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the state of mame
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saint:
MAME is cross-platform though. You'd have to do a platform specific build for a specific video card I think. Don't see that fitting in with MAME's origins/direction.
MagicManPA:
I'd just like to say that while MAME is not perfect, nothing else in life is either.

I am glad MAME is available for me to use & I enjoy it every time I use it. I don't know how to do programming so kudos to the folks that made it for us to use.  :applaud:
Vigo:

--- Quote from: saint on December 29, 2010, 11:45:50 am ---MAME is cross-platform though. You'd have to do a platform specific build for a specific video card I think. Don't see that fitting in with MAME's origins/direction.

--- End quote ---

I'm not going to argue that. :)  I don't know all that goes into getting hardware acceleration for even a single card working, but I am guessing that if it were as simple as I put it, it would have been attempted already. Something like MAME, I can understand how it would be exponentially complex. I don't exactly see how it is a method that destroys the integrity of the emulation, but I live in a simple world that thinks that using a graphics card for this kind of application would only be utilizing the card's processing power.


Haze:

--- Quote from: Vigo on December 29, 2010, 10:36:40 am ---Keep in mind i'm no programmer here, but is it a possibility to only focus on building support piece by piece for only one series of graphics card for the time being? I think there would be a ton of people willing to get an exact graphics card to gain the benefits of GPU acceleration.

I remember on some old PC games, the developers only worked on building support for 1 card. It made me think of this as a possible solution. And if hardware acceleration got buggy on emulation, it could possibly be turned on or off on a game by game basis. I would think that would be no greater compromise on emulation than the frameskip option.

--- End quote ---

Honestly, I'm not sure how it would work.  As you might have noticed, graphic cards in general are becoming more general purpose processors which is what I believe MAME is hoping to take advantage of.

It might end up being something like the recompiler system, whereby MAME defines a intermediate 'language' to say how the video hardware works, and then has backends (including a fall-back one in C) to generate code for the target platforms.  That would be slower than a specifically crafted solution for a specific card, but would prevent MAME from being tied to a specific piece of hardware entirely.

Of course, this might be why one of the reason the MAME recompiler doesn't give quite such good results anyway, and only a handful of cores have even been converted over to it (SH2 and MIPS) and only 3 backends (aside the C one) exist, those being x86 / x64 and PPC.

It's no easy task, and to get it right will require a lot of planning and a lot of expertise in these areas.  If the scope is too limited drivers will quickly outgrow it, and be back to where we started.
Xiaou2:
More Excuses.

 720 is a prime example.

 It used to be able to be controlled with an arcade CORRECT controller.  However, nobody else could play it who didnt have a 720 controller, or didnt build their own 720 controller (which IS very possible - "IF" the game supports it in mame).

 Just about Any other game in mame can have MULTIPLE controllers to make them work:  IE: Marble Madness can be played with:

1) Keyboard
2) Mouse
3) REAL TRACKBALL

 But 720?   Nope.  You have to settle for the most INACCURATE, butchered, and mechanically unsound method of all.

 Now, give us a good reason why MAME would KILL 100% Accurate WORKING
controls of a machine, and NOT allow it as an OPTION to the users?

 Its called a "SWITCH".  Just like any other thing in mame which can be disabled or Enabled.  Mame is just too lazy to implement it.. because mame does not care about 100% PRESERVED ACCURACY.
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