Games > 480i going split screen?

[robbbby]

It seems like any games that are 480 get split in half and I get some weird menu at the top with the game video on the bottom, but none of the joystick or button inputs do anything.  TMNT Arcade for example below.
Do I have some video setting setup improperly?

[Foxhole]

That's a "PlayChoice-10" game, it uses two screens, one for the menu and the other for the game. You could set it to show only one screen by going to video options and choosing the screen.
As for the controls, PlayChoice-10 uses the "-" key for selecting the game from the menu, look around the in game menu to see the controls that apply for these type of games.
BTW, i see that switchres chose 496i. It should have chosen 480i, since the two screens are 240p.
Do you not have a 480i resolution?

[robbbby]

Yes, all the playchoice10 games do this. 
I took your advice and loaded the game, hit tab in groovymame to go to the options, selected video options and chose either video0 or video1, not sure which.  Anyways, after doing that the screen went black.  Reload the game and it is still the same way.  Went into my groovymame folder and deleted the .cfg and nvram files for the game but when I load it up it is still the same.  What else would be telling GM to default to whatever setting are causing the all black screen.  My mame.xml has nothing in it regarding resolutions and I don't see anything in any of the VMM files.

With regards to the 480i vs 496i, i'm not sure what is going on there, I went into AOSD and 480i is definitely listed as a resolution so not sure why that isn't being selected.

[Foxhole]

Yes, all the playchoice10 games do this. 
I took your advice and loaded the game, hit tab in groovymame to go to the options, selected video options and chose either video0 or video1, not sure which.  Anyways, after doing that the screen went black.  Reload the game and it is still the same way.  Went into my groovymame folder and deleted the .cfg and nvram files for the game but when I load it up it is still the same.  What else would be telling GM to default to whatever setting are causing the all black screen.  My mame.xml has nothing in it regarding resolutions and I don't see anything in any of the VMM files.

With regards to the 480i vs 496i, i'm not sure what is going on there, I went into AOSD and 480i is definitely listed as a resolution so not sure why that isn't being selected.

Ok, so i tried the same game and it chooses 512i resolution for some reason instead of 480i, weird. Maybe when it is set to two screens, it is using vertical orientation? I'm not sure about this. Choosing one of the screens works just fine for me, though i had one time where it stayed black because i didn't press "-", might wanna try that.
Deleting the cfg should have suffice.

[robbbby]

I'll give that a shot.  Weird that it is choosing 496 for me and 512 for you.  Is 496 not one of your resolutions?

[Foxhole]

I'll give that a shot.  Weird that it is choosing 496 for me and 512 for you.  Is 496 not one of your resolutions?

Nope. 480i and then 512i.

[robbbby]

No luck.  Still black screen.  I see it up until the point it says loading and then it goes black.  I'm guessing it shows the switchres window after that because if I don't touch anything there is no sound, the minute I touch a key sound starts.  Pressing - does nothing and i've deleted the .cfg and nvram folder but it just recreates them after trying to start it again.

[Foxhole]

Basically it turns black when it changes the resolution, if i understand correctly. Could you try direct draw instead of d3d?

[robbbby]

Yes pretty much, resolution switches and it goes black.  Just did the same thing on punch out

Really stupid question, do I have to enable ddraw globally in my mame.ini or can I somehow switch to it on a game by game basis?

[Calamity]

That's how those games are. One screen has a menu, the other is where the action is, but it's black until the game starts. It's been long since I tried them, but there's some key you need to press...

[Foxhole]

Calamity, he is saying that the entire screen is black. When it gets to the switchres information it goes black.

[robbbby]

Also, when the screen goes black, pressing tab doesn't bring up the mame menu, at least not one that is visible. I'm also not getting the switchres info.

[Foxhole]

you're using crt emudriver 2.0b?

[Calamity]

Try GM 0.169. There might be issues with baseline 0.170 from what I read.

[robbbby]

you're using crt emudriver 2.0b?

Correct.

Calamity, i'll try rolling back.

Is there any other place video settings are stored? Not sure why mame is defaulting to the single video mode instead of the original split screen even after I deleted the .cfg file for the game.

[robbbby]

Can I "patch" backwards using
1) hi_1690.diff
2) 0169_groovymame_015l.diff

Or is it best to just install 1.69 and replace the mame64.exe?

[Foxhole]

Just replace the mame64.exe.

[Sledge]

Is there a reason why you must use the playchoice version?

[robbbby]

Is there a reason why you must use the playchoice version?

No there isn't, and to be honest I never thought otherwise.  I guess it is pretty stupid of me to assume that all these games were only available as playchoice 10's.  I guess I will have to go through my roms and see if another version is available.  Thanks for the heads up.

[Foxhole]

Playchoice games are basically nes games.
More importantly, try running outrunners, it also uses split screen, and that is a game worth playing.

[robbbby]

So it looks like i'm still having problems with all 480 games, not just the playchoice.  I've tried a large handful of 480 games and all of them load but only show a black screen.  I can always hear the audio, sometimes it sound normal sometimes it sounds really sped up.

[Calamity]

Hi robbby,

Please create a log, that's the only way to troubleshoot things:

groovymame.exe game -v >game.txt

[robbbby]

I will do that tomorrow.  They all do the same thing, so it must be a problem on my end.  I launch them, and all of them display some coloured bars on the left side of the screen for a split second.

[robbbby]

Had a chance to pull some logs, wish I understood what was happening, looked them over but it is all foreign to me.

I could only remember 3 games that try to run at 640x480, though pretty much any other game i've come across at that resolution does the exact same thing as these three.

I also went back to GM 0.169 but the results were the same.

[Calamity]

I'd say the problem is not with the 640x480 resolution but with games that switch resolutions and multithreading. First I'd try to just disable multithreading. This will probably fix it.

If it doesn't fix it, try forcing a fixed resolution, like this:

groovymame.exe soulcal -resolution 2560x480

Finally, if this doesn't work, open 2560x480 in Arcade OSD. If you get a black screen there, it'd be due to a bad dotclock. I really really wish this is not the case.

[robbbby]

multithreading 0 did it!  Thanks again calamity.

[brad808]

Hmm I wonder if multi threading is the issue causing black screen on a couple of my games as well. I'll have to try when I get home. Same type of symptoms though, most games load fine, others load up black and mame menu etc won't work.

[robbbby]

Hmm I wonder if multi threading is the issue causing black screen on a couple of my games as well. I'll have to try when I get home. Same type of symptoms though, most games load fine, others load up black and mame menu etc won't work.

Exactly what was happening to me...  black screen, tab did nothing and usually messed up audio.  Definitely give it a try.

[brad808]

So I just tried it but multi threading was already disabled. Enabling it made it do the same thing but as soon as i open up groovymame. Normally it would just be on certain games. Hmm I'll have to do more digging.

[brad808]

Figured mine out, it was frame delay causing the issue. With it at 1 certain games blank screen and fail to load. At 0 they load.