MiSTer FPGA Forum

Hi! Hoping someone here can help me out. I have a Sony PVM I play NeoGeo and other cores on, but decided to try a tate setup for some vertical arcade cores. Unfortunately only Galaga works, all the others I have sync problems (Donkey Kong, Dig Dug, Ms Pac-man). I've tried nuking everything and starting fresh, only composite_sync=1 set in the config. Also tried both the IO VGA out and Direct Video with VGA dongle. What am I missing?

What kind of sync issue do you have? PVMs usually don't like too long Vsyncs but all those cores have about the same Vsync length and yet Galaga works so maybe it's not that.

It basically looks like abstract art haha. It's an OEV203 btw, but I had a chance to try it on another CRT and Donkey Kong looks fine. So it appears there is something about the sync that the PVM doesn't like. Do I have any options to normalize the sync?

Is the image jumping horizontally, vertically or both?

Horizontally I think. It looks like a smattering of random pixels moving from left to right across the screen (in a normal tv orientation).

That indicates it does not lock to Hsync but then usually you should get a wavy diagonal image. Donkey Kong does have a 60.60Hz refresh rate which is higher than normal. Can you try below settings in MiSTer.ini? It will normalize Hsync and Vsync and you can force it to 60Hz by setting vsync_adjust=0.

paulbnl wrote: ↑Mon Nov 23, 2020 1:54 pm That indicates it does not lock to Hsync but then usually you should get a wavy diagonal image. Donkey Kong does have a 60.60Hz refresh rate which is higher than normal. Can you try below settings in MiSTer.ini? It will normalize Hsync and Vsync and you can force it to 60Hz by setting vsync_adjust=0.

Code: Select all

[dkong]
video_mode=320,4,29,31,224,10,3,27,6082
vga_scaler=1
vsync_adjust=2
vscale_mode=1
video_mode_pal=none
video_mode_ntsc=none
direct_video=0

Thanks for getting back to me. Unfortunately it still won't work with these settings, its crazy. I also just tried DoDonPachi WIP core and its fine, so who knows. I will try to take a picture so you can see what it looks like, maybe I am not describing it correctly.

I had the same issue with my PVM 1954QM, I solved the problem by setting composite_sync=0 in the mister.ini file

EDIT: my post is related only to Dodonpachi core, the other arcade cores would work perfectly fine with composite_sync=1

paulbnl wrote: ↑Mon Nov 23, 2020 1:54 pm That indicates it does not lock to Hsync but then usually you should get a wavy diagonal image. Donkey Kong does have a 60.60Hz refresh rate which is higher than normal. Can you try below settings in MiSTer.ini? It will normalize Hsync and Vsync and you can force it to 60Hz by setting vsync_adjust=0.

Code: Select all

[dkong]
video_mode=320,4,29,31,224,10,3,27,6082
vga_scaler=1
vsync_adjust=2
vscale_mode=1
video_mode_pal=none
video_mode_ntsc=none
direct_video=0

Sorry to hijack this thread but I'm also experiencing sync issues with a few games, for example Kung-Fu Master and Moon Patrol, so I figured I'd try these settings. This is how Kung-Fu Master normally looks for me:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1vW14Cu ... sp=sharing

I added a [kungfum] section to my MiSTer.ini with the settings above and it changed the output to this:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1G0rh7J ... sp=sharing

So I tried commenting everything except for video_mode and vga_scaler and now the video is stable but it looks very pixelated, you can see it in the Kung-Fu Master text:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/15ZnFkN ... sp=sharing

Any idea how I can fix that? I assume it's in the video_mode but I'm not sure what to change it to. Any suggestions are greatly appreciated!

netbeui wrote: ↑Wed Apr 07, 2021 3:03 pm Any idea how I can fix that? I assume it's in the video_mode but I'm not sure what to change it to. Any suggestions are greatly appreciated!

It looks like your TV is not able to display 50Hz. Does a 55Hz core like SectionZ work correctly?

I am working on some video fixes for the Irem M62 core which includes the original 55Hz timing so that might fix it if your TV does support 55Hz.

paulbnl wrote: ↑Thu Apr 08, 2021 8:36 pm

netbeui wrote: ↑Wed Apr 07, 2021 3:03 pm Any idea how I can fix that? I assume it's in the video_mode but I'm not sure what to change it to. Any suggestions are greatly appreciated!

It looks like your TV is not able to display 50Hz. Does a 55Hz core like SectionZ work correctly?

I am working on some video fixes for the Irem M62 core which includes the original 55Hz timing so that might fix it if your TV does support 55Hz.

Yes SectionZ works but I'm not sure it's actually running at that resolution, isn't the lower section of the OSD showing the current resolution? Sorry I'm a bit of a noob with this stuff..

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1phudiY ... sp=sharing

The top is the core resolution which is output to IO board with vga_scaler=0 or Direct video. The bottom is the scaler resolution which is output to HDMI or IO board with vga_scaler=1.

Try this core without the [kungfum] section in ini:

paulbnl wrote: ↑Thu Apr 08, 2021 9:10 pm The top is the core resolution which is output to IO board with vga_scaler=0 or Direct video. The bottom is the scaler resolution which is output to HDMI or IO board with vga_scaler=1.

Try this core without the [kungfum] section in ini:

That worked - thank you!! I'm not sure if I did it right but here's what I did:

1. Commented the [kingfum] section of my ini
2. Copied the Arcade-IremM62_20210408.rbf you attached here to my _Arcade/cores folder
3. Deleted IremM62_20210303.rbf from my _Arcade/cores folder
4. Renamed Arcade-IremM62_20210408.rbf to IremM62_20210303.rbf

https://drive.google.com/file/d/16LzIU0 ... sp=sharing

Do you know if running update_all will overwrite the fixed version of Kung-Fu Master that I now have on my MiSTer?

Also wondering what numbers I use for video_mode so that it matches the 1280x1024 108.00MHZ 60.0HZ that's displayed when I run SectionZ (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1phudiY ... sp=sharing). When I run Asteroids by default there are sync issues but I can get a stable image if I use video_mode=320,4,29,31,224,10,3,27,6082 in my ini file although the resolution is very low.

The core has been updated already with my fixes so you can use safely use update_all.

Try this video mode for Asteroids: video_mode=640,30,60,70,240,4,4,14,12587

paulbnl wrote: ↑Fri Apr 09, 2021 10:41 pm The core has been updated already with my fixes so you can use safely use update_all.

Try this video mode for Asteroids: video_mode=640,30,60,70,240,4,4,14,12587

That definitely improved the resolution but the image was too narrow:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1zHrkE4 ... sp=sharing

So I tried changing the 240 to 480 which improved the width:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1su7HFN ... sp=sharing

But it screwed up the menu:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1GI9TFS ... sp=sharing

Anyway I'm not too worried 'cause vector games shouldn't really be played on anything but a vector monitor. What I'm really curious about is how you come up with those video modes. Is there a special website or something you're using to generate those video modes?

The image is too narrow because the scaler thinks your TV is very wide at 640x240 which is 8:3. That's why the image is half width. You can set a custom aspect ratio at 8:3 so that it results in 4:3.

netbeui wrote: ↑Sat Apr 10, 2021 3:53 am So I tried changing the 240 to 480 which improved the width:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1su7HFN ... sp=sharing

Wow I don't know how your TV is displaying 480 lines at 31Hz! As you can see you can't just change it to 480. You could damage your TV if it receives 480p at 60Hz.

Normally I calculate the modes manually but this time I just copied the video mode that the menu uses which is 640x240 because Asteroids is 640x480.

BTW don't forget to set vsync_adjust=2 for low lag.

Thanks for the tips paulbnl, I really appreciate it. Hope you can help again because Moon Patrol stopped working. Something must've changed 'cause the video rolls now when I run it. All other IREM games work fine. This is with no custom [mpatrol] section in my ini file. What's weird is that the custom video mode that I used before as a workaround doesn't work anymore. I either get a black screen or various random solid vertical bars on the screen if I try to use a custom video mode. It boots if I comment the [mpatrol] section but the video is rolling now. I noticed Asteroids stopped working too with custom video modes. Any idea what may have caused this? Maybe an update to the main MiSTer core broke something? It's weird though that all IREM games work fine except Moon Patrol. Any help/advice is appreciated!

https://drive.google.com/file/d/12feAfk ... sp=sharing

Hi paulbnl, I formatted a new SD card and installed everything fresh but I'm still seeing rolling video on Moon Patrol. I tried older versions of MiSTer, Arcade-Iren and MoonPatrol RBFs including the Arcade-Irem RBF you posted in this thread but I can't figure out how to get it running smoothly again like it did a few days ago.

All Irem games that previously displayed distorted graphics (Horizon, Kung-Fu Master, Moon Patrol, LodeRunner, Spelunker, etc) worked perfectly after I installed your updated Arcade-Irem. They're still running great except for Moon Patrol and I can't figure out why for the life of me! Any idea what it might be?

Moon patrol is a separate core. I have tried to add the same video changes as the other Irem core but the core seems to be unstable because the sound keeps freezing randomly.

I was just about to send another message cause I poked around a bit more and noticed that Moon Patrol doesn't have the same settings as the rest of the Irem games. I'm guessing the "video timing" setting is the one that's causing me grief. Anyway I went back to a custom video mode to make it run, that must've been why I remembered it running properly before

Thanks for all your help!