Space Invaders colors

mediamogul

The only version of Mame that I've heard of in RetroPie that supports artwork is lr-mame2010 and the results apparently slow down emulation considerably. @dankcushions has made an effort to add support to lr-mame2003, but those efforts have been met with quite a bit of technical difficulty that might ultimately prevent it from working at all.

UDb23

@mediamogul Also Advance mame 1.4 supports artwork (see screenshot above).
The required older .art format uses a coordinate system that's not exactly user friendly.
Additionally with advmame you lose all retroarch benefits (e.g. keys/gamepad config)

UDb23

@nitemarestang The artwork zip file you downloaded has to be placed in a specific artwork subfolder for mame to see the artwork. Please check your specific mame32 (windows?) folder structure.

mediamogul

@UDb23 said in Space Invaders colors:

Also Advance mame 1.4 supports artwork (see screenshot above).

Ah, good to know. I missed that one.

chavatar

@UDb23 mame4all supports the colours over mame2003 just in case you hadn't tried it.

I spent a morning trying to wrestle with advmame 1.4 .art files to use something better and fill the screen - I ended up giving up, couldn't produce anything acceptable. I really didn't know enough and it was hard to find documentation. But I assume it's possible, just tricky:

Now, if you're familiar with the old artwork system, you may be scratching your head and thinking, why do we have to specify the aspect ratio of the screen? In the old system, the screen was always positioned from (0,0)-(1,1) and the aspect ratio of the screen (and the resulting artwork) was determined by flags in the game. This is true, and in retrospect, was a mistake. Not only did it make things confusing for positioning purposes, but it meant a lot of the artwork needed to be rotated and tweaked so that it stretched correctly.

http://wiki.mamedev.org/index.php/Layouts_and_Rendering_for_MAME_Artwork_System

UDb23

@chavatar Thanks for the mame4all tip.
Concerning artworks for advmame 1.4, you can get detailed info on the ART file coordinate system here: https://github.com/mscottford/pinmame/blob/master/src/artwork.c

I'm working on an excel "tool" to automatically generate the .art file with the correct coordinates, starting from monitor/TV screen size (bezel size in pixels) and actual game area.
I'll update this post on the results.

chavatar

@UDb23 Thanks for the link, good luck with the tool :)

UDb23

@chavatar Unfortunately you are right, the old artwork system is a big headache.
Excel tool finished and doing the right calculations according to the mentioned coordinate system.
Did plenty of tests but still advmame doesn't work the way it's supposed to with artwork.

Advmame 1.4 basically refuses to integer scale x4 with the invaders ROM; that's the maximum scale you should be able to get with a 1080P TV, as the original arcade is 224x240 (according to advmame).
Artwork scaled coordinates are calculated with this assumpion but advmame sets resolution to 896x578 (with x2 scale), No way to get higher resolutions. No clue why this happens.
Result is you get the Bezel at a lower resolution, and still the black bars on the sides.

nitemarestang

What can I upgrade to so I can have good artwork and my games still play correctly? I have just old school 80s games. Running Mame32 0.104u6 now.

UDb23

@nitemarestang Any version of Mame > .107 supports the new .LAY based artworks.
Mame .176 is the latest version.

nitemarestang

@UDb23 Thanks, I will try one of those