VGA box
- Thread starter dreamer
- Start date
Whirlinurd
New member
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/blackdragon/dc/IPBIN4WIN.zip
and 'makecdi' though this atachment
http://www.emutalk.net/attachment.php?attachmentid=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.
http://spazioinwind.libero.it/blackdragon/dc/IPBIN4WIN.zip
and 'makecdi' though this atachment
http://www.emutalk.net/attachment.php?attachmentid=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.
Whirlinurd
New member
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.
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.
Whirlinurd
New member
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.
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.
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.
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.