CRT_emudriver - can't use lower resolutions?

[vrada501]

Once again, I'm very sorry to bother everyone another with novice question, but I've tried looking at other threads but I couldn't find a direct answer, or something that talks about
the same issue I'm having right now.

I've got my set up for CRT_Emudriver (2.0) going for the first time recently.
I spent a while configuring it so I can play arcades native style on Groovymame.
Despite the trouble I went through, I ended up having it working (I followed a tutorial on setting up an ATI 4000 series card with CRT_Emudriver 2.0 and Groovymame).
Using the Super resolutions installed with Groovymame to get the native pixels, the arcade games looked awesome.

After that, I moved on to getting CRT_Emudriver to work with console emulators,
this is where I'm having trouble. I thought Groovymame maybe had it's
own way of getting Native resolutions etc from arcade games using those super resolutions, but I felt
sure that all other emulators didn't work that way. So I
installed modelines from the normal user modelines which gave you lower resolutions
than 640x480 all the way down to 240x192. I thought with these I'd be able to get
emulators for SNES, NES, Sega Genesis etc to run at the native resolutions
of those systems, but when I select resolutions from 336x224 to 240x192
in windows it gives me gray static/noise.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GR-TqZjOnFQ&feature=youtu.be
In that video I try resolution 336x224 first then something like 240x244 and then the lowest 240x190.
I tried generating Modelines in both Generic 15khz monitor mode and NTSC 60hz mode with the same results.

While in 640x480 I tried Nestopia and in that emulator, and Nestopia's settings I selected Fullscreen in one of those resolutions and when I put Nestopia in Fullscreen, the same thing happened.
Despite the progress that I made with Groovymame and have this set up going, I'm still new to things.
I've never touched ArcadeOSD yet because I don't yet understand what it does exactly or how to use it, in case it may have something to do with that.
Or this probably is all just because I simply don't know how to run emulators besides Groovymame at hardware's native resolution like I could with Groovymame,
and just need to be guided on how. I just thought I could set Windows to the resolution those consoles run at, then open those specific emulators and they would running at their native resolutions.

My set up consist of a VGA to Scart cable that goes into a 50 doller YUV converter that goes into my NTSC Sony WEGA Triniton CRT TV.
I have a Scart cable for my SNES and it displays just fine when connected to my YUV converter and I think it looks like it's running in progressive so I don't think I can blame the converter.

I use emulators like Nestopia as stated, Higan, zsnes, Kega.

[vrada501]

Ok I've been working on this more today. Being desperate I tried out Retro Arch.
And in this moment I had Super Modelines installed. I downloaded the BSNES core, then
in the settings I just set the resolution to 256x224 and the refresh rate to 60.800,
and it displayed at a quality that looked to me like it was actually running at that native resolution (Especially in Super Mario World), I didn't even think it was just running interlace.
So there's a little progress.
I still would like to know how to get other emulators to do this in case there comes a time in the future I have to use another emulator outside of Retro Arch.

[buttersoft]

GroovyMAME, via switchres, creates it's own resolutions based on the paramters you've set. Otherwise you should be using ArcadeOSD until you know how that works, because sometimes using the windows desktop resolution tool won't work right. I don't think there are any other emulators that will set resolution for you... anyone?

In ArcadeOSD, where is the cutoff - i.e. what's the lowest resolution that works? 320 x 256? (If you get stuck in ArcadeOSD with no clear picture, just keep hitting ESC until you can see again.)

Are you using the Radeon mobility 4000 series in a laptop, or a desktop 4000 series card?

[Calamity]

It sounds like your card doesn't support low dotclocks (the 4250 is based on the HD 3400).

Just set the minimum dotclock to 8.0 in VMMaker and mame.ini.

[vrada501]

Thanks you for the replies.

Buttersoft - Like Calamity mentioned, I have a (Motherboard Intregrated) 4250.

In Arcade OSD, similar to Windows the lowest I could go that worked fine was 384x240p

Calamity - I tried out what you advised and set the minimum dotclock to 8.0 which was originally left at auto, so I'll be checking out these new resolutions it gave me.
For future reference, is there a list that says which cards support low dotclocks in CRT_Emudriver 2.0? I did once see one which I think for was for a earlier version of CRT-Emudriver,
wasn't sure if that makes any difference with the card requirements or not (Just because my cousin is trying to invest in this set up so I want to help him pick the right video card)

[Endprodukt]

Don't mean to hijack, but I have a similar problem.

I can't create modes with 240p. I've set the dotclock from auto to 8.0 but no change.

- Edit: Problem was connected to the pstar preset. It worked using the tri-sync preset.

[buttersoft]

Buttersoft - Like Calamity mentioned, I have a (Motherboard Intregrated) 4250.

Yeah, I wasn't sure, but that was the question I wanted you to answer first. I have a Mobility 4350 with the same issue. Never even heard of the 4250 TBQH, so I'm glad Calamity jumped in.

The list of affected cards is the same as it was for the earlier crt_emudriver version - it's the cards themselves that have the dotclock minimum, and i don't believe there's a way around that.

640x240p still looks exactly right though it's just that occasionally you have to get creative to make emulators other than GroovyMAME scale to it.