Soft-15khz

Soft-15KHz v27

Soft-15khz is a software project maintained by BYOAC German member SailorSat. Due to the heavy development currently going into this project, the information on this wiki page may very well be out of date. Please check her original project threads at ArcadeInfo.de for current details and update this wiki page as necessary.

PLEASE NOTE: Soft-15KHz is a Windows application and will only function once Windows has loaded. Any resolutions that a computer outputs before Soft-15KHz kicks in may be harmful to standard arcade monitors.

About

The project “Soft-15KHz” is about reprogramming of video adapters and/or their drivers to make them usable with normal Arcade monitors and/or TVs. It does this by doing small changes to the Windows registry to add typical arcade screen resolutions, as well as tweaking some existing ones, and locking out all others.

It can be used as a simple free alternative to Powerstrip to allow Windows based computers to display on real arcade monitors without the need for specialized hardware. Unlike Powerstrip it has been developed with only arcade monitors and resolutions in mind and is streamlined and tweaked to help home arcade users.

Status

The project is to be considered ALPHA Status but should work as intended.

Current Features Frontend for Windows 98*, 2000 and XP 15KHz Resolutions. 25KHz Resolutions. 31KHz Resolutions. ATI Catalyst supported. NVidia ForceWare supported. Matrox Drivers supported. 3Dfx Drivers supported.

Planned Features 35-38KHz Resolutions. Other Drivers supported.

* currently only supports ATI Catalyst in Win98

Development and Donations

The use of the project is totaly free, however developing is not, as it sometimes requires to buy certain stuff, most likely new or special video cards.

So if you like the program feel free to donate some money to the author via PayPal to "sailorsat@animeger.de".

Resolutions in Detail

Here is a list of resolutions that Soft-15KHz currently enables.

15KHz 240 x 240 @ 60Hz 256 x 240 @ 60Hz 256 x 256 @ 60Hz 256 x 264 @ 60Hz 304 x 240 @ 60Hz 321 x 240 @ 60Hz * 321 x 256 @ 60Hz * 336 x 240 @ 60Hz 352 x 256 @ 60Hz 352 x 264 @ 60Hz 352 x 288 @ 50Hz ** 368 x 240 @ 60Hz 384 x 288 @ 50Hz ** 392 x 240 @ 60Hz 401 x 256 @ 53Hz * ** 448 x 240 @ 60Hz 512 x 240 @ 60Hz 512 x 288 @ 50Hz ** 632 x 264 @ 56Hz ** 640 x 240 @ 60Hz 640 x 288 @ 50Hz ** 512 x 448 @ 60Hz Interlace 512 x 512 @ 60Hz Interlace 640 x 480 @ 60Hz Interlace 720 x 480 @ 60Hz Interlace 800 x 600 @ 50Hz Interlace ** 1024 x 768 @ 50Hz Interlace ** * "Fake" Resolution to avoid DirectX-Problems. ** Says 60Hz in Windows.

25KHz 448 x 384 @ 60Hz 512 x 384 @ 60Hz 31KHz 512 x 448 @ 60Hz 512 x 512 @ 60Hz 640 x 480 @ 60Hz 720 x 480 @ 60Hz 800 x 600 @ 50Hz ** 1024 x 768 @ 50Hz ** ** Says 60Hz in Windows.

Removing Resolutions

Most arcade monitors will not support every resolution here, so you may wish to exclude any unsupported resolutions from your set up. To do this create a text file called custom15khz.txt (or custom25khz.txt or custom31khz.txt depending on your needs) in the same folder as Soft15khz.exe and, for example, to disable the 321x256 resolution add the line remove 321,256.

Adding Custom Resolutions

Similarly to removing resolutions, custom resolutions can be added. This is done by creating a text file called custom15khz.txt (or custom25khz.txt or custom31khz.txt depending on your needs) in the same folder as Soft15khz.exe and adding the modeline details for each custom resolution.

For Example: modeline "1920x1080@60i" 82,817 1920 2104 2288 2456 1080 1107 1108 1125 interlace -hsync -vsync

Some Useful Modelines

If you have a multisync arcade monitor that can display 25khz (EGA) and 31khz (VGA) resolutions, you can add some very useful modelines which enable a large number of vertical games to be displayed with the correct number of horizontal lines. You can also run 1024x768 in interlaced mode. Here are a few modelines which have been tested on a Betson Multisync monitor:

modeline "432x324@60" 13.4 432 440 496 536 324 326 330 351 -hsync -vsync

modeline "416x312@60" 13 416 424 480 520 312 314 318 338 -hsync -vsync

modeline "1024x768@59,959i" 29,49 1024 1040 1136 1200 768 776 782 820 interlace -hsync -vsync

Supported Drivers and Adapters

It should work with any NVidia (ForceWare 66.93 and up), ATI (Catalyst 2.5 and up), Matrox PowerDesk and 3Dfx Voodoo3/4/5 Driver, which themselfs support a large number of modern video adapters. Attention! The Windows default drivers are NOT compatible.

For a selection of tested drivers and adapters please look at Supported Drivers Thread.

Frequently Asked Questions

Here is a list of Frequently Asked Questions thread about Soft 15khz.

Additional Information

• Basic Formulas to calculate resolutions. (In German)
• Information on Windows and the Drivers. (In German)

Download

• Download Thread about Soft 15khz