Resolution question (setting resolution in-game/emulator)

[Billkwando]

Hi!

I'm going to be setting up a 36" SDTV CRT for emulation, via TV-Out, with an Nvidia 8800GTS. I'm planning on changing my setup from s-video (my current setup) to component (and seriously wondering if it's worth it, from all the problems I've read about here). I had to order the dongle from evga.com

I've done lots of (re)searching on the forum, and I see folks discussing special drivers and setups for custom resolutions. My question is, if the the emulator itself allows you to select your resolution, why would you need to do it in the video card settings? Do the in-game settings actually work, or is it just being downscaled (by the emu) and then upscaled again (by the card setting)?

I've been using TV-Out and emulators for years, but I've never really been that much of a perfectionist, so there are some gaps in my knowledge regarding the technical side of things. I've always run my CRT (which is my secondary display) at 1024x768, and everything looked pretty ok to me.

My main interest is in Neo Geo and Model 2 emulation (Daytona USA), in case the context makes a difference.

[bitbytebit]

Hi!

I'm going to be setting up a 36" SDTV CRT for emulation, via TV-Out, with an Nvidia 8800GTS. I'm planning on changing my setup from s-video (my current setup) to component (and seriously wondering if it's worth it, from all the problems I've read about here). I had to order the dongle from evga.com

I've done lots of (re)searching on the forum, and I see folks discussing special drivers and setups for custom resolutions. My question is, if the the emulator itself allows you to select your resolution, why would you need to do it in the video card settings? Do the in-game settings actually work, or is it just being downscaled (by the emu) and then upscaled again (by the card setting)?

I've been using TV-Out and emulators for years, but I've never really been that much of a perfectionist, so there are some gaps in my knowledge regarding the technical side of things. I've always run my CRT (which is my secondary display) at 1024x768, and everything looked pretty ok to me.

My main interest is in Neo Geo and Model 2 emulation (Daytona USA), in case the context makes a difference.

The emulator has a screen/image size it will output the game as to the display, this is separate though from the system resolutions themselves.  So you can tell the emulator to do 320x240, but then you also would need to setup a resolution in the operating system for 320x240.  The emulator can only create the picture, the operating system has to program the video card to be that size actually. If your operating system doesn't have that size resolution, and instead 1024x768, you'll get a stretched (unless settings are to not stretch) and possibly out of aspect wrong size pixels.  Also if you don't allow stretching you'll get a tiny little picture in the bigger resolution.  The arcade games will be tiny resolutions, and the pixels look best at that size, pacman is a little tiny rectangle on a modern monitor at 1920x1080, unless you stretch it out.  That's the technical reason you need more than just the emulator specifying the resolution, because it can't usually create the resolution for the operating system, except things like advancemame and my groovymame which both have the goal of combining the emulator and resolution creation.  With that video card, I don't think it does lower resolutions of arcade games (would want to check the Soft15khz compatibility), but also if you don't see an issue with the output currently then sounds like you don't need to worry and should be fine with that setup without switching operating system resolutions.

[Gray_Area]

Hi!

I'm going to be setting up a 36" SDTV CRT for emulation, via TV-Out, with an Nvidia 8800GTS. I'm planning on changing my setup from s-video (my current setup) to component (and seriously wondering if it's worth it, from all the problems I've read about here). I had to order the dongle from evga.com

I've done lots of (re)searching on the forum, and I see folks discussing special drivers and setups for custom resolutions. My question is, if the the emulator itself allows you to select your resolution, why would you need to do it in the video card settings? Do the in-game settings actually work, or is it just being downscaled (by the emu) and then upscaled again (by the card setting)?

I've been using TV-Out and emulators for years, but I've never really been that much of a perfectionist, so there are some gaps in my knowledge regarding the technical side of things. I've always run my CRT (which is my secondary display) at 1024x768, and everything looked pretty ok to me.

My main interest is in Neo Geo and Model 2 emulation (Daytona USA), in case the context makes a difference.

The simple answer is that MAME can tell the system to do certain things; but the system has to be able to do them, hence you need other applications, etc, to make the system do it (unless it's Linux, in which case it just does it). Look through the monitor section of the wiki to learn more.

Using component in on a TV means using the VGA out on your video card, plus added hardware. See related threads for more on that.