add new modelines for arcadevga?

[manman]

please bear with me, I don't know much about adding/programming resolutions (modelines?) or any of that yourself, but from what I could gather, when people want custom resolution to match older arcade games, they often do this with soft 15khz and add it themselves if it's not already there.  I'm using an arcadeVGA though, so not only do I not really need soft 15khz, but I also read that they don't play well together (i'm not sure if that's why, but whenever I try to run it I get a "type mismatch" error.

So i'm wondering- I'd like to run GGPO fullscreen at native arcade resolution, but the arcade vga doesn't support the actual native cps2 and neo-geo resolutions, only close approximations.  As far as I can tell you can't set this manually in ggpo (fba) like you can with mame, all you can do is choose 'arcade' as the fullscreen resolution which is taking the value from something hardcoded i'm guessing.  So when I go fullscreen I get an error that my card doesn't support that resolution.

Can anyone point me in the right direction to get around this please?

[Calamity]

Winmodelines supports ArcadeVGA (at least the old versions not the 3000 one):

http://geocities.ws/podernixie/htpc/modeline-en.html

You can edit/add new modelines with this tool.

[manman]

i own the arcadevga 3000    are you saying you only know for sure that it suports pre-3000, or you know for sure that it DOESN'T support the 3000? 

Well, I might as well give it a try anyway... thanks for the help!   If Winmodelines is not compatible, does anyone else know of something similar that might work?

[Calamity]

i own the arcadevga 3000    are you saying you only know for sure that it suports pre-3000, or you know for sure that it DOESN'T support the 3000? 

I'm only sure it supports ArcadeVGA 1, it might as well work with 3000 but I haven't tested it nor know anybody that has.

[Gray_Area]

As far as I know, the ArcadeVGA since version 2 has been non-programmable without hacking the bios. In which case, why use it?

[bitbytebit]

As far as I know, the ArcadeVGA since version 2 has been non-programmable without hacking the bios. In which case, why use it?

And in fact if you take an ArcadeVGA 3000 card and flash the bios with the Radeon HD 2600 PCIe bios (not recommended!!!! because you really have to know what your doing and want to dump it to a rom file before hand to be able reflash it to an AVGA again) then you get a better card that can fully use Soft15Khz and do more modelines, and allow you to add custom modelines to it too.  You just lose the brief moment of bootup before it goes into Windows/Linux and hits either Soft15Khz or your Linux console and Xwindows setup.  It's basically the same thing, just allows you to go in there and add more modelines.

[manman]

well, I've done firmware flashing on other devices before...BUT I can't claim to be too smart cuz now i have a dumb question...

I tried winmodelines, and it did look like it supports the arcadevga3000 cuz it showed up in the list and showed the status as "ok" for my card.  I added the modelines and like an idiot I didn't do the test first I just tried switching... just ended up with an incompatible signal and now my monitor just goens blank when I reboot... I tried changing something in safemode, but winmodelines didn't seem to work in safemode and I can't change the resolution (at least through the display dialog) that way...anyone know the quickest way to get my resolution set back to something compatible?

As for why I got the arcadevga- it might have been a misplaced assumption int his case, but in general I like having hardware support for things as opposed to emulation in software.  Just figured it would be the better/more stable option.  Of course- any solution is only good if it fits the application you want it for, so in this case I might have jumped the gun :/

[bitbytebit]

well, I've done firmware flashing on other devices before...BUT I can't claim to be too smart cuz now i have a dumb question...

I tried winmodelines, and it did look like it supports the arcadevga3000 cuz it showed up in the list and showed the status as "ok" for my card.  I added the modelines and like an idiot I didn't do the test first I just tried switching... just ended up with an incompatible signal and now my monitor just goens blank when I reboot... I tried changing something in safemode, but winmodelines didn't seem to work in safemode and I can't change the resolution (at least through the display dialog) that way...anyone know the quickest way to get my resolution set back to something compatible?

As for why I got the arcadevga- it might have been a misplaced assumption int his case, but in general I like having hardware support for things as opposed to emulation in software.  Just figured it would be the better/more stable option.  Of course- any solution is only good if it fits the application you want it for, so in this case I might have jumped the gun :/

Did you try VGA mode?

[Aithos]

edit:  after doing some looking I'm just plain not sure about this.  I think soft 15khz requires standards in the drivers that the custom software for your card isn't compatible with.

[Calamity]

well, I've done firmware flashing on other devices before...BUT I can't claim to be too smart cuz now i have a dumb question...

I tried winmodelines, and it did look like it supports the arcadevga3000 cuz it showed up in the list and showed the status as "ok" for my card.  I added the modelines and like an idiot I didn't do the test first I just tried switching... just ended up with an incompatible signal and now my monitor just goens blank when I reboot... I tried changing something in safemode, but winmodelines didn't seem to work in safemode and I can't change the resolution (at least through the display dialog) that way...anyone know the quickest way to get my resolution set back to something compatible?

As for why I got the arcadevga- it might have been a misplaced assumption int his case, but in general I like having hardware support for things as opposed to emulation in software.  Just figured it would be the better/more stable option.  Of course- any solution is only good if it fits the application you want it for, so in this case I might have jumped the gun :/

As bitbytebit says, you need to restart your system with F8 and select "VGA mode", then you'll restore your desktop in a safe 640x480 mode. Then use quickres or screen properties to set a supported 32 bit mode (then the driver will get loaded). Make sure you use the proper modelines por your monitor, in case you select the wrong one and go out of sync, press esc in order to reject the mode. Do not select new resolutions with Quickres until you know for sure they work, as you can't undo changes with it.

However, as far as I know Winmodelines has not been formally tested with AVGA3000, so it may not work!

[manman]

Thanks a lot for the help guys, I really appreciate it.  I guess i'll let my system keep being a guinea pig to test this out, but I'll proceed more carefully from here on out...

[manman]

Ok, so I was able to fix that problem and get a compatible signal again, I just have a question about the modelines I tried to use.  From the "useful modelines" guide that came with it I tried to install the following:

Modeline "304x224 NTSC (60Hz)" 6.365 304 319 349 405 224 236 239 262  -hsync -vsync   
Modeline "384x224 NTSC (60Hz)" 8.040 384 403 440 511 224 236 239 262  -hsync -vsync   

(although, once added + reboot, they show as)
Modeline "384x224_60 15.7KHz 60.1Hz" 8.040 384 403 440 511 224 236 239 262  -hsync -vsync   
Modeline "304x224_60 15.7KHz 59.9Hz" 6.360 304 319 349 405 224 236 239 262  -hsync -vsync   


I'm just wondering if there's anything obviously wrong that jumps out from that, or if the modelines are fine and it just points the program not being compatible with my card?  Winmodelines seems to recognize my card as an "arcadevga 3000" just fine and shows status: OK, but whenever I test those resolutions I just get a blank screen.  The other 15kHz resolutions that were pre-installed with the card look fine.

One thing to note- i'm not sure if this matters.  I've only tested these while hooked up to my LCD monitor via DVI.  The card's instructions say that if you want to hook up a computer monitor you have to use the dvi port.  When I hook up to my arcade monitor of course, I use VGA.  For the built in 15kHz resolutions I can see them fine with DVI, but I don't know if that would make a difference for the modelines added via winmodelines?

Thanks

[Calamity]

Hi manman,

From the modeline's text string between quotations, only relevant parts are xres, yres, vfreq, which are used as a label for the modeline in the registry, the rest is ignored, that's why you don't see "NTSC" in the modeline after reboot, but your modeline is ok. If your getting a blank screen then it's probably working, but you will only be able to see that mode on a arcade monitor or tv. If you are able to see the built-in modes on LCD it's because your card is prepared for dynamically selecting a 31KHz signal for those modes when it detects a LCD/PC monitor. But that does not seem to happen with new modelines added. Anyway, it's interesting to know.

[manman]

Thanks for the info, I guess I'll try it on the arcade monitor and report back on how it works.

[androtaz08]

Sorry for posting on an old thread but I need some help. I foolishly tried to use winmodeline to add a better modeline for mortal kombat on my arcadevga 3000. upon reboot my screen is blank. so I tried to boot in vga mode and change the resolution to 640x480 32 bit. when I try this however the computer just crashes and I get more of the same. any Ideas? thanks guys.

[Calamity]

You'll need to reinstall drivers.

[androtaz08]

I tried uninstalling and reinstalling. nothing. any other ideas?

[androtaz08]

Dont know why it did this but I ended up doing a system restore and everything is fine. though I still would like to tweak some modelines so I can play mortal kombat without screen tar or sound stuttering.

[bitbytebit]

Dont know why it did this but I ended up doing a system restore and everything is fine. though I still would like to tweak some modelines so I can play mortal kombat without screen tar or sound stuttering.

Try groovymame with the soundsync option turned on, should do better I'm guessing than what you've had working so far (make sure to remove any .ini files too, it doesn't need those).  I just got it able to read the ArcadeVGA3000 modeline list and work off that, interested in testing and feedback.

[retrometro]

Dont know why it did this but I ended up doing a system restore and everything is fine. though I still would like to tweak some modelines so I can play mortal kombat without screen tar or sound stuttering.

It's almost a decade later since your post but I see that you're online so I've got to ask.. what ever happened to your quest to add some additional model lines for MK?  I just installed an AVGA 3000 over the weekend on a multi-sync and am dying to add more but don't want to bork my Windows XP in the process like you guys.

Any tips for this time traveler?