New D9200 and Quickres Utilities for ArcadeVGA

[AndyWarne]

On the download page www.ultimarc.com/download.html there are two new utilities:
Quickres. This replaces the "XP Resolution schemes" and is much neater. It gives a taskbar icon which allows selection of any of the ArcadeVGA modes. Just click on the Galaga ship!

D9200 Utility. This overrides the ArcadeVGA special modes for 640X480 and upwards, so Windows runs "normally" in these modes. This allows the D9200 to display a non-interlaced desktop at 31Khz.

Andy

[kspiff]

Galaga ship..?  I smell lawsuit..

[Frostillicus]

Andy I'm a little confused on the what your new utils could do for a D9200+ArcadeVGA combo.  I have a ton of questions since I'm pretty clueless about this - I'm getting  a D9200 soon....
The D9200 can do from 15Khz to 31Khz - normal desktop PC use would use 31KHz, right? (that would just be like plugging the monitor into any new system and working on it normally without advmame or powerstrip, etc.)

So your new utils allow it to display from 15 Khz up to 31Khz?
What about the modes in between, are those available?  
How would I actually use these lower resolutions? Do I just set the resolution and bit depth to AUTO in mame.ini and it picks the best one? Or specify it game-by-game?
Are the stretching issues people are having in daphne on an arcade monitor not applicable in this case - since it can run at 640x480?  

Sorry about all the questions - but like I said earlier - I'm confused and clueless!  Oh yeah - thanks a lot for the ps/2 pass-through component - installed and running!!  

[tom61]

So your new utils allow it to display from 15 Khz up to 31Khz?

15KHz for games, 31KHz for windows desktop.
 

How would I actually use these lower resolutions? Do I just set the resolution and bit depth to AUTO in mame.ini and it picks the best one? Or specify it game-by-game?

Best thing to do is use the ArcadeVGAres utility to set the resolutions for all games, as what mame chooses in 'auto' mode usually isn't the best.

Are the stretching issues people are having in daphne on an arcade monitor not applicable in this case - since it can run at 640x480?

From what I understand the problem occures with the ATI chip being in interlaced mode, since it's going to be progress on the D9200, this should go away.

[Frostillicus]

ArcadeVGAres utility? Is that the same util that andy posted at the top of the thread?

Does that util run in the background - can I use that with game launcher?  

And is it on a game-by game basis or is it automatic?

[AndyWarne]

The utility allows the Windows desktop to run non-interlaced on a D9200 so, as Tom says the ATI interlacing bug with YUV overlay (which affects Daphne) will go away.
The main advantage of the D9200 and this utility is that you can run the desktop and any PC games at a non-interlaced resolution. The D9200 and the utility have little effect for arcade games. There are  a few newer arcade games which run at 31Khz and so these will run better. The few games that originally had 25Khz monitors will still need hardware stretch as there is no corresponding mode available, but as you can run 640X480 non-interlaced, you have a good mode to use as a base for HW stretch.
If Namco have an issue with the Galaga icon I can and will change it!

[DeathMonk]

Best thing to do is use the ArcadeVGAres utility to set the resolutions for all games, as what mame chooses in 'auto' mode usually isn't the best.

I've found that mame picks the correct resoultion about 80% of the time..  It's a lot less of a hassle than manually selecting the resolution.

Are the stretching issues people are having in daphne on an arcade monitor not applicable in this case - since it can run at 640x480?

Daphne looks great now!

[tom61]

ArcadeVGAres utility? Is that the same util that andy posted at the top of the thread?

Does that util run in the background - can I use that with game launcher?  

And is it on a game-by game basis or is it automatic

I keep forgetting that not everyone here reads the utlimarc boards to... The arcadeVGAres utility is a separate utility than the one Andy was talking about in this thread. It creates .ini files for all the games in mame with the resolution that is probably best for that game. You just run it once and it assigns every game a resolution.

[Frostillicus]

ArcadeVGAres utility? Is that the same util that andy posted at the top of the thread?

Does that util run in the background - can I use that with game launcher?  

And is it on a game-by game basis or is it automatic

I keep forgetting that not everyone here reads the utlimarc boards to... The arcadeVGAres utility is a separate utility than the one Andy was talking about in this thread. It creates .ini files for all the games in mame with the resolution that is probably best for that game. You just run it once and it assigns every game a resolution.

OH, i see - so at this point, in your opinion, is it advantageous to purchase the arcadeVGA card if one also buys a D9200? I would like to get some original lower resolutions, yet still retain some good PC funcionality (and daphne). I don't want to use advmame(i have XP) and I assume that was the only other real way to get all the features of the d9200 with mame.  

[tom61]

OH, i see - so at this point, in your opinion, is it advantageous to purchase the arcadeVGA card if one also buys a D9200? I would like to get some original lower resolutions, yet still retain some good PC funcionality (and daphne). I don't want to use advmame(i have XP) and I assume that was the only other real way to get all the features of the d9200 with mame.  

If you want the most arcade accurate card, the ArcadeVGA is the only choice. You don't have mess with advancemame with it, and with the arcadeVGAres utility you hardly have to touch mame, you'll have to adjust the medium res games to 640x480 and turn on hardware stretching, but that's it.

I'd recommend the ArcadeVGA to anyone with a monitor that can take 15KHz.

[mwinter77]

So will this new arcadeVga setup allow one to use the 800x600 display mode of the 9200.  I use this for my custom front end currently and really can't easily change it.

[tom61]

So will this new arcadeVga setup allow one to use the 800x600 display mode of the 9200.  I use this for my custom front end currently and really can't easily change it.

Yes.

Any video card should let you use the D9200 at 800x600. The utility tells the ArcadeVGA to output 640x480 and higher resolutions at normal VGA sync rate.