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author | Miodrag Milanovic <mmicko@gmail.com> | 2016-08-24 15:14:30 +0200 |
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committer | Miodrag Milanovic <mmicko@gmail.com> | 2016-08-24 15:16:43 +0200 |
commit | a86a53fb64dd4b9e6dfa3d6a1ebd48e30f9d3efa (patch) | |
tree | 0c51e0660a729b78010e0536d24ac3f91cd11166 /docs/newvideo.txt | |
parent | bade8ef9a962e7bcd83414c9e12e42d21cb51203 (diff) |
remove old doc content (nw)
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-rw-r--r-- | docs/newvideo.txt | 146 |
1 files changed, 0 insertions, 146 deletions
diff --git a/docs/newvideo.txt b/docs/newvideo.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 10c752bf2b0..00000000000 --- a/docs/newvideo.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,146 +0,0 @@ -This article originally appeared in a slightly different form at -http://aarongiles.com. You should read this if you are used to how -MAME's video system worked prior to 0.107 and you want to understand -how you should configure MAME with the new rendering system in place. - - -The New Video Landscape - -Since its inception 9 years ago, MAME's video system has defaulted to -a mode where it tries to change resolutions on you. And since the -first port of the core to Windows 5 years ago, it has defaulted to -using your graphics card to stretch the video to that resolution. - -I'm sure a lot of you out there have taken a lot of time to tweak the -current set of video options to make them work the way you like. But -every once in a while, you need to take a step back and re-evaluate -the situation. The current video system has been in place for 5 years -now without much substantial change. And with the recent rewrite, -you're almost certainly going to want to rethink the way you have -things configured. - -At the highest level, there are really three different ways you can -configure the new system. Placing yourself into one of these three -categories will help you get the initial settings right. From there, -you can tweak with the settings to figure out what works best. - - -Category 1: Bells and whistles. People who fall into this category -would include anyone with a modern system and a decent video card -(decent in this context means at least 16MB of VRAM and built in the -last 5 years or so -- we're not talking cutting edge here). Any decent -video card will be able to render the simple MAME graphics at pretty -much any resolution without breaking a sweat. Configure your desktop -to the video mode you want (preferably something high like 1024x768 -or greater with a high refresh rate, unless you are running on a -fixed-mode LCD, in which case just match what your LCD panel is), -and tell MAME to leave the resolution alone. In this day and age, -there is little reason to switch resolutions at all, unless you -fall into Category 3, below. In this mode, you will have full access -to artwork options, and you'll get your artwork scaled to full -resolution and with full alpha blending effects. Vector games will -look crisp, you can use decent fonts, and you can see a whole lot -more of the world when using the graphics/tilemap viewer. This mode -uses Direct3D, so you should configure yourself like this: - - -video d3d -noswitchres [-triplebuffer] [-nofilter] - -The -noswitchres option tells MAME to just run at the current -resolution. Although you can let MAME pick a resolution for you, it -doesn't really make much sense in D3D mode, and in fact I may even -remove that feature altogether. To avoid tearing artifacts, I -recommend using the -triplebuffer option as well. Just make sure your -monitor's refresh rate is higher than the game you are running. If -you dislike the blurry look of the graphics, you can specify the --nofilter option to disable bilinear filtering, though that will -produce blocky artifacts. Alternatively, you can use the -prescale -option which is described at the end of this article. - - -Category 2: Like the old days. I really didn't even want to support -this mode at all, but certain vocal MAMEdevs would have skinned me -alive otherwise. People who fall into this category include those who -have weak systems that worked fine with previous versions of MAME, -but who don't run well with Direct3D rendering. (Note that just -because Space Invaders runs unthrottled at 2000fps with DirectDraw -and 1000fps with Direct3D doesn't mean that Direct3D is going to be -a serious issue when playing at a regular 60fps, so if you're unsure, -give the Direct3D route a try for a while.) In this mode, MAME will -draw the game screen and artwork at the game's resolution, just like -it did in MAME 0.106 and earlier; however, some artwork options, -such as -artcrop, won't work as you might expect, and some alpha -blending artwork modes (specifically overlays) will operate with a -performance penality. MAME will then use your video card to stretch -the video to the proper aspect ratio. - - -video ddraw -hwstretch [-switchres] [-triplebuffer] - -The -switchres is optional here. If your video card is really ancient -and struggles expanding the screen to fit your desktop resolution, -you might want to turn it on. Again, to avoid tearing artifacts, I -recommend using the -triplebuffer option as well, but make sure your -monitor's refresh rate is higher than the game you are running -(-switchres will do that for you if you use it). If your video card -produces blurry pixels which you don't like, try the -prescale option -described at the end of this article. - - -Category 3: Anal video mode types. These are the guys who have -generally built their own cabinets and set them up with a CRT display -where they have several dozen carefully hand-tweaked video modes that -approximate the original video modes the games ran at. They want MAME -to pick that hand-tweaked mode and use it, drawing one pixel on the -screen for each pixel in the original game. They don't give a whit -about artwork or anything other than the raw pixels going to the -right place. Fortunately, you can still configure MAME for this case -as well: - - -video ddraw -nohwstretch -switchres [-triplebuffer] - -Obviously in this case, the -switchres is required. You also want to -disable hardware stretching, otherwise you won't get that "perfect" -1:1 pixel mapping. Triple buffering may or may not help. - - -So, I recommend starting with these initial options and then tweaking -from there. One additional option you might want to try in -combination with the above is the -prescale option. -prescale takes -an integer parameter from 1 to 3, and specifies a magnification -amount by which the screen pixels are expanded before they are drawn -to the screen. Why is this useful? And how much of a performance -impact does it have? Well, that depends on the mode you are running -in. - -If you are running in Category 1 (-video d3d), then -prescale will -use your video card to scale the game graphics up before rendering -them to the screen. Depending on the video card, this is usually a -small performance hit, but not too significant. The benefit is that -each prescale factor reduces the blurriness of the pixels. --prescale 1 is the default, which does no scaling. -prescale 2 will -double each pixel, and -prescale 3 will triple each pixel. For my -money, -prescale 2 is sufficient, but people with super high -resolution displays claim that larger -prescale factors work even -better. - -If you are running in Category 2 (-video ddraw -hwstretch), then --prescale will cause MAME to compose the screen graphics at the -specified scale factor. This is unfortunately done in software, but -carries the benefit that artwork, fonts, and the graphics viewer can -take advantage of the additional resolution to produce nicer results. -The end effect is that you will get less blurry pixels, just like the -Category 1 case, plus higher quality artwork, fonts, and more visible -area in the graphics viewer. - -If you are running in Category 3 (-video ddraw -nohwstretch), then --prescale will cause MAME to pick a video mode that is the prescale -factor times the raw screen resolution, and then MAME will, in -software, compose the screen graphics at the specified scale factor. -This has all the advantages of the Category 2 case, except that since -there wasn't any pixel blurring to begin with, there is no additional -crispness that comes about as a result. - -Finally, you may be wondering about effects (and yes, scanlines are -an "effect"). Effects are no longer hard-coded into the system. -Rather, you can provide a PNG file in the artwork directory that will -be loaded and overlaid on top of screen bitmaps. See the description -of -effect in windows.txt for more details. |