Version 3.0 is nearly upon us. Testing is almost completed and I am starting to put together a final package and the documentation/instructions to go with it.
In anticipation I recommend everyone calibrates their monitors correctly so that they get the intended effect from what will be my recommended settings.
I recommend this website here: http://www.lagom.nl/lcd-test/ after all the different ways I have calibrated my monitors over the years, this has been the easiest to understand and at the end I gained exactly the result I wanted.
Please go through it when you have some spare time, I suggest just saving the website as a bookmark if you are too busy at the moment. You may need to allow up to an hour as sometimes you need to go back and forwards through the tests to get the overall best picture possible.
It is definately worth it!
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Also, as previously stated throughout my blog and the official MAME Chat Forum, the 'alpha channel' of my custom Version 3.0 is not adjustable at the moment. This causes the phosphur pattern to appear quite strong and also darkens the games image to a degree.
To counteract that we just need to brighten MAME's colour settings a little which some people may find weakens the colours slightly. If that is the case then we can brighten and strengthen the colours using the HLSL filter. This is why calibrating your monitor is so important, because then the settings that I give you will not need much tuning if at all.
As posted in my other page titled "To use HLSL or not to use HLSL with Version 3.0?" I created some screenshots from what I class as great settings with and without HLSL, here is 9.8MB .7z file: http://www.mediafire.com/?gu5uprqb9g55iyq
I have tried to get a mixture of screenshots to show light and dark images. They can only look their best if you have calibrated your monitor correctly so make sure you take your time and do it properly.
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Lastly, you probably should get a good understanding of resolutions. You don't really need to understand individual game resolutions and how they are displayed except that on an 'Arcade Monitor' they will almost always be at a 'standard 4:3' display ratio.
What you need to understand though is your monitor 'Native Resolution' and also the resolution that you have set in MAME's screen settings.
If you are using an LCD or PLASMA display then usually your native resolution will be the largest resolution supported by your monitor at a 60Hz vertical refresh rate. If you were to display any other resolution then you will create a certain amount of image distortion. If you need further information you can read up on it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Native_resolution This is really important because my phosphur pattern is made of very fine detail and requires your monitors full accuracy to display pixel perfect.
Once you know what your 'native resolution' is you can input that into MAME's screen settings. Now all games you play in MAME will be at that resolution and you will also know which of my phosphur patterns to use with your computer since they will also be slectable by resolution.
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That is about all you need to be familar with to be able to get the most from my custom Version 3.0 setup. Just to clarify;
A) Correct colour calibration and tuned colour settings will give you the best image possible for all games whether in bright or dark scenes. This can also make games appear more vivid and really come to life.
B) 'Native Resolution' will give you the best distortion free image, especially noticeable when games scroll in either a vertical or horizontal direction. Also this is necessary for your monitor to display the very fine details of my phosphur pattern pixel perfect.
If all this information is new to you, then prepare to be amazed!
