2600 Emulator problems with HDTV

[sp4cem0nkey]

Hello all. This is my first post on this board.

 

I am trying to set up Fullscreen atari 2600 emulation on my 50" Panasonic DLP HDTV for my wife as a Christmas present.

 

I have a computer running Windows XP Pro with a GeForce Ti4600 graphics card that connects to the TV via a VGA port. Using the TV's VGA port, I can only display 1024x768 at 60Hz. The TV is very particular that the video signal be formatted as such, otherwise all it displays is a black screen. The display is in standard non-widescreen format with vertical bars on either side of the computer display.

 

Here is the problem: I can't get an emulator to work that will properly display in fullscreen mode on the TV.

 

I have tried the latest binaries of Stella and z26 (as of 12/2005) and each emulator has its own problem.

 

Stella (using StellaX) displays a beautiful fullscreen picture in OpenGL mode as long as the "Maximize OpenGL FS" option is selected. Problem is that with certain games, the refresh rate of the TV isn't synced with the refresh rate of the game. Because of this, certain sprites that share processing time with other sprites become invisible. For example, on Space Invaders I can not see both my own shots and the aliens' shots at the same time. Sometimes I only see my shots, and sometimes I only see theirs.

 

On z26, I was able to fix this by tweaking the phosphorescence effect. The problem with z26 is, I can't get the fullscren mode to work on my TV. My screen goes black as if receiving a signal out of its expected range. Stella does the same thing without the "Maximize OpenGL FS" option.

 

I have read all documentation on both emulators and tried all video modes and settings, but I can't fix either problem on either emulator. If I could get just one emulator working in fullscreen mode with the correct refresh rate, I would be happy.

 

If someone could help me set this up before Christmas, I would really appreciate it!

 

One more thing. I need whichever emulator I use to work with the Stelladapter. That's why I've only tried those two emulators so far.

[+stephena]

Stella (using StellaX) displays a beautiful fullscreen picture in OpenGL mode as long as the "Maximize OpenGL FS" option is selected.

OK, first issue is that StellaX shouldn't really be used with the latest version of Stella, because it will probably overwrite the stella.ini file. The latest Stella has its own built in ROM launcher, so StellaX needn't be used at all.

Problem is that with certain games, the refresh rate of the TV isn't synced with the refresh rate of the game.  Because of this, certain sprites that share processing time with other sprites become invisible.  For example, on Space Invaders I can not see both my own shots and the aliens' shots at the same time.  Sometimes I only see my shots, and sometimes I only see theirs.

Did you try turning on 'sync to vblank' in the OpenGL display settings in Windows? If so, it should give you a nice, smooth image, since the timing of Stella will be sync'ed to the display framerate (60 Hz). This gives the most authentic emulation, since the original 2600 also operated at 60 Hz.

One more thing.  I need whichever emulator I use to work with the Stelladapter.  That's why I've only tried those two emulators so far.

Both work with the Stelladaptor. In fact, they're the only two 2600 emulators which do work.

[sp4cem0nkey]

Thanks for the quick response, stephena.

 

Well, I tried with the built-in Stella GUI just now. Using it doesn't seem to make a difference in the behavior.

 

I can't find a display setting specifically called "Sync to Vblank".

 

When I go to my advanced display settings, the standard windows 3d tab is replaced with the Nvidia configuration tab. I tried turning "vsync" on, but that doesn't help.

 

Are "Sync to Vblank" and "vertical sync" the same thing? If not, where do I set the ""sync to vblank"?

[+stephena]

Thanks for the quick response, stephena.

 

Well, I tried with the built-in Stella GUI just now.  Using it doesn't seem to make a difference in the behavior.

Using the built-in GUI wouldn't fix your specific problem; I just mentioned it since it might cause other problems (StellaX writes a config file that's compatible with version 1.4.2, but version 2.0.1 includes extra settings in the config file that would be lost when StellaX overwrites it).

When I go to my advanced display settings, the standard windows 3d tab is replaced with the Nvidia configuration tab.  I tried turning "vsync" on, but that doesn't help. 

 

Are "Sync to Vblank" and "vertical sync" the same thing?  If not, where do I set the ""sync to vblank"?

Yes, that's what I meant. 'Sync to vblank' actually means 'synchronize to vertical blank'. You should have noticed some difference, since before, the emulation wasn't smooth as when using vsync on. Try it in a ROM like River Raid to see the difference.

 

Otherwise, I guess that isn't the problem. Sorry, I have no suggestion for you. I plan to add a phosphor effect to Stella at some point, but unfortunately I won't have it ready for Christmas

[Dones]

I don't think this pertains to the poster's problem but it never hurts to try. These are the switches I use with the stella 2.0.1 from the command line:

 

-joymouse 1 -sound 1 -channels 2 -fullscreen 1 -video gl -gl_aspect 1.65 -gl_fsmax 1

 

Maybe playing with the gl_aspect number will allow you to adjust the graphics to your HDTV. The 1.65 setting works great for my normal TV using my video card's tv output. Another idea to try would be using a 640 by 480 (480p or i) resolution.

[sp4cem0nkey]

Thanks for the suggestion, Dones, but that doesn't seem to help either. I've played around with different ratio settings to no avail as well.

 

I guess z26 windowed mode will have to work until Stella implements the phosphor effect.

 

Anyone know why the FS mode doesn't work with z26? I think it must have something to do with the way Stella uses the "Maximize OpenGL FS" option that gets it to work...

[+stephena]

I guess z26 windowed mode will have to work until Stella implements the phosphor effect.

The graphics subsystem will be overhauled for Stella 2.2, but unfortunately that isn't due out until April/May 2006. It will include the phosphor effect, as well as different image filters (scale2x, hq2x, etc). Sorry about that.

Anyone know why the FS mode doesn't work with z26?  I think it must have something to do with the way Stella uses the "Maximize OpenGL FS" option that gets it to work...

I assume z26 doesn't work for the same reason Stella doesn't work, since they're both using software mode, and the video mode you want (1024x768) isn't directly supported. OpenGL mode is actually using the 3D part of your video card to do the rendering; that's why you're able to stretch the image to 1024x768 and get the exact mode you want. z26 can't do this since it doesn't support OpenGL at all.

[sp4cem0nkey]

I see. Thanks for the help, stephena. Let me know when the new Stella is out. Until then, looks like my wife will have to make due with windowed mode.