VGA box

[dreamer]

question on VGA non compatible games (i assume those stuck at 50 hz), is there a way i can play them on my monitor? (soul calibur), it works on chakast but not on a real dreamcast (through the VGA box) :/



can a utopia boot disk fix this problem? or is it not fixable.

[Whirlinurd]

Hi. As I can remember the Utopia boot disk should enable vga mode with the games it boots. I'm not sure if this works with games that are already bootable. What you also can try is downloading IPBIN4WIN at

http://spazioinwind.libero.it/blackd.../IPBIN4WIN.zip

and 'makecdi' though this atachment

http://www.emutalk.net/attachment.ph...chmentid=21937

Extract the contents of the 'makecdi' archive and copy all from the soul calibur cd to the data directory within cd 'makecdi' directory. Open the IP.BIN with IPBIN4WIN and check the 'vga box supported' option. Press the 'Patch' button to save. Copy IP.BIN from data directory to the root of 'makecdi' directory. Edit the first two settings in 'start.bat' and execute it.

The final cdi image must be burned through 'deamon tools v3.29' or it will not work.

ps. Maybe someone else knows a better sollution.

[MikeEx]

uh, wait , last i heard the utopia is in no way compatible with vga boxes and can damage your moniter. then again my dc has been in the closet for a good wile, along with the moniter it blew up.

[Whirlinurd]

Never heard of Utopia blowing up monitors before. You sure that you did not point your MadCatz™ to the monitor and fired. I know that those did not worked on a monitor. :-) The only thing I can remember is that I used it for games that weren't selfbootable but were vga box compatable. My dreamcast always told me that the Utopia Bootloader wasn't vga compatable so it did not boot. What I did to get it to work. I turned the switch from the vgabox to tv-output. Then booted the Utopia bootloader. Switched the Utopia for the game. Let it load for a few seconds and then switch the vgabox to vga output again. And the game boots in vga mode. It was tricky because I had to find the precise moment to switch to the vga-output.

So I was wrong that Utopia is vga-output enabled. And it surely does NOT enable vga-output for games that don't use it.

As I can see you can play on Chankast but through 'NTSC Cable type' right? If you use 'VGA Cable Type' you should get the same non-compatable vga message that it is not supported just as you would get it on a real dreamcast.

[desertboy]

question on VGA non compatible games (i assume those stuck at 50 hz), is there a way i can play them on my monitor? (soul calibur), it works on chakast but not on a real dreamcast (through the VGA box) :/

can a utopia boot disk fix this problem? or is it not fixable.

6.2. Enabling VGA support - BootCD and Self-boot games
Credits to jc of dcwarez.

Boot CD
The original Utopia Boot CD 1.1 does NOT contain the VGA initialization code necessary... there IS a patch for the Boot CD image that will help with some games available from dccopyworld. The Utopia Boot CD 1.2 supposedly has the VGA patch applied to it, but is supposedly NOT an official Utopia release.

IMPORTANT!!!
The Utopia Boot CD's main screen (with the reindeer) will display fine on most TV's, but the screen is in some special resolution/refresh that many monitors cannot handle, some monitors may actually be permanently DAMAGED when attempting to display this screen. Boot the Utopia Boot CD with the monitor DISCONNECTED from the VGA box. Replace the Boot CD with your non-boot game, wait 30 seconds for the game to load or check your VMU to see if the game is loading, THEN reconnect your monitor.

Self-boot games
Not always, the person who patched the game to self-boot has to enable the option to use the VGA-box when they patch the IP.BIN file. Also, if you still have the *.CDI file you can hex-edit the file. Just follow these steps:

1. Open FILENAME.CDI in your favorite hex editor. And do a search for "KATANA".
2. Scroll down a little until you see the string "JUE" (see vgafirst.jpg).
3. Change the number string after "JUE" to "0799A10" (see vgasecond.jpg).
4. Save your new file.
5. Burn, and enjoy on your VGA box.

Note: the pictures are from the CNN re-release of Soul Calibur.

Hope this helps

[Vegeta]

Is playing Chankast at 640x480 @ 60Hz on a GeForce FX equivalent card the same as playing a REAL Dreamcast on a VGA monitor via a VGA box or better/worse?

[Whirlinurd]

Not every game gives the best quality when run through the vgabox since some games doesn't use the higher resolution and optimizations properly. Most vgabox compatable games are written to give better anti-aliasing, more vibrant colors and a resolution of 640x480.

The real dreamcast uses Anisotropic Mip-map filtering and Full scene anti-aliasing. It's not clear to me how many samples it uses but I guess 2x for both. I think that higher then that could have affected the 200MhZ cpu performance.

So a resolution of 640x480, 2x anti-aliasing, 2x anisotropic filtering will get close to the REAL Dreamcast with a VGA box. I also have read that Chankast at 60hz with vsync enabled will give a more stable framerate. I have not tested it myself.

Remember that anisotropic filtering isn't a bottleneck for most modern graphic cards. So higher at 8x will not cost you much frames per second. Anti-aliasing is more fps intensive so I always recommend a setting at 2x or 4x with temporal anti-aliasing. Higher then that it will drain fps considerably.

I hope this helps.

[KoHaN69]

I was just wandering... Some games support VGA output

I was playing DOA2 And wasn't sure if it was in the high res vga mode...

(dead or alive 2 for isntance...)

Is it spearate api?
does the VGAbox need to be EMULATED?? (plugins, any1?)

[Vegeta]

I don't think the VGA box needs to be emulated.

The DC outputs a 480p signal via the VGA box but playing Chankast @ 640x480 on your PC monitor is near enough the same as playing the real thing via the VGA box as Whirlinurd mentioned earlier.

I don't see ANY difference playing a game in VGA mode and NTSC mode in Chankast. They are just flags which the real DC uses in the IP.BIN to specify whether the game supports VGA mode or not.

[KoHaN69]

really... that sucks...
Well... AA filtering isnt EMUALTED -right?
I couldnt manage to force it in the game as well...
How would i force AA in game? its d3d right?