Emulator issues vs MESS and crt_emudriver, (unable to set video mode)

[buttersoft]

I'm adding a few emulators to my cab, specifically genesis and SNES. MAME/MESS is good for genesis, but won't load SegaCD games at all, is that right? I've tried Gens and Fusion, and both of these say they're "...unable to set a video mode" for fullscreen - I presume because at 1:1 settings it's something I don't have in the list like 256x240? 256x224? In the menus I'm selecting a fullscreen video mode of 320x240@60Hz 32bpp though...?

MESS (GroovyMAME .180) tells me that its SNES emulation is buggy, and I found it choppy on my laptop of roughly the same CPU power. (How can this be, am I doing something wrong? Bios too old? Surely it hasn't changed...) So I'm using SNES9X. At first I was getting the same error, "...unable to set video mode" with all the options - DirectDraw, D3D, OpenGL. I ticked and unticked the boxes, and resolutions, then restored to default, and now it's working fullscreen in 320x240@60 32bpp - though it produces some interlaced artifacting along the very bottom of the picture, like one pixel high. And there's some very slight vertical scaling/mismatching, I believe.

(Besides which, I'm using patched roms for translation, etc on both systems. Thus Switchres/MAME can't know what video modes to use anyway, and is probably setting the default mode for the system in those cases? Is that going to produce issues horizontally at all, if it's using a super resolution, or only vertically, say if the system goes into highres?)

If anyone knows a workaround for the above issues I'm all ears, otherwise...

Is the "...unable to set video mode" error fixable?

Is there a way to use switchres with other emulators? I see hints in the sticky, but nothing concrete. (I'm on W7, if that helps)

Is there a way to generate modelines below 240p? IIRC there isn't. The original SNES must have relied on overscan?

[Dacasks]

You know, even using a Groovymame setup for more than a year already, I share much of your doubts as well.

I really wished I could use other emus without screen tearing (specially Mednafen) and/or switchres correctly, but I guess would take different builds that took advantage of Crtemudriver.

So I'm basically settled with Groovymame for arcade gaming and some console gaming as well. Sega Cd Works good as far as I know (I do remember playing some Earthworm Jim on it, and it was really good from what I recall). If using Snes on Asio 0.171, let the CPU clock at 110% since it get rid of some slowdowns that doesn't happen on real hardware, as well as making some games playable, like Taekwondo and the Mega Shot on R-Type 3 Works correctly at this speed as well. It's something that I noticed on 0.180 that apparently got fixed by default.

[Recapnation]

For SFC, use Retro Arch's BSNES cores:

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,149052.0.html

D3D works for proper GUI display, though I'm quite sure it adds latency against other APIs, so keep it mind.

For PCE, Ootake is fine. For 32-bit systems onwards, think about getting the original hardware.

Mednafen can be used with Retro Arch, too.

[buttersoft]

TBH I tested MESS last night on the cab, and it works pretty well. I might stick with that, for obvious reasons

Thanks for the link though. SNES9X has a DDraw option,and Fusions in on the list, so the wrapper might help.

I'm actually using Magicengine for PCE, which can switch resolution just fine.

[Recapnation]

What I gave you are the best emulators for both, accuracy and latency currently. ME and SNES9X are way too unreliable.

[Dacasks]

For SFC, use Retro Arch's BSNES cores:

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,149052.0.html

D3D works for proper GUI display, though I'm quite sure it adds latency against other APIs, so keep it mind.

For PCE, Ootake is fine. For 32-bit systems onwards, think about getting the original hardware.

Mednafen can be used with Retro Arch, too.

Just tried Retroarch and regular Mednafen. Retroarch still runs at 30fps (interlaced, doesn't work with super resolutions). Mednafen works just like any other software, with screen tearing, etc... Am I missing something?

[R-Typer]

EDIT: OK, sorry I thought you were talking about psx emulation in retroarch.

[Recapnation]

Just tried Retroarch and regular Mednafen. Retroarch still runs at 30fps (interlaced, doesn't work with super resolutions). Mednafen works just like any other software, with screen tearing, etc... Am I missing something?

RA works with super wide resolutions similarly to GM -- there's not really much to it aside of defining the aspect ratio. But you don't need a super wide resolution to start using it without visual artifacts. Find a tutorial for basic and per-core configuration.

This may help too:

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,149052.msg1586903.html#msg1586903

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,149052.msg1596693.html#msg1596693

[Dacasks]

EDIT: OK, sorry I thought you were talking about psx emulation in retroarch.

Well, at least in my case I do want to know how to setup it properly to run at 60 fps (right now it works only at 30 fps)

Just tried Retroarch and regular Mednafen. Retroarch still runs at 30fps (interlaced, doesn't work with super resolutions). Mednafen works just like any other software, with screen tearing, etc... Am I missing something?

RA works with super wide resolutions similarly to GM -- there's not really much to it aside of defining the aspect ratio. But you don't need a super wide resolution to start using it without visual artifacts. Find a tutorial for basic and per-core configuration.

This may help too:

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,149052.msg1586903.html#msg1586903

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,149052.msg1596693.html#msg1596693

Hmmmmmm, how do I setup custom resolutions to different cores/machines? Cant find how

[Recapnation]

With corename.cfg files placed into a subfolder named "corename" which goes into the config folder, where "corename" follows strictly this nomenclature: https://wiki.libretro.com/index.php?title=Main_Page#Core_Software_Library

And gamename.cfg in corename folders are also valid.

Really -- look for an on-line guide. RA is so popular I'm sure you'll find many for this basic stuff.

[Dacasks]

Had the opportunity of trying out RA this XMAS...

With vsync on the lag is unbearable. With off, the fps goes crazy. Tried to mess around with frame_delay options, but it's inconsistent

Also, even setting the native resolution of the machine in question, it would give scrolling issues of some sort.

I guess my direct question would be... if it's possible to use RA (or emulators overall) with good results just like Groovymame (native resolution working well, no scrolling issues, minimal input lag, etc...), because so far from what I saw... it's not

The PS1 driver on mess has so much potential I just can't believe it, it's just like running on the real machine when it's right but... I guess they're not working on it anymore.