The All things MiSTer thread (Now Consolised)

[dataDave]

Yeah, it’s sick. It’s just so effortless. I enjoy sitting back and watching it do its thing on a weekly - its almost a Friday afternoon ritual now.

We still need a couple of arcade sticks, but then finding good ones within continental Europe is a huge challenge. Playing with OEM SFC pads has been nice, but the charm is kind of fading now. We also discovered that playing with two 8bitdo M30s at the same time turns their response into jelly for some reason, unless one is wired. They work perfectly fine on both the PC and Switch so it’s not the receivers that are the issue.

[CMcK]

I’ve been tinkering with the resolution on my MiSTer and seem to have introduced some scrolling issues doing so. I have it hooked up via VGA cable to a SD plasma which has a native resolution of 848 x 480 and is ideal for all the other 240p retro systems I have hooked up to it. I’ve left the individual cores at their native output thinking 240p would be handled as per usual but I’m getting lines disappearing on horizontal scrolling. Any ideas lads?

[dataDave]

I’ve been tinkering with the resolution on my MiSTer and seem to have introduced some scrolling issues doing so.

What kind of tinkering? It sounds like there could be a refresh issue somewhere, and instead of screen tearing it's skipping horizontal lines to compensate.

Have you tried asking on the official MiSTer forum? These cores should be running identically to their console counterparts. If they aren't, in any particular fashion, it might be worth reporting.

[CMcK]

It's a weird problem I suppose the best way I can describe it is disappearing vertical lines during horizontal scrolling. I haven't touched the scaling settings leaving the cores to output their normal 240p so its odd to see a change outside of the main menu screen.
I think you may be right that I should query this on the forum.

[phillai]

The PSX core is no longer in beta now... Officially available to all!

[speedlolita]

My parts picked an excellent day to arrive.

[dataDave]

These shadow/slot masks are serious business. View/zoom on a phone for the best effect (the look gash on desktop view).











I can't wait to try these on the OLED.

Reported at having just 21.1ms of display latency I'm getting 2 frames of lag on this Samsung (JU7500).



I can just about live with that if I'm using wires.

[speedlolita]

I tried some of those and yeah they produce a pretty good result, mainly the Trinitron and PVM options.

Have moved away from my Sony LCD TV recently after plugging my mister into my PC monitor and realising just how laggy my TV is, probably be just fine for RPGs though. I haven't moved it from my CRT in a few weeks now though so I think it shall remain there for the foreseeable future. Really been enjoying the CPS2 core lately.

[Brad]

Lots of new stuff since I set mine up. Wanna try the Saturn and ps cores and coleco Adam.

[phillai]

I absolutely love the the X68000 computer core, this is easily one of my favourite cores on the MiSTer especially when paired with the MT-32 Pi for sexy midi sounds.
Also, been playing a lot of SNES MSU-1 games lately - Playing SNES games with CD quality music is just so good.

[Brad]

Yes! X68000 too. I have the MT32pi as well so that should be amazing. I hear sf2 is rather good on it? The core was a bit rough last time it tried it but that was a long time ago.

[phillai]

Shameless Nemesis '90 Kai 1cc plug on the X68000 core...

This is easily my 2nd favourite Gradius game in the series.
What's amazing is this game is 30 years old with no slow down and the music is great yet the X68000 core isn't 100% fully complete so you don't get to hear the midi sounds.

[dataDave]

Here's a link to my preset if anyone's interested. Just drop this into the Presets folder and select from within each core accordingly. This is made with Atrac17's integer modelines tweaks in effect, so apply those to your MiSTer.ini (or MiSTer_alt.ini) first.

I'm looking at writing this into the MiSTer.ini so that it defaults for everything without the need to select it at all, but I'm struggling a bit at the minute as I can't find any docu for the syntax - so I'm just stabbing in the dark.

; Default filters for video scaler. Paths must be relative to "Filters" folder without leading slash.
vfilter_default=Composite Blend/Comp_Blend_H_025.txt
vfilter_vertical_default=Scanlines - Adaptive/SLA_Dk_060_Br_060.txt
vfilter_scanlines_default=<some_file>

; Default shadow mask
shmask_default=Simple (Monochrome)/RetroTink/Slot.txt

; Default shadow mask mode:
; 0 - none, 1 - 1x, 2 - 2x, 3 - 1x Rotated, 4 - 2x Rotated
shmask_mode_default=1

Sussed it. Add that to the .ini for a global video processing default. No more messing with that menu for each and every new core that you try!

There doesn't seem to be a way to set a default gamma correction, so that still needs to be applied manually (or with my preset).

[CMcK]

I’ve paired up a Xbox One controller with the MiSTer and it’s really good in terms of latency and having sufficient buttons for any console or arcade core. Can’t get enough of Dimahoo just now.
The MiSTer is so good I’m seriously contemplating tidying up the retro gaming room removing all the stuff it recreates so well.

[dataDave]

The MiSTer is so good I’m seriously contemplating tidying up the retro gaming room removing all the stuff it recreates so well.

I'd just started re-collecting all the old consoles again, which was proving to be a massive pain in the arse. Not only with finding consoles and controllers in good condition, but also with having to put up with all of their imperfections (jailbars, video chip inconsistencies, etc.). When you go to the lengths of sourcing and further learning how to carry out maintenance on a BVM/PVM you don't want garbage like the SFC vertical line issue ruining your day.

The MiSTer has cleared all of that up. It's solved so many headaches, and future potential headaches. Obviously it's less of a financial investment, as I do take pride in being able to shift kit on a rainy day. I can live with that though, as it's already saved me thousands on Ebay, customs duty, modifications, and not forgetting Everdrives.

It's genuinely the best piece of kit I've owned in all my time within the gaming hobby, by miles and miles. Even if you own and cherish all the original hardware you could retire it all for both preservation and convenience sake. Even if you don't own a CRT it can output everything like it has an inbuilt RetroTink 5X. It's just vincemcmahon.gif each and every time I take a glance at it.