mame2003-plus: hundreds of new games, improved input, features, new bugs - now with runahead support

MajorDangerNine

@darksavior I ran it in lr-mame2003-plus and did hear completely incorrect audio at the boss, then used lr-mame2010 and it sounds exactly like this video to me at the boss.

I didn't test lr-mame2003 as I don't have it installed anymore. I can't run the game full speed in lr-fbalpha on my RPi3B.

Just for complete clarification, in all three emulators I tried, I used the exact same "Ninja Baseball Batman (US)" version of the ROM archive, which is named nbbatman in MAME v0.78 and MAME v0.139, while it is named nbbatmanuFB Alpha v0.2.97.43.

Also, when it comes to lr-mame2003-plus and lr-mame2010, I do get slowdown during non-gameplay parts, with lr-mame2010 having less severe instances of it.

grant2258

thanks for pointing this out the noise is bad at the beginning too but its terrible at the first boss. I have put a pull request in with a fix for the sound issues. here https://github.com/libretro/mame2003-plus-libretro/pull/374 when its pulled your good to go

grant2258

ok its good to update i done the fixed and broke recordings as well so you can decide if its worth compiling the ssv games audio is fixed as well.

https://github.com/grant2258/mamemagic2003/tree/master/nbbatman_samples

Darksavior

@grant2258 That was fast. Thanks! Audio sounds good. It is weird how the intro part of each level has this severe slowdown but the rest of the game is fine at 60fps. At 1.5Ghz, with FBA i get 60fps at the intro part but then it's the rest of the game that's slow in the mid 50s.

grant2258

i get 60 on a pi 3b+ on the game play

thelostsoul

@grant2258 @Darksavior May I ask you guys at what resolution you play and if you do any shader? Both are affecting the fps too.

Darksavior

@thelostsoul 1080p output res with crtpi shader.

thelostsoul

@darksavior How do you determine the fps? I want to see how much I get with 480p and scanline only shader. Just for curiousity.

Darksavior

@thelostsoul You turn it on from the rgui by pressing hotkey+x. They changed the area where it was. I forget where. Onscreen overlay options or something.

Scanlines are achieved by an overlay which is just a picture with lines (yuck) and doesn't affect performance. Or by a crt shader like the optimized crt-pi shader or zfast shader which produces a crt tv's dots and properly produces the scanlines. The PC version of retroarch has more advanced crt shaders that benefit from a 4k tv.

You can also tinker with the shader settings. I don't like the crt-pi shader's default. Too dark. I max out the shader's brightness setting and use that.

thelostsoul

@darksavior Ah ok, I just thought there would be a different way to do this properly. I remember that option now you mention it. About the shaders, I like the crt-pi shader and its vertical counter part, but 1. they aren't made for 480p 4:3: pc monitor and second for some arcade games it just looks awful. And I read somewhere even the crt-pi can have an inpug lag effect on "some" systems, but probably even not noticeable.

Anyway, thats a different story and probably this isn't the right place for talking about it. I will test some games and check the fps.

markwkidd

Tatsuya79 from the libretro team says that the very latest RetroArch nightlies/source provide improved mame2003-plus runahead lag reduction via the "2nd Instance" approach.

It remains to be seen whether that will be practical on low power systems but there are examples of runahead working with some other cores on the rpi -- it is likely to vary from one game driver to another with this core.

Riverstorm

@markwkidd said in mame2003-plus: 350 new games, improved input, features, new bugs - now with runahead support:

improved mame2003-plus runahead lag reduction via the "2nd Instance" approach.

What is the "2nd Instance" approach?

markwkidd

That's a setting in the RetroArch latency settings -- it should be enabled for mame2003-plus runahead.

Riverstorm

@markwkidd - Ok, I see why that could be resource intensive but it would be slick if it works well on the Pi. I wonder what console cores are using it. Here's a Libretro link that explains what it is and how to use it.

markwkidd

There are some posts in these forums you can probably search out -- my sense of the state of runahead on pi is that it's limited but better than many were initially predicting considering the pi cpu.

markwkidd

The RetroArch developers have said they will add support for MAME artwork files to RetroArch (including backdrops and bezels) if someone will code it.

I've started a bounty for anyone interested: https://github.com/libretro/RetroArch/issues/7419

This would be a great step forward for all arcade emulation via RetroArch if it is added.

UDb23

@markwkidd said in mame2003-plus: 350 new games, improved input, features, new bugs - now with runahead support:

The RetroArch developers have said they will add support for MAME artwork files to RetroArch (including backdrops and bezels) if someone will code it.

This would be absolutely great !

Actually full Mame .LAY format implementation is probably not that easy as it involves not only overlays and backdrops but also LED implementation, bezels and buttons.

Getting just backdrop support as you proposed (possibly with same .cfg settings approach as currently for LR overlays) would be enough.

UDb23

@markwkidd said in mame2003-plus: 350 new games, improved input, features, new bugs - now with runahead support:

I've started a bounty

Bounty increased ;-)

Riverstorm

Added to bounty. I think it would be great to see backdrop support. I know you guys have made some fantastic ones that I would love to see implemented with the bezels. That alone is pretty exciting and further consolidating to one emulator as I use AdvMAME for backdrops now even though they aren't very good.

UDb23

@riverstorm said in mame2003-plus: 350 new games, improved input, features, new bugs - now with runahead support:

use AdvMAME for backdrops now even though they aren't very good.

Have you seen this ? Advmame 3.9 has a new function to manage overlays and backdrops in better quality but it also seems this slowdowns roms significantly on the Pi.