How to make vector arcade games look their best

caver01

@BuZz said in How to make vector arcade games look their best:

It will render to 1280x720 scaled to the tv res I should think. which may end up not looking very nice.

@Riverstorm And yet, it may be acceptable, and probably better than if it would have been at 640x480. Having this resolution capability in the .rc file is still a fantastic enhancement for vector games. It may still be a fixed resolution, but at least it is controllable. You'd be in the same situation on other hardware using AdvanceMAME's modelines. This is much easier.

Riverstorm

@caver01 said in How to make vector arcade games look their best:

@BuZz said in How to make vector arcade games look their best:

It will render to 1280x720 scaled to the tv res I should think. which may end up not looking very nice.

@Riverstorm And yet, it may be acceptable, and probably better than if it would have been at 640x480. Having this resolution capability in the .rc file is still a fantastic enhancement for vector games. It may still be a fixed resolution, but at least it is controllable. You'd be in the same situation on other hardware using AdvanceMAME's modelines. This is much easier.

Ok, so to throw out a silly question or probably more accurate I don't quite understand. :) Would the correct aspect ratio for vector games be 4:3? Do you gain anything trying to shoot for a particular resolution that fits an aspect ratio say like 1280x960 or is that where the resizeeffect comes into play? In the documentation they refer to it as expansion and reduction in the different modes.

If possible I would just set it to 1080p and leave it if it will produce decent results or lower if that's a better option. I have a smaller box setup that I tote around to friends and family and I just never know what I'll run into or what brand. I finally just set the config_hdmi_force_hotplug=1as some older TV's aren't receiving the signal or broadcasting or something the Pi couldn't pickup.

I know I am shooting for that blanket config which can be difficult.

@caver01
I know I am duplicating some settings but that's ok since it's only about a dozen games. I tyring to reserve the globals for non vector unless most of the settings are vector. This is what I set for Monochrome and color vector games from the tutorial. Is that about correct?

astdelux/display_resizeeffect auto
astdelux/display_rgbeffect none
astdelux/display_scanlines no
astdelux/display_antialias yes
astdelux/display_translucency yes
astdelux/display_beam 1.2
astdelux/display_intensity 1.5
astdelux/display_flicker 15

and for color:

gravitar/display_resizeeffect filter
gravitar/display_rgbeffect triad3dot
gravitar/display_scanlines no
gravitar/display_antialias yes
gravitar/display_translucency yes
gravitar/display_beam 1.2
gravitar/display_intensity 2.5
gravitar/display_flicker 10

caver01

@Riverstorm Not sure about astdelux/display_resizeeffect auto I think I would just specify filter here too. Also, I would set all of the vector settings with vector/display_resizeeffect fitler and so on, instead of referencing every single monochrome title. At least that way you have defaults for all vector games, only need to specify the changes to intensity, flicker and rgbeffect per color game as overrides.

Riverstorm

@caver01 said in How to make vector arcade games look their best:

only need to specify the changes to intensity, flicker and rgbeffect per color game as overrides.

Genius! This will cut down configuration lines considerably. So I could set the vector globals with the color settings and override the two monochrome games (Asteroids and Deluxe Asteroids) with the two settings that are different flicker and intensity?

astdelux/display_flicker 15
astdelux/display_intensity 1.5
asteroids/display_flicker 15
asteroids/display_intensity 1.5

I'll shoot for the 1080p resolution and see how it looks as I try it out on different TV's.

8.7 Display Vector Configuration Options
8.7.1 display_antialias
8.7.2 display_beam
8.7.3 display_flicker
8.7.4 display_translucency
8.7.5 display_intensity

caver01

@Riverstorm You should remove the rgb triad effect from monochrome too. The shadow mask is not present on mono vector.

Riverstorm

@caver01 said in How to make vector arcade games look their best:

@Riverstorm You should remove the rgb triad effect from monochrome too. The shadow mask is not present on mono vector.

How does this look to you? I set the scanlines to no so no vector games get them as I've been playing around with them a little globally on non-vector games. My plan is to use your tutorial as the baseline and then tweak to preference from there.

Oh I don't much care for the regular asteroid.zip backdrop but I really like the Asteroids Deluxe one though. :)

vector/display_resizeeffect filter
vector/display_rgbeffect triad3dot
vector/display_scanlines no
vector/display_antialias yes
vector/display_beam 1.2
vector/display_flicker 10
vector/display_translucency yes
vector/display_intensity 2.5
astdelux/display_rgbeffect none
astdelux/display_intensity 1.5
astdelux/display_flicker 15
asteroid/display_rgbeffect none
asteroid/display_intensity 1.5
asteroid/display_flicker 15
asteroid/display_artwork_backdrop no
bzone/display_rgbeffect none
bzone/display_intensity 1.5
bzone/display_flicker 15

caver01

@Riverstorm Yes. Looks good. I simply deleted my asteroids artwork. I also adjusted the artwork to make it dimmer for omega race and asteroids deluxe. It;s just too bright otherwise.

Riverstorm

@caver01 One more question for you is Battlezone considered monochrome like Asteroids? I was reading on a Wiki and it looks like it's a physical overlay on the top portion of the screen.

"The game uses wireframe vector graphics on a black and white (with green and red sectioned color overlay) vector monitor."

caver01

@Riverstorm Yes. It's MONOCHROME. The overlay is an image designed to mimic the artwork on the inside of the cabinet as well as a painted bezel with green cellophane/gel to color the vectors, and red over the radar, but the game image itself is monochrome. You don't want to have a shadow mask on Battlezone.

Riverstorm

@caver01 said in How to make vector arcade games look their best:

You don't want to have a shadow mask on Battlezone.

That what's I wanted to verify! :) Battlezone looks sharp with the artwork overlay. Thank you for all the help in tweaking things. I think my vector games are set for now. :) I hope good vector settings and artwork make it's way into lr-mame2003. Then it will almost be a perfect all-in-one MAME emulator for retro gaming.

bifelix89

Hello everyone! :-) I have tried the tempest romset 0106 but does not work can anyone help me? Thanks!

rbaker

@bifelix89 A 0.106 romset is compatible with Advmame 1.4 only. What emulator are you using? If it is this version of mame, you don't have a 0.106 rom.

bifelix89

The romset in my possession is a .106 so it was written where I found ... but using advmame 1.4 does not work does anyone know where you can find a romset .106? Thanks :-)

edmaul69

@bifelix89 you cant ask these kinds of question here. Try google.

caver01

@bifelix89 I will add that your question is not related to this topic. You are troubleshooting ROMs, not vector game configuration. You stated you are trying to make Tempest run, but you didn't say which ROM. I can confirm that a proper .106 tempest.zip works fine in advanceMAME 1.4, so either your ROM is bad, it is the wrong version, or you are trying to use a clone (like tempest1.zip) without understanding how clones require parents etc..

UDb23

@caver01 I had some trouble with Tempest.zip too with advmame 1.4. I finally managed to get it working but a small portion of the screen at the bottom is cut off. I don't have any other "overscan" issues with other advmame roms and ES is also working correctly at 1080p.
Any clue how to fix this ?
Using retropie 3.8.1 on Pi3 and advmame vector settings as suggested in this thread.

caver01

@UDb23 what is your video resolution and your display settings in advmame exactly? I have tempest filling the screen (truly, rotated sideways because it's a vertical game). What does yours look like? Stretched? Pillar-box?

UDb23

@caver01
I checked and Tempest uses 1080x1440 resolution. Game is portrait on a 16:9 1080p TV with usual black bars on the sides. As 1440 is > 1080 the lower part of the game area is cut.
The GUI does not allow to select lower resolutions.
I wonder why advmame uses a vertical res that's bigger than the actual available.

As an example Omega Race (horizontal game) runs at 1440x1080, correctly fitting maximum vertical resolution.

RC file DIsplay settings:

display_adjust none
display_antialias yes
display_artwork_backdrop yes
display_artwork_bezel yes
display_artwork_crop no
display_artwork_overlay yes
display_aspectx 16
display_aspecty 9
display_beam 1.2
display_brightness 1
display_buffer no
display_color auto
display_expand 1
display_flicker 15
display_flipx no
display_flipy no
display_frameskip auto
display_gamma 1
display_height 1080
display_intensity 1.5
display_interlaceeffect none
display_magnify auto
display_magnifysize 1920
display_mode auto
display_pausebrightness 1
display_resize fractional
display_resizeeffect auto
display_restore yes
display_rgbeffect none
display_rol no
display_ror no
display_scanlines no
display_skipcolumns auto
display_skiplines auto
display_translucency yes
display_vsync no
display_width 1920

This is my complete current advmame 1.4 rc file.

caver01

@UDb23 We should be able to configure a working setup. I run tempest sideways, so for me it's fine--looks just like omega race. But in your setup, you really need it to run at an effective resolution of 810x1080. Try this: specify display_height 810 and display_width 1080. The thinking is that since it's normally a game that runs on a sideways turned monitor (vertical) and you have it oriented the opposite, it's using your specified height as the width and keeping the 4:3 aspect. Specifying 810 might get it to fit properly into 1080p. It's worth a shot anyway. If it works, you should be able to copy the lines, restore one version of them to their original settings and add tempest/ in front of those lines we changed and it should apply to just that game.

UDb23

@caver01 Modified rc file as suggested.
Thank you so much, now it works correctly :-)