Soft15K for Windows/Mame

[Dave_K.]

Is anyone successfully using soft15k for windows/mame to drive an arcade monitor? I'm kind of at a lost how to use this tool with mame, or wonder if my card is just not supported because it doesn't seem to be working.

I have a tri-sync monitor, and GeForce 7900 GS, which the tool recognizes and says its using the ForceWare driver and that Soft15khz is "Active (15khz)" after I pressed the "Install 15khz" button. I rebooted, and everything still comes up 640x480 VGA. I ran the quickres tool, selected a resolution below 640x480 and it just zooms the screen into that mode but still at driving the screen at 31khz/VGA resolution.

Is there supposed to be some kind of switch or special mame option or config file to tell soft15khz to switch into the 15khz mode before starting the game? Or is my machine supposed to now boot directly into 15khz from now on until I click the "uninstall" button?

[jonny5]

im using it with no problems with an ATI radeon x1600

have you hooked it up to the monitor?

i recall with mine it didnt actually go into 15khz mode until i did that....

also, are you using a JPAC?

cuz you need to set the jumpers limiting it to 15khz too.....

and when you choose the res in quickres make sure you are selecting 640X480i (interlaced)

i remember having this very same issue but it ended up working fine.....

and it wont go into 15khz mode until it actually loads into windows...the bios and startup sequence will still be in 31khz so it will just be rolling.....

what version of mame are you using?

i would recommend mame32ui or whatever they call it these days.....its what i am using......its nice and easy to set stuff to run in native res

[Dave_K.]

Its an autosync tri-sync (15/24/31khs) arcade monitor with a vga connector, so yes its hooked up directly to the PC.

I tried hooking this up through my jpac, and into the CGA input on the monitor (forcing it to only display 15khz), and I either get no picture with the 31khz jumper off the jpac, or I get a double image with the 31khz jumper applied on the jpac. So it looks like soft15k is only outputing VGA regardless of what its seeing as the monitor its connected to.

The quickres tool does not give me a 640x480i mode choice, or any interlaced mode choices, unless there is some other config option I'm missing?

[jonny5]

odd

......im @ work right now but i will have a look at my setup when i get home.....

so you have the double image even once windows loads?

hmmmmm.....peculiar

do you have an LCD or anything that displays the input info of connected signals?

try uninstalling soft15khz and then re-install it....hook it up to the monitor(LCD), restart the computer and after windows loads you should get something along the lines of 'signal out of range 15.4khz/60hz'.....at least on mine.....

if not then something is wrong and stopping soft15khz from loading properly.....

its annoying too....cuz mine did the very same thing when i first tried it and i can recall for the life of me what i did to fix it....

i will post back when i get home

[Dave_K.]

do you have an LCD or anything that displays the input info of connected signals?

try uninstalling soft15khz and then re-install it....hook it up to the monitor(LCD), restart the computer and after windows loads you should get something along the lines of 'signal out of range 15.4khz/60hz'.....at least on mine.....

if not then something is wrong and stopping soft15khz from loading properly.....

Yeah, the monitor is digital, and tells me the input sync rate its getting via the menu, and its always 31khz. I tested with a DDP board just to make sure 15khz was still working, and sure enough worked fine and digital menu said 15.7khz. Must be soft15k, but everything says it recognized the hardware correctly, used the correct driver, and installed successfully. I think its some option I'm missing.

[jonny5]

its very odd that you arent getting the interlaced modes listed in quickres tho.....

i will take some pics when i get home to show what i mean

[emphatic]

Yeah, the monitor is digital, and tells me the input sync rate its getting via the menu, and its always 31khz. I tested with a DDP board just to make sure 15khz was still working, and sure enough worked fine and digital menu said 15.7khz. Must be soft15k, but everything says it recognized the hardware correctly, used the correct driver, and installed successfully. I think its some option I'm missing.

Does your video card have more than one adapter? Perhaps you haven't installed it on the correct one (if there's two)? Did you also set your screen to 640x480 and reboot?

[jonny5]

Yeah, the monitor is digital, and tells me the input sync rate its getting via the menu, and its always 31khz. I tested with a DDP board just to make sure 15khz was still working, and sure enough worked fine and digital menu said 15.7khz. Must be soft15k, but everything says it recognized the hardware correctly, used the correct driver, and installed successfully. I think its some option I'm missing.

Does your video card have more than one adapter? Perhaps you haven't installed it on the correct one (if there's two)? Did you also set your screen to 640x480 and reboot?

bingo.....why didnt i think of that?

id bet that is the problem

if it lists the graphics card twice(should be labeled the same but one will say secondary) in the soft15khz install screen install it on both

good thinking emph

[emphatic]

good thinking emph

Yeah, was wearing my "thinking hat". Let's all hope I was right too.

[jonny5]

good thinking emph

Yeah, was wearing my "thinking hat". Let's all hope I was right too.

i facepalm'd as soon as you said it.....iirc that was the problem i had initially when i was configuring everything.....it shows up as 2 graphics cards.....one for the DVI(or VGA if the card only has 2 VGA ports) and the VGA port......

id bet he has soft15khz installed on the port he isnt using

[Dave_K.]

Crap, I was really hoping this was it. Got home and found Soft15K only sees one display, not two. I used the NVIDIA tool to switch to the second display, and hooked up the the VGA cord over there and still get 31khz, even after reboot. I also uninstalled and reinstalled and still nothing.

I then noticed this on the soft15k forum

Note: The NVidia GeForce 8-, 9- and GTX series require an EDID-Dongle for resolutions below 512x384.

My 9700 GS is a dual head DVI, and I use a DVI to VGA connector, but I don't know what this EDID is or if my adapter is compatible with this standard. Anyway it looks like I may need one of these things?

BTW: desktop is running at 640x480@60 upon boot up.

[emphatic]

Crap, I was really hoping this was it.

Crap indeed.

Well, as I'm out of other clues, that dongle probably is the way to go to get things running. Have you been in contact with the guy that makes 'em?

[jonny5]

you initially posted saying it was a 7900....which is why i didnt point that out

shitty.....just go out and grab a low end ati card....they all work pretty much.....you can get an x1600 for like 50bux now, and thats still a decent card if you arent playing current games

[Dave_K.]

Sorry about that, I type too damn fast sometimes and make lots of typos. Anyway, thanks for the help. I think I have an older ATI card in my junk box somewhere and will give that a try.

[Dave_K.]

Ok, something very weird happened. I switched the resolution to 800x600, and suddenly the monitor is reading 15.8Khz at 50hz interlaced picture! Since 800x600 is the default resolution of windows, I'm wondering if this is where Soft15k normally installs? Is there any way to switch it to non-interlaced?

[jonny5]

i dont think you can do a non-interlaced picture on 15khz for a resolution that high.....i could be wrong tho....

makes sense that it will do 800X600 but not 640X480.....i think that is an issue with the 8series and newer geforce cards.....they cant do 640X480....so its not an issue with soft15khz....just the card

now that you have a viewable picture can you get stuff running in mame at native res?

the front-end resolution is inconsequential really as long as you can run games at 15khz in native res......

[cools]

Non-interlaced at 15k is 262 lines.

600 lines is above 31k.

[Fudoh]

PAL has 576 lines interlaced and it's 15,75kHz as well. Running 800x600 in 50Hz interlaced is actually the only way to get this resolution "through" a 15khz connection. 640x480 in 60Hz interlaced work as well, but XP and Vista have their problems will resolutions below 600 lines.