This utility works differently if one of the -advmamev, -advmessv, -advpacv, -advmenuv, -vbev, -vgav and -videowv options is specified. The main difference is the the name of the configuration file used to store the video modes. Respectively they are `advmame.rc', `advmess.rc', `advpac.rc', `advmenu.rc', `vbe.rc', `vga.rc' and `videow.rc'.
When the program starts a list of modelines is printed. You can walk on the list with the UP and DOWN arrows of your keyboard. You can select the modelines to use in the emulator pressing SPACE.
With the LEFT and RIGHT arrows you can select the bit depth of the video mode to test.
To test a video mode you can press ENTER and ESC to return to the list.
When you have finished the selection press F2 to save the video modes in the configuration file. At the next run the emulator will use one of the modelines that you have chosen.
If you have problem please read the TROUBLESHOTTING chapter in the `install.txt' file.
-rc RCFILE |
Specify an alternate name of the configuration file. |
-log |
A very detailed log of operations is saved in a `.log' file. Very useful for debugging problems. |
-logsync |
Like the `-log' option but the log file is not buffered. This option must be used to get a complete log file in presence of a machine crash. |
-advmamev, -advmessv, -advpacv, -advmenuv, -vbev, -vgav, -videowv |
Select the mode of operation for the programs `advmame', `advmess', `advpac', `advmenu', `vbe', `vga' and `videow'. The default is `advmame'. |
svgaline |
Generated SVGA modes.
Video modes obtained tweaking the hardware
registers of the recognized SVGA boards.
All clocks, all bit depths are available. To use these modes your video board must be supported by a `svgaline' driver listed in the `carddos.txt' file. This driver is completly indipendent of the VBE BIOS of your board. | |
vbeline |
Generated VBE (VESA) modes.
Video modes obtained tweaking the standard VBE BIOS mode
changing the hardware registers of the SVGA.
All clocks, all bit depths are available.
To use these modes your video board must be supported by a `vbeline' driver listed in the `carddos.txt' file. These drivers work setting a video mode using the default VBE2 services and tweak some hardware SVGA registers to modify the obtained video mode. The driver `vbe3' is an exception. It requires the presence of a VBE3 BIOS to change the frequency of the desiderated video mode. Unfortunately the standard VBE3 services don't support a resolution size change. The resolution is changed modifying only the standard VGA registers. This hack may or not may works. Also the interlaced modes are only rarely supported by the various VBE3 BIOS because they are very rarely used in the standard PC monitors. If your video board isn't supported by any drivers and you don't have a VBE3 BIOS you can try installing a software VESA BIOS like the SciTech Display Doctor. | |
vgaline |
Generated VGA modes.
Video modes obtained tweaking the hardware
registers of the standard VGA. Usually these modes
are called Tweaked, XMode, ZMode.
Only the standard VGA pixel clocks 6.29, 7.08, 12.59, 14.16 MHz are available. Only 8 bit color modes. Only 256 kBytes of video memory. This driver supports also text modes with pixel clocks 12.59, 14.16, 25.17, 28.32 MHz. This driver is completly indipendent of the VGA BIOS of your board. | |
vbe | Available VBE modes. This driver is able to use only the video modes reported by the VBE BIOS. It doesn't require any `device_video_*' options because it cannot control how the video modes are generated. |
For the Linux version of the programs the following drivers are available:
svgalib |
Generated SVGA modes.
Video modes obtained tweaking the hardware
registers of the recognized SVGA boards.
All clocks, all bit depths are available. To use these modes your video board must be supported by a `svgalib' driver listed in the `cardlinx.txt' file. To use this driver you need to install the SVGALIB library version 1.9.x. | |
fb | Generated Frame Buffer modes. SVGA Graphics modes from the Linux Kernel Console Frame Buffer. You must activate the Console Frame Buffer support in your kernel. | |
sdl | Available SDL modes. This driver is able to use only the video modes reported by the SDL graphics library. It doesn't require any `device_video_*' options because it cannot control how the video modes are generated. | |
slang | sLang text modes. Text modes from the sLang library. This driver is only able to use the current text mode. It can't really change the video mode. |
For the Windows version of the programs the following drivers are available:
svgawin |
Generated SVGA modes. (only for Windows NT/2000/XP)
Video modes obtained tweaking the hardware
registers of the recognized SVGA boards.
All clocks, all bit depths are available. To use these modes your video board must be supported by a `svgawin' driver listed in the `cardwin.txt' file. To use this driver you need to install the included SVGAWIN driver. | |
sdl | Available SDL modes. This driver is able to use only the video modes reported by the SDL graphics library. It doesn't require any `device_video_*' options because it cannot control how the video modes are generated. |
If you have correctly configured the `device_p/h/vclock' options in your configuration file, the video modes out of the frequency range supported by your monitor are displayed in red, and you are prevented to use them.
If possible, a video mode compatible with your current monitor configuration is created.
If a the `device_video_format' option is present in your configuration file, the video mode is created with this format. Otherwise a generic VGA monitor format is used.
When you are in the test screen, `advv' prevent you to set a modeline out of the frequency range supported by your monitor. In this cases you can hear a grave long sound. Instead when you are in the list screen you don't have this limitation.
If you request a parameter not supported by your hardware you hear an acute short sound.
You can easily change one of the clock values of your modelines pressing F8.
Finally you can rename the modelines pressing TAB.
Remember to select the modified modelines with SPACE otherwise they aren't saved in your configuration file and will be lost.
If a modelines named `default_text' is present in your configuration file the program use it.
If correct `device_video_clock' options are found in your configuration file the program try to use a text mode that match your `clock' configuration. First are tried modes in the configuration file, after modes present in a internal list of the program. If no one of these modes match your configuration the current text mode is used.
device_video auto | (DEVICE[/MODEL])+
Options:
auto | Automatic detection of all the available drivers (default). The order of detection is for DOS : svgaline, vbeline, vgaline, vbe. And for Linux : svgalib, fb, sdl, slang. And for Windows : svgawin, sdl. |
Options for the Linux version:
svgalib | SVGA generated graphics modes with the SVGALIB 1.9.x library. | |
fb | SVGA generated grahics modes with the Linux Console Frame Buffer. | |
slang | Text video modes with the sLang library. | |
sdl | SDL graphics and fake text modes. |
Options for the DOS version:
svgaline | SVGA generated graphics modes. | |
vbeline | VBE generated graphics modes. | |
vgaline | VGA generated text and graphics modes. | |
vbe | VBE graphics modes. |
Options for the Windows version:
svgawin | SVGA generated graphics modes with the SVGAWIN included library. To use this driver you need to install the `svgawin.sys' driver with the `svgawin.exe' command line utility. | |
sdl | SDL graphics and fake text modes. |
Please note that to use the utilities `advv' and `advcfg' you must at least select a graphics and a text video driver. The available text video drivers are `vgaline' for DOS, `slang' and `sdl' for Linux and `sdl' for Windows.
You can force the detection of a specific model of video board adding the name of the model driver after the driver name using the `/' separator. For example to force the `vbe3' model detection of the `vbeline' driver you must specify `vbeline/vbe3'. A complete list of all the available model is in the `card*.txt' files.
Plese note that forcing a specific video driver is discouraged. Generally you don't need it.
For a more complete description of the drivers check the previous `VIDEO DRIVER' section.
Example to enable the `vbeline' and the `vgaline' drivers with autodetection for DOS :
device_video vbeline vgaline |
Example to force the `vbeline/vbe3' driver and the `vgaline' driver for DOS :
device_video vbeline/vbe3 vgaline |
Example to enable the `fb' and `slang' driver for Linux :
device_video fb slang |
device_video_pclock P_LOW - P_HIGH
device_video_hclock H_LOW - H_HIGH [, H_LOW - H_HIGH] [, H_FIXED]
device_video_vclock V_LOW - V_HIGH [, V_LOW - V_HIGH] [, V_FIXED]
If you are using the svgalib driver in Linux you need also to adjust the SVGALIB configuration file /etc/vga/libvga.config and correctly set the HorizSync and VertRefresh options. You must use a range equal or larger ranges than specified with the hclock and vclock options.
Options:
P_LOW | P_HIGH - Pixel clock range in MHz The lower value is the lower clock generable by your video board. The higher value is the video bandwidth of your monitor. If don't know these values you can start with `pclock 5 - 90' which essentially enable any video mode. | |
H_LOW | H_HIGH - Horizontal clock range in kHz | |
H_FIXED | Horizontal fixed clock in kHz | |
V_LOW | V_HIGH - Vertical clock range in Hz | |
V_FIXED | Vertical fixed clock in Hz |
Example for a Generic PC SVGA multisync monitor :
device_video_pclock 10 - 70 device_video_hclock 31 - 60 device_video_vclock 55 - 90 |
Example for a Generic PC VGA monitor :
device_video_pclock 10 - 50 device_video_hclock 31.5 device_video_vclock 55 - 110 |
Example for a PAL/SECAM TV (European) :
device_video_pclock 5 - 50 device_video_hclock 15.62 device_video_vclock 50 |
Example for a PAL/SECAM TV (European) which supports also NTSC modes (very common if you use the SCART input) :
device_video_pclock 5 - 50 device_video_hclock 15.62, 15.73 device_video_vclock 50, 60 |
Example for a NTSC TV (USA) :
device_video_pclock 5 - 50 device_video_hclock 15.73 device_video_vclock 59.94 |
Example for a Generic Arcade Monitor Standard Resolution 15 kHz (CGA) :
device_video_pclock 5 - 50 device_video_hclock 15.75 device_video_vclock 50 - 60 |
Example for a Generic Arcade Monitor Medium Resolution 25 kHz (EGA) :
device_video_pclock 5 - 50 device_video_hclock 24.84 device_video_vclock 50 - 60 |
Example for a Generic Atari Monitor Extended Resolution 16 kHz
device_video_pclock 5 - 50 device_video_hclock 16.5 device_video_vclock 53 |
device_video_modeline Name CLOCK HDE HRS HRE HT VDE VRS VRE VT [-hsync] [-vsync] [+hsync] [+vsync] [doublescan] [interlace] [tvpal] [tvntsc]
Options:
Name | Name of the video mode. You can use the quotes '"` for the names with spaces. | |
CLOCK | Pixel clock in MHz | |
HDE HRS HRE HT | Horizontal `Display End', `Retrace Start', `Retrace End', `Total' | |
VDE VRS VRE VT | Vertical `Display End', `Retrace Start', `Retrace End', `Total' | |
-hsync -vsync +hsync +vsync | Polarization mode. | |
doublescan | Doublescan mode. | |
interlace | Interlaced mode. | |
tvpal | Modeline converted to PAL format by the internal video board scan converter. | |
tvntsc | Modeline converted to NTSC format by the internal video board scan converter. |
Example:
device_video_modeline tweak320x240 12.59 320 336 356 400 240 249 254 262 doublescan -hsync -vsync |
The `tvpal' and `tvntsc' are available only for the nVidia svgaline driver.
device_video_format HCLOCK HDE HRS HRE HT VDE VRS VRE VT
Options:
HCLOCK | Horizontal clock in Hz | |
HDE HRS HRE HT VDE VRS VRE VT | Like the modeline option |
When a new modeline is created, AdvanceMAME uses a linear interpolation of the two formats with the nearest horizontal clock.
The default value of this option is for an Arcade 15 kHz monitor :
15720 0.737 0.075 0.074 0.113 0.916 0.012 0.012 0.060 |
and for an Arcade 25 kHz monitor:
25000 0.800 0.020 0.100 0.080 0.922 0.006 0.012 0.060 |
and for a VGA 31.5 kHz monitor:
31500 0.800 0.020 0.120 0.060 0.914 0.019 0.004 0.063 |
Which one of these defaults is used depends on the setting of the device_video_hclock option.
device_video_singlescan yes | no
device_video_doublescan yes | no
device_video_interlace yes | no
Options:
yes | Permits the use of the feature if the low end driver allow it (default). | |
no | Disable completly the feature. |
device_video_8bit yes | no
device_video_15bit yes | no
device_video_16bit yes | no
device_video_32bit yes | no
Options:
yes | Permits the use of the bit depth if the low end driver allow it (default). | |
no | Disable completly the bit depth. |
device_video_fastchange yes | no
Options:
yes | Enable the fast video mode change. | |
no | Disable the fast video mode change (default). |
You should use this option only to force the `vbe3' driver.
device_video_vbeline_driver none | auto | vbe3 | ...
Options:
none | Don't use any `vbeline' driver. | |
auto | Autodetect (default). | |
vbe3 | Use the VBE3 BIOS if available, this is the last driver detected. | |
... | Check the `carddos.txt' file for a complete list of the video driver available. |
Example:
device_vbeline_driver vbe3 |
device_vbeline_mode smaller | bigger | ...
Options:
smaller | Use the biggest `vbe' mode contained in the `vbeline' mode (default). | |
bigger | Use the smallest `vbe' mode which contains the `vbeline' mode. | |
smaller_upto640 | Like `smaller' but not bigger than 640x480. | |
bigger_upto640 | Like `bigger' but not bigger than 640x480. | |
320 | Use always the 320x240 mode. | |
400 | Use always the 400x300 mode. | |
512 | Use always the 512x384 mode. | |
640 | Use always the 640x480 mode. | |
800 | Use always the 800x600 mode. |
The use of this option is discouraged, it's present only for testing.
device_svgaline_divideclock yes | no
Options:
yes | Divide the clock by 2. | |
no | Don't divide the clock (default). |
The use of this option is discouraged, it's present only for testing.
The use of this option is discouraged, it's present only for testing.
device_svgawin_divideclock yes | no
Options:
yes | Divide the clock by 2. | |
no | Don't divide the clock (default). |
device_sdl_fullscreen yes | no
Options:
yes | Try to use a fullscreen mode. | |
no | Try to use a windowed mode (default). |