 99.98% (2 seconds)

2 of my non-working games are Xexex (54.253471) and Psychic 5 (53.800000)  Xexex gives a stable screen but the image is starting half-way on the screen (example pic) (http://imgur.com/a/YeRgP) it doesn't roll.  Psychic 5 is not stable, the picture is rolling - likely too low frequency for the TV.

All the non-working games so far are running at low Vertical Hz and I suspect that could be the reason but not sure how to fix it.

I tried changing the frequency range for Generic_15 crt_range0  from 15625-16200 49.50-65.00 to  15625-16200 54.50-65.00 but VMMAKER kept saying there was an error in my setting, so I had to revert it back (error in monitor range, ignoring).  I'm stuck at trying to find a solution getting these games working.

A few details..

display: SONY NTSC Trinitron
Windows 7 X64
HD 4600
Groovymame 182 (also tested on version 171)
CRT Emudriver 2.0  and VMMAKER 2.0 beta 9 , monitor mode: Generic_15
 
 I have attached logs of Xexex and Psychic 5, plus some working games and my mame.ini (renamed as mame.txt)

 Any help appreciated, pulling my hair out on these last few games. :dizzy:

Title: Re: nearly there, issue with a few low frequency games
Post by: horihori on March 18, 2017, 12:54:36 pm

This is an update, did some more reading, trying to get my head around the custom monitor modes and how they fit in,etc

I managed to fix my problem with Xexex and the low frequency games by changing mame.ini
and adding monitor type: Custom and  crt_range0  15625-16200, 54.50-65.00, 2.000, 4.700, 8.000, 0.064, 0.192, 1.024, 0, 0, 192, 256, 448, 512
now nothing goes below 54.5Hz Vertical which is good for the TV.

I have a new problem which I am guessing is because I added the values of the crt_range0

before Tapper was running like this..

    C:\MAME182>groovymame64.exe Tapper
     [tapper] (1) horizontal (512x480@30.000000)->(2560x240@60.000000)  Average speed: 100.00% (3 seconds)

you can see it chooses 240 vertical resolution which is good because it is half 480,  I am choosing progressive instead of interlace mode.

but now since I added those crt values, Tapper runs like this..

    C:\MAME182>groovymame64.exe tapper
     [tapper] (1) horizontal (512x480@30.000000)->(2560x248@60.000000)

 It chooses 248 vertical resolution instead of 240, how can I make it automatically choose 240 again like it used to?
did I do something wrong with the custom crt values?

added log for good and bad tapper and updated mame.ini
any help appreciated, Thanks

Title: Re: nearly there, issue with a few low frequency games
Post by: Calamity on March 20, 2017, 05:39:24 pm

Hi horihori,

First of all I want to congratulate you for the effort taken in documenting your questions properly, specially being your first posts. Please guys take note.

The issue with tapper is due to changing the horizontal frequency range from:

crt_range0  15625-15750...

to

crt_range0  15625-16200...

This allows GM to deal with higher vertical resolutions, and thus pick 248p. The confusion here comes from the fact that you believe 240p was being picked in the first place because it's 480/2 when it was a mere coincidence. It was picking 240p just because it couldn't pick anything higher (hfreq limit).

Forcing progressive here is a mistake anyway. You should allow GM pick interlaced, which was the native video mode in this specific case.

Title: Re: nearly there, issue with a few low frequency games
Post by: horihori on April 01, 2017, 11:16:26 am

Hey thanks so much Calamity, I don't know how I missed that!!

so my current  CRT values are..

15625-16200, 54.50-65.00, 2.000, 4.700, 8.000, 0.064, 0.192, 1.024, 0, 0, 192, 256, 448, 512

I'm trying to understand  HFrontPorch, HBackPorch,  if I change the HBackPorch to 5.000 the screen moves to the left a bit, which is what I want, if I change HFrontPorch to 1.500 then everything looks too stretched, so 2.000 seems good.

Thanks again

edit ok, after some more reading it seems I was looking at it all wrong,  to shift the picture horizontally to the left the HBackPorch has to be decreased and the HFrontPorch has to be increased by the same amount.
What about horizontal sync? How does that fit into the formula?

Also, is it better to set up multiple CRT values in MAME.ini for different HFront & HBack porch settings or just keep one master setting in VMMaker?