GroovyMame for arcade monitors version 0.146u4_013f

[krick]

Remind waitvsync is now managed internally by GroovyMame, so whatever you set there will be overriden.

That doesn't seem to be the case when you force a custom resolution in GroovyMAME from an ini.  I'll do some experiments tonight to make sure.

However, it sounds weird that 720x480 looks better than 640x480, as the relevant part here is the vertical values... I would try to tweak the native 640x480 modeline using ArcadePerfect, probably you can make it look better.

The problem isn't specific to MAME, 640x480 looks awful when displaying the windows desktop as well.

There's probably something wrong with my monitor.  When running 640x480 it looks like the alignment of the two interlaced passes are several scanlines off.  It's most visible in games like Asteroids due to the high contrast.

800x600 looks equally as bad, plus it folds over in the upper left corner and no amount of monitor adjusting fixes it.

On the other hand, 720x480 looks so good, it's almost hard to tell that it's interlaced at all.

I'll have to get some close-up pictures of of the screen so you can see what I'm talking about.

I could try running my ATI HD 4550 with Calamity's custom drivers to see if it looks the same, just to rule out the ArcadeVGA3000 or it's drivers.

What I should probably do is remove 640x480 as one of the available resolutions, that way GroovyMAME will (hopefully) pick 720x480 instead.

[Calamity]

Its a Pentranic tri sync monitor (UK company), i bought the monitor brand new and this is the test screen from SF3....

I see. I'm have no knowledge on electronics so have no clue if that could be a hardware problem on your monitor. Does it happen with any video mode exactly the same? Anyway, I'd try to add more margins to the picture by software, and then compensate the borders back by opening a bit the horizontal amplitude potenciometer. Can't promise anything but that could help. To do that try a custom monitor_specs line, increasing the horizontal front porch mainly (right margin). Have a search through this thread to find an explanation on this. However be aware I've read scary stories of Pentranic monitors breaking when being set to an improper resolution!

[Calamity]

19xx looked much the same as it did under mame0.99, a bit squashed but fairly playable. As predicted, I didn't detect any artifacts but Halley Wars (halleys) had a definite sound stutter but adding the following to halleys.ini has fixed it.

triplebuffer              0
syncrefresh               0

There might be some tearing but on a black, starry background it's difficult to see :-)

Just tried 1942 with the same settings - seems perfect. Now I'm struggling though, does this mean my default groovymame.ini should have these settings?

Yeah, those vertical games with 256 lines (halleys, 1942) are above the limit where a normal cga monitor can do 60 Hz. That's because in order to achieve 60 Hz with so many lines you need a 16.7 KHz modeline, and our monitor definition for cga is restricted to 15.7 KHz, so the maximum refresh you can get for 256 active lines is 56,68 Hz. So, you can choose one of this options:

- Remove -triplebuffer and -syncrefresh (what you did), so GroovyMame will run the emulation independent of your videocard refresh, speed will be 100%, sound will be perfect, but you'll have tearing. However tearing is not so noticeable in vertical games as it is in horizontal scrolling games.

- Add -syncrefresh. GroovyMame will reduce game's speed to 94%. No tearing, perfect scroll. Sound stuttering due to speed difference, solution: add soundsync too, so sound will sync to video at the cost of lowering its pitch.

- Add -triplebuffer. Groovymame will keep game's speed at 100%. No tearing, perfect sound, but scroll hiccups, due to game speed being different to videocard's refresh (note: adding triplebuffer actually overrides -syncrefresh so there's no point in activating both of them).

- Use another monitor type (at your own risk). For instance, Hantarex MTC 9110 (H9110) can go up to 16.7 KHz, so by choosing this monitor GroovyMame will be able to generate a 256 lines@60Hz modeline, so you won't need -syncrefresh/-triplebuffer as Groovymame will internally activate -waitvsync.

A quick, easy and force brute way to have GroovyMame set up so that any game runs smooth without video/sound artifacts is by enabling the syncrefresh + soundsync combo. So for the games that fall out of our monitor limits, you'll have a slowdown but everything will be smooth like silk apart from that.

If you leave the default options (-nosyncrefresh, -notriplebuffer), GroovyMame will only activate -waitvsync when it feels it's convenient.

So for those games it depends on your taste that you prefer smooth-but-somewhat-slowdown vs real-speed-but-tearing/hiccups, and also depending on the game it may be better or worse.

It would be good at some point to have an ui menu option for enabling/disabling -syncrefresh/-triplebuffer, I'll have a look at that.

Also, bit strange but I can't get the paths in mame.ini to display bezels or overlays.

No idea on this, sorry.

[krick]

Also, bit strange but I can't get the paths in mame.ini to display bezels or overlays.

# CORE ARTWORK OPTIONS
#
artwork_crop              1
use_backdrops             1
use_overlays              1
use_bezels                1

and

artpath                   artwork

Space Invaders (invaders) should look a lot better. Is it just me?

I don't believe that you can use bezels with an arcade monitor.  However, overlays and backdrops should be OK as long as you use artwork crop.

I haven't tried enabling artwork with any recent versions of MAME on my arcade monitor, so I'm not 100% sure that artwork still works with ddraw.  I'll play around with it this weekend if I get a chance.

[blagger]

When running horizontal scrolling games I notice a horizontal line, below which the screen is 1 or 2 pixels behind in scrolling. The position of this horizonal line seems random. Sometimes it is in the upper half of the screen, other times it's in the lower part.
This is especially noticable in Shinobi, but also in other games, e.g. the second level of Ghosts'n'Goblins.
My settings: syncscreen 1, waitsync 0, tripplebuffer 0, soundsync 1.
I am using the latest version of Groovymame.

Any ideas?
Thanks

[Calamity]

When running horizontal scrolling games I notice a horizontal line, below which the screen is 1 or 2 pixels behind in scrolling. The position of this horizonal line seems random. Sometimes it is in the upper half of the screen, other times it's in the lower part.
This is especially noticable in Shinobi, but also in other games, e.g. the second level of Ghosts'n'Goblins.
My settings: syncscreen 1, waitsync 0, tripplebuffer 0, soundsync 1.
I am using the latest version of Groovymame.

Any ideas?
Thanks

Hi blagger, that's probably the tearing artifact. Make sure you use -syncrefresh ("syncscreen" does not exist). If that doesn't make a change, run "dxdiag" and in the screen tab, check if DirectDraw acceleration is enabled, if it's not then your display drivers are not properly installed.

[blagger]

Hi Calamity, thanks for your answer.
yeah, sorry I meant syncrefresh.
I checked DirectDraw acceleration. It is enabled.

[Calamity]

Hi Calamity, thanks for your answer.
yeah, sorry I meant syncrefresh.
I checked DirectDraw acceleration. It is enabled.

blagger, rereading your previous posts I remind you were using clone mode, isn't it? Try disabling it and only use your primary device for testing. I think that could be the issue.

[blagger]

I just checked again:
I ran Shinobi with both monitors turned on. I had this tearing artefact on my horizontal monitor, but no tearing on my vertically mounted monitor.
Then I disabled clone mode and now no tearing on my horizontal monitor.
This tearing artefact is a bit random, but I checked several times and there was no tearing.
Then I enabled clone mode again and now no tearing on both monitors. I rebooted my system and checked several times and the tearing seems to have disappeared. Strange, but I am not complaining.
If the tearing appears again I will let you know.
Thanks for your help.

[lettuce]

Its a Pentranic tri sync monitor (UK company), i bought the monitor brand new and this is the test screen from SF3....

I see. I'm have no knowledge on electronics so have no clue if that could be a hardware problem on your monitor. Does it happen with any video mode exactly the same? Anyway, I'd try to add more margins to the picture by software, and then compensate the borders back by opening a bit the horizontal amplitude potenciometer. Can't promise anything but that could help. To do that try a custom monitor_specs line, increasing the horizontal front porch mainly (right margin). Have a search through this thread to find an explanation on this. However be aware I've read scary stories of Pentranic monitors breaking when being set to an improper resolution!

Thanks for the info, i looked back through the thread but could see any info on increasing the horizontal fron porch, can you give me a quick guide on how to do this for say Robocop?? Also what monitor would be best for me to select in the ini file as there is no Pentranic monitor in the list?

[blagger]

Calamity, I made some further tests:
I had tearing on the horizontal monitor and no tearing on the vertical monitor. Then in CCC I used the option "swap display mapping" and now its the other way round, tearing on the vertical and no tearing on the horizontal. This is reproducible.
So it seems that the secondary screen has sync problems.

[krick]

Calamity,

I was trying to experiment with a non ArcadeVGA ATI card (Sapphire ATI HD 4550) with your custom drivers.  I uninstalled all the ATI drivers, and ran cat uninistaller to make sure before trying to install your drivers.  However at the end of the install, I got the error message "Error Copy file failed" in the attached screenshot.  Any idea what happened?  The drivers seemed to have installed otherwise.

EDIT:  Some additional observations...

1) I am REALLY impressed.  Every game I tried looks fantastic, even interlaced games.  Wow!  Just, Wow.   You should work together with Andy @ Ultimarc.  With his custom BIOS and low dot clock hardware, and your drivers, the results would be amazing.

2) Hyperspin no longer works.  I installed crt_emudriver_9.3_1.2_x64_multisync.rar, which I thought was pre-configured to be under the Hyperspin limit.  Is there something I have to do manually to get Hyperspin working again?

[bitbytebit]

   You should work together with Andy @ Ultimarc.  With his custom BIOS and low dot clock hardware, and your drivers, the results would be amazing.

Unfortunately this has been refused, I tried, but he's afraid that it could leak out proprietary information about how the AVGA3000 operates and could endanger his business.  It would be awesome to combine the AVGA3000 bios ability to do the modelines internally and use the modeline generator method of Calamity's, put the logic of groovymame in there too, interface directly with mame.  I really think that could be awesome, but it'd be a change in what Andy has told me through talking to him about such things, so far it has been a not possible to do request.

[Calamity]

Calamity, I made some further tests:
I had tearing on the horizontal monitor and no tearing on the vertical monitor. Then in CCC I used the option "swap display mapping" and now its the other way round, tearing on the vertical and no tearing on the horizontal. This is reproducible.
So it seems that the secondary screen has sync problems.

Interesting, so they are still in clone mode, aren't they? Yes, it seems harware acceleration (and thus vsync) is only possible for the primary device when in that mode. You may try to set each screen as an independent desktop (without CCC), just from screen/properties, extend desktop. Then manually target each one from Mame using the resolution0/resolution1 args instead of default "resolution", and see what happens. There's no way this can be done automatically with GroovyMame as it is now but will give us an idea of how that works.

[Calamity]

Calamity,

I was trying to experiment with a non ArcadeVGA ATI card (Sapphire ATI HD 4550) with your custom drivers.  I uninstalled all the ATI drivers, and ran cat uninistaller to make sure before trying to install your drivers.  However at the end of the install, I got the error message "Error Copy file failed" in the attached screenshot.  Any idea what happened?  The drivers seemed to have installed otherwise.

Oh, no idea what that could be... did you see it copying files for both devices? Just to make sure drivers are properly installed run Arcade_OSD, and check the total number of custom modes (number between (), should be >= 60). I wish driver installation was a cleaner subject in Windows.

EDIT:  Some additional observations...

1) I am REALLY impressed.  Every game I tried looks fantastic, even interlaced games.  Wow!  Just, Wow.   You should work together with Andy @ Ultimarc.  With his custom BIOS and low dot clock hardware, and your drivers, the results would be amazing.

Good news are your monitor is fine with interlaced modes it seems. Well, if AVGA3000 is eventually supported by PowerStrip we could achieve this by directly feeding it with our custom modelines from GroovyMame.

2) Hyperspin no longer works.  I installed crt_emudriver_9.3_1.2_x64_multisync.rar, which I thought was pre-configured to be under the Hyperspin limit.  Is there something I have to do manually to get Hyperspin working again?

Yes, probably I need to edit the readme in the GroovyMame site. With the 6.5 XP32 version HS did work when reducing the total modes to 160 or so, but it was because at the same time it blocked all driver's native modes, so the total amount of modes was controlled. These 9.3 versions keep custom modes below 120 so at the beginning I thought it would be good enough to keep Hyperspin working but it turns out that hundreds of native modes are still created that add up to the custom ones so the total number is too big it seems, and I can do nothing to block those (have tried). Hopefully HS 2.0 will fix this issue. Actually I don't know if they might be using some sort of commercial library to deal with graphics that could be responsible for this issue, because if it's in their code it wouldn't be too hard to fix it, I could even help them.

[krick]

Calamity,

However at the end of the install, I got the error message "Error Copy file failed" in the attached screenshot.  Any idea what happened?  The drivers seemed to have installed otherwise.

Oh, no idea what that could be... did you see it copying files for both devices? Just to make sure drivers are properly installed run Arcade_OSD, and check the total number of custom modes (number between (), should be >= 60). I wish driver installation was a cleaner subject in Windows.

I saw a bunch of stuff copying, but I only saw the error popup once at the very end of the install.  In a possibly related note, I ALSO saw the same popup when I uninstalled your drivers and re-installed the Ultimarc drivers after swapping in my ArcadeVGA3000.  Every time I install either set of ATI drivers, I get the error, so there must be an in-use locked file that is common to both driver sets.  I wish the error message was a little more descriptive.

I'm not the only person seeing this error.  These threads all mention it...
http://forums.amd.com/game/messageview.cfm?catid=279&threadid=109828
http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?p=1031133688
http://www.rage3d.com/board/showthread.php?p=1333730933
http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?p=2396344

Also, something to note is that I didn't always see it.  I don't think it showed up until I uninstalled and reinstalled drivers a few times.

Every game I tried looks fantastic, even interlaced games.

Good news are your monitor is fine with interlaced modes it seems.

The truly weird thing is that 640x480 interlaced looks great on my ArcadeVGA3000 as long as I don't install any drivers.  As soon as I install the drivers, it looks crappy.  Andy suggested that I try fiddling with the Ultimarc ArcadePerfect Utility to see if I can make it look better.

Is there any information that can be obtained by using Arcade_OSD that might explain why 640x480 looks good without drivers, but bad with drivers?

Hyperspin no longer works.

Hopefully HS 2.0 will fix this issue. Actually I don't know if they might be using some sort of commercial library to deal with graphics that could be responsible for this issue, because if it's in their code it wouldn't be too hard to fix it, I could even help them.

There doesn't seem to be a lot of information about this issue over on the HS forum.  Maybe they need a high-profile thread to draw attention to the problem.  You should start a thread over there documenting the issue and then every time someone on BYOAC encounters the issue, direct them to post on the HS thread to bump it to the top.

[Calamity]

I saw a bunch of stuff copying, but I only saw the error popup once at the very end of the install.  In a possibly related note, I ALSO saw the same popup when I uninstalled your drivers and re-installed the Ultimarc drivers after swapping in my ArcadeVGA3000.  Every time I install either set of ATI drivers, I get the error, so there must be an in-use locked file that is common to both driver sets.  I wish the error message was a little more descriptive.

I'm not the only person seeing this error.  These threads all mention it...
http://forums.amd.com/game/messageview.cfm?catid=279&threadid=109828
http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?p=1031133688
http://www.rage3d.com/board/showthread.php?p=1333730933
http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?p=2396344

Also, something to note is that I didn't always see it.  I don't think it showed up until I uninstalled and reinstalled drivers a few times.

Oh thanks for the info, so the issue is not exclusive of my patched drivers. Probably a workaround would be to install/uninstall starting in Safe Mode, so no drivers are loaded and thus no file should be in use.

The truly weird thing is that 640x480 interlaced looks great on my ArcadeVGA3000 as long as I don't install any drivers.  As soon as I install the drivers, it looks crappy.  Andy suggested that I try fiddling with the Ultimarc ArcadePerfect Utility to see if I can make it look better.

Is there any information that can be obtained by using Arcade_OSD that might explain why 640x480 looks good without drivers, but bad with drivers?

That is probably because before you install drivers it's using a different modeline from its bios. I don't know how AVGA3000 actually works, but that would suggest the drivers add new modelines or at least pick different ones from the bios? According to Andy AVGA3000 does not use registry modelines that are the ones Arcade_OSD can read and edit, like Soft-15Khz, so I think I'd try modifying it with ArcadePerfect, probably changing its vertical geometry or vertical refresh a little bit (it would be great if ArcadePerfect accepted raw modelines as an option for advanced users, but it's not the case).

There doesn't seem to be a lot of information about this issue over on the HS forum.  Maybe they need a high-profile thread to draw attention to the problem.  You should start a thread over there documenting the issue and then every time someone on BYOAC encounters the issue, direct them to post on the HS thread to bump it to the top.

I wrote a pm to BadBoyBill with the info on the possible bug and got his answer, so maybe opening a thread could be a bit too much, don't know, possibly you're right. Actually I'm finding the most unexpected obstacle with this specific frontend to "persuade" people using crt_emudriver

[krick]

There doesn't seem to be a lot of information about this issue over on the HS forum.  Maybe they need a high-profile thread to draw attention to the problem.  You should start a thread over there documenting the issue and then every time someone on BYOAC encounters the issue, direct them to post on the HS thread to bump it to the top.

I wrote a pm to BadBoyBill with the info on the possible bug and got his answer, so maybe opening a thread could be a bit too much, don't know, possibly you're right. Actually I'm finding the most unexpected obstacle with this specific frontend to "persuade" people using crt_emudriver

I'm pretty sure they're using Adobe FLEX + Adobe AIR to develop Hyperspin.  I think there's some free development tools.  It might be beneficial to work up a small test application to see if we can reproduce the bug.  Maybe if it's an Adobe bug, we can get it fixed on their end.


As a side note:  Does the same problem also exist with the Catalyst 6.5 drivers?  If not, I could try to dig up an older Radeon that is compatible with the 6.5 drivers.

[Calamity]

I'm pretty sure they're using Adobe FLEX + Adobe AIR to develop Hyperspin.  I think there's some free development tools.  It might be beneficial to work up a small test application to see if we can reproduce the bug.  Maybe if it's an Adobe bug, we can get it fixed on their end.

Ah, interesting, I'll have a look at that, maybe testing another app built on that software might give us a clue.

As a side note:  Does the same problem also exist with the Catalyst 6.5 drivers?  If not, I could try to dig up an older Radeon that is compatible with the 6.5 drivers.

Yes we have the same problem with 6.5, but at least there it can be solved by defining only around 160 custom modes, that anyway is more of what you can get with 9.3 (120), so if you're not planning on using any non-Mame 3D game like SF IV or so, it's a better solution and my advice to everybody to go for a R9250 or even a X300 which I've both tested and work great.

[newmanfamilyvlogs]

I'm pretty sure they're using Adobe FLEX + Adobe AIR to develop Hyperspin.  I think there's some free development tools.  It might be beneficial to work up a small test application to see if we can reproduce the bug.  Maybe if it's an Adobe bug, we can get it fixed on their end.

What would lead you to think that? I wasn't aware you could run AIR applications without the air framework installed. Hyperspin runs without the Air runtime.

[krick]

What would lead you to think that? I wasn't aware you could run AIR applications without the air framework installed. Hyperspin runs without the Air runtime.

I could be totally wrong.  I remember reading somewhere that Hyperspin was using flash.  Do you know of any other way to get a flash based application running as a standalone app?

[krick]

The truly weird thing is that 640x480 interlaced looks great on my ArcadeVGA3000 as long as I don't install any drivers.  As soon as I install the drivers, it looks crappy.  Andy suggested that I try fiddling with the Ultimarc ArcadePerfect Utility to see if I can make it look better.

That is probably because before you install drivers it's using a different modeline from its bios. I don't know how AVGA3000 actually works, but that would suggest the drivers add new modelines or at least pick different ones from the bios?

I figured out what the problem is with interlaced resolutions with my ArcadeVGA3000.

For both 640x480 and 800x600, the default vertical size is an odd number.  If I load
ArcadePerfect and simply bump the vertical size up +1, it looks great.

For example, when I loaded windows without any drivers installed and ran ArcadePerfect,
the vertical size on the default 640x480 was 436, which has normal interlace flicker on
thin horizontal lines, but otherwise looks good.

After installing the drivers, when I run ArcadePerfect, the vertical size on 640x480 is
435 and it makes my eyes bleed.  Bump it up once to 436 and it looks good, just like the
non-driver display.

Similarly 800x600 has the same problem.  After installing the drivers, the vertical
height is 573 and looks terrible.  Bumping it up one to 574 makes it look good.

I didn't check 720x480, but it looks good out of the box, so I'll bet that the vertical
height is an even number.

It seems that within a reasonable range, all the even heights look good, and all the odd
heights look terrible.  It kind of makes sense that the height would have to be an even
number so that it can draw half of the lines on one pass and half on the next.


I've sent this off to Andy to see if he has any thoughts.

[Calamity]

Good news then!

It seems that within a reasonable range, all the even heights look good, and all the odd
heights look terrible.  It kind of makes sense that the height would have to be an even
number so that it can draw half of the lines on one pass and half on the next.

Well, it's actually the opposite for sure: interlaced resolutions need an *odd* number of total lines. If you see our modeline algorithms that's exactly what we're doing. That's why TV standards NTSC/PAL are 525/625 lines, so each field has 262.5/312.5 lines, and it's actually that half line at the end what makes each field have the correct relative displacement so it looks good.

It sounds weird that 640x480 has a "vertical size" of 436 (it should be 480+some_odd_number_of_blanking_lines), so I don't know what that figure exactly means but what is clear to me is that by making it even, you are getting an odd number of total lines even if its hidden.

[jtslade]

Calamity,

So I am impressed big time with GroovyMame.. It solved a long time problem of getting games to play without tearing. I am limited to a multisync PAL/NTSC tv via svideo (no-RGB input).

Everything looks great but I have found some games (Carrier Air Wing) that seem very squished into a letterbox format. It's almost looks like when you are running a 3 monitor game on a single 4:3 monitor?

Any ideas, my INI file is below.

Video of gameplay in mame link below

http://www.flickr.com/photos/30329886@N08/5729797142/#secret2d395be420

<UNADORNED0>              

#
# CORE CONFIGURATION OPTIONS
#
readconfig                1
writeconfig               0

#
# CORE SEARCH PATH OPTIONS
#
rompath                   roms;E:Arcade.SATAchds
hashpath                  hash
samplepath                samples
artpath                   artwork
ctrlrpath                 ctrlr
inipath                   .;ini
fontpath                  .
cheatpath                 cheat
crosshairpath             crosshair

#
# CORE OUTPUT DIRECTORY OPTIONS
#
cfg_directory             cfg
nvram_directory           nvram
memcard_directory         memcard
input_directory           inp
state_directory           sta
snapshot_directory        snap
diff_directory            diff
comment_directory         comments

#
# CORE OUTPUT DIRECTORY OPTIONS
#
hiscore_directory         hi

#
# CORE STATE/PLAYBACK OPTIONS
#
state                    
autosave                  0
playback                  
record                    
mngwrite                  
aviwrite                  
wavwrite                  
snapname                  %g/%i
snapsize                  auto
snapview                  internal
burnin                    0

#
# CORE PERFORMANCE OPTIONS
#
autoframeskip             0
frameskip                 2
seconds_to_run            0
throttle                  0
sleep                     1
speed                     1.0
refreshspeed              1

#
# CORE ROTATION OPTIONS
#
rotate                    1
ror                       0
rol                       0
autoror                   0
autorol                   0
flipx                     0
flipy                     0

#
# CORE ARTWORK OPTIONS
#
artwork_crop              1
use_backdrops             1
use_overlays              1
use_bezels                1

#
# CORE SCREEN OPTIONS
#
brightness                1.0
contrast                  1.0
gamma                     1.0
pause_brightness          0.65
effect                    none

#
# CORE VECTOR OPTIONS
#
antialias                 1
beam                      1.0
flicker                   0

#
# CORE SOUND OPTIONS
#
sound                     1
samplerate                48000
samples                   1
volume                    0

#
# CORE INPUT OPTIONS
#
coin_lockout              1
ctrlr                    
mouse                     1
joystick                  1
lightgun                  1
multikeyboard             0
multimouse                1
steadykey                 0
offscreen_reload          1
joystick_map              auto
joystick_deadzone         0.3
joystick_saturation       0.85
natural                   0

#
# CORE INPUT AUTOMATIC ENABLE OPTIONS
#
paddle_device             keyboard
adstick_device            keyboard
pedal_device              keyboard
dial_device               keyboard
trackball_device          mouse
lightgun_device           lightgun
positional_device         keyboard
mouse_device              mouse

#
# CORE DEBUGGING OPTIONS
#
log                       1
verbose                   0
update_in_pause           0
debug                     0
debugscript              
debug_internal            0

#
# CORE MISC OPTIONS
#
bios                      
cheat                     0
skip_gameinfo             0
uifont                    default
ramsize                  

#
# CORE MKChamp OPTIONS
#
disable_hiscore_patch     0
disable_nagscreen_patch   0
disable_loading_patch     0

#
# CORE SWITCHRES OPTIONS
#
modeline                  5
monitor                   vga
monitor_connector         auto
monitor_orientation       horizontal
monitor_aspect            4:3
monitor_debug             0
monitor_doublescan        0
monitor_dotclock          0
monitor_ymin              0
soundsync                 1
cleanstretch              1
changeres                 0
redraw                    2
monitor_specs0            auto
monitor_specs1            auto
monitor_specs2            auto
monitor_specs3            auto
monitor_specs4            auto
monitor_specs5            auto
monitor_specs6            auto
monitor_specs7            auto

#
# WINDOWS DEBUGGING OPTIONS
#
oslog                     0
watchdog                  0
debugger_font             "Lucida Console"
debugger_font_size        9

#
# WINDOWS PERFORMANCE OPTIONS
#
priority                  1
multithreading            1
numprocessors             auto
profile                   0
bench                     0

#
# WINDOWS VIDEO OPTIONS
#
video                     ddraw
numscreens                1
window                    0
maximize                  1
keepaspect                0
prescale                  2
waitvsync                 1
syncrefresh               1
menu                      0

#
# DIRECTDRAW-SPECIFIC OPTIONS
#
hwstretch                 1

#
# DIRECT3D-SPECIFIC OPTIONS
#
d3dversion                9
filter                    0

#
# PER-WINDOW VIDEO OPTIONS
#
screen                    auto
aspect                    auto
resolution                auto
view                      auto
screen0                   auto
aspect0                   auto
resolution0               auto
view0                     auto
screen1                   auto
aspect1                   auto
resolution1               auto
view1                     auto
screen2                   auto
aspect2                   auto
resolution2               auto
view2                     auto
screen3                   auto
aspect3                   auto
resolution3               auto
view3                     auto

#
# FULL SCREEN OPTIONS
#
triplebuffer              0
switchres                 0
full_screen_brightness    1.1
full_screen_contrast      1.0
full_screen_gamma         1.1

#
# WINDOWS SOUND OPTIONS
#
audio_latency             2

#
# INPUT DEVICE OPTIONS
#
dual_lightgun             0

[Calamity]

Everything looks great but I have found some games (Carrier Air Wing) that seem very squished into a letterbox format. It's almost looks like when you are running a 3 monitor game on a single 4:3 monitor?

Try disabling the -cleanstretch option, actually that one should not be used togeterh with -video ddraw.
If it doesn't work post the game's log using -v -md 4 args, so we can see which resolution it's choosing.

[krick]

I am limited to a multisync PAL/NTSC tv via svideo (no-RGB input).

Everything looks great but I have found some games (Carrier Air Wing) that seem very squished into a letterbox format. It's almost looks like when you are running a 3 monitor game on a single 4:3 monitor?

Try disabling the -cleanstretch option, actually that one should not be used togeterh with -video ddraw.
If it doesn't work post the game's log using -v -md 4 args, so we can see which resolution it's choosing.

He said that he's using NTSC/PAL SVIDEO, so shouldn't he be using D3D with hwstretch (and possibly cleanstretch)?

[Calamity]

He said that he's using NTSC/PAL SVIDEO, so shouldn't he be using D3D with hwstretch (and possibly cleanstretch)?

-hwstretch is ddraw specific.

-cleanstretch is a patch originally done by Sailorsat to be used with d3d. If you're using ddraw you shouldn't need this one. Actually it affects scaling and is probably the issue he's seeing.

Probably S-Video signal is being resampled by the videocard or something like that, so actually I'd avoid resolution switching at all by disabling switchres and use d3d instead of ddraw, and then use -syncrefresh or -triplebuffer to remove tearing.

[krick]

Well, it's actually the opposite for sure: interlaced resolutions need an *odd* number of total lines. If you see our modeline algorithms that's exactly what we're doing. That's why TV standards NTSC/PAL are 525/625 lines, so each field has 262.5/312.5 lines, and it's actually that half line at the end what makes each field have the correct relative displacement so it looks good.

It sounds weird that 640x480 has a "vertical size" of 436 (it should be 480+some_odd_number_of_blanking_lines), so I don't know what that figure exactly means but what is clear to me is that by making it even, you are getting an odd number of total lines even if its hidden.

Yeah, it turns out that the vertical size listed in ArcadePerfect is some sort of relative geometry and not the actual number of lines.  However, Andy has confirmed that I was correct in my diagnosis of the problem.  He has updated the Windows XP x64 drivers so that both 640x480 and 800x600 are bumped up one "unit" and now look the way they should.  640x480 looks exactly the same, with and without drivers installed, and 800x600 is actually quite usable on my monitor now when I need the extra space.  I'm not sure if any of the other drivers were affected or updated.

[krick]

Hyperspin is not using Adobe Flex + AIR.

I'm pretty sure they're using a product called SWF Studio

I found the string "SWF Studio" in the hyperspin exe file.

Here's where you get it...

http://www.northcode.com/

There's a free trial version, a $49 student version, and a $299 professional version.

Supposedly, the free trial version creates executables that stop working 1 day after they are run for the first time, but otherwise, it's the same as the full version.

I'd be curious if a small app built with the trial version will run with Calamity's patched drivers installed.

[androtaz08]

ok So I love this version of mame but am having a few issues depending on the card I use. When I use my AVGA 3000 with this a few resolutions dont work right. Tmnt wont fill the screen no matter what and mortal kombat wont run at  at the correct refresh, however neogeo and capcom games look and play amazing. when I use my built in radeon 2100 with he custom drivers mortal kombat runs perfect but many games like joust and capcom games dont work. I am debating buying a better ATI card but would like some conformation on which one to use and if anyone uses a particular card what works and what dosnt I was thinking like a radeon hd3xxx or 4xxx. Thoughts?

[krick]

ok So I love this version of mame but am having a few issues depending on the card I use. When I use my AVGA 3000 with this a few resolutions dont work right. Tmnt wont fill the screen no matter what and mortal kombat wont run at  at the correct refresh, however neogeo and capcom games look and play amazing. when I use my built in radeon 2100 with he custom drivers mortal kombat runs perfect but many games like joust and capcom games dont work. I am debating buying a better ATI card but would like some conformation on which one to use and if anyone uses a particular card what works and what dosnt I was thinking like a radeon hd3xxx or 4xxx. Thoughts?

I'm using an AVGA 3000.  I'll have to check out TMNT and Joust tonight when I get home.  What Capcom game(s) are you having issues with?  Be specific and I'll check those out too.


EDIT: TMNT and Joust are perfectly fine on my AVGA 3000.  Did you delete your old mame.ini and game-specific ini files before testing GroovyMAME?


As for the refresh issues in Mortal Kombat, are you having problems with the sound?   Make sure you enable "soundsync" in your INI file.  The Mortal Kombat games work great on my system.

What operating system are you using?  Is your CPU powerful enough for the games you're trying to run?

As for another card choice, if you plan on using Hyperspin as your front-end software, you probably want to pick up a used Radeon X1300 based card off of Ebay (they're really cheap) and use Calamity's patched Catalyst 6.5 drivers.   Until they fix the bug in Hyperspin, that's probably the best you can do.

[Calamity]

ok So I love this version of mame but am having a few issues depending on the card I use. When I use my AVGA 3000 with this a few resolutions dont work right. Tmnt wont fill the screen no matter what and mortal kombat wont run at  at the correct refresh, however neogeo and capcom games look and play amazing. when I use my built in radeon 2100 with he custom drivers mortal kombat runs perfect but many games like joust and capcom games dont work. I am debating buying a better ATI card but would like some conformation on which one to use and if anyone uses a particular card what works and what dosnt I was thinking like a radeon hd3xxx or 4xxx. Thoughts?

What happens exactly with those capcom games that don't work? All games should work, at least load and run although their resolution is wrong, unless there's something else going on. Post a log using -v -md 4 args so we can have a look. Use Arcade_OSD to check your installed resolutions and see if all of them are working properly.

[Calamity]

As for another card choice, if you plan on using Hyperspin as your front-end software, you probably want to pick up a used Radeon X1300 based card off of Ebay (they're really cheap) and use Calamity's patched Catalyst 6.5 drivers.   Until they fix the bug in Hyperspin, that's probably the best you can do.

The ATI X family is well known for not accepting low dotclocks, with the exceptions of the most older models (x300 at least). There is a workaround with the dotclockmin option both in crt_emudriver/groovymame that basically doubles xres for the lower resolutions... I'm thinking that's the issue androtaz08 is probably seeing as it's probably the same with HD 2000/ HD 3000. On the other hand, HD 4000 work fine on this aspect.

[krick]

The ATI X family is well known for not accepting low dotclocks, with the exceptions of the most older models (x300 at least).

It might be useful to have some specific recommended models on your driver download page so people know what to look for.

So far, the two issues I've seen are Hyperspin compatibility and low dot-clock support.  Are there any others that you know of?

[Gray_Area]

My ATI X800 has worked just fine with anything, including custom modes, Soft15 has thrown at it.

[androtaz08]

ok So I love this version of mame but am having a few issues depending on the card I use. When I use my AVGA 3000 with this a few resolutions dont work right. Tmnt wont fill the screen no matter what and mortal kombat wont run at  at the correct refresh, however neogeo and capcom games look and play amazing. when I use my built in radeon 2100 with he custom drivers mortal kombat runs perfect but many games like joust and capcom games dont work. I am debating buying a better ATI card but would like some conformation on which one to use and if anyone uses a particular card what works and what dosnt I was thinking like a radeon hd3xxx or 4xxx. Thoughts?

ok so I reinstalled my AVGA 3000 tonight and tested some stuff out. turns out my issue with tmnt was that i had mame set to use artwork. now that works great. However the mortal kombat games are still making me scratch my head. I have sound sync enabled but there is sometimes a really noticeable slowdown in pitch. when I used my ati 2100 the game ran perfect at 54.8 hz, no slowdown or tearing. the AGVA runs that resolution at 53.2. So the questions I have are

1 Is there a way to force the AGVA to run at 54.8 instead of 52.3?
2 When using the slider controls to shift the refresh rate down from 54. to 52.7 I notice less sound slowdown, is that what other people do?
3 Which is the correct refresh and why does Andy's card do 52.3?

[krick]

ok so I reinstalled my AVGA 3000 tonight and tested some stuff out. turns out my issue with tmnt was that i had mame set to use artwork. now that works great. However the mortal kombat games are still making me scratch my head. I have sound sync enabled but there is sometimes a really noticeable slowdown in pitch. when I used my ati 2100 the game ran perfect at 54.8 hz, no slowdown or tearing. the AGVA runs that resolution at 53.2. So the questions I have are

1 Is there a way to force the AGVA to run at 54.8 instead of 52.3?
2 When using the slider controls to shift the refresh rate down from 54. to 52.7 I notice less sound slowdown, is that what other people do?
3 Which is the correct refresh and why does Andy's card do 52.3?

I've played the hell out of the MK series on my AVGA3000 and I don't notice any slowdown, tearing, or pitch issues.

I'm using the stock INI file from GroovyMAME with soundsync enabled.  Did you create a fresh INI file before you started testing GroovyMAME?

What are these "slider controls" you mention?

Can you try running the following from the command line in your MAME directory?...

groovymame -v -md 4 umk3 > umk3_log.txt

...then post the log file here so we can look at it.

[androtaz08]

I dont know how to do that as I am running groovymame from maximus arcade

[jimmy2x2x]

Trying GM out for the first time today, Galaxian plays fine but Frogger clips off at the bottom for me.

What resolution should the fixed Frogger run at, do I need to trigger the hack somehow?

Thanks

[kalars123]

i decided to give GM a try today and xp pro x64, so I loaded up a spare drive with them, and copied over my cab's mame folder set everything up..ect got it working except that some game's will not display at all they just displayed a scrambled screen like as if the monitor isn't capable of outputing that combination of resolution/vsync, all neogeo games did this, so did Kinst,Kinst2 and several other's.  Now when i swap video adapter's to my avga3k useing andy's driver's none of this happens, but useing my onboard hd3450 with calamity's driver's it does happen. I'm useing a WG7k series monitor that is a stock MK1 monitor

any idea's?