Had a pleasant time with a bud’s PVM over the holidays
What a lovely little box the MiSTer is
@TheFragranceOfDarkCoffee lol - what’s up with the Mac Tonight looking Goombas?
Speaking of hacks, I was happy to see that the recent Star Fox EX total conversion mod got a MiSTer version:
Worked great too when I tested!
Hopefully it’s a sign that some hacks that don’t work on MiSTer might be able to be updated to do so.
@[deleted] hosting a channel surfing get together this weekend. I think I’ll load this one up haha.
Someone tell me how composite out works on MiSTer now, or what core devs are working toward.
I thought you could already get an adapter to output composite from the VGA port, so why do devs need to rework their cores for composite and S-video? Is it to simplify the cables necessary? Is the end result of this just gonna be: you will be able to plug a VGA-to-composite (or S-video) cable from your MiSTer to your TV without an adapter jutting out the side?
@connrrr It’s necessary because of video timings. Each core must be tuned to an NTSC or PAL signal individually. And yes - you would just need to plug in a cable without any special adapters when all is said and done (if you want composite and you’re not afraid of a little soldering on a couple of wires. S-Video is plug-and-play).
You cat get the latest Y/C cores enabling them in the “Unofficial Cores” section of the update_all script (thanks @KennyL "!):
There is also good information about how all this works on this page. Mike’s pretty good about updating the YC cores with the versions of the base cores if they receive big updates.
Your directory structure should look like this:
The __YCArcade directory will look like this:
just copy all of the contents of the __Arcade directory EXCEPT the cores folder into _YCArcade
They’ll show up in your cores list at the bottom in the MiSTer menu.
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Next you’ll need to do some config setup. Detailed instructions here:
Using Your CRT With MiSTer - MiSTer FPGA Documentation
You’ll need to change a couple settings in your .ini depending on if the video is coming out of the DE-10 HDMI port or if your using an AnalogIO board.
If your using the DE-10’s HDMI with a VGA adapter then you must set direct_video to on. This will output whatever the core spits out natively over HDMI without additional scaling or syncing.
If you’re using the AnalogIO board then you’ll need to turn on vga_sog (sync on green).
Both will need ypbpr=1 for gamma correction.
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Now onto the cables and adapters.
You need a VGA to RGB adapter like this:
To use S-Video just plug in the YC cables into the Green (Chroma) and Red (Luma) ports of the VGA adapter. And you’re done!
If you want to use composite you’ll need to solder some components onto some spare RCA cables:
This is pretty easy solder job as I have done it myself, so if you’re comfortable with it and have the parts then go for it. It must be done to reign in the signal. Otherwise you’ll need to look for an adapter with a luma trap.
Here is my ugly custom cable (I wrapped each wire with electrical tape when I was done):
Just remember to keep the ground wires connected. Then just plug it into a Stereo to Mono adapter:
After everything is hooked up and you load a _YC core then you just need to change the Video Signal to Y/C on the core’s main menu, otherwise the video will just be black and white. On Sega cores you need to enable composite blend.
Here are some example pics of my MiSTer over the above composite cable:
I am a little confused. I keep hearing Tim say he plays PS2 games on his MiSTer. Yet looking into it, it seems that this is not possible. What's the deal here?
Update_All script now has option to grab YC cores.
As for cabling, I think building it yourself is super damn cool but pretty raw… Have to deal with bunch of cables and bits. There are passive adapters for svideo out now but you still need jigged cable for good composite. Ones with active filter for composite are in the works for awhile. Hopefully out soon.
@onefiftythree PS2 is not possible with the current project. This is a list of console cores available:
Console Cores - MiSTer FPGA Documentation
Also, from my understanding Tim has a HDMI modded PS2 with all the piracy goodies attached.
@matt oh welp. Good to know!
@copySave Thank you for mentioning the Sega cores needed the composite blend option on, I’m embarrassed to say I had no idea that was why mine was rainbowing so bad, lol.
Just wanted to say soldering might not be required much longer! It’s out of stock currently, but Ultimate MiSTer now sells a VGA to S-video converter with luma trap designed specifically for use with Mike Simone’s Y/C cores. He’s working an active board that also has composite built in, but you can use an S-Video to composite adapter cable with the passive board they sell now and it works great. I managed to snag one before they ran out and I highly recommend it as an alternative for babies like me who are afraid of soldering, whenever they’re in stock again.
I honestly just go the whole path of S-video out and at the last step use a converter like the one below and have been happy with the results.
Though this was mostly for testing as I am fortunate enough to have multiple component ready TVs. I just wanted to option in case I ever like need to I dunno, live in a cabin in the mountains and only play on an ancient TV. Not sure if this is a fear or a fantasy…
Active YC board is out. Gotta see how it goes!
@KennyL just snagged mine! Thanks for the heads up!
@KennyL Got one! Curious to see it compared to my cable, but pretty sweet it outputs S-Video and Composite simultaneously. Got some more SNAC adapters as well!
Y/C board arrived
It’s pretty exposed so it’s making me nervous…. but pretty fantastic! Things look so clean and pleasant on my old consumer 13" Trinitron. It’s kind of spooky. No buzzy wizzy background noise artifacts. Striking. So much more solid and sturdy than Antonio Villena board I was using before. TG16 core looks pretty much spotless on my TV. Cleaner than my real Duo. Super happy. SNES, PSX, Neogeo console, etc. all amazing. Saturn is great but off center on my TV. Genesis has vertical splits in certain dark tones but really nice otherwise. Good Sonic waterfall. Less rainbow than my real Genesis but not spotless like Wii, which is totally fine. I actually like rainbows on Sonic tubes! Arcade cores have diagonal cuts on darker edges. It’s distracting enough that I’ll be playing arcade cores other ways.
With this and HDR option, I’m sure having grand time just looking at attract screens on Mister!
@KennyL Looks awseome! Getting mine today.
Going to house it in one of these little generic electrical boxes until I think of a way to mount it into my micro ITX case.
Just need to snip away spots for the cables and secure it with adhesive or zip ties. These can be pretty handy for a temp solution.
Are you getting the 5V for the board from the IO board’s VGA port to bypass the USB-C power? I did see that was an option:
@copySave Thanks for link to boxes. I really gotta box that thing up. Villena board is much better in that regard.
Villena board needs jumper on vga port so I did for that board. I had to dig out old hdd to find some jumpers heh. One thing I gotta say about all these Mister parts sellers is their documentation is terrible/nonexistent across the board. They don’t even bother to link to proper wiki, docs, diagrams a lot of times.
Can anyone give me a short explanation on how to set up hdr on mister or point me somewhere that explains it? I have an hdr capable LED. It’s a Sony tv so I didn’t have to mess with with things too much to get a good picture with my PS5 and haven’t rly gone deep messing with settings etc on this TV. If it’s overly complicated to get it set up I might not mess with it bc I mostly play on a CRT anyway.
if that makes you nervous pls don’t look at my MiSTer that has been exposed for more than a year now because I didn’t want to pay an extra $100 for a usb hub and a case. (i already had an external hub laying around)