ArcadeVGA @ 640x480 w/ Black Bars??

[zmartin34]

I am running into a prob with ArcadeVGA w/ D9200 and the 640x480 res. This is the res that I run my desktop at so I've got it tweaked and it fits perfectly.

However, for instance w/ Carnevil; its a native 640x480 game and yet when running in mame at 640x480 res I get large black bars on the left and right. So large that I cannot stretch using the h-size on the TV to fill the screen. This happens to other native 640x480 games as well like Tekken, Tekken 2, Strider 2, etc. On these I get large bars at the top and bottom that i cannot stretch out either.

Seems to me these games should fill the screen nicely with no adjustment at all right? I wouldn't assume I should need hardware stretch... Can someone tell me what I'm missing here 

[GaryMcT]

Did the original game not use the whole frame buffer?  I get the same behavior, but if I hit F2 to get to the test menu, it does fill the whole monitor.  It may be that the didn't have enough memory for the frame buffer to be 640x480, or didn't have the graphics performance for it to be that high, and used a smaller frame buffer.  I'd guess that the arcade game is adjusted so that the black bars are offscreen and that you are actually seeing something narrower than 640-wide on the monitor.

[GaryMcT]

Did Tekken run on PS1 hardware?  If so, this might be the bug with Mame not being able to switch resolutions on that hardware that cabmame fixes.  I'm just about to patch with the cabmame patches, so I'll let you know if that fixes it.

[GaryMcT]

I haven't patched yet, but the fact that I get multiple ddraw surface creates makes me thing that Tekken is changing resolutions and would be fixed by cabmame.  I'll let you know what happens.  I think Tekken actually runs at 512x240 or maybe even 256x240.

[GaryMcT]

Ran into a problem patching. . seems like I have a conflicting high score patch already.  Going to start with a fresh mame132, patch to 132u1, and then try to apply the cabmame patch.  I'm headed out for a bit, so I may not finish with that tonight.  I'll let you know when I get it all working.

[ahofle]

When the game is running with the black bars, bring up your D9200 on screen display and report what it says.  Should say something like 31khz if it's running at 640x480.

[GaryMcT]

Cabmame fixes the problem!  The problem that you are seeing is that the game switches resolution in the middle.  Mame only supports that if you are stretching and doesn't actually change resolution, but just resamples from the new resolution to your current resolution.  Cabmame fixes this by actually changing the resolution when the game wants it to change.

Seems like the Mame team would want that part of the cabmame patch since it more accurately represents what the hardware wants to do.  Anyways, I can give you a 32-bit binary of Mame 132u1 withe cabmame patches if you'd like.  For myself, I'm likely to also do the nonag patches on top of that for my Mame machine.  The 32-bit binaries should work just find on a 64-bit machine.  I can look into compiling them for 64-bit if that's useful as well.

Let me know,
Gary

[GaryMcT]

Here's a 32-bit mame.exe built from:

1) mame132 sources
2) patched to mame132u1
3) patched with cabmame129 diffs.
4) patched with the no nag/white box removal diffs only (no hiscore diffs) from this thread from MKChamp.  I can put the patch file up there for this part if MKChamp is interested:

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=64298.0

Here's a zip file with a ridiculously long and descriptive file name.    It only has mame.exe in it. . I think that's all you need, but I'm too tired to test it more.  If this doesn't work, let me know.  If this fixes the problem for you, I can look into doing a 64-bit compile:

http://home.comcast.net/~g.mctaggart/mame132u1sourcewithcabmame129andnonag.zip

[zmartin34]

Gary thanks a million! Prob is you are so far beyond me in terms of understanding this stuff; I laughed through your first 2 posts in this thread and cried through the rest lol!

Luckily I'm thoroughly enjoying this project so I'm very interested in learning what I have to.

OK, so the reason I am using Vista 64 is because rumor has it that mame64 runs like 30% faster on this system. I am running a 3.5 pentium wolfdale w/ 4 gig mem.

I'd be more than happy to use the 32-bit you provided but won't I be giving up a lot of potential performance compated to a 64-bit?

As suggested though, I will d/l from your link and try it out. I'll report back either way and thanks!

Glad to hear that cabmame fixes this!

[GaryMcT]

Gary thanks a million! Prob is you are so far beyond me in terms of understanding this stuff; I laughed through your first 2 posts in this thread and cried through the rest lol!

Luckily I'm thoroughly enjoying this project so I'm very interested in learning what I have to.

OK, so the reason I am using Vista 64 is because rumor has it that mame64 runs like 30% faster on this system. I am running a 3.5 pentium wolfdale w/ 4 gig mem.

I'd be more than happy to use the 32-bit you provided but won't I be giving up a lot of potential performance compated to a 64-bit?

As suggested though, I will d/l from your link and try it out. I'll report back either way and thanks!

Glad to hear that cabmame fixes this!

If this works fine for you I'll compile a 64-bit version for you.

[zmartin34]

I've compiled a .132 x64 w/ cabmame hacks. It works great for sync issues.

In terms of resolution issues not so much (atleast with the little bit I've messed with it). It def changes resolutions more often then .132 official but without stretch on, 640x480 games still appear with large black bars top and bottom.

Note sure...

[GaryMcT]

What's a good test game that you are seeing this with?  Is it only games that try to change resolution during gameplay?  Give ma a game to try and I'll see if I can figure it out.

[zmartin34]

What's a good test game that you are seeing this with?  Is it only games that try to change resolution during gameplay?  Give ma a game to try and I'll see if I can figure it out.

I'll test it out and post up some examples ASAP.

[zmartin34]

Tekken, Tekken 2 and Carnevil to name a few. They are all listed as 640x480 at the game info screens. Prob is they don't come close to filling the screen.

[GaryMcT]

Tekken, Tekken 2 and Carnevil to name a few. They are all listed as 640x480 at the game info screens. Prob is they don't come close to filling the screen.

Do you have the changeres functionality turned on?  I had Tekken working just fine with cabmame on my laptop before it got into a bad state. It may be a few weeks before I get an arcadeVGA for my new machine, and the card in my new machine doesn't do lowres. Tekken doesn't actually run at 640x480 once the game is going, so if it isn't switching modes that is your problem.

[zmartin34]

I follow you. Well that's what I was getting at earlier. I used the res tool for arcadevga to set a res for every single game within the game specific .ini. The res tool set Tekken for instance at 640x480. So, yes, I do have change res on and the thing changes res a few times during boot up when I launch Tekken. Regardless though, wouldn't mame be forced (due to the ini) to run the game at 640x480?

Also, where can I find the 'real' res of the games if the ones listed on the game info screen are incorrect (ie. Tekken at start up says its 640x480 but your saying it actually is not)?

[GaryMcT]

I would delete all the game-speceific ini files related to resolution and let cabmame figure out what resolution to run at. Use the resolution tool only to fix problem cases.  That way cabmame can switch to the resolution that is closest to what the game actually wants.

[zmartin34]

I would delete all the game-speceific ini files related to resolution and let cabmame figure out what resolution to run at. Use the resolution tool only to fix problem cases.  That way cabmame can switch to the resolution that is closest to what the game actually wants.

Does cabmame implement better res assignments then standard mame? I'm asking because the official mame release does a crummy job at assigning resolutions which is why the two mame tools were developed.

Either way, it will only take a few minutes to try! Thanks and I'll report back soon.

[GaryMcT]

I would delete all the game-speceific ini files related to resolution and let cabmame figure out what resolution to run at. Use the resolution tool only to fix problem cases.  That way cabmame can switch to the resolution that is closest to what the game actually wants.

Does cabmame implement better res assignments then standard mame? I'm asking because the official mame release does a crummy job at assigning resolutions which is why the two mame tools were developed.

Either way, it will only take a few minutes to try! Thanks and I'll report back soon.

I believe there are some tweaks in there to get the resolutions closer. . not sure.