Pinball Illusion AGA, Display Issue in High-Res

[kathleen]

Hello everyone,

I'm participating to a game competition where the game in question is Pinball Illusion. As usual, I wanted to play the game on the Mister with the Minimig core.

This game is an A1200 using the AGA capabilities and also has during the multiball the use of the high res mode. Which can also be selected during the game with F9 or F10.

The game works as it should in low res, but in high res, if doesn't. There are issues with the score bar (at the top of the table) and also some sync issues with the table which makes it disappearing by intermittence which makes the game unplayable during those phases.

So far I remember I already played this game with and older revision of the core but I do not remember which one.

Has anyone already managed to get this game working under the minimig core ?
If yes, which which revision and / or with which set up ?

Or is there really an issue with the core leading to this problem ?

Thanks you in advance for your help.

[thisisamigaspeaking]

Seems to work fine for me in hi res on MiSTer v220723 with Minimig v220712. How frequent are the issues? Is it something that would take a length of time to show up?

[kathleen]

Thank you for your answer.

I'll try with the MiSTer v220723. I'm currently using the last one v221129.
The Minimig core version is the same however

Non it happens directly once the game enters into the multiball mode or if I change the resolution with F9/F10.

[thisisamigaspeaking]

Here's my video mode settings:

Code: Select all

dvi_mode=0
video_mode=8
vsync_adjust=1
video_mode_ntsc=8
video_mode_pal=9

[kathleen]

Just did some trials and none of them worked.

I tried with :

• The exact same configuaration as you, (MiSTer version + Minimig version) -> still issue in high res.
• Your video mode settings (except that I had to change the resolution to 1024*768 as this is the native res of my VGA monitor -> still issue in high res.

Maybe the issue is because I'm using a 15 in. LCD VGA monitor ? I've no HDMI monitor laying around. But I"ll try to get one to make the test.

Below is the picture I get in high res.

Pill.png (473.46 KiB) Viewed 2195 times

[thisisamigaspeaking]

Ah yes, probably is related to the VGA output then. I have a VGA LCD I could test with but unfortunately it's in another room and not convenient to hook up right now.

[thisisamigaspeaking]

I've no HDMI monitor laying around. But I"ll try to get one to make the test.

If you intend to buy rather than borrow one, keep in mind that HDMI->DVI is a straight cable, and it is possible to get 5:4 1280x1024 (MiSTer mode 4) monitors with both DVI and VGA input rather inexpensively ($30-40 shipped on eBay in the US). Better than widescreen I think.

[Malor]

I'm running Minimig in video mode 12 (1920x1440) via HDMI, and it seems to work okay here. I'm not seeing any syncing issues, other than my monitor flickering briefly when engaging high-res mode.

[blacklistedcard]

I get the same issue with Dell Monitor at 1600x1200 HDMI connection.

[mapf]

Tested it using MegaAGS20220303 and the latest Minimig rfb. Hi-Res works fine on both my DVI 1600x1200 monitor and my Sony 14" Trinitron connected with VGA->SCART.

You might want to check the video options. I am using

Code: Select all

video_mode=1600,1200,60,cvtrb
vscale_mode=0
vsync_adjust=2
forced_scandoubler=0

[Malor]

My relevant settings (which seem to work correctly) are simply this:

Code: Select all

[MiSTer]
video_mode=8

[Minimig]
video_mode=12

Mode 8 is 1080p, mode 12 is 1920x1440, both with NTSC timings. This is over HDMI; I'm not using VGA at all.

The ini file implies that it's better to set a base NTSC mode, and not to set a PAL mode at all, allowing any given core to derive the timings it wants for PAL. They say that this gives the core a broader range of timings to choose from.

However, the last time I brought this up, at least one person absolutely needed to set video_mode_pal to get any visible output, so that advice doesn't always apply.

[limi]

The ini file implies that it's better to set a base NTSC mode, and not to set a PAL mode at all, allowing any given core to derive the timings it wants for PAL. They say that this gives the core a broader range of timings to choose from.

This may be the case for other cores, but for the Amiga core it seems to be necessary at least when outputting 1080p.

Scrolling is completely broken (screen tearing etc) in PAL mode unless you specify both PAL and NTSC settings explicitly. This is consistently reproducible for both Optiroc and myself. (We are both using various LG OLED TVs)

(I know this isn’t the first time we have mentioned this, so apologies for the repeat message, just want to make sure people are aware :)

[Malor]

You must be the person I was thinking of when I was saying that at least one person needed the PAL mode set. Boy, that's annoying. But Minimig is a port from MiST, and might not do things in quite the right way.

Another thought: your LG OLEDs could be doing something weird. Are they older models?

I have a newish but relatively cheap LG GN850-something. I don't think it's a great general-purpose screen, as it suffers from black crush. However, it and the Mister got along pretty well when I first bought it, and now get along famously after VRR support was added. The lack of detailed blacks is not really a problem with retro games, so I've been very happy with it, post-VRR.

I wonder if this year's C2 models work as nicely as this 850? I would assume they would use the same scalers, but the 850 has DisplayPort, which I don't think is available on the C2s. They could be using different electronics.

[kathleen]

Back to my issue, thanks to your help here and by PM, and thanks to my (new) monitor HDMI, I confirm that the game in HI-RES works on my side as well. So this is an issue related only to the VGA output.
So, consider it is solved