How to...1280x1344+scanlines+fullscreen+nearest ?¿

[theelf]

Hi!! im back, long time

 

 

Im fighting with neoraine, to play neogeocd games

 

 

I want to use the emulator at 1280x1344 resolution (320*4 x 224 *6) or any other width resolution, i dont care, 320x1344 or 304x1344 is OK for my

 

Plus i want normal scanlines (black lines) and nearest (point) image

 

 

 

I need to use 1344 because my 19" CRT below this resolution (well 1120 is still OK but not 896) show small real scanlines, i want to avoid

 

 

 

Im totally stuck... if i select openGL i dont have a scanline option, if i select a shader, i dont find any "nearest" option, and other options, dont have scanlines over double resolution

 

 

Plus, it seems neoraine force some kind of aspect ratio, instead of fill the screen

 

 

 

Any ideas? im really stuck with the options, and i dont find any config that works for me

 

 

Thanks a lot!!!

 

 

 

 

 

[Tux]

There is a setting to prevent it from preserving the aspect ratio, it's in renderer options with opengl : keep aspect ratio, set no, but it's usually a bad idea in most cases... (neogeo games are not 16:9 games, so on modern screen they would be distorted if you don't preserve their ratio).

 

Still in the renderer options with opengl you have "opengl filtering" nearest or linear, but know that the shaders can force this option, so it's usually usefull only when not using shaders.

 

And finally the only way to have scanlines in opengl is to use a shader which emulates them, there are a few to choose from.

 

Ah for your resolution, well I didn't add an option to force any resolution because the thinking with modern screens is to adapt the game to any resolution used by the screen, and usually it works well.

But if you really want to force it, you'll have to edit your raine(32)_sdl.cfg file in the config directory, change screen_x and screen_y to whatever you want. I suggest to use a windowed mode in this case (fullscreen = 0) because otherwise it will choose the closest available video resolution which might not be what you want. Eventually use a borderless window, it's exactly like fullscreen in this case !

[theelf]

Hi, thanks for reply

 

 

Still dont found any way to just stretch the image, or there is no option for this?

 

I can use 1600x1200, but i preffer to use a custom resolution for neoraine, like 1520x1344, and force exact HZ on this resolution for example, there is no way?

 

 

About scanlines, most of shaders dont work for my, specially the one that maybe are what im looking for, pixelate-scanline, i just get a black screen

 

My videocard is a nvidia 8600GT

 

Thanks

[Tux]

What do you mean "stretch the image" ? The image is always scaled to the maximum size when using opengl (keeping its aspect ratio by default unless you told it not to).

There is the old renderer method if you want to test it, hq2x/3x etc, but it's not suited for big screens usually, 3x is not enough for them, they are still available in normal blits.

 

For the scanlines, be sure to use the latest raine, you get :

caligari-scanlines.shader
Pixellate-scanlines.shader
scanline-3x.shader
scanline-4x.shader
Themaister-scanlines.shader
Themaister-Waterpaint-scanlines.shader

I hope at least one of these works for you ! You can also try to update the video driver, it might help with shaders compatibility.

Once again : neoraine is extremely outdated now, it has been merged into raine a very long time ago !

Edited February 2, 2016 by Tux

[theelf]

Hi tux, im sorry big delay to answer, but i had problems in real life, and this last two months was soo busy to even touch a computer

 

 

 

 

Now im more relax, and come back to try to use raine again, with NeoGeoCD games. First of all, i changed neoraine with latest windows version of raine, and all screen problems gone, i moddified the pixelate scanline shader, and now looks great, thanks for tips

 

 

Just one question, using OpenGL, there is any way to raine change the resolution? i use 640x480 for my desktop, but i want to use 1280x1344 in raine

(for now, i need to change first my desktop resolution, and then open raine)

 

 

 

 

Ok, the important question, everytime i want to play REAL neogeoCD games (original disc no rip) most of the time i get this error when playing, only sometimes i get music, and when the error came, raine crash or get soo slow than im forced to close it

 

 

MUSIC Error: MPEG123: Prepare for a changed audio format

 

 

 

My CDrom player is a USB drive, and works ok in other neogeocd emulator with music

 

 

Thanks

[Tux]

Ah sorry I actually never tested with an original cd ! I added the support blindingly, but it's not tested.

I advice to use a cd image instead, it will preserve your cds this way (the more you read them, the more they risk to be damaged).

It shouldn't be hard to do, most of the image formats are supported.

 

A desktop of 640x480 on a 1280 screen ??? WTF ? Do you do that because your characters are too small ? If it's the case just search for a method to increase the font size in windows (normally it's the dpi setting in linux, very easy to change, but for some reason it's not that easy apparently in windows !). You can try to edit the config file, set the resolution like I said above and have fullscreen = 1 at the same time. I never tested such a setup and it would probably have issues, the best is to use raine at the same resolution as the desktop or < (in a window).

 

Good luck again !

[theelf]

No, my screen is a CRT, I use 640x480 most of time because is overall best resolution and the most common, and only high res like 1280x1344 or 1280x1440 for emulators to have good scanlines

 

 

I already tried set the resolution by hand in the ini file, but Raine keep using desktop one. Is not a big deal, because i can do a auto hotkeyscript to auto change resolution everytime open raine, i just was wondering if was possible or not thanks

 

 

 

 

About real CD, i can confirm, that at least with a USB drive and XP is not working at all, i tried 3 different external USB CDrom, and same problem, I have a tablet with windows 8.1, and same problem, then is not a XP fault

 

Yes, most of the time i just use CD images, is more easy &noise free, besides i¡¡the option to use ISO+mp3 is great to save some space

But for me, use real CDs to test them is a must, if not, im forced to connect the neogeo cd machine to do the task, and one of the reason I use emulators, is to save the time of connect the consoles, specially because there is a lot of systems!

 

 

I will keep Raine for images (iso+mp3), and the old emulator "neogeocdz" for real CDs, work great even if old

 

 

 

 

 

Sorry one more question, and last one, how can I hidde all on-screen messages? I check the ini, and I did not found anything to do

 

 

Thanks a lot

Edited March 6, 2016 by theelf

[Tux]

From memory when trying to read an audio cd it must pass a drive "number". Since there was no obvious way to guess this number, I just passed 0, the 1st drive, so if you use an external one with usb it will probably not work. I would need to spend more time testing this, but it's actually hard to test, the cd read this way uses the system function to read it, with linux it means you hear nothing if the drive is not connected directly to the soundcard which is my case. So I must test this in windows, and I reinstalled windows in august so it's not really convenient ! Maybe later, but no promise here.

 

Remove the text messages ? I quite like them, you are actually the 1st person asking for that but I guess some others don't like them. Oh well adding an option for that would be very easy, I'll keep that in mind, even if for now I take a break from raine development !

 

I just added that to the source, now you'll have to wait for the next binary !

Notice that if you use a crt screen you might want to try the "normal blits" instead of opengl. In this case you get an option to change the video mode to match the original game resolution, which is a bad idea on the modern flat screen but which works well on crts. You can choose 2x resolution if you want. Just try it with hq2x or hq3x, you might get a better display this way with your setup (but in this case it totally changes scanlines, there are no shaders anymore, but there is a scanline option).

Good testing !

Edited March 7, 2016 by Tux

[theelf]

Hi! thanks for all, please, dont take my questions like something to "do" i appreciate a lot your effort, and yes, i will love a option to remove all text!!! thanks a lot

 

Even if i know im using a emulator, i want to feel im in front of the original machine. Thats why i dont like filters, or anything was not "there" in the original console, in the original game

 

 

 

 

About resolution, the CRT Im working now, is a 19" 31khz

 

I dont know how to explain well, for sure you already know, but basically, every 31khz CRT have very thin scanlines, and for low resolutions, it use two scanlines per pixel (doublescan) 320x200>640x400 for example

In a 14" or 15" this small scanlines are two small, but at 19" are too big

 

 

Then if I use regular scanlines at 640x480, the problem is that I end with just 25% of "data" not 50%

 

320x240 in a 31khz CRT = data + scanline + data + scanline

320x240 in a 31khz CRT + fake scanlines = data + scanline + black + scanline

 

 

thats why in high resolutions CRT the best is to use high resolutions for scanlines, and you will get great ones

 

 

For example, this is a small screenshot of Crossed Swords 2 in same CRT

 

 

This one is at 640x480, can you see how thin the lines are? because the bloom is still OK, but the scanlines are too thick

 

 

 

And this one is at 1280x1344, the scanlines are more natural, mopre close to a 15khz CRT, when, because of bloom, the scanlines are very thin

Edited March 7, 2016 by theelf

[theelf]

Oh sorry double post, about CD audio, i was testing some stuff

 

 

1 - Test Fatal Fury 3 original CD in a PC with IDE CD drive - FAIL (MUSIC Error: MPEG123: Prepare for a changed audio format)

2 - Copy all content of the CD to hard drive and open the IPL.TXT - FAIL (MUSIC Error: MPEG123: Prepare for a changed audio format)

3 - Make a CUE/BIN without the audio tracks just data - OK no music, but no error

4 - Load the CUE/BIN and left original FF3 CD on drive - OK no error, music plays from CD drive, but in incorrect order

 

 

Greetings

[Tux]

For the cd audio all of this is normal, if it can't find any audio file and it receives a command to read an audio track then it will attempt to read it from a cd, no idea why you get this error message about mpg123, like I said I have not tested this for a very long time. You make a full bin/cue backup with either audio tracks or even audio merged in the bin file, but there must be audio in the backup if you want this to work. I will try to find an audio cd to make some minimum tests, but don't be impatient for that.

 

Well the normal blits are supposed to be used with some crt which can handle low resolutions well, if yours can't then you are stuck between 2 worlds (crt with low resolution vs flat screens which never change the resolution).

Too bad !

 

And for the option to remove texts, don't worry it took 5 minutes, it's really easy !

Edited March 7, 2016 by Tux