Confused by vmmaker.ini custom monitor settings

[jimmy2x2x]

I was having a great GM experience until I updated my version of mame to 149 and ran vmmaker, now certain resolutions are not present


Im using

:: VideoModeMaker :: - version 1.3c - by Calamity - 2008/2012

is this the latest version?

Code: [Select]

; VideoModeMaker - Options
; ------------------------
   
; 1. MAME
; -------

; Path for Mame executable, in case we want to extract xml information from it.

MameExe = "d:\emulation\mame\groovymame64_0149.014b.exe"


; Path for Mame ini folder, in case we want to create an ini file for each game.
; Important: existing ini files will be overwritten.

IniPath = "d:\emulation\Mame\ini\"

; Mame options.

ListFromXML = 1 ; Processes Mame XML and get video mode list from it
GenerateXML = 0 ; Extracts XML from Mame (only needed once)
OnlyListMain = 0 ; Only list resolutions for games contained in MameMain.txt
GenerateInis = 0 ; Creates an ini file for each Mame game, in the IniPath folder
SDLMame = 0 ; Use SDLMame specific options

; Monitor orientation

MonitorHorizontal = 0 ; 0 = Rotating monitor: horizontal and vertical games at their native resolution
;     Suitable for users that physically rotate their CRTs
; 1 = Horizontal monitor: horizontal games run at their native resolution and
;     vertical games are rotated to fit in horizontal monitor

RotatingDesktop = 0 ; Specifies if both desktop and monitor are rotated

; Aspect ratio for vertical games on horizontal monitor
; 4:3 (keeps original aspect ratio)
; 3:3 (stretches to square format)
; 3:4 (stretches to full screen)
; h:v (custom aspect ratio)

VerticalAspect = "4:3"


; 2. MONITOR
; ----------

; Monitor Type. Valid types: D9800, D9400, D9200, EGA, VGA, MULTI, H9110, PAL, NTSC, GENERIC, CUSTOM

MonitorType = "CUSTOM"


; Monitor CUSTOM. These values will be used if MonitorType = "CUSTOM"
;
; monitor_specs0-6  HfreqMin-HfreqMax, VfreqMin,VfreqMax, HFrontPorch, HSyncPulse, HBackPorch, VfrontPorch, VSyncPulse, VBackPorch, HSyncPol, VSyncPol, ActiveLinesLimit, VirtualLinesLimit
;
; * HfreqMin-HfreqMax: Minimum and maximum horizontal frequency, in Hz. Defines the range of horizontal frequencies the monitor is capable to sync.
; The higher the horizontal frequency, the higher the vertical resolution available for the same vertical refresh.
; The higher the horizontal frequency, the higher the vertical refresh available for the same vertical resolution.
; The higher the horizontal frequency, the lower the horizontal amplitude of active video (narrower picture).
;
; * VFreqMin-VfreqMax: Minimum and maximum vertical frequency, in Hz, Defines the range of vertical frequencies the monitor is capable to sync.
;
; * HFrontPorch, HSyncPulse, HBackPorch: Horizontal timing and geometry, values in µs
;
; * VfrontPorch, VSyncPulse, VBackPorch: Vertical timing and geometry, values in ms
;
; * HSyncPol,VSyncPol: sync polarities, 0 = negative, 1 = positive.
;
; * ActiveLinesLimit: Vertical resolutions until ActiveLinesLimit value included, are generated as progressive, regardless the possibility
;                           of obtaining the required vertical refresh value.
;
; * VirtualLinesLimit: Vertical resolutions above ActiveLinesLimit and below VirtualLinesLimit are virtualized, that is, an interlaced resolution
;                            bigger that the native one is generated, with the right refresh, and "hardware stretch" is applied.
;                            Vertical resolutions above VirtulaLinesLimit are generated as interlaced, without any stretching.

monitor_specs_0 = "15625-16200, 49.50-65.00, 3.000, 4.700, 8.200, 0.064, 0.160, 1.056, 0, 0, 288, 448"


; Tolerance for horizontal frequency, in kHz, enables extending the range defined by [ HfreqMin, HfreqMax ]
; The resulting allowed frequency range will be [ HfreqMin - HfreqTolerance, HfreqMax + HfreqTolerance ]

HfreqTolerance = 0.010


; 3. MODELINE GENERATOR
; ---------------------

; Total number of modelines to generate. Here are the recommended values for each driver version:
; CRT_Emudriver, based on Catalyst 6.5: 160 modes (accepts up to 200, but above 160 HyperSpin will refuse to load)
; CRT_Emudriver, based on Catalyst 9.3: 120 modes (accepts some more but above 120 you can get some blue screens)
; Regular Catalyst                    : 60 modes (won't accept any more)

TotalModes = 120

; If enabled, only creates modes with 32 bits per pixel color depth

Only32BPPModes = 0

; Method for mode table generation. If Mame xml is processed, that will create a lot of different video modes, so the mode table
; will be optimized keeping the most relevant ones, and dropping the rest, to keep below the TotalModes value.
;
; 0 = Static table: modelines are generated keeping their original vertical refresh. This method is intended to be used in
;     combination with ini files for each game.
;
; 1 = Dynamic table: a table of dummy modes is created using xres and yres values while ignoring vfreq. This method is intended
;     to be used in combination with Switchres or Groovymame. No ini files are required using this method (you should disable the
;     GenerateInis option).
;
; 2 = Magic table: a table of 'magic resolutions' is created, by ignoring xres and vfreq and just keeping yres. This method greatly reduces
;     the total number of modes in the list. It's only supported by GroovyMAME, and is intended as a workaround for the Hyperspin issue.

ModeTableMethod_Custom = 0
ModeTableMethod_XML = 1

; Minimum resolution values (these will be used instead of lower values)

XresMin_XML = 184
YresMin_XML = 192
YresRound_XML = 4

XresMin_Custom = 240
YresMin_Custom = 160
YresRound_Custom = 0

; Minimum dotclock value allowed by the video card, in MHz (i.e. DotClockMin = 7.010)

DotClockMin = 0

; Number of iterations used by the mode generator [0,5]. The higher the number of iterations, the bigger the accuracy of the vertical
; refreshed obtained, normally at the cost of increasing the horizontal frequency strictly required.

Iterations = 0

; Specifies if the refresh label is multiplied by 10 before rounding (experimental).

VFreqLabelx10 = 0

; 4. DRIVER
; ---------

; Path for the driver folder

DriverPath = ".\Driver\"

; If UpdateRegistry is enabled, UpdateDriver will only work if the driver version found in DriverPath matches the one installed
; in the system.

UpdateRegistry = 1 ; Specifies if the video card registry section will be updated with the new video modes
; (will only work in combination with CRT_EMUDriver).

UpdateDriver = 0 ; Specifies if the driver files in DriverPath will be updated with the new video modes, for
; future installations.

AnyCatalyst = 0 ; Allows modelines to be installed for any Catalyst version. This option is experimental and
; known to produce some problems.


      monitor_specs_0 = "15625-16200, 49.50-65.00, 3.000, 4.700, 8.200, 0.064, 0.160, 1.056, 0, 0, 288, 448"


I suspect this line needs to be reformatted for the version of vmmaker I am using, since this line came from a previous version of vmmaker.

Also, I would like to increase the horizontal porches a little - what values should I change?

The maximum res of my scart tv is 640x480i, can I remove resolutions after this to gain more MAME friendly ones, instead of dropping them?

Thanks for any advice on this, Im a bit lost with it.

[Calamity]

Hi jimmy,

Yes, that's the latest version.

The monitor_specs line you're using is fine. Future versions (hopefully) will use the same format as GroovyMAME.

For increasing the horizontal porches, just look at the format line in your own post:

; monitor_specs0-6  HfreqMin-HfreqMax, VfreqMin,VfreqMax, HFrontPorch, HSyncPulse, HBackPorch, VfrontPorch, VSyncPulse, VBackPorch, HSyncPol, VSyncPol, ActiveLinesLimit, VirtualLinesLimit

 monitor_specs_0 = "15625-16200, 49.50-65.00, 3.000, 4.700, 8.200, 0.064, 0.160, 1.056, 0, 0, 288, 448"

Actually you shouldn't have updated VMMaker just because you updated GroovyMAME. I mean, if you have the right resolutions installed, new GroovyMAME versions will just work.

What exact resolutions are you missing?

The maximum res of my scart tv is 640x480i, can I remove resolutions after this to gain more MAME friendly ones, instead of dropping them?

Well this should be FAQ candidate. CRTs have not maximum resolutions, that's for LCDs. It's maximum frequencies what matters, so VMMaker/GroovyMAME just try to offer you the best resolution available for the frequencies you specify. Your SCART TV does probably support 576i, for instance. If you want to remove resolutions marked as 'native' in ArcadeOSD, well those cannot be removed as they're added by the drivers. If you want to remove the ones marked as 'custom', then you can do this manually, use Winmodelines for it. However if you just want to make room for other modes, you will need to add the new ones manually, with Winmodelines, as there's no way to tell VMMaker not to create some specific modes so others are not dropped.