Groovy_MiSTer Core

[Rautz]

Is anyone in here running this on a cabinet via mistercade, retrocastle or other de10 jamma device?

What are you doing re: your control connections? - My question is directly in correslation to whether there is a way to keep the jamma connections into the mister whilst also breaking them out to a usb encoder that plugs into the pc side. Which would allow for keeping controls always connected to the de10 when we want to use mister cores, then switch to groovymister core/pc, when we want to run the more powerful games?

[Atohmdiy]

It's funny i have a similar idea some years ago, i talk of it in the previous mister forum. The idea was the same but by using the nano ADC. Back then someone said the ADC hasn't enough bandwith to handle video signal. Didn't thought to use the network though.

Anyway this is a very interesting idea. I am asking myself if there is not something to do with linux and xorg to stream the content of a game. There is a couple retro game that are native low res. For exemple steel assault, that is native 240p 4/3. I absolutely don't know how to do it, but if the content of a window cannot be stream directly by xorg, maybe running a nested x server like xephyr can do the trick ?

Don't know if this is of any interest, but right now there is a lot of retro inspired game that could be interesting, and proton became very mature to run them in linux.

[MiSTer Consoles]

This core is brilliant! Finding a good graphic card that will do 240p is such a hassle. Using MiSTer to display the video makes things so much easier. I have both a SD CRT as well as an HD one that can do 480p. I wonder if this core might also be capable of outputting 480p and possibly even adding scanlines so that it could also be used for the HD set? I've used MiSTer to scandouble core content with the analog I/O board and it looks great on that TV.

[psakhis]

This core is brilliant! Finding a good graphic card that will do 240p is such a hassle. Using MiSTer to display the video makes things so much easier. I have both a SD CRT as well as an HD one that can do 480p. I wonder if this core might also be capable of outputting 480p and possibly even adding scanlines so that it could also be used for the HD set? I've used MiSTer to scandouble core content with the analog I/O board and it looks great on that TV.

For 480p content, you need activate lz4 compression and set monitor to arcade_31.

If source is 240p, only needs scandouble on the core to output at 31khz.

[d909]

In theory, a set up like this should be able to provide lower than native input lag due to runahead, but my brief testing with Retroarch is not showing such an improvement. It seems like the two extra frames of vsync lag are still there even though vsync is off. I'm showing still roughly 2 frames of lag in super mario world on bsnes on the CRT connected to the MiSTer, even with runahead set to 2. My testing was a long way from scientific though and Retroarch can be a difficult beast to get working properly so who knows whats actually wrong...

[MiSTer Consoles]

This core is brilliant! Finding a good graphic card that will do 240p is such a hassle. Using MiSTer to display the video makes things so much easier. I have both a SD CRT as well as an HD one that can do 480p. I wonder if this core might also be capable of outputting 480p and possibly even adding scanlines so that it could also be used for the HD set? I've used MiSTer to scandouble core content with the analog I/O board and it looks great on that TV.

For 480p content, you need activate lz4 compression and set monitor to arcade_31.

If source is 240p, only needs scandouble on the core to output at 31khz.

Excellent! I will have to give this a try. Thanks again for all your hard work on this core.

[zoopster]

This core is brilliant! Finding a good graphic card that will do 240p is such a hassle. Using MiSTer to display the video makes things so much easier. I have both a SD CRT as well as an HD one that can do 480p. I wonder if this core might also be capable of outputting 480p and possibly even adding scanlines so that it could also be used for the HD set? I've used MiSTer to scandouble core content with the analog I/O board and it looks great on that TV.

For 480p content, you need activate lz4 compression and set monitor to arcade_31.

If source is 240p, only needs scandouble on the core to output at 31khz.

Excellent! I will have to give this a try. Thanks again for all your hard work on this core.

I'd be interested to know how you get on as I had some stability issues in 31khz mode. It looked fantastic on my PC CRT while it worked though!

[psakhis]

31khz can exced bandwith if lz4 don't compress at good ratios. Here i'm thinking some workarounds like
1) use lz4hc (you will need a powerful pc)
2) downgrade to rgb565

[tonyt76]

@Calamity @psakhis can you explain something...

Calamity you suggested to use these settings on BYOAC:

video mister
mister_ip 192.168.18.35
mister_compression none
mister_window 0
mister_fd_margin 1.5
aspect 4:3
autosync 0
throttle 0
syncrefresh 1
sleep 0
framedelay 0

psakhis you suggested to use these settings on Github:

-video mister
-aspect 4:3
-switchres
-monitor arcade_15
-mister_window
-mister_ip "192.x.x.x"
-mister_compression none
-skip_gameinfo
-syncrefresh
-nothrottle

*Automatic frame delay is applied with frame delay 0
-mister_fd_margin 1.5/2.0/3.0 (applies a safe margin with ms to auto frame delay calculed)

*Change "uifont default" to "uifont uismall.bdf" on mame.ini for pixel perfect menu
*autosync 0 on mame.ini for menu (60hz)

---

I'm confused which settings to use. Should I use everything that both of you suggested?

Is the setting framedelay 0 or frame delay 0?

Also, can we add these settings to mame.ini directly?

Sorry not trying to nitpick, I just want everyone to use the best settings to get this to work at its best.

Thanks for your help!

[psakhis]

With frame delay 0 with video mister, auto frame delay it's applied.

Yes, you can put on mame.ini. I think arguments have more priority than mame.ini config, it's all.

[MiSTer Consoles]

31khz can exced bandwith if lz4 don't compress at good ratios. Here i'm thinking some workarounds like
1) use lz4hc (you will need a powerful pc)
2) downgrade to rgb565

Are these things set within the emulators or in the OS (Win 11 in my case)?

[psakhis]

None of this options exists, it's a possible future features.

[mikehaggar]

Well there's a frontend now:

[AlexMan]

I really would like to test that, but how can i connect the pc to the mister directly? do i need a crossover cable or does a normal patch cable work, how would i set up the ip adress?

[LamerDeluxe]

I synced the repository just now and noticed audio is being worked on, awesome (I see a menu option for it as well). I didn't get it to work yet, but great news anyway.

The front end looks like a great addition as well.

[Flain]

I really would like to test that, but how can i connect the pc to the mister directly? do i need a crossover cable or does a normal patch cable work, how would i set up the ip adress?

Just a regular patch cable will work fine. On MiSTer:

edit /etc/dhcpd.conf, and add these two lines at the end, replacing the ip address with the one you want to use
interface eth0
static ip_address=192.168.0.222/24

Reboot MiSTer. Then on your PC set another IP in the windows tcp/ip settings on the NIC

[AlexMan]

Thank you sir,
I did that but the network adapter in windows shows no cable connected, mister is showing the given static ip however. gonna try to output from groovymame anyway now.

[psakhis]

I synced the repository just now and noticed audio is being worked on, awesome (I see a menu option for it as well). I didn't get it to work yet, but great news anyway.

The front end looks like a great addition as well.

Audio is done and you can test it with mednafen. @Calamity will update GroovyMame soon.
Test build has another stability fixes and works better for 480p.

[MiSTer Consoles]

I really would like to test that, but how can i connect the pc to the mister directly? do i need a crossover cable or does a normal patch cable work, how would i set up the ip adress?

Just a regular patch cable will work fine. On MiSTer:

edit /etc/dhcpd.conf, and add these two lines at the end, replacing the ip address with the one you want to use
interface eth0
static ip_address=192.168.0.222/24

Reboot MiSTer. Then on your PC set another IP in the windows tcp/ip settings on the NIC

I tried updating the dhcpd.conf file using WinSCP, but received an error that it's a "read only" file and changes can't be saved. Is there a better way to do this?

[psakhis]

I really would like to test that, but how can i connect the pc to the mister directly? do i need a crossover cable or does a normal patch cable work, how would i set up the ip adress?

Just a regular patch cable will work fine. On MiSTer:

edit /etc/dhcpd.conf, and add these two lines at the end, replacing the ip address with the one you want to use
interface eth0
static ip_address=192.168.0.222/24

Reboot MiSTer. Then on your PC set another IP in the windows tcp/ip settings on the NIC

I tried updating the dhcpd.conf file using WinSCP, but received an error that it's a "read only" file and changes can't be saved. Is there a better way to do this?

I did this change with putty (ssh).

[AlexMan]

I really would like to test that, but how can i connect the pc to the mister directly? do i need a crossover cable or does a normal patch cable work, how would i set up the ip adress?

Just a regular patch cable will work fine. On MiSTer:

edit /etc/dhcpd.conf, and add these two lines at the end, replacing the ip address with the one you want to use
interface eth0
static ip_address=192.168.0.222/24

Reboot MiSTer. Then on your PC set another IP in the windows tcp/ip settings on the NIC

I tried updating the dhcpd.conf file using WinSCP, but received an error that it's a "read only" file and changes can't be saved. Is there a better way to do this?

I used putty to kill the dhcpcd process

killall dhcpcd

[AlexMan]

I really would like to test that, but how can i connect the pc to the mister directly? do i need a crossover cable or does a normal patch cable work, how would i set up the ip adress?

Just a regular patch cable will work fine. On MiSTer:

edit /etc/dhcpd.conf, and add these two lines at the end, replacing the ip address with the one you want to use
interface eth0
static ip_address=192.168.0.222/24

Reboot MiSTer. Then on your PC set another IP in the windows tcp/ip settings on the NIC

Actually the static ip works over the router and laptop over wifi, the direct connection with a patch cable shows no network on mister and no cableconnected on the pc, its an thunderbolt lan adapter. the lan adapter oder the patch cable is the problem i dont know

[Flain]

Sounds like it's probably the thunderbolt lan adapter, any non-damaged patch cable should work because auto MDI/MDIX is a part of the gigabit spec (auto MDIX handles auto-crossover so physical crossover cables aren't needed). You could try connecting both through your router as long as it's gigabit it should work fine.

[psakhis]

I synced the repository just now and noticed audio is being worked on, awesome (I see a menu option for it as well). I didn't get it to work yet, but great news anyway.

The front end looks like a great addition as well.

Audio is done and you can test it with mednafen. @Calamity will update GroovyMame soon.
Test build has another stability fixes and works better for 480p.

@Calamity added audio support for GroovyMame. You can try on test-build folder.

EDIT: menu isn't working properly, run from command line. Fixed in new MiSTer binary.

[AlexMan]

Sounds like it's probably the thunderbolt lan adapter, any non-damaged patch cable should work because auto MDI/MDIX is a part of the gigabit spec (auto MDIX handles auto-crossover so physical crossover cables aren't needed). You could try connecting both through your router as long as it's gigabit it should work fine.

Tommorow im getting a crossover adapter and thunderbolt dock with another lan port hope i will get it working.
Only one cableconnection to the router from the room so its cable and wifi or crossover. Really excited to check the lag.

Calamity did you test with deamonbite input?
And what is the actual gain in ms compared to the crtemudriver?

[psakhis]

Sounds like it's probably the thunderbolt lan adapter, any non-damaged patch cable should work because auto MDI/MDIX is a part of the gigabit spec (auto MDIX handles auto-crossover so physical crossover cables aren't needed). You could try connecting both through your router as long as it's gigabit it should work fine.

Tommorow im getting a crossover adapter and thunderbolt dock with another lan port hope i will get it working.
Only one cableconnection to the router from the room so its cable and wifi or crossover. Really excited to check the lag.

Calamity did you test with deamonbite input?
And what is the actual gain in ms compared to the crtemudriver?

GILT is a usb device.
Probably not much on high framedelays if you have a powerful PC, you will not notice lag.

[mrchrister]

Amazing progress. I just picked up a Continental Circuit cabinet (looks like a Pole Position upright) on FB marketplace for $100. It's not working currently so a perfect project to try this out on. I have a MiSTercade and can wire up evertyhing for JAMMA in the cab with a Jamma harness I bought. On the MiSTer side I'm planning to run Gran Turismo on PSX core (with Wheel-Negcon) and Outrun core. It would be cool to play Gamecube Mario Kart or PS2 Wheel based Racing Sims. Just curious if those cores are supported with Retroarch? I also checked psakhis xls list of CRT compatible games but unfortunately no racing games on there so it might not even be worth it to wire up a JPAC. Maybe just MiSTer and a small Optiplex PC for some MAME/RA games.

[AlexMan]

Sounds like it's probably the thunderbolt lan adapter, any non-damaged patch cable should work because auto MDI/MDIX is a part of the gigabit spec (auto MDIX handles auto-crossover so physical crossover cables aren't needed). You could try connecting both through your router as long as it's gigabit it should work fine.

Tommorow im getting a crossover adapter and thunderbolt dock with another lan port hope i will get it working.
Only one cableconnection to the router from the room so its cable and wifi or crossover. Really excited to check the lag.

Calamity did you test with deamonbite input?
And what is the actual gain in ms compared to the crtemudriver?

GILT is a usb device.
Probably not much on high framedelays if you have a powerful PC, you will not notice lag.

Got it working with the Caldigit TS4 Dock, really amazing i feel less lag over my best gm setup.
i notice some hickup here and then in the shadows of the protagonists, im testing with samsho.zip
also i noticed some red flashes.
can someone test for same behavior?
Maybe its again the TB connection for ethernet, i dont know.

What gilt result would the best (calamitys own) gm result compared to the under 4 ms with groovy mister?

[AlexMan]

Tommorow im getting a crossover adapter and thunderbolt dock with another lan port hope i will get it working.
Only one cableconnection to the router from the room so its cable and wifi or crossover. Really excited to check the lag.

Calamity did you test with deamonbite input?
And what is the actual gain in ms compared to the crtemudriver?

GILT is a usb device.
Probably not much on high framedelays if you have a powerful PC, you will not notice lag.

Got it working with the Caldigit TS4 Dock, really amazing i feel less lag over my best gm setup.
i notice some hickup here and then in the shadows of the protagonists, im testing with samsho.zip
also i noticed some red flashes.
can someone test for same behavior?
Maybe its again the TB connection for ethernet, i dont know.

What gilt result would the best (calamitys own) gm result compared to the under 4 ms with groovy mister?

With Windows 11 no hickups or flashing, really amazing thank you so much for doing this sir!!

[psakhis]

Latency is very dependant on emulation time, so high cpu performance it's a must to have the lower latency.

With a slow PC (mine has 13 years old) on Windows it's possible less than 4/5ms. @Calamity has better numbers with Linux.