Soft 15KHz Compatibility

[kamilz]

I was looking a modeline for Irem's m72 H/W resolution games like R-Type, Ninja Spirit etc..
Didn't find any for 384x256 @ 55.017Hz (according to mame)
So did my own.. result is awesome.

First CRU settings like this:



and modeline should be like this (didn't tested, just manually calculated from CRU values):

Code: Select all

Modeline "384x256@55.017Hz" 8.000 384 400 432 512 256 259 266 284 -hsync -vsync

Added as above to CRU, tested some m72 games on mame with vsync (rest off on same tab).
Timing is perfect, not even staggered once!

Hope that helps

[Classicgamer]

If you use the exact resolution and a refresh rate (that is accurate to as many decimal points as the ones shown in this thread), then what is the problem that is still causing screen tearing?

I always thought that tearing was caused by slight variances between the games original refresh rate and the 60hz setting that I use for most games.

If tearing still occurs when you use the exact refresh rate, then that means that either: the info in mame game profiles is wrong, there are other problems added by mame that are not related to refresh rates or mame can't output the exact refresh rate that you put in your modline.

When I used my arcade vga, I noticed that the 54hz setting for Mortal Kombat showed as 53hz on my RGB interface. Maybe, to get 54hz, you need to input 55hz into the modline. This would mean that it is possible to eliminate tearing but you would need an exact formulae to calculate the variance between the refresh rate in the modline and the one that mame actually outputs.

I could probably figure that out by testing a few different modlines and noting the actual refresh rate on my rgb interface, assuming the difference is the same % each time.

I have read elsewhere that mame has a 1-2 frame lag. If that is true then perhaps we could compensate for it.

[Classicgamer]

In case anyone is interested, I just noticed a cool (ish) feature in the latest mame plus (158) where it allows you to alter the framerate mid-game. It also automatically uses the native refresh rate which is accurate to 3 decimal points.

For example, when I select my 384 x 224 @ 60hz modeline for street fighter 2, it automatically outputs a vertical refresh rate of 59.637. This can be changed mid-game using the slider controls.

This makes it similar to groovy mame except I am not sure if it dynamically changes the resolution of the modeline like groovy mame. I use crt emu drivers on an XP 32bit machine with soft 15khz installed as well. I have custom modelines for most of my favorite games so I can normally select an accurate resolution even without groovy mame.

I think, overall, groovy mame might be better but mame plus seems to be far easier to use.