d9800 need arcade vga?

[peterson65]

i just purchased a wells gardner d9800 for my cabinet to replace my arcade monitor and  i also replaced a slower p4 with a core 2 machine, the old computer  used the arcade vga agp the new had pci-e so i sold the avga. do i need an avga card? i have been using soft 15khz and everything looks awsome on the d9800 but i dont want to scew up anything from long use if the video isnt correct for it. 

[DillonFoulds]

You'll be fine with just Soft-15KHz, if it's compatible with your video card. I researched the crap out of this myself, and couldn't find any cases of damaged monitors due to prolonged usage of soft-15KHz.

[ahofle]

If you already have it working, there is no reason to get an ArcadeVGA.  The main benefit to the ArcadeVGA is its simplicity to use (and the fact that it filters out > 15khz resolutions, which is not applicable to your D9800).  WIth Soft15khz, you have to find the right card, get the correct version of your video drivers, and hope that all the resolutions are there.  It sounds like you've already gotten that far though.

[peterson65]

thanks for the info guys, it looks good and everything seems to work so i am not going to change anything.

[kjbalto]

I also just bought the 9800 monitor.  I was under the impression that you could run it as is out of the box?  I thought the monitor syncs itself to what's needed.  I couldn't get my arcadevga card to work properly, so I was just going to run the monitor on it's own. The graphics look good for the games, just crappy on the mame menu. I haven't setup a front end yet.  Am I wrong to think that the 9800 can run on it's own and adjust itself?

[ahofle]

If by "on its own" you mean running it at 640x480 or 800x600, then yes it will work.  But you are totally wasting the potential of that monitor by running everything at that resolution. 

[DillonFoulds]

What do you have your output set to? I believe the d9800 is a multisync (tri-sync?) monitor, and can handle some of the higher (from an arcade POV) resolutions. If that's the case, you may be fine outputting at 640x480, 800x600, and possibly even up to 1280x768 (the highest xga resolution).

What resolution do you have your desktop set to, and what resolution is your mame menu running at? Can you clearly read your desktop fonts?

Edit: ahofle beat me to the punch! Jerk!

[kjbalto]

My display is set to 800X600 on my pc.  I have to check my mame settings. I'm new to all of this, so I'm still learning.  I'll check when I get home. The games look good, but to answer your question about reading the fonts, no I can barely make out the names of the games in the mame list. They look horrible.  I figured that was normal and that installing a front end would fix that issue.  But obviously it's not normal and I'm doing something wrong.  My arcadevga card is not working for me, so should I try the soft15khz method?  i'm able to install the drivers for my arcadevga card, but after a reboot, the drivers don't load and in the device manager is shows up with yellow exclamation marks. It says the device failed to start.  I've tried this on two of those cards and neither work. From reading on this forum, it seems these kids don't work for a lot of people.  I'm using a Dell P4 machine.

[DillonFoulds]

I wouldn't quite say that...

My understanding with mame'ing any pc, would be to see if the video cards you have currently will work with Soft15KHz, as this will leave you a more multipurpose card.
Plan B would be the ArcadeVGA route, as the card is a modified radeon 9x00 card (I think a 9500, don't recall offhand). The reason i say this is plan b is that the cards aren't exactly that robust for newer games.

Alternatively, if you've got the money to burn, and want to be able to actually see your bios on your monitor, buy an ArcadeVGA, or in your case, a monitor with higher resolution support.

Also, maybe trying bumping your desktop resolution down to 640x480, and take a look at the fonts then.

As for your current ArcadeVGA, what's the slot type? AGP or PCI-e?
Also, what OS are you running on? XP? Vista? 7? 98se? dos? linux?

[Ummon]

Sync rates are syncs rates, kids. Read the monitor wiki.

[kjbalto]

I'm still confused here.  I finallly got my arcadevga card working, but it seems to be curving the edges of my screen.  I think I can fix that with changing the settings for the card in the mame.ini.  But can you guys explain to me if I need the card or not?  The Well Gardner 9800 is a tri-sync monitor, and right now when I plug it into my onboard video card, the games play perfectly.  If I use the arcadevga card, will the graphics look much better?  I keep reading posts that say windows will show scanlines and not be clear without using an arcadevga card, but I don't  have that problem with this monitor.  What do you guys mean I'm wasting the potential of my monitor if I don't use the arcadevga card?  Instead of configuring the mame.ini to work with the card, I was honestly thinking of just pulling the card and using the standard card, since the graphics look good to me.  Can you guys explain to me why I should use the arcadevga card if my monitor works fine with the onboard card? 

[DillonFoulds]

What we meant was that using a high resolution is a waste because the games are only running at say 240x200, and oddball low resolutions like that. You've more or less got the equipment, but you're trying to stretch the game picture up to your higher resolutions, and then shrink it back down to display on your tv.

At the risk of sticking my neck out any more here, i'm gonna go hit up the wiki as per Ummon's suggestion.

Anyone else feel free to correct me here.

[ahofle]

Yes, the whole point (IMO) of spending cash on a multisync arcade monitor is so you can run the games at their correct, native resolutions (while still enjoying flicker free, higher resolutions for frontends, windows, PC games, etc).  Probably close to 99% of arcade games originally ran at CGA resolutions such as 320x240, 401x256, etc.  You cannot run CGA resolutions like those without doing one of the following:
1) use an ArcadeVGA card
2) Install and configure a tool such as Soft15khz

Without one of those two options, you are just stretching and scaling all the games to 800x600 and never using the other 2/3s resolutions that your monitor supports.
Since you have the ArcadeVGA working now, try this.  Run Pacman at 352x288, direct draw, no hardware stretch.  Then run it at 800x600 with hardware stretch.  See the difference?

[ffingers]

i have a quick question as i am pondering the 9800....

so assume you run 800x600 or 1024x768 for your front end....let's say maLa as that is what i am running now...

i install soft15khz.....

seeing as many games run at different resolutions and rates, how do you tell the monitor to use the "accurate" res and rate...is it just a matter of an -auto switch on the mame.exe command line....

i haven't found anything explaining how to force the monitor into different res and rates depending on the game at a launch??....sorry...any help?

[ahofle]

Yes, in most cases the -auto will select the closest available windows resolution to the actual game.  (When you install the ArcadeVGA or Soft15khz, it adds a bunch of low resolutions to windows)

[ffingers]

so that has been the magic "switch"  i have been looking for....

i run mame.exe right now with no switches from maLa....

i have a TV hooked up with s-video and installed soft15khz to see if i couldn't get some better resolutions until i snag a d9800....

do you recommend any other switches besides -auto...by the way...is -auto default??

[ahofle]

Well, for a TV running S-Video, I don't think auto is the best way to go.  You will want 640x480 for most games since s-video is a 480i signal.  And yes, auto is default.