GroovyMAME 0.171 - SwitchRes v0.015m

[machyavel]

This looks like a really exciting release! Well done and thank you!

Exciting I agree, too bad I'm still on XP...

Thanks a lot Calamity !

[xga]

Thanks for releasing so quickly, Calamity.   

Do you have a development roadmap for future features in Groovymame that you care to share / disclose or is it all a big surprise for us?

Basically adding support for newer ATI cards, when time permits.

That's awesome news, Calamity.  Looking forward to it. 

[haynor666]

Thanks for update Calamity and the rest of team. Now frame_delay works nicely for all games that I tested so far.

[arcadeswede]

It says in the main post:
"No software can control the VERTICAL size of a resolution on a CRT monitor, you need to adjust it physically (potentiometers, service menu, etc.)."

Does this mean that I have to adjust the pot for every game I start?

[Doozer]

It says in the main post:
"No software can control the VERTICAL size of a resolution on a CRT monitor, you need to adjust it physically (potentiometers, service menu, etc.)."

Does this mean that I have to adjust the pot for every game I start?

Hi,

Not necessarily, you can check some generic games to have the best compromise between overscan and black border to make a single preset usable for all of them. If your objective is to have perfect match for all games, indeed manual calibration will be required when frequency/vertical resolution changes.

[arcadeswede]

If your objective is to have perfect match for all games, indeed manual calibration will be required when frequency/vertical resolution changes.

I will mostly play vertical Cave games and other shmups and I'm not that picky about some black borders.

[Calamity]

GroovyMAME v0.168 (SwitchRes v0.015k) is out:

What's new in SwitchRes v0.015k

- Improved audio/video synchronization [intealls]: now the audio update code is called per frame, right after the video update, instead of being scheduled based on an alien timer. This is important for time-critical audio implementations such as ASIO.

[donluca]

That was faster than light! Thanks!

Interesting update by the way, I never really noticed much audio lag.

[Doozer]

Linux 32bit are ready.

Enjoy!

[Doozer]

The 32bit and 64bit Linux builds are available on the google drive.

>>> Link to Google drive <<<

groovymame32_0168.015k_linux.tar.bz2
groovymame32_0168.015k_wiimote_linux.tar.bz2
groovymame64_0168.015k_linux.tar.bz2
groovymame64_0168.015k_wiimote_linux.tar.bz2

[Rattus]

I'm trying to update my groovymame cab from 0.151 to 0.166 and keep running into crashing issues, I must be missing something.

I have copied the 0.166 groovymame to a folder on my desktop, used the command line to generate mame.ini edited the .ini for my settings and paths used MaLa to generate the .xml file and pointed MaLa at the new 0.166 roms and mame.exe.

All seems to go well and I can start and play a few games, then after a few I will start a game and it will try to run but crash back to the frontend with windows asking me if I want to send and error report and the layout on MaLa will look messed up. I can restart MaLa and it will look OK but from then on it will crash each game and then look messed up. So I revert everything back to use my old 0.151 which is no hassle as I kept all that in it's folders and just have to change the paths in MaLa and everything plays fine.

Am I missing a step? do I need to update CRT EMUdriver & VMmaker and run that for the new Groovymame? I didn't want to just try that without asking as I was concerned that I might not just be able to revert back to 0.151 if it didn't fix it.

[cools]

(No more switchres updates. The version number is perfect as is )

[Calamity]

I'm trying to update my groovymame cab from 0.151 to 0.166 and keep running into crashing issues, I must be missing something.

No idea. Make sure you update the whole MAME folder from mamedev.org, then put the GroovyMAME excutable into that folder and redo ini file. Specially when you're jumping from such an old version.

My advice is to always make sure everything is working perfectly from command line, then and only then start using the frontend.

[Calamity]

(No more switchres updates. The version number is perfect as is )

016 is reserved for good stuff

[intealls]

(No more switchres updates. The version number is perfect as is )

016 is reserved for good stuff

I'm certain you mean that '016 is reserved for fabulous stuff', since the last few patches have been good, obviously.

[Calamity]

I'm certain you mean that '016 is reserved for fabulous stuff', since the last few patches have been good, obviously.

Yeah, I didn't mean to disregard recent achievements that have been a real breakthrough. In the past, 014 and 015 meant total or partial rewrites of the patch. 015 has survived quite long, just with incremental updates while keeping the main structure more or less unmodified, despite the undergoing refactoring of the osd layer in mainline source base, sdl2 migration included. But the cost of this extended life is increasing entropy. At this point, adding support for modern cards involves a serious overhaul, that looks like a suitable milestone for 016 version bump, as well as a chance to tidy things. There's a risk however: because a big update of the Switchres patch means breaking everything apart and then try to put it back together, if the MAME project moves to BGFX and drops the current video apis in the middle of the process, I might be screwed. I am not actually a programmer.

[timply]

if the MAME project moves to BGFX and drops the current video apis in the middle of the process, I might be screwed. I am not actually a programmer.

So what would something like that do to the GroovyMAME project?

[pakoman]

Calamity, aren't you a programer? Then you do really well with groovy/switchres not to be.
I'm always been curious, if you don't mind to tell, what do you do for living?

[Paradroid]

He's a CRT historian.

Sent from my SM-A300Y using Tapatalk

[Calamity]

GroovyMAME 0.169 (Switchres 0.015l) is out.

What's new in SwitchRes v0.015l

- Added support for AMD HD 5000/6000/7000 series. You'll need CRT Emudriver 2.0 for Windows 7/8/10.

- ATI legacy cards (HD 2000/3000/4000): fixed halved refresh of interlaced modes on vsync with Direct3D. Make sure to use in combination with the new CRT Tools (VMMaker & Arcade OSD).

- Removed frogger/galaxian patch. As suggested by haynor666.

[DudeRegular]

Whoa. Big updates calamity. Awesome.

[haynor666]

Fantastic news, now we can finally put groovymame and demul (dx11) on on PC

New tools looks great )

[Calamity]

Fantastic news, now we can finally put groovymame and demul (dx11) on on PC

New tools looks great )

Thanks. I'd like you guys to test stuff like demul and those taito games and see if there are good news with that too.

[Paradroid]

- Added support for AMD HD 5000/6000/7000 series.

Holy ---steaming pile of meadow muffin---! You did it! This is gonna make a lot of people very happy! Well done!

[haynor666]

Right now I don't have any HD5xxx serie card but I'll look at Taito Type X issue right away

[keropi]

Wow excellent news! that's what I call a holiday present
So (potential driver bugs aside) how does a 5xxx/6xxx gpu compares to a 4xxx one in terms of supported resolutions/refresh ? Are they the same?

Today I received a 4350 and I also have a 5450 available, if there is any test I can make to help make this better I'll be more than happy to do so.

[haynor666]

While I don't have any Radeon HD5xxx so I cannot test DX11 I tested Taito Type X and some of Taito Type X2 games and only SFIV, Spica Adventure and Battle Fantasia so far refuses to boot. Chaos Breaker, Deathsmiles II (not a Taito Type X actually but finally work in XP comp. mode), Gigawing Generations, Homura, Matrimelee Matsuri, Raiden III (half of plane - bug of Windows 7), Raiden IV (only intro stuttering, game works fine), Shikigami no Shiro III, Trouble Witches AC ARE FINE

I tested some games in model2 - so far everything works fine - sound and speed are ok 

[Calamity]

Thanks a lot for testing, haynor666. I wonder why SFIV isn't working. Maybe it requires @60 instead of @30, don't know. I'd need to use a debugger to dig in the problem, but I hate the idea of having to figure out how to find and download those things.

[planexcvs]

GroovyMAME 0.169 (Switchres 0.015l) is out.

What's new in SwitchRes v0.015l

- Added support for AMD HD 5000/6000/7000 series. You'll need CRT Emudriver 2.0 for Windows 7/8/10.

- ATI legacy cards (HD 2000/3000/4000): fixed halved refresh of interlaced modes on vsync with Direct3D. Make sure to use in combination with the new CRT Tools (VMMaker & Arcade OSD).

- Removed frogger/galaxian patch. As suggested by haynor666.

Sweet news! Especially about the forced monitor detection. Thank you very much Calamity.

[Sledge]

So if everything is working ok with older workarounds, is there any reason to update the drivers to the new version?
Or only do it when/if we update hardware?

[haynor666]

If You are on Windows 7 I recommend it.

[haynor666]

Thanks a lot for testing, haynor666. I wonder why SFIV isn't working. Maybe it requires @60 instead of @30, don't know. I'd need to use a debugger to dig in the problem, but I hate the idea of having to figure out how to find and download those things.

I don't know. Some time ago it worked somehow at least till intro. The system I tested new driver and utilities had previous driver installed (but it was uninstalled before I installed new one). Also I tested soft15kHz so maybe there are some leftovers. I think I reinstall windows 7 and test everything again. I've spot one bug in my modelines - some vector games are trying to use frequency 49,5 Hz and somehow my TV has bouncing picture but it this work on XP. I need to look closer to this problem when I reinstall system.

I've tested Nestopia and VBA-M and both emus seems to work ok.

[intealls]

GroovyMAME 0.169 (Switchres 0.015l) is out.

What's new in SwitchRes v0.015l

- Added support for AMD HD 5000/6000/7000 series. You'll need CRT Emudriver 2.0 for Windows 7/8/10.

- ATI legacy cards (HD 2000/3000/4000): fixed halved refresh of interlaced modes on vsync with Direct3D. Make sure to use in combination with the new CRT Tools (VMMaker & Arcade OSD).

- Removed frogger/galaxian patch. As suggested by haynor666.

Utterly awesome! Works beautifully. Thanks alot for this.

[donluca]

HUGE update! Well done!

Now there's really no reason not going the Windows 7 way.

EDIT: one quick question: do I have to update the CRT Tools and create the video modes again with the new VMMaker in order to use 0.169?

EDIT 2: regarding HD5000, 6000 and 7000 series: are they affected by the low dotclock issue?

[DeLuSioNal29]

Jumping back into this...  Thanks Calamity!

Since it's been a while, can someone point me in the right direction on where to get the latest and greatest settings for my Betson 27" Multisync monitor?  My last HDD died and I'm re-doing my system with the latest iteration of GroovyMAME .169.  Thanks in advance!

DeLuSioNaL29

[Doozer]

Hi Calamity,

A constant is missing for the Linux build in switchres.h

#define XRANDR_TIMING   0x00000010

I am operating the build remotely over a very slow satellite link. Normally, the package will be ready this afternoon. I hope the upload will terminate before 2016 ;-)

[Calamity]

Hi Calamity,

A constant is missing for the Linux build in switchres.h

#define XRANDR_TIMING   0x00000010

I am operating the build remotely over a very slow satellite link. Normally, the package will be ready this afternoon. I hope the upload will terminate before 2016 ;-)

Thanks! I'll fix the diff once you confirm it builds fine. There's been a huge overhaul in this version, I guess there'll be more issues with the sdl build.

[haynor666]

One question - does windows 7 test mode is still needed ?

I did all tests on already test mode enabled by previous driver and I didn't notice any requester about signing mode.

[ReelTechnoFreek]

Awesome work Calamity. For those of us on older cards, 4890 for me, is there  need to update to 2.0 drivers?  Thanks for all the great work.

[Doozer]

Hi Calamity,

A constant is missing for the Linux build in switchres.h

#define XRANDR_TIMING   0x00000010

I am operating the build remotely over a very slow satellite link. Normally, the package will be ready this afternoon. I hope the upload will terminate before 2016 ;-)

Thanks! I'll fix the diff once you confirm it builds fine. There's been a huge overhaul in this version, I guess there'll be more issues with the sdl build.

The build is done.
With the define clause everything compiled properly. It would be nice to receive a feedback from a user to confirm that it is running well. The VNC link is not good enough here to have a visual confirmation.

For GA users, you have to install qt5 with

Code: [Select]

pacman -Syy qt5-base