Modeline 224p in VMMaker and Ddraw with Hyperspin

[Monkee]

Hi, I'm trying to get all the modelines for my selection of games and I'm wondering about the settings "Minimum resolution values" in VMMaker.ini
Until now I always used the default settings (Xres Min = 184 and Yres Min = 192 if I'm not mistaken) but I recently read on a french forum that those settings doesn't allow the correct resolutions for 224p games and that you need to adjust the Yres Min to 160 to get those resolutions. I'd like to know if it's true.

I'm also wondering about the choice between Ddraw and D3d, knowing that I use Hyperspin I should, I guess, better use D3D to have the magic modelines. But then again I read about an apparent better look of the games in Ddraw for 15khz.
So then I thought about the possibility of making a list of my roms with Romcenter for VMmaker to create only the needed modelines (and be able to use Ddraw) but what about my other emulators (Zsnes Sailorsat's hack, Kega Fusion & Magic Engine) and their resolutions...
I really have no idea about how to make this right so if someone can help me to understand those options and make the best choice, it'll be great.

Thanks.
Monkee

[Calamity]

Hi Monkee,

DirectDraw does not look any better than Direct3D provided you use GroovyMAME, thanks to the cleanstretch patch. People still believes that because it is true for regular MAME.

Download the latest VMMaker version. This has different options for minimum resolutions depending on the source (XML or custom list).

Setting this value to 192 should allow 224p modes indeed... obviously. If you set it to 240, then 224 modes will be promoted to 240p, as expected.

Creating 224p modes for GroovyMAME doesn't make sense and is a waste of space. This has been explained hundreds of times.

However, some emulators are not wise enough and require 224p modes, otherwise they'll stretch things to the full height (say 240p) ruining the picture. For those cases you can enable a lower value for yresmin.

[Monkee]

Thanks a lot Calamity.

So if I go for D3d and the classic settings for X and Yresmin, I should be safe for all systems, am I right?

And finally concerning Hyperspin, what do you recommend? Are the "Magic modelines" an option if you use other 15khz emulators?
How can I get a list of the modelines I need for my selection of games and systems to feed VMMaker?

Sorry if those questions are stupid, I couldn't find any info on it with the search engine.

[Calamity]

If you get the most recent VMMaker as recommended above, you have two sources for resolutions, xml and custom list, and you can config each one with different settings, e.g. a magic table for xml resolutions and static table for the custom list.

[Monkee]

Awesome. I will try that.

[Monkee]

Thanks a lot Calamity! That's just so great and well thought!

[Monkee]

Hi Calamity,
I'm back! 

First of all, thanks a lot for your help, my system is almost 100% perfect now and that's because of you and your amazing baby. 

I have one question though concerning the settings of VMmaker in case of several mame folders (that's the non-perfect part of my setup  ).
I'm using 3 different "editions" of Mame (a classic GM for most of the games, one GM modified for Cave games and one Shmupmame), can and how do I specify the path of those three inside VMMaker to get the correct resolutions for all my games ?

Thanks.
Monkee

[Calamity]

Hi Monkee,

I think I'd just make vmmaker point to your GM modified for Cave games, since that one will include "everything". Honestly I don't think it will make any difference. You just need a source for resolutions to tell VMMaker which ones to create, after that all the job is done by GM now.

[Monkee]

Awesome.
I guess for Shmupmame though, I have to create a ini with the right resolution for each game, no? 

[Calamity]

I guess for Shmupmame though, I have to create a ini with the right resolution for each game, no? 

Depending on which version of MAME is Shmupmame based on, you can use the standalone SwitchRes program to call Shmupmame with the right resolution.

[Monkee]

Depending on which version of MAME is Shmupmame based on, you can use the standalone SwitchRes program to call Shmupmame with the right resolution.

The v0.148 I guess. How do i call shmupmame with SwitchRes in this case? Directly in the ini?

NB: I'm using Hyperspin, in case that could change anything.

[Monkee]

Last question Calamity, if I use GM in D3d in combination with the magic modelines, does that mean that I cannot use Shmupmame in Ddraw with the right modelines specified in the ini of each games for this one ?

[Calamity]

Hi Monkee,

Provided you just use Shmupmame for a certain amount of games, you can create the required video modes by adding them to ReslList.txt as a static mode table, and keep the general MAME modes as a magic mode table. Just a bit of work.