ArcadeVGA only works on arcade monitors, not PC VGA monitors?

[MartyNg]

I couldn't find a clear answer to this. With an ArcadeVGA card, can I ONLY use an arcade monitor? If so, that means I'm stuck to the low resolution to do all my configuration on, right? To actually use a PC VGA monitor, I would have to install another video card? (When I use powerstrip to kick my signal down to 15KHz, my PC VGA monitor turns off right away. Is this a limitation to my monitor, or to the ArcadeVGA? Thanks!

[Harry Potter]

It's a limitation of your PC monitor. Nothing you can do about that.

There is a utility to force the ArcadeVGA to 31Khz in 640 x 480 and 800 x 600, so you could display that on a PC monitor.

I think it's on the Ultimar site. If unsure, ask Andy over here (or there) and he'll help you.

[MartyNg]

Cool. Maybe I'll go ahead and order that.

There's literally NO resolution configuration that needs to be done for MAME with an ArcadeVGA, correct?

[wpcmame]

There's literally NO resolution configuration that needs to be done for MAME with an ArcadeVGA, correct?

There are ~300 different game resolutions in MAME and the AVGA got ~20. MAME is not very good at picking resolutions when there isn't an exact match. You need a tool like minwah's resolution tool which will create the requierd inifiles for you.

[miles2912]

Cool. Maybe I'll go ahead and order that.

There's literally NO resolution configuration that needs to be done for MAME with an ArcadeVGA, correct?

No you need to adjust the resolutions just like you would with a normal vga card and multi-sync monitor.  The arcade vga card just lets you do more authentic resolutions.  Personally I am fine with a normal vga card but to each his own.

D-

[MartyNg]

Cool. Maybe I'll go ahead and order that.

There's literally NO resolution configuration that needs to be done for MAME with an ArcadeVGA, correct?

No you need to adjust the resolutions just like you would with a normal vga card and multi-sync monitor.  The arcade vga card just lets you do more authentic resolutions.  Personally I am fine with a normal vga card but to each his own.

D-

I didn't realize you still had to configure everything. Maybe I don't need one after all. I'm just having resolution problems with my standard VGA card.   http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=56236.0

[Kevin Mullins]

This is my understanding and I think this explanation may help.

Your current regular VGA video card "may or "may not" be able to support the standard arcade monitor resolutions by using just Mamewah or Powerstrip or anything to that effect.

Your current PC monitor most likely cannot support the lower arcade resolution signals.

So unless you have one of them 25" multi-sync monitors (15, 24, 31khz) then you have to choose one or the other.
PC monitor with vga card or arcade monitor with an ArcadeVGA.

The fact is you are ouputing to a 15.1khz monitor......your 25".
(I'm assuming it's not medium res)
VGA monitors are 31khz.

An ArcadeVGA card is made to output the proper 15.1khz signal for a standard arcade monitor. Which will get you much closer to the authentic resolutions to start with and can then be tweeked a bit to suit most games natural resolution.

I hope I'm at least remotely close to describing this correctly.

[Harry Potter]

You're a real wordsmith Kevin. 

That's about right.

[MartyNg]

Thanks for your help guys! This is making more sense with each post. 

My last step is figuring out my resolution problem (linked thread above), and then I can decide if I need to buy the ArcadeVGA or not.

[Kevin Mullins]

Sounds like your GeForse3 video just can't quite get down to the proper lower resolutions. Close, but not quite. Mamewah is forcing it down, but the video card can't produce it correctly.
Unless someone that is actually using that same video card can tell you any better, I'd go with the ArcadeVGA and start there. Same physical setup, just different video card.

I snipped this straight from the Ultimarc site which might help you decide:

The J-PAC and the ArcadeVGA card (http://www.ultimarc.com/avgainf.html) make perfect partners and give the easiest possible solution for driving a JAMMA cabinet with a 15Khz monitor. The ArcadeVGA card plugs into the PC and simply plugs into the J-PAC via the VGA cable. Then plug into the cabinet harness and you should get a perfect picture right from boot-up with no worries about configuring the VGA card to send 15Khz.

I've only run MAME on a pc monitor - X-Arcade - Mame32.... no frills there.
(yes... I'm an old school-er and I wear Asteroids t-shirts)

[MartyNg]

Sounds like your GeForse3 video just can't quite get down to the proper lower resolutions. Close, but not quite. Mamewah is forcing it down, but the video card can't produce it correctly.
Unless someone that is actually using that same video card can tell you any better, I'd go with the ArcadeVGA and start there. Same physical setup, just different video card.

Unless I dreamt it, in one iteration of my uninstall/reinstalls of MAME/MAMEWAH/Powerstrip, I thought I had the games that are now way off the screen working okay. Perhaps I should try that a few more times and see what happens. Then I'll grab the ArcadeVGA. Thanks.

[MartyNg]

Looks like this is now possible with the new ArcadeVGA! Yay!

http://www.ultimarc.com//avgainf.html

[Harry Potter]

Damn. Looks like I bought mine about 2 years too ealry. 

[savj14]

So let me get this straight, you can run MAME with a PC monitor on a computer and get the same results as an Arcade Monitor using this new card???

Does this mean instead of stretching the image in MAME the card will stretch it, except when it fills the entire screen it will look just as good as the real arcade?

The PC monitor will run the arcade games native resoltion then???
Does this mean there will be black space along the sides and top because the size may not be 640x480?

This is just a little confusing. All I know is I have been searching for what monitor I want in my Cab, and a true arcade monitor was the last resort for me. I thought about using a TV with a scan convertor. PC monitors look all right but there kinda choppy. I didnt wanna go with the arcade monitor route, but it is the most athentic. I want to know that if I buy this Card I will be able to get pretty much a perfect full screen monitor a PC monitor. Or at least very close to what I would get from a true Arcade monitor.

Also what is the price for this card?? When will it be available.........I want one right now if its the solution I have been looking for

Any Input??

[wpcmame]

Let me clear som things up:

1. MAMEWah doesn't do anything when it comes to creating resolutions. MAMEwah/MAME will only use the resolutions window says are available.

To make 15KHz resolutions available to windows you need a tool like powerstrip or an AVGA card.

2. How authentic the game looks on the monitor depends on a lot of factors but the main thing is the monitor tube. If you have an arcade monitor the games will look authentic reagrdless of the frequency you run the monitor at (15KHz, 31KHz etc). PC monitirs are sharper so the game will look sharper (more distinct pixles) regardless of if they can handle 15KHz or not.

3. Second most important factor is scaling/stretching.
To have a game look good on an arcade monitor you need to use integer stretching and no filtering (-video ddraw -nohws in mame).  Since monitors are analog devices they don't care about the horizontal resolution. There is no difference in using 640 or 320 pixels horizontally for a 320 pixel game.
Vertical stretching is more tricky. Normally arcade games are displayed with a small black line between the pixels (AKA the scanline effect). If you use a 15KHz (non-interlaced) mode you get these black lines for free but you can get exactly the same effect at 31KHz by just letting mame output every second line as black.

Now to your questions:

So let me get this straight, you can run MAME with a PC monitor on a computer and get the same results as an Arcade Monitor using this new card???

No, the game will look the same as if you run it on a normal PC monitor with scanlines enabled. The benefit with AVGA on PC monitor are the same as with arcade monitors, i.e. built in arcade resolutions so you don't need to use Powerstrip to add them. (adding new resolutions for a PC monitor with powerstrip is very simple)

Does this mean instead of stretching the image in MAME the card will stretch it,

No, the whole idea with an AVGA card is to avoid stretching.

except when it fills the entire screen it will look just as good as the real arcade?

If a game fills the entire screen or not is a completly different issue.

The PC monitor will run the arcade games native resoltion then???

Once again: monitors are analog devices and don't care about pixels.

Does this mean there will be black space along the sides and top because the size may not be 640x480?

No, the AVGA resolutions fills the entire monitor. If the game uses the entire resolution is another matter. e.g. 224 line games will have black borders since the resolutions are 240 pixels.

[AndyWarne]

Couple of points here.
In the above, you are assuming that Powerstrip is being used.
A couple of points about this: Powerstrip is fairly easy to configure to get, say, a resolution of 640 X 480 interlaced on a 15K monitor. What is more difficult, or impossible on most cards, is to get, for example 256 X 240 and those low resolutions.
Furthermore I believe that Powerstrip cannot be used to define arcade resolutions on a PC monitor. I know for a fact that it can't on ATI cards and believe that it can't on any card. So although most of your points are theoretically correct, in practice things are a bit more tricky.
Andy

[savj14]

I appreciate the input, but some of this is a little over my head.

The basic questions I have are that with the ArcadeVGA Version 2 video card, will I be able to install this right out of the box and use my PC Monitor?? And will it allow me to play the games at 15 or 30 mhz and get native arcade resolution??

I just want to know that this card will give me a close match to what an Arcade monitor would give me using a PC Monitor. Will the PC monitor still be too good and look blocky, even when using this new video card?? Or at least make a more authentic look for the games when using a PC Monitor.

[wpcmame]

Couple of points here.
In the above, you are assuming that Powerstrip is being used.

Not assuming anything. If you want windows programs like MAME or MAMEWah to use non-standard resolutions, these resolutions must be added to windows. There are at least two ways to do this: Use an AVGA card which automaticly adds them or use a tool like powerstrip to do it manually. (Remember that powerstrip is just a tool to get the correct figures into the registry. Once the resolutions are added to windows you don't need powerstrip anymore).

A couple of points about this: Powerstrip is fairly easy to configure to get, say, a resolution of 640 X 480 interlaced on a 15K monitor. What is more difficult, or impossible on most cards, is to get, for example 256 X 240 and those low resolutions.

Never said it was easy to create 15KHz resolutions. It can be as easy as copy/paste from a working powerstrip.ini file but in many cases its not.
It all depends on the graphic card and the windows driver. (some drivers doesn't support custom resolutions at all)

What I said is that it is easy to create 31KHz resolutions since more drivers support it. There is even a tool inside powerstrip that allows you to resize the resolution with the mouse and then add it to windows when you are done.

Furthermore I believe that Powerstrip cannot be used to define arcade resolutions on a PC monitor. I know for a fact that it can't on ATI cards and believe that it can't on any card. So although most of your points are theoretically correct, in practice things are a bit more tricky.

You are correct that you can't create 256x240x60Hz mode at 31KHz but 256x240x120Hz, 256x480x60Hz or 512x480x60Hz works fine.
(I assume the new AVGA card internally converts the 256x240x60Hz to one of the above)