ArcadeVGA Madness!

[Finchbyrd]

Hello all. I use the ArcadeVGA with J-Pac, while I'm still trying to get my J-Pac to function with my control panel, I have an ArcadeVGA issue I need help with. I went into the mame ini to adjust the settings as requested on the ultimarc site:
#
# VIDEO OPTIONS
#
video ddraw
numscreens 1
window 0
maximize 1
keepaspect 1
prescale 1
effect none
pause_brightness 0.65
waitvsync 0
syncrefresh 0

#
# DIRECTDRAW-SPECIFIC OPTIONS
#
hwstretch 0

#
# FULL SCREEN OPTIONS
#
triplebuffer 0
switchres 1

I've found that if I change the video to ddraw and hwstretch 0, Mortal Kombat stretches vertically and leaves the sides with black bars. Not only that, but the mame standard menu flickers hard(interlaced?). I haven't tried any other Roms because I'm not done with everything and I'm testing with a game I know I'll be playing for ages. If I use d3d with its default settings, it fills the screen and looks fine. Why would this be happening? Also, if I use ddraw and activate hwstretch with a 1, it seems to fix all the issues, but why would ultimarc say to disable hwstretch? I just want the ArcadeVGA to be doing it's job correctly and I'm afraid if I tinker too much it'll take away from what the ArcadeVGA is supposed to do for the proper look.

[DeLuSioNal29]

You need to adjust the mk.ini file.  Of all the games you tried, MK is one of those that has a weird resolution that is not supported natively by windows.  However, there are resolutions that work.  I believe 401 x 256 works perfectly.  Have you run any of the auto resolution tools mentioned here?  http://wiki.arcadecontrols.com/wiki/Utilities

"Mame resolution tool" is a good one to use.  Just choose your monitor type and bam it creates all of the ini's automatically.

In the meantime, I would try another game.  The MK and Street Fighter series use funky resolutions natively.  MAME is just choosing the wrong one.

Good Luck.

DeLuSioNaL

[Finchbyrd]

You're right, and those are two I'm using to check if my system is functioning properly haha. I used AVres and I believe it set it as 401x256, but it looked like I was playing a vector game, it was stretched vertically hard, and I went in and edited all the mk ini's to try and run mk's native res and it didn't affect it, the only way it fills the screen is with hwstretch 1. I don't know why, but mk2 looks fine, and sfa3 looks ok, but mk1 wrecks.

[DeLuSioNal29]

Hmm, try 448 x 240.  That should also work.

D

[Ummon]

Ahem....first off, what monitor are you using/what are it's specs? And what resolution is the desktop at?


Next:

Also, if I use ddraw and activate hwstretch with a 1, it seems to fix all the issues, but why would ultimarc say to disable hwstretch?

Monitor wiki - native resolution display

[Finchbyrd]

True story, I didn't know I had to tell Mame where to find the ini files, so I went into the mame.ini and told it where they were, fixed for now.

[Ummon]

True story, I didn't know I had to tell Mame where to find the ini files, so I went into the mame.ini and told it where they were, fixed for now.

You don't, unless you did something in installation that put either mame.exe or the ini folder in different directories.

[Finchbyrd]

When I compiled mame the only folders were cfg, obj, and rom, maybe another or two. I had to make the others. I looked in the mame.ini to know the others id needed to add, and by ini it said .;ini or something and it wouldn't find the folder, or if it did it wasn't using the resolutions the autores program placed in there until I changed the mame.ini to just say the ini folder was, ini.

[Ummon]

HM. Probly something in the compiling scheme. Normally, when I unzip MAME (much more oftenly MAMEUI), it makes all the necessary folders.

[Finchbyrd]

Yeah that's what I used to do. I started compiling recently, and it assumes I know more than I do. I just looked in my old mame32 install and made the folders I needed, then made sure the mame.ini knew where everthing was. The ini folder was giving me problems, but its all better now.

[Avinitlarge]

I had loads of problems when I used the settings from the ultimarc site. In the end I just deleted the ini file.