Scrolling Problems

[shin_nihon_kikaku]

I'm betting that that all emulation fans have encounted the scrolling problem within emulators. It's when the image gets cut up (about 2 thirds up from the bottom of the monitor ).

 

If you don't know what I'm talking about get to round 3 on Terry's stage in Garou Mark of the Wolves or play Shinobi or Shadow Dancer in Mame (the problem is particularly visible on these games). It is a problem that happens all the time on every single emulator.

 

I'm just wondering if any of you technical wizards can help solve the problem, or just tell me why it happens.

 

Thanks

[Xeon]

about Terry's Stage in Garou, those are called Raster Effects (consider it as a special hardware technique for drawing background effects), older emus like Kawaks and NRX doesnt support Rasters so youre seeing that effect.

 

play it on MAME, FBA and Nebula and youll notice that the scrolling will run smooth again.

 

no clue why it happens on Shadow Dancer though, i dont have the game.

Edited January 27, 2004 by Xeon

[shin_nihon_kikaku]

I know you're only trying to help, and I appreciate it but it's nothing to do with that.

 

What happens is that when an emulated game scrolls - the bottom third of the screen, the middle portion and the top third are all ever so slightly mis-aligned and are constantly flickering between this state and normality until the scrolling stops (not too often in most games).

This problem only happens when games scroll (but especially if they scroll rapidly as is the case in Terry's Garou stage. What with it being set on a train and all...)

 

I do play Garou in MAME but this isn't a problem specific to any game, any technology or any particular emulator. It happens in all emulators. From MAME to Kawaks to RockNES to MEKA and everything in between (and On all PC's, as far as I've seen).

And no it doesn't happen in regular PC games.

 

It's a subtle flaw, that isn't too noticeable if you aren't looking for it, and if the game sports a complex BG arrangement that will hide it.

But it is clearly visible in the games I listed (that's why I only mentioned those particular games).

 

I don't expect there's a simple solution (or one at all) but some recognition would be nice. Surely other emulation fans must have seen this at least?

The only thing I can guess is that it's something to do with refresh rates of PC monitors.

Edited February 9, 2004 by shin_nihon_kikaku

[Sane]

The only thing I can guess is that it's something to do with refresh rates of PC monitors. 

 

Bingo.

 

If there's a Vsync option in the emulator then turning it on will solve it, if not you can try lowering your monitors refreshrate. Most emu's have vsync these days though, although I think (don't quote me on this) that if your monitor has a high refreshrate turning on vsync will take a lot of cpu power to keep up.