MAME Native Vs Scaled Resolution Demonstration

This is a comparison of what it looks like to run MAME using the game's original resolution and frequency scaling the game to match your OS's desktop resolution. Here are static photos to compare along with some LCD photos added:

bezerk
http://i38.tinypic.com/2vjofpu.jpg

gauntlet
http://i33.tinypic.com/105bokw.jpg

gng1
http://i33.tinypic.com/mlr3fn.jpg

gng2
http://i33.tinypic.com/j9x18w.jpg

bubble1
http://i37.tinypic.com/2myd8ba.jpg

bubble2
http://i38.tinypic.com/2wfmhr5.jpg

I've seen some comparison screenshots of native vs scaled but many of those are screen grabs and doesn't really show what it looks like on a CRT whether it's a VGA, Multisync, or regular TV.

As far as which one looks better, you're the best judge of it. You can see how some of these samples look better scaled and "smoothed" out while some looks better in old pixelated glory. At least you can see the difference.

These shots were taken off of a Wells Gardner D9400 running the fabulous Soft15khz utility from a generic old GeForce AGP card.

http://wiki.arcadecontrols.com/wiki/Soft-15khz

You can alternatively run the also great ArcadeVGA and have those lower resolutions and frequencies before your OS boots.

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• soft15khz
• arcade
• cab
• resolution
• vga
• video
• game
• mame
• emulator
• arcadvga
• ultimarc
• wells
• gardner
• d9400
• mala
• retro
• ntsc
• pal
• multicade
• multi
• ultracade
• 48-in-1
• 60-in-1
• hyperspin
• hs

[HELLGUNGRAVE777]

is their any way to the reduce resolution of a video card? like really low 256-240 i got a nes emulator and want nes in pixelated glory going out of my svideo--->tv (no lcd here)

[amiga2000]

Yes. As discussed in the comments and wrote about in the video description, google for "soft15khz" and run it. It's compatible with most ATI and Nvidia cards and will let you go to those super low resolutions as well as refresh rates.

I don't know if svideo will be affected. go to soft15khz and ask sailorsat. she wrote the app.

[maiki60fps]

how does that compare to Advance MAME and its 15 kHz RGB output through VGA? btw. most GPUs cannot output low pclocks so I do not believe any software under Windows will output low res unless you double/triple horizontal resolutions... IMO a fairly old dedicated card is the only way to get resolutions like 256x224 etc....

[amiga2000]

I am not familiar with advance mame. brand new ati and nvidia cards can output low resolutions and low frequencies. read the soft15khz wiki and let me know what you think.

[maiki60fps]

as far as I know problems appeared around first Geforce chipsets... the GPU simply cannot be forced to very low pclocks.. so in order to generate 256x224 you have to create 512x224 or even 768x224 - which is nothing but waste of CPU performance... and from soft 15 kHz I read this: "Note: The NVidia GeForce 8 seems to be unable to get resolutions lower than 512x384." - that's unusable for 15 kHz.... with ADVMAME you can create your own video modes... Moon Patrol runs az 57 Hz for instance

[amiga2000]

gotcha. very good to know and thanks for posting!

[kiwisoup]

By default MAME uses a filter that softens the graphics. Direct 3D bi-linear filtering. Disabling it will make it look a lot more arcade perfect. The scaled resolution examples clearly have this enabled.

[igorbog88]

@igorbog88

, also upscaler "fog" not that noticeable as on crt pc monitor.

[igorbog88]

Having tested mame,snes etc. on soft15khz with a homemade scart cable, I can vouch that using a non-upscaled res on my old 14" amiga tv looks terribad.

When native, blocks/pixels are much too large compared to 640x480 interlaced for instance.

IMO

[mud409]

Yes, Vampire Weekend is ALWAYS necessary!

[t1ngley]

Was the awful music really necessary?

[Topesio66]

Love this video. Is nice how you concentrate on how to get the REAL original signal.

I play with LCD 22' cause I love to play vertical games and I can pivot, use some filters and try as possible to use perfect scanlines, well...it's not like a CRT I know I know... :-)