CRT EmuDriver- Driver ATI 15Khz nativo e tools x risoluzioni

[X-Fil]

Per rispondere a Fil e Ighli.. confermo quanto già detto da Kernel, probabilmente conviene fare una via di mezzo alla misura verticale.. o almeno anch'io faccio così..
I pochi pixel che si perdono non danno poi molto fastidio..

In effetti è quello che ho fatto...alla fine si perde la prima riga di testo, dove di solito ci sono scritte intuibili quali player1 o high score, e l'ultima, dove di solito riporta il numero di crediti.
Alla fine, come dici tu, non da molto fastidio.

There is an advantage when doing this: you'll be able to generate the original refresh rate (i.e. 60Hz instead of 50Hz) so the game speed will be the original, at the cost of loosing picture sharpness due to interlace+stretch (virtualize). So it's a matter of taste.

Questo però è interessante...forse sarebbe più corretto avere una velocità di gioco che rispecchia quella originale sacrificando un po di nitidezza
Vorrei provare, ma non so se ho voglia di rigenerare tutto e poi ripassarmi tutte le risoluzioni per vedere se ce n'è qualcuna da correggere!
Non c'è mai pace

[dR.pRoDiGy]

Beh in realtà la prova in sè è molto più facile di così.. basta che rinomini o sposti temporaneamente il file di configurazione del singolo gioco, e correggi il mame.ini per disattivare i cambi di risoluzione e attivare lo stretch.. in quel modo mame adatta il gioco alla risoluzione di Windows (che penso come più o meno per tutti sia 640x480), lavorando in interlacciato..

[Mr. Pumpkin]

domanda: ma in pratica che reale differenza c'è, fra questo sistema, e sof15 ? personalmente ho sempre usato soft15, e con un click (veramente uno di numero) e un riavvio, ho sempre fatto tutto e bene.

in cosa può essere migliore questo sistema ? non l'ho capito

[Kernel]

Questo sistema ti aggiunge una valanga di risoluzioni e crea in automatico degli ini per ogni gioco di mame con all'interno la risoluzione giusta.
A corredo c'è l'"arcade_osd" che ti permette di visualizzare, correggere e salvare le risoluzioni in tempo reale.

[Mr. Pumpkin]

mmm ma in termini pratici e di installazione/sbattimenti, è al pari di soft15 comunque ? ripeto con soft lo installai la prima volta, cliccai sul tasto 15khz riavviai ed era pronto per il cabinato. mai sistema fu più semplice e veloce.

[Calamity]

mmm ma in termini pratici e di installazione/sbattimenti, è al pari di soft15 comunque ? ripeto con soft lo installai la prima volta, cliccai sul tasto 15khz riavviai ed era pronto per il cabinato. mai sistema fu più semplice e veloce.

I started developing this software to overcome the limitations of both ArcadeVGA and Soft-15Khz methods. These limitations come from the fact that those methods just install a limited amount of pre-fixed modelines to cover all kind of games/monitors. Many people are just happy with ArcadeVGA or Soft-15Khz, as they may not be aware or really don't care of the limitations I'm talking about. So, for these people, I don't recommend using the somewhat more complicated software like VMMaker, or Switchres, at least until we eventually work on making these more user friendly. In fact, I recommend getting familiar first with Soft-15Khz, resolutions, Mame setup, etc. thus having a deep understanding of all the options involved before trying to use this, as just having one single option wrong in our Mame setup can ruin are let without effect what we are trying to achieve with VMMaker.

[Mr. Pumpkin]

Hi, i understand what you mean. I agree. good job then, and look forward to updates

[user9999]

I started developing this software to overcome the limitations of both ArcadeVGA and Soft-15Khz methods. These limitations come from the fact that those methods just install a limited amount of pre-fixed modelines to cover all kind of games/monitors. Many people are just happy with ArcadeVGA or Soft-15Khz, as they may not be aware or really don't care of the limitations I'm talking about. So, for these people, I don't recommend using the somewhat more complicated software like VMMaker, or Switchres, at least until we eventually work on making these more user friendly. In fact, I recommend getting familiar first with Soft-15Khz, resolutions, Mame setup, etc. thus having a deep understanding of all the options involved before trying to use this, as just having one single option wrong in our Mame setup can ruin are let without effect what we are trying to achieve with VMMaker.

Hi Calamity, great work you've done with your software!
Unfortunately I have an nvidia card in my pc Did you ever consider to develop a driver for nvidia cards?
Do you think it would be technically possible or not?

[Calamity]

Hi Calamity, great work you've done with your software!
Unfortunately I have an nvidia card in my pc Did you ever consider to develop a driver for nvidia cards?
Do you think it would be technically possible or not?

Well, actually it could be technically possible, although more difficult I suppose because nVidia drivers are limited to only 32 modes, so the initial conditions are much worse. Indeed, we are incredibly lucky that the Catalyst patch works, it's a damned hack, believe me. Both ATI and nVidia hardware are perfectly capable of doing all kind of low resolutions, the limitation is set by their drivers only. I don't think I'll ever try to patch nVidia drivers, patching drivers is a nightmare when it comes to testing them. Next one I'll try (and probably my last patching campaign) will be Catalyst 6.5 for XP64, to support older ATI cards.

[user9999]

Hi Calamity, great work you've done with your software!
Unfortunately I have an nvidia card in my pc Did you ever consider to develop a driver for nvidia cards?
Do you think it would be technically possible or not?

Well, actually it could be technically possible, although more difficult I suppose because nVidia drivers are limited to only 32 modes, so the initial conditions are much worse. Indeed, we are incredibly lucky that the Catalyst patch works, it's a damned hack, believe me. Both ATI and nVidia hardware are perfectly capable of doing all kind of low resolutions, the limitation is set by their drivers only. I don't think I'll ever try to patch nVidia drivers, patching drivers is a nightmare when it comes to testing them. Next one I'll try (and probably my last patching campaign) will be Catalyst 6.5 for XP64, to support older ATI cards.

Ok so I'm on my way to buy a 2nd hand ati card

[Cabinator]

This version also fixes the vertical aspect ratio issue. Default is 4:3, but you can set any ratio you want now.

[PaTrYcK]

Yes, if we want to use our monitor resolution to the limit, then we can't have an universal geometry setup where all games look good. Personally I prefer to have the possibility of using real 288 lines modes, even if I have to tweak the v-amp potenciometer each time I play the game, because with my Hantarex the controls are accesible from the front door so it's a matter of two seconds to adjust it. Other people may want to have a more static setup in case their potenciometers are difficult to access or do not exist at all (TVs and service menus). The solution in this case is to generate every resolution above, i.e. 256 lines, as interlaced. To do this, modify this option:

ActiveLinesLimit = 256

Hi Calamity, i use 640x240 resolution in my cabinet, where i can modify this value?

Thanks!

[Calamity]

I

Hi Calamity, i use 640x240 resolution in my cabinet, where i can modify this value?
Thanks!

If you mean the ActiveLinesLimit, you'll find that option in VMMaker.ini

But you shouldn't need to change that by fact that you're using 640x240 for the desktop, or maybe I'm not getting it all.

[PaTrYcK]

My active lines limit is 240, for games with more than 256 horizontal lines use hardware strech with 240 lines limit, is possible set VMMaker for do it?
Thanks!

[Cabinator]

Hi Calamity
is there a chance to have 25khz output with your drivers like soft15khz does?
I would like to try them with a Sega monitor without using a tv set in the cab.

[Calamity]

Hi Cabinator,

At the moment VMMaker only calculates modelines for low-res monitors. It's actually possible to redefine the monitor params in VMMaker.ini but I have not tested it so I can't recommend you to do that. However, the drivers are perfectly capable of doing 15/25/31 KHz modelines, it's only VMMaker that does not calculate them by now. So if you already have the modelines, then you can use Winmodelines for installing them over my drivers. Another option is to use Switchres in combination with my drivers, so it will recalculate the needed modelines as 25Khz.

[Cabinator]

Thank you,
I'll try that if I really need to. Maybe the Sega medium resolution is 15/25khz switchable.

[Calamity]

My active lines limit is 240, for games with more than 256 horizontal lines use hardware strech with 240 lines limit, is possible set VMMaker for do it?
Thanks!

Oh sorry, I missed this one. Yes, you can do that by editing VMMaker.ini and setting ActiveLinesLimit = 240, then run VMMaker to redo the modelines and inis and restart. By doing this, every resolution above ActiveLinesLimit number of lines and below VirtualLinesLimit number (also defined in VMMaker.ini) will be virtualized (interlaced + stretched). Resolutions above VirtualLinesLimit will be interlaced (for instance, 640x480) but not stretched.

"Virtualized" resolutions are used in situations where we have too many lines to do it as progressive, but too few to do an interlaced modeline, because if we did, it will look too short, too "panoramic". That is usually the case with medium resolutions, as 400x300 or 512x384. Another typical case is a vertical game with 320x224 on an horizontal monitor, that once rotated becomes 400x320. In these cases, we are above 288 lines, so if we made them progressive we'll produce a combination of too low vertical refresh, too high horizontal frequency and too tall picture. But if we do them interlaced, then we get a valid modeline but too short, as it will only be 150, 160 or 192 lines tall (the original height / 2 ). In these cases, we get a better result by virtualizing the resolution: we calculate the biggest possible interlaced resolution that is achievable for a given vertical refresh. This is done because, for lower vertical refresh values, we can achieve bigger resolutions, and so we can benefit from that in order to get nicer results (more detailed) when it's possible, instead of just stretching to a fixed resolution, say 640x480. So for a game that has a vertical refresh of 60Hz, we will get a resolution of 720x480 (interlaced + stretched), and for a refresh of 54Hz, we can easily get a nicer 728x544 resolution.

It's really quite easy and straight forward once you know what this values do. I plan to do a better user interface for this in the near future, hopefully my job will give a breath to go on with this.

[PaTrYcK]

WOW, thanks Calamity

every resolution above ActiveLinesLimit number of lines and below VirtualLinesLimit number (also defined in VMMaker.ini) will be virtualized (interlaced + stretched).

Defautl value:
ActiveLinesLimit = 288
VirtualLinesLimit = 448
Over 448 lines use only interlaced resolution, ok...but why all resolution above 288 lines until 448 will be interlaced + streched instead of only streched?

Thanks

[Calamity]

Over 448 lines use only interlaced resolution, ok...but why all resolution above 288 lines until 448 will be interlaced + streched instead of only streched?

Because, in my opinion, when we stretch a game, the highest the resolution is, the better the result will be (more detail). So by interlacing we are actually doubling our vertical resolution, so we are able to show more information that otherwise would be lost when stretching. The problem with interlaced resolutions is the infamous FLICKER. But as long as we use hwstretch together with interlace, this flicker will be highly reduced (at the cost of loosing sharpness). I find this setup specially nice for vertical games with vertical scroll played on horizontal monitors. Vertical scroll for some reason helps reducing visible flicker and produces the illusion of scanlines. Interlace flicker anyway is more annoying in some old monitors that have wasted electronics, I believe it's because odd/even fields get slightly shifted from it's ideal position producing a horrible effect. Of course, this is not a miracle method, so don't expect a great quality, it's just the less bad method I have found for horizontal monitors. To do things right, you need a vertical monitor