Issue with CHD games and multithreading

[BuZz880]

I'm sure this has been answered but I can't find it, sorry.

Some games, in particular CHD based games that switch resolutions between when their BIOS loads and when Gameplay begins, end up in the background (ie I need to Alt-Tab over to them rather than them being onscreen).  I do not recall this issue with previous versions of Mame I have used over the years and it makes it difficult for guests using these games.

Example games:
- Blitz2K (I fixed this one but do not know what I did exactly).
- Mace (not working at all at the moment - probably since I fixed Blitz)
- WG3DH (Wayne Gretzky 3D hockey) - Currently has this issue.

I've played back and forth with many options (lock/unlock supported modes, lock/unlock system modes primarily, I believe this is how Blitz2K was fixed and probably how I broke MACE). 

I am attaching the log for WG3DH, I just need some help understanding the issue so I can go ahead and create inis for each affected game since there seems not to be a single fix.

Thanks!

[Calamity]

Disable multithreading for those games.

[BuZz880]

Disable multithreading for those games.

Ok so that solves the issue I asked about but it results in WG3DH running at about twice its proper speed. 

[Calamity]

Apart from multithreading are you using anything different from default options such as frame_delay?

[BuZz880]

Frame Delay is Zero,

Here are some items I am not completely sure about:
lock_system_modes         1
lock_unsupported_modes    1
refresh_dont_care         0

interlace                 1
doublescan                1
cleanstretch              2
changeres                 1
frame_delay               0
vsync_offset              0
black_frame_insertion     0
throttle                     1


An interesting thing with WG3DH is it needs both multithreading and triplebuffering enabled individually (to run at proper speed).  I thought that multithreading would use triplebuffering automatically but I guess only if its enabled?

[haynor666]

I already mentioned problems with many 3D games here and http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,143528.0.html

Problem is probably how driver and video, audio parts was written by author (in most cases Aaron Giles). The same games does not work correctly even in official mame using synctorefresh and disabled throttling.

[BuZz880]

No man. I can fix the speed issue, game plays pretty well. It's just the issue mentioned a couple posts back where the game launches in the background and I have to alt-tab over to it. Calamity told me how to fix that but then I got the 200% speed so can't use that fix so I'm still hoping someone chimes in on this background issue. 

As for your post I haven't tried Carnevil but pretty sure the other games you mention run at the proper speed for me. I have same video card as you. You need multithreading 1 and triplebuffer 1. Triplebuffer 0 will not work. Let me know if you'd like me to double check anything on those games. 

Edit: Confirmed: Gauntletdl runs at right speed

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[haynor666]

BuZz880, what hardware You use? It's hard to get 100% even on G3258 4,2 GHz with standard mame not to mention groovymame.

[BuZz880]

I didn't check if it's 100%. I played it for half an hour with my daughter and it seemed fine to me.

I thought your complaint was 200% speed? I don't get anywhere near that.

I gave my hardware a couple posts back.

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[haynor666]

The problem with Carnevil and some other games was changing speed not only during gameplay but also during title, highscore. For example everything is fine on title screen but in play game goes unthrottled even without mt option.

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,143528.0.html

[BuZz880]

I haven't tried Carnevil. But I do not have weird speed-up issues that I am aware of as long as I keep MT and TB enabled.

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[haynor666]

I didn't tested triplebuffer in groovymame for this game but in official mame I can't get 100% with synctorefresh and throttle off combined with triplebuffer. The only way to get 100% is use throttle and triplebuffer. This way no tearing but picture will stutter.

[BuZz880]

I get perfect everything but the games unplayable! (As far as I can tell)

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[Calamity]

So you need triplebuffer & multithreading on, ok. But that makes games start in the background due to resolution switching issue. Take a certain game and see what its main resolution is, the one during gameplay rather than presentation screens. For that resolution in a game's ini. This will force dynamic resolution switching not to happen. Let me know if that fixes the issue.

[BuZz880]

I actually have WG3DH working properly now, all I had to do is create an ini for it and I set multithreading 0 and triplebuffer 0.

So what I don't understand is why when I set these same options in mame.ini with no individual game ini, I had problems but in wg3dh.ini they get the intended result with no 200% speed issue?  I'm still on 169, will go to 171 probably tomorrow so perhaps this issue has been fixed.  Or is it an issue at all?  Maybe this is expected behaviour?  Its a bit confusing but now that I am aware of the issue I can solve these problems as they occur.

Thanks for your help.

[Calamity]

So what I don't understand is why when I set these same options in mame.ini with no individual game ini, I had problems but in wg3dh.ini they get the intended result with no 200% speed issue?

Yeah that's because for triplebuffer & syncrefresh, a value of "0" is interpreted as "auto" by GroovyMAME. That's why it's important to learn how to read the logs, it shows all the stuff going on clearly.

When you specify "0" in a specific game ini, it has higher priority than mame.ini and it means "disabled".

[BuZz880]

Cool. Didn't think to check the logs. Figured it was a bug that would go away with a new version. Thanks.

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