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

grant2258

goto rgui->options there is an option called skip warnings make sure this is off that way it will give you information if the game isint playable

been a while since i used retropie thing its select+x by default to get to the RGUI

UDb23

Mame 2003 plus deserves its own logo

could be useful in case you create a dedicated system in ES.

It's just a quick creation, feedback is welcome.

SVG file here.

hhromic

Hi all, I was looking into the "input interface" option to avoid receiving double-inputs when using a keyboard with remaps in retroarch.cfg. However I saw this commit that actually removed the option for this in lr-mame2003-plus: https://github.com/libretro/mame2003-plus-libretro/commit/856b51b24e5fb1264d17cbaaa2b1c005af06fdd9

It seems that this option is now obsolete and there is an alternative?

remove obsolete input option, use autofocus or enable hotkeys instead

However I fail to understand the proposed alternative.
Any help welcome :)

Riverstorm

@UDb23 - Thanks for the logo, it looks great.

@hhromic - Try pressing Scroll Lock (focus on) and it should give you "raw" input vs. RA double inputs. If it doesn't work you might need to update Retroarch. I know 1.7.5 works but older versions like 1.7.1 do not.

hhromic

@Riverstorm thanks for the pointer! Will try out that.
I already have the latest versions of everything so hopefully that helps.

grant2258

im pretty sure this option works on ra 1.7.3 as well basically its called game focus mode. What is does is removes all retro arch binds. I dont want to get technical here no need to all you need to know is if your using an ipac or similar it will give you full keyboard access.

(the same as nulling all your keys but it also removes the retropad binds which are conflcting)

Riverstorm

@grant2258 - Thanks, I wasn't which version it was fixed. I could go in and out of focus with the OSD message but I would still get double RA inputs, until I updated, then I knew what you were trying to explain in that thread. It's so much cleaner than using the old Input Interface options. It seems to work on any input device, even a plain ol' keyboard. Very handy.

Darksavior

Is there a final response from arcadez that system16/18 can't be backported? For no audio bugs and to not use the bootleg versions.

For example, at the moment there is no definitive way to play Shinobi with bug-free audio unless you maybe use lr-mame2000. Lr-fbalpha has that audio bug where the jump sound effect cuts off a bit early, and lr-mame2003/plus has a missing music audio channel in level2. Maybe more problems but that's what I found from brief testing.

grant2258

https://github.com/libretro/mame2003-plus-libretro/issues/195

Darksavior

@grant2258 That fix was just for the bootleg version of Moonwalker. It didn't affect the rest of the System games by just trying Shinobi and E-Swat. I mean, if you guys think it's easier to fix each game manually than to use a newer driver that possibly fixes them all, I'm sure you guys have a better judgement for that since I have no coding skills.

grant2258

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

and

the fix was for moonwalker(changed the sound core). The missing track was missing on a real arcade video for shinibo. There is no mention of a audio channel in the thread or eswat reopen the thread and post specific details

Darksavior

@grant2258 Ah I see, I wonder why fba plays the missing audio channel. A hack I guess?
Yea, E-Swat is missing the voices, at least the one in the intro. I'll double check what else. Update: yep, girl's voice on the 2nd level is gone too.

grant2258

@Darksavior there are different sets for shinobi

GAME( 1987, shinobi, 0, shinobi, shinobi, shinobi, ROT0, "Sega", "Shinobi (set 1)" )
GAMEX(1987, shinobib, shinobi, shinobi, shinobi, shinobi, ROT0, "Sega", "Shinobi (set 3)", GAME_NOT_WORKING )
GAMEX(1987, shinobia, shinobi, shinobl, shinobi, shinobi, ROT0, "Sega", "Shinobi (set 2)", GAME_NOT_WORKING )
GAME( 1987, shinobl, shinobi, shinobl, shinobi, shinobi, ROT0, "bootleg", "Shinobi (bootleg)" )

Darksavior

@grant2258

Re-testing with mame2003-plus (might be a few weeks old): shinobi.zip = missing audio channel. shinobl.zip= Music low, Jump audio cuts out. Volume for sfx seems high. Audio channel intact.

I totally forgot to test mame-2010 (0.139). shinobi.zip= Jump audio has pop/static. Audio channel intact. shinobi2.zip seems perfect.

For e-swat I used the bootleg version eswatbl.zip since eswat.zip gives me a black screen. I used mame2003-plus. Missing voices.

I found a video of someone playing the actual pcb and they do indeed get the missing audio channel but since mame2010 and fba has it, it is possible for level 2 to have the music intact.

grant2258

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

@grant2258

Re-testing with mame2003-plus (might be a few weeks old): shinobi.zip = missing audio channel. shinobl.zip= Music low, Jump audio cuts out. Volume for sfx seems high. Audio channel intact.

is it left or right side missing from the sound or are you talking about the drums that were missing in the original arcade video?

I totally forgot to test mame-2010 (0.139). shinobi.zip= Jump audio has pop/static. Audio channel intact. shinobi2.zip seems perfect.

For e-swat I used the bootleg version eswatbl.zip since eswat.zip gives me a black screen. I used mame2003-plus. Missing voices.

never really played this game might be a bootleg issue or missing code for the samples

I found a video of someone playing the actual pcb and they do indeed get the missing audio channel but since mame2010 and fba has it, it is possible for level 2 to have the music intact.

try the bootleg

can you post a link of the audio missing and when its there and when its not for shinobi so i know exacly what im looking for ?

hhromic

@Riverstorm @grant2258 , I tested now and indeed the game focus mode is working for me in RA 1.7.5 and latest lr-mame2003-plus core. It does solve the double-input problem but not in the way the old input_interface option does. I personally think the old option should return. Let me elaborate.

What the game focus mode actually does is to disconnect the keyboard as an input from RA (including hotkeys and custom bindings) and give full access of the keyboard to the core. This is why the double input dissappears, because RA no longer reads the keyboard itself and doesn't feed the core with a gamepad input alongside the core's own keyboard reading.
However, because of this you also looose rebinding functionality from RA. If you try to customise bindings in retroarch.cfg and activate game focus mode, these bindings are not respected as the core has no idea about them and processes the keyboard by itself. Also you loose the ability to exit the emulator using key combinations as RA no longer is processing the keyboard.

Rebinding is important because some hardware controllers does not map exactly to the MAME internal key layout, a simply re-binding works fine thus. I tried to access the MAME Menu using TAB, which I can, however I don't see any key rebinding options. I only see basic options such as "Game Information" and "Bookkeeping".

On the other hand, the old input_interface option was good because it allows to make MAME not process the keyboard by itself but instead process the input given by RA, with the added benefit of being able to rebind from RA and use hotkeys to exit the emulator or reset the content.

Is there any strong reason to not bring back the input_interface option? Or how can I rebind the MAME internal key layout to adjust to my hardware keys? Is there another menu besides TAB? Also, I didn't find a way to activate game focus mode on startup of RA (so I don't need to activate it manually each time I start a game).

Thanks for the patience and help guys!

hhromic

Hehe, I just found out that to access the internal Input remapping MAME menu options, you need to set mame2003-plus_mame_remapping to enabled in the retroarch core options. Now I can bind the keys for the internal keyboard processor.
To circumvent having to activate game focus mode every time, I can bind all directional/button keys to "nul" in RA while retaining the hotkey bindings, however I loose the ability to navigate RA's menus. It would be nice to configure things more natively using RA's internal system.

grant2258

I dont think you fully understand what going on but there is a solution. Add hotkey enable to access you hotkeys and you have the full keyboard.

the problem that remain is your retropads and mame keys are proccessing conflics unless they are identical. The solution is simple forget about mame key simply leave the joypad settings in and define no keys. This will be done in good that way you can have your ra config set any way and not worry about configuring mame. (set input in auto focus mode)

hhromic

yes, I definitively don't fully understand how the input works for the lr-mame2003-plus core, hence why I'm so confused about it. So, thanks for the guidance :)

Just to be clear, there are two separate issues that I'm trying to solve:

stop the core of receiving duplicate input (from RA and internally)
change the bindings as my hardware unfortunately is not standard, e.g. it swaps down and right

If I understand you correctly, I should unbind all RA keys (using "nul" in their bindings) except for the hotkey enable system and leave the core on its default bindings. This will solve 1) but not 2). I believe I still need to do what you say but also remap inside MAME to solve 2), and leave RA out of the rebinding.

What I am missing? Thanks again.

Riverstorm

@hhromic - You shouldn't need focus mode when in the RGUI, not that I can think of anyway. You would want your RA config as all RA based bindings. RA isn't capable of receiving duplicate inputs, the issue is TAB based.

The only time I use focus mode is when I am in the TAB menu to counteract double inputs. I turn on focus for keyboard based input devices, configure the game and when I'm done I shut it off. Focus won't interfere with your controller input so you can configure both at the same time, keyboard and controller based input when in focus mode.

One thing I think that might be confusing. I don't think focus mode is meant to be on permanently. It's meant to be turned on temporarily and then shut off.

The other option what Grant is proposing is instead of setting all your RA inputs to nul you could nul all of your TAB keyboard inputs but leave your controller inputs in TAB and use RA only for keyboard based input devices.

Like you said when you set your directional keys to nul you can't navigate RA so that's not really an option because you need that navigation for all the installed Libretro cores and not just MAME. So you need to focus on how you can correct the TAB input. It's harder to explain than I thought but not really very complicated so once you get the gist of it you'll have an "a-ha" moment.

I do the former vs. the latter and it works well and I am able to achieve both 1 and 2 you listed above.