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CRT Monitor - Best output


kortina

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Hi Guys,

It has been some time since I finished my cabinet... I am hoping to make the output more authentic.

I have a C2D (3Ghz) PC, with about 6Gb of RAM.

CRT = Sony G520

Onboard Motherboard GFX = Intel G33/G31

Running at 1024x768 so that Hyperspin looks fairly good.

Mame 0.137

Win7 x64

I have a few questions, I have searched the web for hours... and found a lot of conflicting advise. I think this is because of changes to the scene over the last few years.

1) Should I get a ArcadeVGA or a hacked ATI card to go with the SonyG520?

2) Should I update the version of MAME and try and use the HLSL settings? (or is this mainly for LCD displays?)

Recommendations are very much welcomed. (Thanks in advance)

Cabinet is 2player, Horizontal. Mostly interested in 90's classics like NBAJam, Mortal Kombat, StreetFighter2 era.

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Hi,

Groovyume (or groovymame) and compatible ati card is for me the best combo. Google it to install calamity drivers ;)

HLSL is for lcd and is to simulate CRT. If you already have a crt, no need to simulate it.

I dont have an ATI card, so stuck with the mainstream refresh rates.

I thought that I would still need to simulate, as the G520 as most PC-CRT monitors will do several resolutions at @60Hz.

For the original arcade CRT feel, the resolution needs to be dropped and also the scanlines? added.

I will give GroovyUME a go (with my existing setup) and see what it is like

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I dont have an ATI card, so stuck with the mainstream refresh rates.

I thought that I would still need to simulate, as the G520 as most PC-CRT monitors will do several resolutions at @60Hz.

For the original arcade CRT feel, the resolution needs to be dropped and also the scanlines? added.

I will give GroovyUME a go (with my existing setup) and see what it is like

So I have been researching for hours. Got MAME 0.160 running (after installing DirectX SDK). Turned on HLSL and it looks good.

The next question is what resolution and refresh should I run at to minimise tearing etc.

The display is a Sony G520 (here are the specs)

Horizontal Scan - 30kHz - 130kHz

Vertical Refresh - 48Hz - 170Hz

Maximum Resolution - 2048 x 1536

Recommended Resolutions

1800 x 1440 @ 85Hz, 1600 x 1200 @ 85Hz

1280 x 1024 @ 85Hz

So what would be the best all round for Hyperspin (menu's) and MAME games (90's stuff)

??

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  • 3 weeks later...

Minimizing tearing will only happen if you sync to the refresh rate of the games you are running. So there is no one magical number for this and it requires SwitchRes, feeding modelines into your GPU driver or hacking them using Soft15kHz if you don't own a compatible card. I post here about two years ago on how to setup CRT with groovyume. I think the thread was called "one emulator to rule them all" or something. The AHKs in the thread are dated, but the information for what you need is there. 

It is a long read for people that are serious about accurately emulating their 15/24/31kHz games.

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its just a standard VGA monitor which is forced into the constraints of standard VESA modes so an ArcadeVGA card will do nothing for you as the VGA monitor will only work with the supplied VESA resolutions and refresh rates. You can force standard mame builds to switch resolutions to any VESA supported resolution that is closest to the game and what your monitor supports. That's just your best option here.

 

This is personally the kind of setup i use, just a standard CRT VGA monitor. They still give off a bit of the warm fuzz that traditional CRTs give off while not having to bother constantly attempting to match resolutions for CGA monitors. I've had many CGA monitors and attempting to get the perfect resolution for all games is quite literally fruitless and/or just too difficult to get done without having to manually adjust the CRT's width and height adjustments by hand for each game. Not worth it IMO.

 

If you plan to just run basic games up to the PSOne era and simple Direct-X games, just get a light-duty 128bit memory bus graphics card. If you plan to run a little more than that, might be time to invest in a stronger card.

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its just a standard VGA monitor which is forced into the constraints of standard VESA modes so an ArcadeVGA card will do nothing for you as the VGA monitor will only work with the supplied VESA resolutions and refresh rates. You can force standard mame builds to switch resolutions to any VESA supported resolution that is closest to the game and what your monitor supports. That's just your best option here.

 

This is personally the kind of setup i use, just a standard CRT VGA monitor. They still give off a bit of the warm fuzz that traditional CRTs give off while not having to bother constantly attempting to match resolutions for CGA monitors. I've had many CGA monitors and attempting to get the perfect resolution for all games is quite literally fruitless and/or just too difficult to get done without having to manually adjust the CRT's width and height adjustments by hand for each game. Not worth it IMO.

 

If you plan to just run basic games up to the PSOne era and simple Direct-X games, just get a light-duty 128bit memory bus graphics card. If you plan to run a little more than that, might be time to invest in a stronger card.

 

Thanks for the feedback.

 

I have spent the last 3 hours playing, and had many mixed results.

 

I found that using switchres = 1 works well for some games, and HORRIBLE for others (like metalslug). I guess that the VESA rate is just to far away from what it wants to be.

 

I have had the best luck running 1280x1024@85Hz, then using tripplebuffer. It seems to be the best all-round settings. While not *perfect* it is probably the best that I can expect from my setup.

 

HLSL with a VGA-CRT and triple-buffering is close enough. 

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Thanks for the feedback.

 

I have spent the last 3 hours playing, and had many mixed results.

 

I found that using switchres = 1 works well for some games, and HORRIBLE for others (like metalslug). I guess that the VESA rate is just to far away from what it wants to be.

 

I have had the best luck running 1280x1024@85Hz, then using tripplebuffer. It seems to be the best all-round settings. While not *perfect* it is probably the best that I can expect from my setup.

 

HLSL with a VGA-CRT and triple-buffering is close enough. 

 

 

Yep. Because of the half-analog nature of CRTs monitors, you are always going to have to find the "sweet spot" that best fits your setup. Glad you got a stable output after some experimentation. :i_am_so_happy:

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  • 2 weeks later...

OK so while HLSL was a good result, I have got it even better!

 

1) Get groovymame

2) get an old ATI card (HD3450 in my case)

3) install CRT_emu (hacked ATI drivers)

4) configure everything correctly.

 

Now I get perfect matches in the refresh rate (regardless of game), now wonderboy, nbajam and mk2 all run silky smooth with NO lag.

 

This is a better option than HLSL for those who have a display that can switch refresh rates (like my VGA-CRT)

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