GroovyMAME 0.277 - Switchres 2.21e

[Calamity]

GroovyMAME 0.266 is out!

What's new in Switchres 2.21d (June 2024)

- [nogpu]
  - Support for analog joysticks connected to the MiSTer.
  - New input backend -keyboardprovider mister: allows using one keyboard connected to the MiSTer.
  - New input backend -mouseprovider mister: allows using one mouse connected to the MiSTer.

[Calamity]

GroovyMAME 0.267 is out!

[RobeeJ]

Thank you!!

[sittingduck]

I second that - super thanks! I was about to give up on CRT gaming, when I discovered Groovymame, and I really appreciate you continously updating it.

[Calamity]

GroovyMAME 0.269 is out!

[grendelrt]

Thank you!

[JPetersen]

Thank you for the latest release!  Keep up the good work.

[hoopypoof]

0.270?

[RobeeJ]

270 was three weeks ago https://github.com/antonioginer/GroovyMAME/releases

Always worth checking the Github repo if you don't see an update here. Enjoy!

[Calamity]

GroovyMAME 0.271 is out!

[RobeeJ]

Thank you Calamity!!!

[JPetersen]

Thank you once again.

[Substring]

He forgot to mention he released 0.272

[Calamity]

GroovyMAME 0.273 is out!

[RobeeJ]

Thanks again Calamity!!!

[Calamity]

GroovyMAME 0.275 is out!

[RobeeJ]

Thanks Calamity!!! 💜

[Calamity]

GroovyMAME 0.276 is out!

What's new in Switchres 2.21e (April 2025)

 - [Linux] Fix crash when toggling full screen.

[purbeast]

Are there any instructions on what all is needed to upgrade versions for GroovyMAME? 

I want to go from my current version and keep all the settings and everything, but upgrade to a newer version because some of the games work better now than on my nearly 3 year old build.

Do I just have to do the full crtemudriver setup with the new version of GroovyMAME or is there something much simpler I can do with just moving some files from the old directory to the new one?

Thanks.

EDIT:

n/m I got it.

[Calamity]

GroovyMAME 0.277 is out!

[haynor666]

Thanks. It's time to test konami fixes

[JPetersen]

Love GroovyMAME.  Thanks for the update!

[Sixfortyfive]

Hate to be That Guy, but I was wondering if there are any general guides for first-time users that I should be looking at when setting this up? Most of what I'm finding is anywhere between 5-10 years old, so I don't know how relevant they still are or if they apply to my use case.

In short, I picked up an old (~12 years) Windows PC and a run-of-the-mill 31khz VGA PC monitor and was thinking of using it as a MAME box. I was recommended to give GroovyMAME a shot for CRT-specific features. Not looking for anything that is too exotic. Mostly just a combination of (1) run games at native res if possible, line-doubled or otherwise scaled to nearest compatible res if not, and (2) run games at native refresh rate instead of being locked to 60hz or whatever.

I know my way around vanilla MAME a bit and am willing (eager) to tinker, but I'm not even sure exactly what I should be downloading in the first place. Took a look at the CRT Emudriver downloads and saw a list of different releases for different video cards and don't even know if any of them are applicable to the integrated graphics on this particular PC.

[Substring]

31kHz CRT can't play the original 15kHz resolutions, so you'll play with doubled lines, yes. When using groovymame, make sure to set the right monitor in the mame.ini. Shouldn't require much more unles you want BFI, shaders or other fance stuff to try to get sausage-big scanlines like on a 15kHz

[Recapnation]

Thanks. It's time to test konami fixes

So what did you find out? Are there still glitches on stuff like Dragoon Might, Dadandarn, Violent Storm, or the GX games?

[haynor666]

I only tested till the end only Mystic Warriors Wild West COW so far. Mystic Warriors seems to be ok but Wild West COW still has problems on final boss.

EDIT. Looking at what new and Bob Zed wideo only Mystic Warrios seems to fixed. Fade effects in GX driver are not tested.

[Recapnation]

Supposedly Gaiapolis is glitches-free at this point as well? Not sure if that predates the latest MAME release, though. Keeping track of MAME development these days is harder than ever.

[arc11]

Hello

First of all, Thank you for the great work made for GroovyMame !!!


I have 2 things to report.

1)
I compile the mame.exe for windows from source with gcc / llvm-ld in a mingw64 environment (msys2), without SDL on windows 7.
the GroovyMame compilation was broken in 273 (I started modifying the source to work around this, and stopped because lack of time). The 246 was fine in my environment. And in 277 it's almost corrected. (Of course unpatched mame 246, 273 and 277 compile fine in my environment)

I corrected it myself.

The "#define MISTER_INPUT 1"  line must be moved from input_common.h to input_mister.cpp (before the first #include)


2) But there is another problem, I use a JAMMAsd USB hardware to connect my arcade cabinet to my PC.
The cabinet inputs are seen in my PC as a keyboard, and buttons pressed on the cabinet produce key-stroke on PC (standard MAME binding)
.




In GM246 the pseudo keyboard is detected correctly :

Input: Adding keyboard #0: Périphérique clavier PIH (device id: \\?\HID#VID_0461&PID_4DD7&MI_00#7&38a8056e&0&0000#{884b96c3-56ef-11d1-bc8c-00a0c91405dd})
Input: Adding keyboard #1: Périphérique clavier PIH (device id: \\?\HID#VID_04D8&PID_F3AD&MI_01&Col01#7&14c413dd&0&0000#{884b96c3-56ef-11d1-bc8c-00a0c91405dd})
Input: Adding mouse #0: Souris HID (device id: \\?\HID#VID_046D&PID_C05A#6&370e698b&0&0000#{378de44c-56ef-11d1-bc8c-00a0c91405dd})
Input: Adding lightgun #0: Souris HID (device id: \\?\HID#VID_046D&PID_C05A#6&370e698b&0&0000#{378de44c-56ef-11d1-bc8c-00a0c91405dd})


(one keyboard is the regular keyboard attached to the PC, the other one is the jammaSD usb connected.

in regular (unpatched) mame 277 I have this :
Input: Adding keyboard #1: Périphérique clavier PIH (device id: \\?\HID#VID_0461&PID_4DD7&MI_00#7&38a8056e&0&0000#{884b96c3-56ef-11d1-bc8c-00a0c91405dd})
Input: Adding keyboard #2: Périphérique clavier PIH (device id: \\?\HID#VID_04D8&PID_F3AD&MI_01&Col01#7&14c413dd&0&0000#{884b96c3-56ef-11d1-bc8c-00a0c91405dd})
Input: Adding mouse #1: Souris HID (device id: \\?\HID#VID_046D&PID_C05A#6&370e698b&0&0000#{378de44c-56ef-11d1-bc8c-00a0c91405dd})
Input: Adding lightgun #1: Souris HID (device id: \\?\HID#VID_046D&PID_C05A#6&370e698b&0&0000#{378de44c-56ef-11d1-bc8c-00a0c91405dd})







In GM277 (maybe before, I'm not sure since I had compilation problem due to SDL etc...)  :

Input: Adding keyboard #1: HP USB Multimedia Keyboard (Ð%) (device id: \\?\HID#VID_0461&PID_4DD7&MI_00#7&38a8056e&0&0000#{884b96c3-56ef-11d1-bc8c-00a0c91405dd})
Input: Adding mouse #1: USB Optical Mouse (Logitech) (device id: \\?\HID#VID_046D&PID_C05A#6&370e698b&0&0000#{378de44c-56ef-11d1-bc8c-00a0c91405dd})
Input: Adding lightgun #1: USB Optical Mouse (Logitech) (device id: \\?\HID#VID_046D&PID_C05A#6&370e698b&0&0000#{378de44c-56ef-11d1-bc8c-00a0c91405dd})

So The jammasd pseudo keyboard is not seen and no arcade cabinet control work, only regular keyboard on pc.



I managed to get it working by reverting the function in src/osd/module/input/input_rawinput.cpp (I'm not certain of the path)
template<class TDevice>
TDevice *create_rawinput_device
to the mame 277 (unpatched) version of this function.

But there must be a correct way to fix this.

I attached my register dump of the CurrentControlSet\Enum\HID , I suspect a problem with the parsing of this tree, but I've never tried to run gdb on a mame.exe (is it possible ?, symbol table not too big ?)

added verbose log with GM277 and with the workaround (reverting the function above to original mame version)


Thank you for your help

[arc11]

I managed to debug the create_rawinput_device function.

The faulty test is this :

      // this is for duplicate devices in a collection such as extra mouse buttons
      if (tname_basic_string.find(L"&Col01") != std::string::npos)
         return nullptr;


When I comment these 2 lines, the jammasd keyboard is correctly detected :

Input: Adding keyboard #1: HP USB Multimedia Keyboard (Љ) (device id: \\?\HID#VID_0461&PID_4DD7&MI_00#7&38a8056e&0&0000#{884b96c3-56ef-11d1-bc8c-00a0c91405dd})
Input: Adding keyboard #2: ASD Keyboard (ASD) (device id: \\?\HID#VID_04D8&PID_F3AD&MI_01&Col01#7&2a8c704e&0&0000#{884b96c3-56ef-11d1-bc8c-00a0c91405dd})
Input: Adding mouse #1: USB Optical Mouse (Logitech) (device id: \\?\HID#VID_046D&PID_C05A#6&370e698b&0&0000#{378de44c-56ef-11d1-bc8c-00a0c91405dd})
Input: Adding lightgun #1: USB Optical Mouse (Logitech) (device id: \\?\HID#VID_046D&PID_C05A#6&370e698b&0&0000#{378de44c-56ef-11d1-bc8c-00a0c91405dd})


There is still a minor cosmetic error while retrieving the HP manufacturer string, but it's really minor....

I attached a groovymame277.patch that includes the 2 fixes (compilation and jammasd pseudo keyboard).







In a completely different matter :
I have a general question about the game selection menu (native mame frontend).
Is there a way to set the resolution ?
Because I have a NAC cabinet with MS9-29 chassis with auto switching between the 24k and 15k mode.
And each time I enter this menu and run a game the mecanical relay that switches from 15k to 24k mode toggles several time each time I enter/exit the menu.

It's not very good for the longevity of this device.

Is there a way to avoid this ? If I add the -resolution AxB@C when launching groovymame, it no longer toggles, but the switchres doesn't switch to other resolution either...

Thank you

[arc11]

Hello

I found another issue, related to the font size.

with groovymame277 the text is unreadable in the menu. (readable in the mame 277 non patched)

searching into the patch file, I found in the file src/frontend/mame/ui/ui.cpp
this change :
    float const one_to_one_line_height = float(raw_font_pixel_height) / target_pixel_height;
 
    // determine the scale factor
-   float scale_factor = target_font_height() * scale / one_to_one_line_height;
+   float scale_factor = std::min(target_pixel_height / float(raw_font_pixel_height) / options().font_rows(),
+                        target_pixel_width / float(raw_font_pixel_height) / options().font_rows());
 
    // if our font is small-ish, do integral scaling
    if (raw_font_pixel_height < 24)



I think the expression target_pixel_width / float(raw_font_pixel_height) / options().font_rows()
should probably be target_pixel_width / float(raw_font_pixel_width) / options().font_rows()

but I guess the get_font()->pixel_width() doesn't exist....

I removed this change, and the font size is readable again...

I attached a path file includng the correction.

[makya]

I don't know of any workaround, anyway if I remember correctly Calamity said GM users should not use the native mame front-end at all. Either command line or third party frontend.

In a completely different matter :
I have a general question about the game selection menu (native mame frontend).
Is there a way to set the resolution ?
Because I have a NAC cabinet with MS9-29 chassis with auto switching between the 24k and 15k mode.
And each time I enter this menu and run a game the mecanical relay that switches from 15k to 24k mode toggles several time each time I enter/exit the menu.

It's not very good for the longevity of this device.

Is there a way to avoid this ? If I add the -resolution AxB@C when launching groovymame, it no longer toggles, but the switchres doesn't switch to other resolution either...

Thank you

[Calamity]

Hi arc11,

I think the expression target_pixel_width / float(raw_font_pixel_height) / options().font_rows()
should probably be target_pixel_width / float(raw_font_pixel_width) / options().font_rows()

I'd say the expression in GroovyMAME is correct, because it's calculating the scale based on the total rows. It'd be of help to know in which exact situation (resolution) the screen is unreadable.

The font scaling changes were thoroughly tested to ensure integer scaling was correct for fonts in all situations. To achieve the expecte results you're supposed to use the uismall font on the ui, instead of the standard default.

[Endprodukt]

278 is out and has some Model 2 games running super well!!!!! FINALLY!!!

[Calamity]

278 will require some non-trivial changes in order to adapt to the new audio infrastructure. Don't panic, I'll do it. However, I have some very important personal matters that I need to attend at the moment, that will take this whole month yet probably, so I won't be releasing more versions until I have some time to focus.

[Endprodukt]

everything personal is always priority and I fully understand. The continuous work you do for us is highly appreciated. Now this version will be hard to wait for, HOTD finally working is a huge thing, but I will be patient. Thank you for everything.

[RobeeJ]

No worries Calamity, we appreciate your work and personal trumps gaming!