Beta Mame4All Beta

[EvilDragon]

Have an option to turn off that goddamn headache inducing blurry filter (you knew this was comming ). Great as an option, just not the only option. Just curious but why the hell is everyone using this now?

It's fast. It's free. It significantly reduces effort needed to port GP2X/Wiz software, since you can just use 320x240 framebuffer, which means no need for changes in logic.

So it is just a case of using it because it is easy to do. Isn't there a way that it could be done without the blurr though? It is making every emulator look fuzzy. It is ironic that all emulators are now looking sharper on the GP2X than the Pandora, it is like a step backwards in quality.

Yeah, sharper. But most of the emulators play games which ran on CRTs, so in fact the slightly blurry look makes it look more realistic than they ever looked like on the GP2X

Though I also agree that a non-blurry scaler is also nice, as some people like it better if it is sharp.

 

[cosam]

Updated the PND and sources.

• Video aspect options should all work (see below).
• No more XFCE desktop behind the emulator screen.
• Removed GP2X-specific settings from menu.

Video modes are:

• Normal = Integer scaling which attempts to best match the current screen.
• Scale = Fractional scaling, full screen with game's native resolution preserved.
• 4:3 = Fixed 4:3 aspect ratio.
• Stretch = Fill entire screen.

All of the above modes have a rotated counterpart which hopefully also works.

The XFCE desktop is hidden by starting little SDL screen blanker program in the background before running the emulator. An incredibly useful side effect is that this also catches all those pesky events which would otherwise be sent to the desktop.

 

[Jumpman]

^Sounds Great SteveM!

I'm gonna try this one out later today, looking good.

Chris

 

[Orion4874]

It's things like this that make me hate people with Pandoras. Thanks SteveM, great work, and I can't wait to be able to use this!

 

[coevin]

Nice work so far Steve! Is the sound working right on this release or am I doing something wrong? Cheers keep up the excellent work.

 

[Stouffa]

just tried this beta, of the few games I've tried so far, they seem to run better under Ginge using the Wiz Mame4all, and the sound isn't working properly on any game I've tired (might just be bad luck, or some settings I'm not setting up properly yet)

 

[jonlad1]

I've not had chance to try this yet but how does it compare to the other mame we have?

Similar speed/compatibility?

Will be there first thing I try when I get home though!

 

[jonlad1]

Does it run outrun full speed now?

 

[DaveC]

Rotate mode works but needs keyboard config so that you can re-define any key to a fire button in this mode. On the Wiz it mapped to the MENU button automatically on rotate, and on GP2X it mapped to VOLUME buttons. Actually in every mode it should be possible so that games with more than 4 buttons can be played. The d-pad autorotates as it should in rotate mode so that is good.

This should already work, albeit suboptimally due to GP2X vol +/- being mapped to 1 and 2 at the moment. I'm open to suggestions as to which keys would work well as default action buttons (I'm guessing something in the bottom left, which becomes bottom right when rotated).

Yes like SHIFT , . A, Z etc depending on the number needed. I would start with , and . for volume if not configurable.

Analogue is probably quite easy. If the nub is in joystick mode it may even work already as the code used for USB joysticks might detect it. The key combos are just what came with the GP2X version so there's indeed work to be done there now we have all these lovely buttons to play with.

And how about the touchscreen for Missile Command, or would that be cheating? ;-)

Touchscreen would be cheating. For analog I don't mean to use them just as a d-pad digital mode but to actually use them as true analog for those trak-ball games etc. I doubt the code was left in the GP2X port but maybe it was, don't know.

 

[jonlad1]

OMG!

It runs so quick! Much better than the mame we already have.

Awesome work!!

This one has some potential!!

Beer money link please!!

 

[cosam]

just tried this beta, of the few games I've tried so far, they seem to run better under Ginge using the Wiz Mame4all, and the sound isn't working properly on any game I've tired (might just be bad luck, or some settings I'm not setting up properly yet)

Which games and which settings? We really need like-to-like comparisons with measurable results, like "I'm playing game X with settings A, B, C through Ginge and get Y FPS whilst on the Pandora build I get Z FPS with the same settings". Sound not working is a known issue.

For analog I don't mean to use them just as a d-pad digital mode but to actually use them as true analog for those trak-ball games etc. I doubt the code was left in the GP2X port but maybe it was, don't know.

There is definitely some joystick code in there - I've seen it. The nubs can be made to report themselves as joysticks and MAME can map analogue axes to analogue controls, so...

 

[Stouffa]

just tried this beta, of the few games I've tried so far, they seem to run better under Ginge using the Wiz Mame4all, and the sound isn't working properly on any game I've tired (might just be bad luck, or some settings I'm not setting up properly yet)

Which games and which settings? We really need like-to-like comparisons with measurable results, like "I'm playing game X with settings A, B, C through Ginge and get Y FPS whilst on the Pandora build I get Z FPS with the same settings". Sound not working is a known issue.

For analog I don't mean to use them just as a d-pad digital mode but to actually use them as true analog for those trak-ball games etc. I doubt the code was left in the GP2X port but maybe it was, don't know.

There is definitely some joystick code in there - I've seen it. The nubs can be made to report themselves as joysticks and MAME can map analogue axes to analogue controls, so...

the first ones I tried were Bionic Commando, Black Tiger and Don Don pachi. I left the settings as default under Ginge, but changed the scaling to 4:3 on the Pandora version to get the screen to fit. for Bionic Commando, the sound wasn;t working properly either way, but it was much faster under Ginge (I didn't overclock the Pandora version), Black Tiger had sound issues on both, but Don Don Pachi seems to play perfectly with sound under Ginge, but noticeably slower and with sound issues under Pandora. I'll give more games a proper try later after work. I'm using what's supposed to be the complete set of Roms for MAME4all (as far as I know). I'll try add FPS figures later too

 

[gruso]

Just to repeat Steve's words:

Sound not working is a known issue.

No need to report sound problems at this stage.

 

[naples39]

Does it run outrun full speed now?

You'll need 700mhz for the most graphically intense levels, but at that speed you can turn frameskip off and it should be good.

 

[NickLoTurco]

Thank god, someone is working on it! Thankyou thankyou thankyou!

 

[Mjlink]

SteveM,

You the man, this rocks!

Peace & Pandora,

Link

 

[cosam]

A source-only update this time. Had a bit of a tidy up and switched to SDL audio. Sound is improved, but still not quite there. If anyone fancies having a go:

http://www.cosam.org/computers/pandora/mame4all-2.5-sdl-audio.tar.gz

The files in question are src/sound.cpp (audio from MAME to buffers) and src/pandora/minimal.cpp (buffers to audio device).

I'm gonna look at some other stuff before the old brain explodes ;-)

 

[naples39]

Keep up the good work! Clear up the sound and this will be a truly great emu.

The only other thing I'd recommend when you get time is to change all the gp2x style shortcuts. Maybe P to pause, space to bring up mame menu, Q to quit, F for show fps, or something like that.

 

[Mjlink]

A source-only update this time. Had a bit of a tidy up and switched to SDL audio. Sound is improved, but still not quite there. If anyone fancies having a go:

http://www.cosam.org/computers/pandora/mame4all-2.5-sdl-audio.tar.gz

The files in question are src/sound.cpp (audio from MAME to buffers) and src/pandora/minimal.cpp (buffers to audio device).

I'm gonna look at some other stuff before the old brain explodes ;-)

So we need to manually swap out these files?
I know your brain was fried when you posted this being in Holland and all that

Anyway, I'm lost here.

Peace & Pandora,

Link

(PS Thank you again for this one bro!)

 

[DaveC]

A source-only update this time. Had a bit of a tidy up and switched to SDL audio. Sound is improved, but still not quite there. If anyone fancies having a go:

http://www.cosam.org/computers/pandora/mame4all-2.5-sdl-audio.tar.gz

The files in question are src/sound.cpp (audio from MAME to buffers) and src/pandora/minimal.cpp (buffers to audio device).

I'm gonna look at some other stuff before the old brain explodes ;-)

So we need to manually swap out these files?
I know your brain was fried when you posted this being in Holland and all that

Anyway, I'm lost here.

Peace & Pandora,

Link

(PS Thank you again for this one bro!)

No, you need to compile it. It is codin' type stuff, if you are not a dev then it won't do you good.