Re: VGA Capture Thread

Posted on 2023-11-21, 20:05

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by vvbee

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

Well, the datapath, to go-to capture device so far, got a pricetag of 1000$. Just that most of us happened to get some used ones for cheap ^^ $1000 Datapath is a niche in the retro scene. But unlike the Datapath the Retrotink is made for the scene so you can forget about tangential use benefits …

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Re: VCS - A capture utility for certain Datapath capture cards

Posted on 2023-11-21, 09:38

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by vvbee

in Release Announcements

in Release Announcements

Thanks. Looking at the code my guess is since the alias resolution loader defaults to an empty string it generates a non-empty QStringList with an empty string and .at() asserts. I've fixed it by defaulting to an empty QStringList, which doesn't enter the split loop. Ideally the assertion would show …

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Re: VCS - A capture utility for certain Datapath capture cards

Posted on 2023-11-19, 06:33

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by vvbee

in Release Announcements

in Release Announcements

I use Ubuntu 20.04. You can compile with the virtual capture backend (CAPTURE_BACKEND_VIRTUAL in vcs.pro) to rule out a problem with the Datapath capture chain. Otherwise compile with VCS_DEBUG_BUILD and see if the debugger tells you anything.

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Re: Gona's PCI and AGP video card DOS compatibility chart

Posted on 2023-11-16, 18:56

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by vvbee

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Some more use cases of the bot. As an abstraction layer/UI I think it's pretty good. Not perfect and knowing the dataset to begin with helps, but one could build a workable frontend this way. Extract specific data as a CSV file. (If you're making your own bot, better give it instructions about case …

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Re: Gona's PCI and AGP video card DOS compatibility chart

Posted on 2023-11-14, 18:17

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by vvbee

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

As a heads up, I set up the bot as a feature test and to see if people do something interesting with it. I don't plan to keep it around as a service, and as a test it's already served its purpose. Don't rely on it being available tomorrow or a week from now or whatever, if you plan on setting one up …

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Re: Gona's PCI and AGP video card DOS compatibility chart

Posted on 2023-11-13, 20:34

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by vvbee

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Some examples of visualizing the data (looks plausible, but I didn't verify by hand): Filename graph1.jpg File size 26.01 KiB Views 926 views Filename graph2.jpg File size 257.11 KiB Views 926 views The bot seems to do worse when what you're asking requires information from other sources (the …

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Re: Gona's PCI and AGP video card DOS compatibility chart

Posted on 2023-11-13, 11:11

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by vvbee

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Pretty much any benchmark or test would be an incomplete sampling of a domain, so as you say it comes down to expressing the uncertainty in some way. If the tests are with problematic software then they all have that in common and it's a problem of wording still. It should be fairly easy to tweak …

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Re: Gona's PCI and AGP video card DOS compatibility chart

Posted on 2023-11-13, 08:51

by

by vvbee

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

As a test, I set up a ChatGPT interface to the data: xxxx. You need the paid ChatGPT subscription to use it. To answer questions the bot has access to the chart's data harvested around 2019, and has been told to stick to the facts as much as it reasonably can. It can do some numerical analysis as …

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Re: VCS - A capture utility for certain Datapath capture cards

Posted on 2023-11-10, 22:28

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by vvbee

in Release Announcements

in Release Announcements

Version 3.4.0 is out, and there was a 3.3.2 in between that fixed some issues. The new version adds some things, among them the requested feature of a color domain setting.

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Re: Market value for popular or rare classic computer hardware

Posted on 2023-11-10, 20:05

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by vvbee

in Milliways

in Milliways

Every Voodoo2 on buy it now looks to be the same price they were new in 1998. I would've bought one back then but they were too expensive, came full circle in 25 years. On the other hand I can buy CPUs for peanuts that render faster in software. The Banshees aren't cheap either. I think they were …

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Re: Trying to revive this grumpy old ASUS A7V333

Posted on 2023-11-09, 18:52

by

by vvbee

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Yeah, the board kicked around for a decade in various conditions before being put into retro use, should've been more damaged than it was but no obvious problems at that point, half a decade ago at this point. No obvious corrosion elsewhere on the board now so something went wrong at that spot.

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Re: Trying to revive this grumpy old ASUS A7V333

Posted on 2023-11-09, 02:56

by

by vvbee

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

It's a decent board for benchmarking video cards, shame to scrap it. I took out all 1000+ uf caps to use in other things, tested a bunch with a multimeter and none measured bad. Don't have equipment to test them any further than that though.

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Re: Trying to revive this grumpy old ASUS A7V333

Posted on 2023-11-08, 18:49

by

by vvbee

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Spent some time on one of these just now as well. Some years back the board started having intermittent trouble booting and from what I remember sometimes wouldn't boot cold, just spun the fans the first couple attempts. Eventually stopped booting altogether. I replaced the 3300 uf caps and cleaned …

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Re: Matrox Millenium G550, good retro gaming gpu?

Posted on 2023-11-05, 18:40

by

by vvbee

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

You're looking at release dates, I'm looking at generations. We can agree that the TNT2/Voodoo3/G400 generation is a gaming generation, and that any GeForce runs rings around it but doesn't have the same compatibility. The G550 clearly doesn't belong in the GeForce/Radeon generation, no point …

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Re: Matrox Millenium G550, good retro gaming gpu?

Posted on 2023-11-05, 07:35

by

by vvbee

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Comparison of the G400 and the G550 on an Athlon 64 in Windows 98: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68qVuem7zco. By my estimate the G400 is on average 5% faster here. Render quality and game compatibility appear virtually identical. The G550 has digital output and is cheaper to buy. Consumer hardware …

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Re: Matrox Millenium G550, good retro gaming gpu?

Posted on 2023-11-04, 09:16

by

by vvbee

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Capture of late 1990s games with the G550 (DVI): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4YCrlutsQSg. Ran with a K6-2 300 for convenience reasons, so it's an image quality reference rather than a performance benchmark. Some capture I've done of the G400 (VGA) on an Athlon XP: https://www.youtube.com/watch …

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Re: Matrox Millenium G550, good retro gaming gpu?

Posted on 2023-11-03, 17:52

by

by vvbee

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

The G400 was a top performer and in hindsight one of the most compatible D3D cards of the time. Since the G550 is an iteration of the G400, its drivers come in the same bundle even, you can start suspecting that talk of office use is contemporary marketing in a shifting landscape. It's a negative …

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Re: Matrox Millenium G550, good retro gaming gpu?

Posted on 2023-11-03, 09:26

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by vvbee

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

dionb wrote on 2023-10-31, 14:28: The G550 was never designed for gaming The underlying design is for gaming though and if you froze time the G550 would probably have sold as a gaming card, some variant of the G400 with native DVI.

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Re: VCS - A capture utility for certain Datapath capture cards

Posted on 2023-11-01, 06:03

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by vvbee

in Release Announcements

in Release Announcements

Version 3.3.1 is out, which together with version 3.3.0 adds two previously Windows-only features: alias resolutions and capture rate throttling. Also adds other things, like the ability to lock a video preset so it's always active, and a more economical eco mode.

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Re: VCS - A capture utility for certain Datapath capture cards

Posted on 2023-10-29, 05:39

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by vvbee

in Release Announcements

in Release Announcements

Version 3.2.0 is out. Along with version 3.1.1, it adds a few things and removes a few things. Full changelog for both versions on GitHub. PCem 17 capture is now supported via the MMAP interface, though tested only briefly.

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