MAME resolutions on analog arcade monitors

[dekar24k]

Heya guys. I was just wondering what the majority of those with analog arcade monitors are doing for MAME? When I had my WG D9800 (digital trisync) then I just went through all the resolutions, adjusted them to fit the screen perfectly and never looked back. The monitor was digital and remembered my settings for each resolution, at least for the most part.

Now on the other hand, I am using a Makvision 29" Tri-sync analog monitor and when I fix one resolution, the next one gets offset, if I fix that one then the first one is all wrong .. and so on ..

So, should I just adjust the monitor set at the most common resolution used by MAME and have the games who use other resolutions hardware stretched? I can't think of any other solution that is acceptable.

Some input from analog monitor owners is appreciated! Thanks.

[Jack Burton]

Three solutions in order of difficulty:

1.  Find a "sweet spot" that will fill most of the screen and be close to centered across most resolutions.   You can do this by shrinking your screen to have a half-inch to an inch of  empty space on all sides. 

2.  Fiddle with the controls every time you switch resolutions.  Worked for me for years.  Once you get good it only takes a minute or so. 

3.  Configure custom modelines to your particular monitor that will allow it to fit across every resolution.  VERY time consuming, but it's the ultimate solution.

[dekar24k]

Thanks for the tips Jack!

I think I will go for the sweet spot solution. Stretching all games to VGA really doesn't look good..

[Gray_Area]

3.  Configure custom modelines to your particular monitor that will allow it to fit across every resolution.  VERY time consuming, but it's the ultimate solution.

You're going to sacrifice refresh, though. I prefer number one.

[dekar24k]

Well, so I definitely found the sweet spot. The last couple of days I've been going through all the MAME games in my favorites list (approximately 300 +/-) and only a handful of games had to be tweaked (Mortal Kombat etc.). I'm pretty happy with the way it's set up now. There's a slight border around the screen on all games, but I will compensate by making a slightly narrower bezel. The monitor area is still more than big enough.

[Jack Burton]

3.  Configure custom modelines to your particular monitor that will allow it to fit across every resolution.  VERY time consuming, but it's the ultimate solution.

You're going to sacrifice refresh, though. I prefer number one.

Why would you have to sacrifice the refresh rate?  I've been able to get games with different rates to fit my screen without adjustments. 

[Gray_Area]

3.  Configure custom modelines to your particular monitor that will allow it to fit across every resolution.  VERY time consuming, but it's the ultimate solution.

You're going to sacrifice refresh, though. I prefer number one.

Why would you have to sacrifice the refresh rate?  I've been able to get games with different rates to fit my screen without adjustments. 

Right. Different refresh, but not the actual refresh of the game. Mostly this is applicable to vertical games run horizontally.....although, I remember someone a while back suggesting 'instead of changing refresh, why not change pixel clock?'. Resolution and refresh are proportional, resolution and pixel clock are proportional.....refresh and pixel clock are...?

[dekar24k]

Out of curiosity; how do you guys with analog monitors cope with games like Mortal Kombat, or Ms. Pac-Man? What res. do you have those set up running without having to hardware scale/stretch? I've tried quite a few resolutions for those games and the only way they are playable (without turning knobs on the monitor) is if I hardware stretch them.

[MonMotha]

Right. Different refresh, but not the actual refresh of the game. Mostly this is applicable to vertical games run horizontally.....although, I remember someone a while back suggesting 'instead of changing refresh, why not change pixel clock?'. Resolution and refresh are proportional, resolution and pixel clock are proportional.....refresh and pixel clock are...?

There are other variables in the modeline that you can play with.  For example, if you increase the pixel clock but also increase the amount of blanked screen area (porches or blank lines), you can keep the refresh rate and active image area the same while decreasing the on-screen image size.  Obviously you can do the opposite, too.  This technique can also be used to reposition the image on screen: just adjust the relative amount of left/right porch (horizontal position) or vertical blanking before/after vsync (vertical position) while keeping everything else constant.

Now you will have to change the horizontal scanrate to do some of the above (adding/removing blank lines) while keeping the vertical refresh rate constant.  Most games shouldn't care, but anything that actually uses the horizontal scanrate for timing (I don't know of anything that does, and MAME may not even support delivering the actual hardware signal back into the game since I don't think OpenGL or DirectX do) may take offense.  Obviously you'll also have to stay within the capabilities of your monitor.

The old "xvidtune" program would do some of this on X11, which is where the commonly used modeline format comes from.

[Dawgz Rule]

I set the resolution of the monitor to 640x288 and adjusted the horizontal and vertical size to fit.  My Pacman is running at 352x288 and fits perfect.  Some games do not fill the entire screen but the overall look and feel seems to be good for just about everything.  Vertical shooters sometimes require minor adjustment and I do this by adjusting the stretch within the game.

[Jack Burton]

Right. Different refresh, but not the actual refresh of the game. Mostly this is applicable to vertical games run horizontally.....although, I remember someone a while back suggesting 'instead of changing refresh, why not change pixel clock?'. Resolution and refresh are proportional, resolution and pixel clock are proportional.....refresh and pixel clock are...?

There are other variables in the modeline that you can play with.  For example, if you increase the pixel clock but also increase the amount of blanked screen area (porches or blank lines), you can keep the refresh rate and active image area the same while decreasing the on-screen image size.  Obviously you can do the opposite, too.  This technique can also be used to reposition the image on screen: just adjust the relative amount of left/right porch (horizontal position) or vertical blanking before/after vsync (vertical position) while keeping everything else constant.

Now you will have to change the horizontal scanrate to do some of the above (adding/removing blank lines) while keeping the vertical refresh rate constant.  Most games shouldn't care, but anything that actually uses the horizontal scanrate for timing (I don't know of anything that does, and MAME may not even support delivering the actual hardware signal back into the game since I don't think OpenGL or DirectX do) may take offense.  Obviously you'll also have to stay within the capabilities of your monitor.

The old "xvidtune" program would do some of this on X11, which is where the commonly used modeline format comes from.

This is exactly what I did.  I've been able to get games that run at 53, 57, 59, and 60hz to all line up through messing about with the screen position controls in advv with advancemame.  

[Gray_Area]

Right. Different refresh, but not the actual refresh of the game. Mostly this is applicable to vertical games run horizontally.....although, I remember someone a while back suggesting 'instead of changing refresh, why not change pixel clock?'. Resolution and refresh are proportional, resolution and pixel clock are proportional.....refresh and pixel clock are...?

There are other variables in the modeline that you can play with.  For example, if you increase the pixel clock but also increase the amount of blanked screen area (porches or blank lines), you can keep the refresh rate and active image area the same while decreasing the on-screen image size.  Obviously you can do the opposite, too.  This technique can also be used to reposition the image on screen: just adjust the relative amount of left/right porch (horizontal position) or vertical blanking before/after vsync (vertical position) while keeping everything else constant.

Now you will have to change the horizontal scanrate to do some of the above (adding/removing blank lines) while keeping the vertical refresh rate constant.  Most games shouldn't care, but anything that actually uses the horizontal scanrate for timing (I don't know of anything that does, and MAME may not even support delivering the actual hardware signal back into the game since I don't think OpenGL or DirectX do) may take offense.  Obviously you'll also have to stay within the capabilities of your monitor.

The old "xvidtune" program would do some of this on X11, which is where the commonly used modeline format comes from.

This is exactly what I did.  I've been able to get games that run at 53, 57, 59, and 60hz to all line up through messing about with the screen position controls in advv with advancemame. 

I would think the 'auto' setting could do that.