MiSTer FPGA Forum

HerrBerzerk wrote: ↑Sun Apr 24, 2022 7:38 am So you mean, when I put the resolution of the menu e.g. to:
video_mode=640,7,108,30,400,13,2,34,24708,0,1 ; 640x400@70.1Hz@31.48kHz VGA Games including 320x200, 320x400, 640x400 @70.1Hz
Most VGA-Adventures should look original? Can't I just put that at the beginning of the mister.ini?
Or can I create a MENU section for that?

Nikoh wrote: ↑Sat Apr 30, 2022 10:12 am

Guys would it be possible to have a more or less standard configuration to cover all standard game resolution needs?
So we simple players can copy and paste....

https://github.com/MiSTer-devel/Wiki_Mi ... uide#ao486

Check the "for 31kHz VGA monitors" section.

akeley wrote: ↑Sat Apr 30, 2022 11:10 am

Nikoh wrote: ↑Sat Apr 30, 2022 10:12 am

Guys would it be possible to have a more or less standard configuration to cover all standard game resolution needs?
So we simple players can copy and paste....

https://github.com/MiSTer-devel/Wiki_Mi ... uide#ao486

Check the "for 31kHz VGA monitors" section.

thanks, it was just what I was looking for

In case anyone ends up here via google, the URL to that wiki has changed to https://github.com/MiSTer-devel/Wiki_Mi ... uide#ao486 and it worked great for me!

I'm glad to hear these modelines are still useful, but I think these days you could do it simpler way (better?) with the new "cvt" command. Eg, that's what I'm using for ao486 atm (experimental, not sure it's better than the "normal" modelines):

[ao486]
forced_scandoubler=0
direct_video=0

[video=720x400]
video_mode=720,400,70,cvt

[video=320x200]
video_mode=640,400,70,cvt

[video=640x400]
video_mode=640,400,70,cvt

[video=640x480]
video_mode=640,480,60,cvt

That Wiki guide could do with some updating overall. I'm bit too busy with other stuff atm, away from most of my OG hardware, and have been out of the loop with all the latest CRT-related developments though. Here's hoping somebody else can bring it up to date.

akeley wrote: ↑Tue Feb 21, 2023 6:26 am

I'm glad to hear these modelines are still useful, but I think these days you could do it simpler way (better?) with the new "cvt" command. Eg, that's what I'm using for ao486 atm (experimental, not sure it's better than the "normal" modelines):

Code: Select all

[ao486]
forced_scandoubler=0
direct_video=0

[video=720x400]
video_mode=720,400,70,cvt

[video=320x200]
video_mode=640,400,70,cvt

[video=640x400]
video_mode=640,400,70,cvt

[video=640x480]
video_mode=640,480,60,cvt

That Wiki guide could do with some updating overall. I'm bit too busy with other stuff atm, away from most of my OG hardware, and have been out of the loop with all the latest CRT-related developments though. Here's hoping somebody else can bring it up to date.

This is fantastic! It works for everything. I added some entries for 800x600 and 1024x768 and everything just works and looks perfect. Thank you!

[video=800x600]
video_mode=800,600,60,cvt

[video=1024x768]
video_mode=1024,768,60,cvt

akeley wrote: ↑Tue Feb 21, 2023 6:26 am

I'm glad to hear these modelines are still useful, but I think these days you could do it simpler way (better?) with the new "cvt" command. Eg, that's what I'm using for ao486 atm (experimental, not sure it's better than the "normal" modelines):

Code: Select all

[ao486]
forced_scandoubler=0
direct_video=0

[video=720x400]
video_mode=720,400,70,cvt

[video=320x200]
video_mode=640,400,70,cvt

[video=640x400]
video_mode=640,400,70,cvt

[video=640x480]
video_mode=640,480,60,cvt

That Wiki guide could do with some updating overall. I'm bit too busy with other stuff atm, away from most of my OG hardware, and have been out of the loop with all the latest CRT-related developments though. Here's hoping somebody else can bring it up to date.

Are these commands valid also for 31khz VGA monitors?

And what does it mean, can I read about cvt somewhere?

AmintaMister wrote: ↑Tue Feb 21, 2023 6:44 pm

Are these commands valid also for 31khz VGA monitors?

They're dedicated for 31khz. I only have a VGA monitor at the moment so haven't tried any 15kHz ones.

HerrBerzerk wrote: ↑Tue Feb 21, 2023 7:49 pm

And what does it mean, can I read about cvt somewhere?

I'm not sure really. There were some posts about it here on the forums (I think I took these modelines from @Foxbat Stargazer's example in some thread about VGA monitors).

So in the bad old days, you had to manually specify the parameters for the horizontal and vertical blank as well as the pixel clock. Although you can still go that route if you want more precision and control over size/position.

Recent-ish the video_mode will now calculate standard timings if you just supply it vertical and horizontal # of pixels and a refresh rate. CVT parameter indicates to use CVT standard timings, which were designed around CRTs. If you don't put the parameter, it would default to CVT-RB, which is designed for LCDs and may have trouble on CRTs.

akeley wrote: ↑Tue Feb 21, 2023 6:26 am

I'm glad to hear these modelines are still useful, but I think these days you could do it simpler way (better?) with the new "cvt" command. Eg, that's what I'm using for ao486 atm (experimental, not sure it's better than the "normal" modelines):
[ao486]
forced_scandoubler=0
direct_video=0
[video=720x400]
video_mode=720,400,70,cvt
[video=320x200]
video_mode=640,400,70,cvt
[video=640x400]
video_mode=640,400,70,cvt
[video=640x480]
video_mode=640,480,60,cvt

I tried these video modes in my ini now and for me, a lot of games just crash on start (with the top 300 from flynnsbit).

E.g. Beyond Castle Wolfenstein crashes in the start screen
Commander Keen 5 crahes on the start screen
Earthworm Jim is crashing.... and others...

Is that only for me? I am using a CRT-VGA Monitor on the HDMI-Port with an adapter.

Like I said, these are "experimental" - meaning I did not have much time to test them, for various reasons.

If the old ones work for you, just stick with these, there shouldn't be much (any?) difference.

I'm more surprised that any video settings would cause a "crash", rather than just a sync failure.

akeley wrote: ↑Wed Mar 01, 2023 5:46 am

Like I said, these are "experimental" - meaning I did not have much time to test them, for various reasons.

If the old ones work for you, just stick with these, there shouldn't be much (any?) difference.

I'm afraid it has nothing to do with the video modes but with the mister version. The "old" method also does not work anymore for a lot of games. I did not play ao486 for some months. But for testing purposes I installed an old Mister Version from github yesterday and with this old version everything was working fine. I will so some more tests this evening.

When I have no ao486 version in the ini, means always the same resolution, also everything works fine with most recent mister version.

Interesting, I also have had problems with a lot of ao486 games in the last few months (usually literally "crash" - black screen) but I have chalked it up to maybe not having a heatsink. This happens on both old/new modeline method.

What is the number of the version of the mister that you say works fine with the old one? I might give it a spin.

akeley wrote: ↑Wed Mar 01, 2023 9:11 am

What is the number of the version of the mister that you say works fine with the old one? I might give it a spin.

I didn't have that much time today but if you want to try something, test an older AO486 version. I was jumping around between different Mister and different AO486 versions to test. It seems, that this black screen crash is not happening with any older version of AO486 like 22/03 or or 22/02...

At least Wolfenstein, Commander Keen 5 and Duke Nukem 3d are working fine with the older versions while they do NOT run with the most recent version for me. I did an update all before testing and I'm testing with the release version of Dos300.

I will continue testing until I have a definite result.

with last buiid of ao486 wolf3D work great for me

breiztiger wrote: ↑Thu Mar 02, 2023 6:52 am

with last buiid of ao486 wolf3D work great for me

Do you use a crt-vga monitor with HDMI adpater and mode-lines with resolution switching?

hdmi to vga adapter with dell 2007fp

edit : just make an update_all and the screen is flickering on wolf3d now ;-(

i return to my ipad 3 hdmi screen it's more simple to configure for now

breiztiger wrote: ↑Thu Mar 02, 2023 5:48 pm

hdmi to vga adapter with dell 2007fp

Would it be possible to post or send your ini, so I could test it here?

I am testing around and getting very mixed results. At the moment I am concentrating on Wolf3d and Duke Nukem wich both don't start with the latest core but are working with an older AO486 core.

But also, there are different results with different mister.ini files that make Duke either work or crash on start. It's is just that to me it looks like the content in the ini's is the same, just different structured. So I am really confused at the moment.

Probably I will do a complete fresh install and see if this makes a difference. Or if someone here says, I got a system that plays all these games on a VGA monitor with resolution switching just perfect, maybe he would share the ini so i can test it.

thorr wrote: ↑Thu Mar 31, 2022 10:02 pm

My goal is to have exact vertical refresh timings that match all the source frequencies. Using video_mode=6, etc. is fine for an interim solution, but not what I want for the long term, unless the vertical refresh frequencies match. I haven't spent the time yet to try all these other modes in DOS yet to see how they come up, but plan to.

But I believe the point of vsync_adjust=2 is that it will make the vertical refresh match the core output. With vsync set to variable in ao486, that means if the output should be 70.1, you'll get 70.1. Even though video_mode=6 is listed as 640x480@60, If you open the Mister menu with vsync_adjust=2 and ao486 set to "variable" vsync you can see the original vertical refresh is 70.1 and that's what the output vertical refresh is - so you'll get 640x480@70.1. Ditto for sync_adjust = 1, which has 1 frame of lag but higher compatibility.

You shouldn't have to be setting timings manually just to achieve a matching vertical frequency.