I only discovered that a lot of games output at weird refresh rates when I was putting together a mister. My vrr TV handles most of the weird refresh rates and resolutions but not all (in particular not bad dudes Vs the dragon ninja).
I didn't know mk 1,2,3 run at 54 Hz! Mister doesn't have support for the mk boards so I've only played them via emulation on a pc, this means they have been running too fast! (I think)
One thing, my pc has a Nvidia 3070, if I tell retro arch to output at the original refresh rate (which my vrr TV should be able to handle) I'll get the correct refresh rate?
I think what you have been talking about is that post 2015, analogue output on graphics cards isn't natively generated so it's as bad as a hdmi to analogue adapter. Digital output to a vrr is completely separate.
> this means they have been running too fast! (I think)
Not necessarily. There are settings in MAME which provide some options on how to address frame rate mismatches. I think they all have various trade-offs like dropping, doubling or blending frames but I'm not current on what they are since all my serious retro gaming is on my CRT-based arcade cabinet :-). In theory at least, a modern GPU's ability to synthesize motion interpolated frames should allow fairly decent frame rate matching, even without VRR.
> if I tell retro arch to output at the original refresh rate (which my vrr TV should be able to handle) I'll get the correct refresh rate?
Yes. VRR is basically intended to do with a digital display what an analog CRT has always done, vary the display's refresh rate to match the source clock. However, I'll add a small caveat here. VRR is relatively new and advanced digital display features newly added to revisions of existing consumer video standards have a tendency to go through some teething pains as various device and display manufacturers figure out the nuances. I've only played around a little bit with VRR but haven't done any serious validation myself. Until it's more mature, I wouldn't assume correctness or compatibility of any recent addition to HDMI 2.1 (looking at you Source-based Tone Mapping!). So... trust but verify :-)
Also, since you mentioned Retroarch, here's a ProTip: Retroarch is admittedly convenient but for serious retro gaming I generally recommend using the original emulators directly, especially if you're striving for emulation accuracy and display correctness. MAME's interface is definitely more clunky and it's probably possible to achieve identical results with Retroarch but as a wrapper, it adds another layer of abstraction and potential for gremlins. There's also the potential for cores to not be up to date and the RA authors do change some things and make certain trade-offs to integrate disparate cores into their architecture. For CRT users I also don't know if there's even a GroovyMAME core for RetroArch.
> Retroarch is admittedly convenient but for serious retro gaming I generally recommend using the original emulators directly, especially if you're striving for emulation accuracy and display correctness.
This comes with the caveat that sometimes RetroArch's frontend is better than the standalone emulator's frontend -- RetroArch's graphics and input is quite mature and configurable on all platforms, and I've definitely had problems with bugs or latency in some less-maintained standalone emulators that aren't a problem when running through RetroArch. But yeah, agreed otherwise -- RetroArch is another layer between you and the emulator core that doesn't always do what you want or expose the options you need.
Yeah, on retro arch and specific emulators, you are right. I've been messing around with emulators since about 1997 and it's only in recent years I've been using retro arch, I miss the days of zsnes and genesyst. I actually think retro archs UI is pretty awful. Also, I don't get why their website reads like an infomercial. For example they really want to make a point that FPGA emulation is no match for retro arch, which is silly, they both have advantages and drawbacks. Maybe they make money off retro arch, not sure.
The layer of abstraction point you make is spot on, I've been using my steam deck a lot, I'm using emu deck which installs emulation station which installs retro arch. Configuration is scattered everywhere.
I haven't mucked about much with individual emulators in a while, so I'm not sure if they'll support run ahead latency reduction features, that's the one big thing I like in retro arch.
Edit: my main issue currently is figuring out what settings I should be using for particular cores/emulators. The steam deck screen isn't vrr, but it does allow refresh limiting. So that is its own set of problems. Similarly I think I'm using the right settings for my pc vrr set up, but never certain.
Actually, I spend more time fiddling with setting Vs playing games!
I only discovered that a lot of games output at weird refresh rates when I was putting together a mister. My vrr TV handles most of the weird refresh rates and resolutions but not all (in particular not bad dudes Vs the dragon ninja). I didn't know mk 1,2,3 run at 54 Hz! Mister doesn't have support for the mk boards so I've only played them via emulation on a pc, this means they have been running too fast! (I think)
One thing, my pc has a Nvidia 3070, if I tell retro arch to output at the original refresh rate (which my vrr TV should be able to handle) I'll get the correct refresh rate?
I think what you have been talking about is that post 2015, analogue output on graphics cards isn't natively generated so it's as bad as a hdmi to analogue adapter. Digital output to a vrr is completely separate.