PhilExile

OK - after playing around with this some more and then going BACK to 1.3, I have to agree with Cospefogo - there is definitely something affecting these screen values. I opened PROGEAR in 1.3 with no problems - both the horizontal and vertical sizes were perfect with no distortion. I opened this same game in 1.4, using the same INI - immediately, the game was too low, causing it to be off-register with the scanlines. I could not get the horizontal size to 'lock' without having distortion. T, could you please take a look at the screen sizing code that you changed again? I've spent, literally, an entire day working on this, and I'm 99% sure there is something wrong. Thank you again for your help.

This would be great! T, is that possible? There is a bug in FBL that doesn't allow a preconfigured 10x11 INI to be implemented. T is looking into fixing it for the 1.5 release. ALEX KIDD is one such game. Just go into video settings and turn off 10x11, then turn it back on. It should fix the overscan issue you are having. Don't, there are a lot of errors, which I discovered this morning. I'm combing through them now and fixing them, so I'll resend shortly. Not yet, but I will! Talk soon

Time to upgrade. I would setup an alert for SONY PVM on your local Craigslist. I got one for free that way and another for $100. Call post-production houses or advertising agencies that have video editing suites too. Sometimes they have stuff they are looking to get rid of. I hate them too, but billinear is the best if you need to get rid of screen size distortions - it does hide it very well. Ya, that filters the most 'realistic' I've seen, however, its not 100%. I have a real NES hooked up to PVM via composite and it definitely doesn't look much like the filter in Nestopia - or as bad. It really depended on your TV and connecting cord too. I'm not familiar - could you post a link?

OK, no problem - for some reason, I thought you had the PP sickness. Right, that's the trade-off. If your CRT overscales the picture a lot, you will loss some information. The ideal is to either get a video production monitor (Sony PVMs are great), which will allow you to adjust overscan or use an LCD in 480P mode. 1941 is a vertical game and I set the PP to work with the SCREEN ROTATION set to DISABLED. On my monitor it works fine with the WIDESCREEN FIX: ON. If you still have some overscan, turn on the 10x11 pixel ration fix - that should cure it. However, if you turned the WIDESCREEN mode on/off it may have goofed up the INI I sent you and you'll have to re-copy it over. OK, you might as well - especially if it doesn't bother you. You can use some of the filters to hide this type of stuff - like billinear. Just out of curiosity, what model monitor do you have? Thanks again for testing.

Maybe that's it then. Gilou9999, I could send you a few of my old PP INIs, along with the new 1.4 versions so you could test out this theory if you want. Like I said earlier, I never really got around to going through the entire FBL set and creating PP INIs for all of them - so starting from 'scratch' now isn't a worry for me - just as long as other 1.4 users don't have any problems.

No problem - thanks! OK, well, its not a huge deal anyway. Usually things were off by only a few XY coordinates. As long as I can give these INIs to anyone else using 1.4 and they can use them without issue - that's all that matters. Great, sounds perfect. That's what I noticed. Overall, I think it works really well. Like I said, as long as anyone with 1.4 can use the INIs I'm creating (with the help of Cos!) - then I think everything should remain as-is. I sent out some of the INIs to people to test late last night, so hopefully we'll hear back soon on how its working out. Talk soon

Hi JL, I think that is a sound driver issue. Something similar happens with GHOSTS & GOBLINS. I remember IQ told me it had something to do with how the sound was emulated, but I'm not sure exactly what it was. Mabybe he could chime in. Let us know how those INIs work! Thanks

I wonder if this is your TV's doing. I just made a bunch of perfect pixel INIs that work for me in 480p mode. I'll email them to you now so you can try them out. ------------ +T+, while testing I noticed one weird thing: the game Action Fighter (FD1089A 317-0018) has garbage graphics on the title screen when you first launch it. If you start the game and then go to the menu and reset it, this seems to correct the problem. I don't know if this is a ROM issue, FBL issue, or something else entirely - but I thought you should know. ------------ Regarding the perfect pixel INIs: Anyone who would like to try them, please PM me. I was only able to get through the #s and As today - so this is going to take some time. People should test though to see if they are working universally. ------------ +T+, none of the 1.3 perfect pixel INIs transferred without needing to be tweaked to some degree. At this point, I don't think this is a big deal since I never go through all the games anyway. My only concern is the possibility that the 'universal' screen size somehow is affecting the custom INIs that I'm creating. I don't think it is, but we should find out for sure. Also, I noticed that when the WIDESCREEN FIX is applied, it does affect the 'pixel perfect' sized screen. For instance, if I set the perfect pixel size for 1943, then apply 10x11 pixel, and finally, Widescreen Fix, the vertical size of the screen is slightly reduced, along with the horizontal. This is easily fixed by just adjusting it manually. Again, I don't think this is a problem, but I thought you should know. Overall, I think that Widescreen fix works really well. OK, that's about it.

OK, send me an email to remind me. I think you have mine. Oh, OK, great - I didn't realize that was previously reported. I'm going to go through the As and let you know how it goes. Talk soon

Not exactly. Could you PM me with a chat client name that you use? (AIM, Gchat, MSN) It would probably be easier to discuss that way. Also, I did notice a bug - I think. For some games in 480i/p mode, a combination of 10x11 pixel mode and widescreen fix (which is awesome btw) can 'correct' widescreen games like 1943. However, I noticed that when you return to a game like this, it says that 10x11 is ON in the video settings, but it is not. You need to turn it OFF, then back ON for it to take effect. Is that something that can be fixed? I'm not sure if its actually a bug or not. Thank you again, +T+ Sparda, sorry to hear you got hurt - that sucks. Rest up. If you want, I can send you the first batch of PP INIs. All the numbered games. Just PM me if you're up for it.

OK, I did some quick testing and from what I can tell, the perfect pixel INIs, previously created in version 1.3, work fine with a tweak here or there. For instance, sometimes I'll pull up a game and the screen will be off horizontally or vertically by 1 pixel X/Y coordinate. This used to happen time to time in 1.3 as well when you were opening a game up 'fresh' so to say. Cos, I think you're problems are from a buggy scanline filter in 720p mode. Test out the 480p INIs and let us know what you find. +T+ could you look into adding the rotation 'lock' for the next release? I just played '99: THE LAST WAR and each time I launch the rom, I need to change the screen rotation to 180 degrees from the default 270 degrees. This would be great for people with TATE setups. Thank you again for all the hard work! I'm going to be working on the complete perfect pixel set and will provide it to Fumanchu (or whoever) for distribution. This may take me a while, but I'm going to bang out some now for the next hour or so.

Hi Cos (and everybody) I'm going to be trying out the pixel perfect INIs and FBL 1.4 today. I'll let you all know what I find. Cos, just so you know, I always had issues with the scanline filter when using 720p mode in FBL. Try turning it off, returning to the game, then turning the scanlines on again. I saw this same distortion and its why I gave up on 720p and stuck with 480p. If you're TV has a decent upscaler, then 480p looks great. All the guys at the System 11 Shmup forum use this mode. Cheers everyone!

This looks good, T! Just to confirm, people who want to use custom, perfect-pixel INIs for each game can still do so right?

I'd be more worried about my butt-hole.

Right, you basically have to eyeball it. Luckily, since I have a PVM with Emotia, it makes it VERY obvious when something isn't 'perfect pixel' - T, I know you hate that term, but I can't think of anything better. Cos actually started all these INIs for me and got them 95% without the aid of real 240p - which is basically inhuman and amazing!

Right, you basically have to eyeball it. Luckily, since I have a PVM with Emotia, it makes it VERY obvious when something isn't 'perfect pixel' - T, I know you hate that term, but I can't think of anything better. Cos actually started all these INIs for me and got them 95% with the aid of real 240p - which is basically inhuman and amazing!

I can supply you with accurate pixel sizes for each game in 480i/p mode in a few weeks. I'm going to check each so they are 'perfect' as much as they can be. Also, can you please make sure there is a way to lock the screen rotation so that FBL remembers it? Currently, if you chose a verical game - lets say Ms. Pac-Man - and set it to be rotated 180 or 90 degrees, FBL doesn't save this part of the config (it does save the screen size) so that when you launch the rom again, its set to 4:3 instead of 3:4. Make sense?

Hey +T+ I'm actually curious about how many people here are using SDTV or HDTV. Do you think you could put up a poll? Also, I think it would be fine to do a global, scaled setting - but leave the option for a custom screen size. I wouldn't take features away. What were the enhancements in MAMEoX128Plus?

I know what your saying, however, anyone with an HDTV can do this. Its only if you want scanlines that you'd need an SLG3000. I'm guessing 80% of the people out there don't even notice or tweak their screen settings though. Also, EVERYONE should try to get a PVM (RGB monitor) these days. People are practically giving them away - literally. Check your local Craigslist!

Hey T, I know what you are saying, but I disagree. The easiest example I can give is the NES (I know its not an arcade, but bear with me) Its native resolution is 256x240, which means its 'perfect pixel' is 512x480. The actual NES output is stretched to 640x480, the length of an SDTV screen. Now, with perfect pixel, you can see bars on either side, but there are ways around this: 1. SDTV + Extron Emotia - Using this device, along with an XBOX in 480p mode, you can achieve true 240p output from the XBOX. This is the same as an actual NES. However, the bars are still there. Luckily, the Emotia has a horizontal stretch dial so you can make the output fit 95% of the screen - its not perfect, but damn near close. 2. HDTV + SLG3000 (optional) - Set the XBOX to output 480p and use 10x11 pixel ratio. This will make everything look really thin on your HDTV - aka the black bars on either side actually get bigger. Now, change your TV's picture setting from 4:3 to 16:9. This will stretch the displayed image to be a perfect 640x480 image. If you use an SLG3000 in combination with these settings, it gives the appearance of the original NES output. The same sort of tweaks can be done for arcade games, but I've found most of them render fine. For instance, I play Ms. Pac-Man a lot on my vertical 'tate' PVM. I can't tell the difference between it and a real arcade machine in my local bar. Some games don't work right though, as +T+ is pointing out, however, its pixel perfect is essential, especially if you are either using 240p mode via the Emotia or simulating scanlines with the SLG3000. Everything 'locks' into place and looks very sharp - that's the best way I can explain it.

Thanks again, Fu! I want SNES!

Wow, this is really great, thank you both! IQ, your mom says 'hi'

Thanks, Fu! Where are these descriptions from?

My guess - this part of the forum will likely be a ghost town in a month.

Hey BP, I'll be around this weekend to chat. I finally got a chance to really play with the new CoinOps2 and its working great! Thanks again