What is Switchres 2.0

Switchres is a modeline generation engine for emulation.

Its purpose is on-the-fly creation of fully customized video modes that accurately reproduce those of the emulated systems. Based on a monitor profile, it will provide the best video mode for a given width, height, and refresh rate.

Switchres features the most versatile modeline generation ever, ranging from 15-kHz low resolutions up to modern 8K, with full geometry control, smart scaling, refresh scaling, mode rotation, aspect ratio correction and much more.

Switchres can be integrated into open-source emulators either as a library, or used as a standalone emulator launcher. It's written in C++ and a C wrapper is also available.

Switchres 2.0 is a rewrite of the original Switchres code used in GroovyMAME. It currently supports mode switching on the following platforms, with their respective backends:

• Windows:
  • AMD ADL (AMD Radeon HD 5000+)
  • ATI legacy (ATI Radeon pre-HD 5000)
  • PowerStrip (ATI, Nvidia, Matrox, etc., models up to 2012)
• Linux:
  • X11/Xorg
  • KMS/DRM (WIP)

Each platform supports a different feature set, being X11/Xorg the most performant currently. In general, AMD video cards offer the best compatibility, and are a real requirement for the Windows platform.

Using Switchres as a library

If you are an emulator writer, you can integrate Switchres into your emulator in two ways:

• Switchres shared library (.dll or .so). This method offers a simplified way to add advanced mode switching features to your emulator, with minimal knowledge of Switchres internals.

• Full Switchres integration. If your emulator is written in C++, you can gain full access to Switchres' gears by including a Switchres manager class into your project, à la GroovyMAME.

Ask our devs for help and advice.

Using Switchres standalone

The standalone binary supports the following options:

Usage: switchres <width> <height> <refresh> [options]
Options:
  -c, --calc                        Calculate video mode and exit
  -s, --switch                      Switch to video mode
  -l, --launch <command>            Launch <command>
  -m, --monitor <preset>            Monitor preset (generic_15, arcade_15, pal, ntsc, etc.)
  -a  --aspect <num:den>            Monitor aspect ratio
  -r  --rotated                     Original mode's native orientation is rotated
  -d, --display <OS_display_name>   Use target display (Windows: \\\\.\\DISPLAY1, ... Linux: VGA-0, ...)
  -f, --force <w>x<h>@<r>           Force a specific video mode from display mode list
  -i, --ini <file.ini>              Specify an ini file
  -b, --backend <api_name>          Specify the api name
  -k, --keep                        Keep changes on exit (warning: this disables cleanup)

A default switchres.ini file will be searched in the current working directory, then in .\ini on Windows, ./ini then /etc on Linux. The repo has a switchres.ini example.

Examples

switchres 320 240 60 --calc will calculate and show a modeline for 320x240@60, computed using the current monitor preset in switchres.ini.

switchres 320 240 60 -m ntsc -s will switch your primary screen to 320x240 at 60Hz using the ntsc monitor model. Then it will wait until you press enter, and restore your initial screen resolution on exit.

switchres 384 256 55.017605 -m arcade_15 -s -d \\.\DISPLAY1 -l "mame rtype" will switch your display #1 to 384x256@55.017605 using the arcade_15 preset, then launch mame rtype. Once mame has exited, it will restore the original resolution.

switchres 640 480 57 -d 0 -m arcade_15 -d 1 -m arcade_31 -s will set 640x480@57i (15-kHz preset) on your first display (index #0), 640x480@57p (31-kHz preset) on your second display (index #1)

License

GNU General Public License, version 2 or later (GPL-2.0+).