Groovymame for slower systems

[2huwman]

I'm using GroovyArcade with some low powered PCs (dual core atoms and the like), and it works really well. However, the performance seems to vary a lot based depending on the version of mame I'm running. For example, using the 64 bit linux build of groovymame 0.152 gives really good performance, but the 0.158 is much poorer.

I would just stick with 0.152, except quite a few roms that should run on it don't, for example, Bubble Bobble. I know I've got the right romset, and it works on windows builds, but I just can't get it to run on the linux build! The game works fine on 0.158, but quite a few other games run slow on 0.158 (e.g. Moonwalker, Battle Bakraid). 

So my question is - is there a version of groovymame I can run under groovyarcade that has the advantages of being as fast as 0.152, but also runs all the games well? I've tried 0.153, and that runs many more games fast, but has a bug on exiting games that makes it unuseable on all my systems.

Thanks for any help or advice!

[ID4]

I'm using GroovyArcade with some low powered PCs (dual core atoms and the like), and it works really well. However, the performance seems to vary a lot based depending on the version of mame I'm running. For example, using the 64 bit linux build of groovymame 0.152 gives really good performance, but the 0.158 is much poorer.

I would just stick with 0.152, except quite a few roms that should run on it don't, for example, Bubble Bobble. I know I've got the right romset, and it works on windows builds, but I just can't get it to run on the linux build! The game works fine on 0.158, but quite a few other games run slow on 0.158 (e.g. Moonwalker, Battle Bakraid). 

So my question is - is there a version of groovymame I can run under groovyarcade that has the advantages of being as fast as 0.152, but also runs all the games well? I've tried 0.153, and that runs many more games fast, but has a bug on exiting games that makes it unuseable on all my systems.

Thanks for any help or advice!

Hi!

You can check "my" ArcadeMAME, it's based on 106 source like AdvanceMAME, it's the only 106 build that works with switchres, so it's an GroovyMame's little brother

It's only for windows.

[Calamity]

Hi 2huwman,

I'm using GroovyArcade with some low powered PCs (dual core atoms and the like), and it works really well. However, the performance seems to vary a lot based depending on the version of mame I'm running. For example, using the 64 bit linux build of groovymame 0.152 gives really good performance, but the 0.158 is much poorer.

I haven't experience any significant performance drop between those two versions, but I may be wrong. The only important change between those versions was the adoption of SDL2. Please let me know if the problem is still present on the latest binaries available (0.159).

[2huwman]

Thanks Calamity - good examples are battle garegga and battle bakraid - both run at 100% on 152, but at 50% on 158/159 on my atom based systems. Since they run at exactly 50% on 158, maybe the problem isn't necessarily about performance, but maybe some bug with the timing or update? it's the same for 159 (both run at 50%).

[2huwman]

I'm using GroovyArcade with some low powered PCs (dual core atoms and the like), and it works really well. However, the performance seems to vary a lot based depending on the version of mame I'm running. For example, using the 64 bit linux build of groovymame 0.152 gives really good performance, but the 0.158 is much poorer.

I would just stick with 0.152, except quite a few roms that should run on it don't, for example, Bubble Bobble. I know I've got the right romset, and it works on windows builds, but I just can't get it to run on the linux build! The game works fine on 0.158, but quite a few other games run slow on 0.158 (e.g. Moonwalker, Battle Bakraid). 

So my question is - is there a version of groovymame I can run under groovyarcade that has the advantages of being as fast as 0.152, but also runs all the games well? I've tried 0.153, and that runs many more games fast, but has a bug on exiting games that makes it unuseable on all my systems.

Thanks for any help or advice!

Hi!

You can check "my" ArcadeMAME, it's based on 106 source like AdvanceMAME, it's the only 106 build that works with switchres, so it's an GroovyMame's little brother

It's only for windows.

thanks very much - sounds great -  i'll check it out. linux build within groovyarcade would be cool! 

[Calamity]

Thanks Calamity - good examples are battle garegga and battle bakraid - both run at 100% on 152, but at 50% on 158/159 on my atom based systems. Since they run at exactly 50% on 158, maybe the problem isn't necessarily about performance, but maybe some bug with the timing or update? it's the same for 159 (both run at 50%).

Yes, the 50% is related to SDL2 but is supposed to be fixed in the binary I linked. Did you actually download and tested the one I linked?

[2huwman]

Thanks - I'll check again. At the moment i can't connect to the update site through groovyarcade, and it's 158 that i've got installed on the system at the moment. When I can update it, I'll check again & let you know if it's still a problem. 

[Calamity]

Thanks - I'll check again. At the moment i can't connect to the update site through groovyarcade, and it's 158 that i've got installed on the system at the moment. When I can update it, I'll check again & let you know if it's still a problem.

You can download it using your desktop pc and copy the binary offline into your Groovy Arcade installation.

[2huwman]

yes - i just tried that! I copied over the .tar.bz2 file to /usr/games/bin and extracted it there (by pressing f2 and then x) but it hasnt installed properly. this worked when I was changing other versions of groovyume and groovymame so not sure why it's not working with 159. Am I doing this the right way? Sorry - I know very little about Linux so it's trial and error!

[Calamity]

Make sure to set the proper permissions to the file so it can get executed.

[2huwman]

Make sure to set the proper permissions to the file so it can get executed.

OK - I changed the permissions, and it's now running UME 0.159 (Mar 8 2015) and there is still the same problem with running at 50% speed (battle Bakraid, Garegga, Gunbird 2) on my system. They are vertical games running on a 15khz horizontal monitor, so running in interlaced mode.

[Doozer]

Hi, I experienced the same issue with the original 0.159 patch. With Calamity's help here is how to bring back 100% speed emulation.

In the /osd/sdl/drawogl.c, change

Code: [Select]

#ifndef OSD_WINDOWS
        SDL_GL_SetSwapInterval(video_config.waitvsync ? 1 : 0);
#endif

to

Code: [Select]

#ifndef OSD_WINDOWS
        SDL_GL_SetSwapInterval((video_config.waitvsync && fd == 0) ? 1 : 0);
#endif

This is a temporary fix until OSD code is stabilized.

[2huwman]

Thanks very much - Great to know there's a fix! Is this something a linux novice can edit easily, or should I just wait for the update?

[Doozer]

Thanks very much - Great to know there's a fix! Is this something a linux novice can edit easily, or should I just wait for the update?

I would answer yes if you can patch and compile mame by yourself. If not, you can download the 0.159 64bit linux build which contains the fix from the following link.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0Bw1goIvmpkFPb2tZWTBnQUgwMWs

[2huwman]

Thank you very much - that's terrific! i'll give it a try.

[2huwman]

Thanks very much - Great to know there's a fix! Is this something a linux novice can edit easily, or should I just wait for the update?

I would answer yes if you can patch and compile mame by yourself. If not, you can download the 0.159 64bit linux build which contains the fix from the following link.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0Bw1goIvmpkFPb2tZWTBnQUgwMWs

Sorry - one more question - how do i put this into the groovyarcade installation? Thanks very much!

[Doozer]

Sorry - one more question - how do i put this into the groovyarcade installation? Thanks very much!

You just need to extract the file from the zip and replace the existing one: /usr/local/games/bin/groovyume.

Perhaps, you will have to set the file executable:

Code: [Select]

chmod a+x /usr/local/games/bin/groovyume


[2huwman]

Sorry - one more question - how do i put this into the groovyarcade installation? Thanks very much!

You just need to extract the file from the zip and replace the existing one: /usr/local/games/bin/groovyume.

Perhaps, you will have to set the file executable:

Code: [Select]

chmod a+x /usr/local/games/bin/groovyume


Thank you - i set it executable and it runs fine now. Unfortunately, the same problem is there even with the bug fix - 50% speed on battle bakraid, 1941, etc. These games are running fine on 0.152. I should say that I am using a platform with integrated nvidia graphics, so maybe that's why the fix isn't effective? but as i say, it's fine on 152.

edit - ive tried on a different pc that uses an ati x600 external gpu, and the same problem is there, even in the fixed version.

[Calamity]

Hi 2huwman,

The fix was already included in the binary that's in the GroovyMAME download site. I don't remind having this problem with interlaced modes but the fact is I don't have a proper system to test this at the moment. Maybe using -multithreading will fix the problem (only add it to the games that require it, not as a general setting).

[Doozer]

I think multithreading option is not activated inside your ume.ini file. This 50% can also be observed on Tekken rom.

[Calamity]

I think multithreading option is not activated inside your ume.ini file. This 50% can also be observed on Tekken rom.

Yeah it is disabled by default. We need to check if it only affects interlaced games.

[2huwman]

Just as a quick fix - i set my monitor settings to rotatable in the groovyarcade setup, so the vertical games start sideways in non interlaced. If you then go to the mame menu and rotate through  the video options, the picture rotates and switches to interlaced mode, but still runs at 100%! 

it saves this setting so only needs doing once per game.

I tried changing multithreading (I already had it on) and it doesn't make a difference on my systems.

[Calamity]

Just as a quick fix - i set my monitor settings to rotatable in the groovyarcade setup, so the vertical games start sideways in non interlaced. If you then go to the mame menu and rotate through  the video options, the picture rotates and switches to interlaced mode, but still runs at 100%! 

Well that's very interesting. I'll check it myself when I have a working Linux installation.