lr-mame2003 driver improvement and backport

Riverstorm

Not sure if you saw this @mediamogul but it looks like he already implemented a fix.

Some games require an additional zip file with recorded sounds or music in order for audio to work correctly. Audio 'sample' files should be placed in subdirectories within /libretro system dir/mame2003-plus/ e.g.:

/libretro system dir/mame2003-plus/samples/

High score, cheat, and history metadata files should be moved from github's /libretro/mame2003-plus-libretro/tree/master/metadata and placed within /libretro system dir/mame2003-plus/ e.g.:

/libretro system dir/mame2003-plus/hiscore.dat
/libretro system dir/mame2003-plus/cheat.dat
/libretro system dir/mame2003-plus/history.dat

User-generated content is placed in sub-directories within /libretro savefile dir/mame2003-plus/ e.g.:

/libretro savefile dir/mame2003-plus/diff/
/libretro savefile dir/mame2003-plus/nvram/
/libretro savefile dir/mame2003-plus/hi/
/libretro savefile dir/mame2003-plus/cfg/
/libretro savefile dir/mame2003-plus/inp/
/libretro savefile dir/mame2003-plus/memcard/
/libretro savefile dir/mame2003-plus/snap/

mediamogul

@riverstorm

Groovie ghoulies! Thanks for the heads up.

markwkidd

Hey @Riverstorm I wanted to call your attention to this github issue: https://github.com/arcadez/-mame2003-plus-libretro/issues/2

Seems like there are some new checksums for those NeoGeo ROMs. I haven't searched for them yet but I wanted to make sure you'd seen it too :)

Riverstorm

Thanks Mark I did see it and will take a look in a few weeks. We are heading out to Trinidad for Carnival in the morning and will be down there for a few weeks.

It's going to be a challenging day tomorrow as we travel through Chicago and Miami. American Airlines sent out a wearning of inclement weather in Chicago and expect possible delays out of O'Hare. We should be good if we can stay one step ahead of it. Also our flight is out at 5:50AM so we'll be up in the middle of the night, getting to the airport, not much sleep tonight.

Here we also have a winter weather advisory tomorrow and it supposed to drop down to -6F/-21C by weeks end so it's all good if we get out ok.

I always pack a change of clothes and the basics in a carry on going through O'Hare. I've been stuck there more than once. I still prefer like Minneapolis or Denver to Dallas or even LaGuardia out of New York for international.

GreenHawk84

So are these improvements going straight to the existing lr-mame2003? Or is this a new core being developed?

markwkidd

Too soon to say. My impression is that on the libretro side there definitely is a willingness to consider merging the improvements, depending on testing and consensus.

markwkidd

Imagine a world where vector titles are smooth and antialiased in mame2003. Wait --- that world is the world of MAME 0.78!

Does anyone have ideas on how to get MAME 2003 to display vectors as nicely as its source? Join the fun: https://github.com/libretro/mame2003-libretro/issues/30

markwkidd

@markwkidd said in lr-mame2003 driver improvement and backport:

Imagine a world where vector titles are smooth and antialiased in mame2003. Wait --- that world is the world of MAME 0.78!

Does anyone have ideas on how to get MAME 2003 to display vectors as nicely as its source? Join the fun: https://github.com/libretro/mame2003-libretro/issues/30

For anyone interested in recompiling mame2003 from source, there are now some additional vector-related core features exposed that are kinda nice.

Unfortunately still no vector antialiasing or high resolution rendering though!

markwkidd

I created a bounty regarding this vector rendering quality issue, specifically framed as a bugfix to bring mame2003 up to the standards of MAME 0.78.

Please feel free to track the progress or make a contribution on the bounty page:https://www.bountysource.com/issues/56042669-regression-mame2003-renders-vectors-worse-than-mame0-78

thelostsoul

Not sure if this place is right, but I have a suggestion. If Rewind is enabled, some games don't boot. Rewind needs working Save States to be working itself. So my suggestion is, if Rewind is enabled and the game don't support Save States, then disable Rewind on the fly for this game, to make it playable. Maybe with a message note on left corner while booting up.

dankcushions

@thelostsoul a core cannot disable rewind as this is retroarch functionality. maybe retroarch can? i don't know. might be worth asking on their forums: https://forums.libretro.com

markwkidd

@thelostsoul said in lr-mame2003 driver improvement and backport:

Not sure if this place is right, but I have a suggestion. If Rewind is enabled, some games don't boot. Rewind needs working Save States to be working itself. So my suggestion is, if Rewind is enabled and the game don't support Save States, then disable Rewind on the fly for this game, to make it playable. Maybe with a message note on left corner while booting up.

This seems like important information.

Please do post in the libretro forums, and include in your post at least one specific game which has this issue.

thelostsoul

@dankcushions I did register a temporary account there, but I cannot find a button to create new topic. I feel dumb, but it is how it is. If someone else feel free, here is my thread how I found this out, with a list of games which was affected:
https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/16835/solved-some-mame2003-games-stopped-working

grant2258

fixed altered beast this bug will probably cause problems with a few 68k games
details are here

https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/16833/mame-2003-gamelist-xml-with-data-from-the-binary/12

markwkidd

@riverstorm said in lr-mame2003 driver improvement and backport:

Thanks Mark I did see it and will take a look in a few weeks. We are heading out to Trinidad for Carnival in the morning and will be down there for a few weeks.

If this new feature inspired by @grant2258 works as it seems to, you will not need to do any more manual DAT creation: https://github.com/libretro/mame2003-libretro/pull/348/commits

markwkidd

@grant2258 are you set up with mame2003-plus? If so would you be willing to compile it from source and check this?

arcadez just merged in the "Generate XML DAT" feature but I'm having trouble getting it to work the same as it does in regular mame2003 in my environment. I haven't done much with mame2003-plus before now so I am hoping its something trivial on my end.

I'm really dying to get my hands XML DAT for mame2003-plus to begin testing all the new backports. It feels so close.

grant2258

sure ill have a look not a problem mark shoudl be off work monday and tuesday. Ill try compile the code when i wake up and have a peek. To rule out file permissions run as root

Riverstorm

@markwkidd said in lr-mame2003 driver improvement and backport:

@grant2258 are you set up with mame2003-plus? If so would you be willing to compile it from source and check this?

arcadez just merged in the "Generate XML DAT" feature but I'm having trouble getting it to work the same as it does in regular mame2003 in my environment. I haven't done much with mame2003-plus before now so I am hoping its something trivial on my end.

I'm really dying to get my hands XML DAT for mame2003-plus to begin testing all the new backports. It feels so close.

Will you guys be posting here when you do get a DAT generated? There's some nice updates I wouldn't mind playing too. ;)

grant2258

@riverstorm

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1fXvqlTYJAXKX-aP_3d_rYZxjULW1n4_m not tested yet so rebuild roms somewhere else dont mess with your original set

Riverstorm

Thanks Grant, will do. I've been following all the changes you and Mark have been doing and it's impressive. You guys are in the zone! :)