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Do you use a scaler(Tink4K, OSSC, etc) to play your arcade games? (survey)

Paranoid_Andy

Paranoid_Andy

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Hey all,

Just saw a post from @XtraSmiley wanting to dial in a clear picture for the RT4K, found here: https://www.arcade-projects.com/thr...f-so-please-read-and-reply.32669/#post-451742

Since I made my previous post about this a couple years ago, I have some new information that might be very helpful to dial in a perfect picture but it would require me to record a tutorial/help video and put some real time/effort in to convey the details. There's no way I could type it all out.

So before I go to all that trouble, I'm just wondering from the community, is there even a real demand to use a scaler with your PCBs and dial in a pixel perfect picture?

If you're unsure what a perfectly dialed in game looks like, you can find images in my post here: https://www.arcade-projects.com/thr...k-of-an-arcade-game-for-the-ossc.27176/page-2

If there's enough interest in this, I'll see what I can put together.

Hope you all are doing well out there!
 
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This is VERY relevant to my interests, and I'd love to see your process. I have curated a "couch setup" that is such a joy to use that my PCBs get more action through my home theater than my candies. The biggest hang-up is that I haven't nailed down a (good) profile process yet, so there is a lot of room for improvement in fidelity.
 
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Yes, yes there is!

Guys, if you haven't seen it, go look at the old thread with the TMNT crispness!

On the RT4K, all the (good) pre-loaded profiles are pixel perfect, so that's why I was trying to make an arcade section to match. It's just finding that number for every PCB is way harder than I thought.

I'm hoping at least Buffi comes through with the CV1000 stuff.
 
I don't have room for cabs currently.
Short of the tink 4k I wouldnt be present here.
A hearty yes vote for scalers.
That thing will sync anything with a signal.
It'll grab malfunctioning pcbs and consoles.
Very useful diagnostic tool too.
 
Big nope from me.

Have cabs. Have PVMs. Have CRTs.

Maybe I'm spoilt, but it only feels right playing the games using the higher spec tech that was around at the time.

I have enough stuff that's native to LCDs and modern displays that it's nice to have a distinct split between the two realms.

However, if I ever do want to record my gameplay (which will probably be never), I will need the assistance of a scaler to accomplish that. So never say never, I guess...
 
I do have most of the scalers out there on hand (RT4k, RT5x, RT2x, OSSC, GBSC, Framemeister), but truth be told, I find that fiddling around with settings to dial each game in is more trouble than it's worth, especially since I also have candy cabs and a variety of analog displays on hand. If I use a scaler, I end up using the OSSC the most often (except for interlaced stuff or oddball exceptions like the Taito F3) since it's the quickest to get up and running on a modern display, even though the RT5x and RT4k will perform better after being tuned to the game.

With that said, it doesn't mean this isn't an endeavor worth pursuing. Good analog displays don't last forever, and they're usually limited to >40" unless you start talking about projectors. On top of that, modern displays are getting better, and we are seeing some crazy efforts like RT4k's subpixel replication and Blur Buster's CRT raster scanning replication, along with several of the newer scalers being capable of BFI. I would love for modern, easily accessible solutions for retro games that closely match the experience of CRTs at a lower price. It lets people more easily enjoy retro gaming as a hobby.
 
I’m 50/50 between CRT and upscaler use for my arcade games so I’m definitely interested. I usually use the generic profiles on the upscalers instead of fussing with the advanced settings.
 
ShootTheCore said:
I’m 50/50 between CRT and upscaler use for my arcade games so I’m definitely interested. I usually use the generic profiles on the upscalers instead of fussing with the advanced settings.
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Yeah, I would bet 80% (or more) of arcade PCB users just go with generic settings b/c no one wants to mess with settings rather than just play. That's why I'd like to develop the profiles, just click and go, based on the PCB family you are using!
 
100% OSSC user here with custom profiles for my current setups (NeoGeo, CPS1, CPS2 & CPS3). I’ve spent months tweaking these settings to get what I think are pretty damn close to pixel-perfect settings, inclusive of proper aspect ratio/horizontal & vertical lines.

Happy to share my values with people if they’re interested. Can also share pics of each up close if you want to see my work. :thumbup:
 
Been using scalers since forever... back in the old days you would use something like a XRGB with a VGA (31KHz) monitor, as VGA CRTs were super commonplace for PCs, but nowadays it's more to use them with LCDs / TVs. I still use them for testing and capture / streaming, but if I want to play something seriously I'd rather play it on a cab or CRT, but sometimes I can't be bothered to lug out the CRTs or go to the cabs, which aren't in my bedroom.
 
GoldenGlover said:
100% OSSC user here with custom profiles for my current setups (NeoGeo, CPS1, CPS2 & CPS3). I’ve spent months tweaking these settings to get what I think are pretty damn close to pixel-perfect settings, inclusive of proper aspect ratio/horizontal & vertical lines.

Happy to share my values with people if they’re interested. Can also share pics of each up close if you want to see my work. :thumbup:
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I'd love those numbers, I'll have to see if I can covert over to the numbers I need for the 4K. Check out my thread:

https://www.arcade-projects.com/thr...f-so-please-read-and-reply.32669/#post-451742
 
I have all of my CRT cabs fed through a VGA switcher that feeds Splitfire leads into an OSSC. The OSSC outputs to my Stream Capture. I use scalers for our local FGC night too, so any new tech is always welcomed!
 
Someone has created Splitfire specific profiles for RT4K, but of course that's useless for real PCBs on a modern TV.

@GoldenGlover lets start with one easy one so I can test it. So how about all the data on something easy, like CPS2 maybe? Or some other common PCB?
 
By all the data, do you mean everything in the sync/sampling/output/etc menus changed from standard profile?

FYI, the CPS2 profile I’ll share is currently running with Line5X so your modern TV will need to be capable of displaying that.
 
GoldenGlover said:
By all the data, do you mean everything in the sync/sampling/output/etc menus changed from standard profile?

FYI, the CPS2 profile I’ll share is currently running with Line5X so your modern TV will need to be capable of displaying that.
Click to expand...
Yes, although if it's easy, give me the values across the board, even if you didn't change them. I don't have a 5x so I may need to figure out how to implement them in the 4K.

Also, lets move this discussion and your post over to my thread so we don't clog up OPs thread here.

https://www.arcade-projects.com/thr...f-so-please-read-and-reply.32669/#post-451742
 
Was giving the post a little time to simmer for interest, but also just to see if there was a different way that anybody knew about that might be easier than my solution.

I'm working on a big project at the moment and I'm a hyper-focus kinda guy so I need to finish that first. Once I do though, I'll see if maybe I can put together a video of how I've dialed in all my boards and oddball consoles since this works on literally everything I've thrown at it. It's probably going to take a fair bit of work because if I do this, I wanna do it right, but I do very much want to give something back to the gaming community so just give me a bit of time please.
 
Just wanted to give an update, that I finally put together a video for you all on how I get my sample rates.

I went ahead and posted it here:
Paranoid_Andy

Thread '(Tutorial) How to get sample rate for video games or other devices via brute force.'

Hey everyone!

I finally made a video showing the technique I use to get the sample rate of arcade games and consoles. My apologies for the shoddy video quality and delay in putting this together. I just have lots of other projects I'm always working on so time is pretty limited for me. Hopefully it's still helpful though.

This process should work for just about anything you can plug into a scaler/line-doubler. So here you go!

Brute Force SR

Also, I put up a Discord server where I plan to add more sample rates. It seemed like a good spot to archive all sample rates and not just...
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Good luck!
 
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