Author Topic: Important Discovery... Everyone Read! (Read 13868 times)

Howard_Casto · « **on:** August 18, 2005, 01:54:07 pm »

I was mucking around in the Dk code this morning (yes I still work on it) trying to find an easier way to get games with "no good dump known" warnings to auto-launch. I used to do elaborate checks and such to figure out which roms migt cause problems, but I've found a way to exploit mame to bypass the "press any key to continue" warning in the dos box.

Simply add -ftr 1 to your command line arguments to mame. That's it, the screen is passed!

An explaination:

Ftr is the "frames to run" command for mame. It's used for benchmarking and debugging. Because of this any and all warning screens are bypassed to allow the user to simply launch a game for X number of frames, walk away, and then come back with the dos box reporting the average fps.

Now I'm sure some of you are thinking. "Wouldn't -ftr 1 make the game run one frame and then quit?" Well that's what I thought. Apparently the ftr function doesn't work on the first frame, so setting the ftr to 1 let's the game run as normal, only all warnings are bypassed.

For you people that are thinking. "Ok this is useless" or don't have a clue what I'm talking about try this:

Run 64th Street in your favorite fe..... Most likely it'll lock up the system.

Now run it in the fe with the ftr 1 command. Poof! It passes.

How cool is that?

Buddabing · « **Reply #1 on:** August 18, 2005, 02:11:44 pm »

Great discovery!

Here's the lines of code that cause this effect. I don't know if it should be called a bug or a feature............

[code]
frames_displayed++;
if (frames_displayed + 1 == frames_to_display)
{

Lilwolf · « **Reply #2 on:** August 18, 2005, 02:41:49 pm »

beyond WAY COOL!

I hate compiling my own for my cabinet... just to remove it.. 1/2 the time I dont and just grab one from optimized mame build site... then forces me to pull out the keyboard control panel whenever I run the wrong game.

SirPoonga · « **Reply #3 on:** August 18, 2005, 02:48:27 pm »

So, it actually displays (ftr - 1) frames for any ftr > 1.
If you put in 100 it will show 99 frames.

Hmmm, the if needs to be changed to
if ((frames_displayed != 1) && (frames_displayed >= frames_to_display))
Which would be more accurate and robust

Howard_Casto · « **Reply #4 on:** August 18, 2005, 03:18:43 pm »

Well yes... but regardless, ftr 1 should still either not work or be infinate.

Buddabing · « **Reply #5 on:** August 18, 2005, 04:45:33 pm »

Also, the -ftr option is Windows-only.

So both DOS users are out of luck.

Minwah · « **Reply #6 on:** August 18, 2005, 04:57:23 pm »

Great discovery Howard, well done

Just to state the obvious, presumably 'frames_to_run 1' in mame.ini would work too...

Strange thing is, I have noticed that some MAME versions auto-skip the bad dump screen anyway. For example, I just ran 'mame 64street' using standard MAME v0.98, and didn't have to hit a key to go on from the bad dump screen to the game. I seem to recall this working in some MAME versions and not others over the past year or more - I've never bothered to look into it any more than that tho.

Howard_Casto · « **Reply #7 on:** August 18, 2005, 05:04:22 pm »

Yeah I've noticed that too... I'm not sure what the deal is with that.

pointdablame · « **Reply #8 on:** August 18, 2005, 05:45:21 pm »

I'm running mame .69 and this doesn't seem to work for me. Perhaps it is like Buddabing says and it is only for .78 and newer versions. I just figured I'd let ya know.

I tried the command line and switching the mame.ini settings, and neither stopped the bad rom dump on 64street.

This could be great though, and could finally give me a reason to upgrade

SirPoonga · « **Reply #9 on:** August 18, 2005, 05:48:33 pm »

What's new 0.79
Warning screens are now skipped if running with -ftr for less than 5
minutes [Aaron Giles]

2600 · « **Reply #10 on:** August 18, 2005, 05:59:06 pm »

Quote from: SirPoonga on August 18, 2005, 05:48:33 pm

What's new 0.79
Warning screens are now skipped if running with -ftr for less than 5
minutes [Aaron Giles]

That's pretty funny. The put it in the what's new and we all still miss it. At least, Howard discovered it for us now.

Minwah · « **Reply #11 on:** August 18, 2005, 06:39:48 pm »

Quote from: SirPoonga on August 18, 2005, 05:48:33 pm

What's new 0.79
Warning screens are now skipped if running with -ftr for less than 5
minutes [Aaron Giles]

Awesome...I didn't get from Howards first post (even tho he said it) that ALL warning screens are skipped, even the bad emulation ones.

Wicked

pointdablame · « **Reply #12 on:** August 18, 2005, 07:12:50 pm »

heh I never read that either in the whatsnew.

Hey, at least we know it's there now.... and looks like I should upgrade

mccoy178 · « **Reply #13 on:** August 18, 2005, 11:45:39 pm »

Okay, okay, I'll be the board idiot for the noobs; in Mamewah, what should this adjustment look like exactly, and where? Hazing is welcome.

KenToad · « **Reply #14 on:** August 19, 2005, 12:13:37 am »

That's truly incredible, Howard. I'm so sick of seeing that Galaga error screen. I'll give it a go tomorrow morning.

Cheers,
KenToad

M3talhead · « **Reply #15 on:** August 19, 2005, 12:56:37 am »

Quote from: mccoy178 on August 18, 2005, 11:45:39 pm

Okay, okay, I'll be the board idiot for the noobs; in Mamewah, what should this adjustment look like exactly, and where? Hazing is welcome.

Ditto.

pointdablame · « **Reply #16 on:** August 19, 2005, 01:16:19 am »

Quote from: mccoy178 on August 18, 2005, 11:45:39 pm

Okay, okay, I'll be the board idiot for the noobs; in Mamewah, what should this adjustment look like exactly, and where? Hazing is welcome.

It has nothing to do with Mamewah. It just gets rid of all the error/warning messages that pop up before a game.

If you want to test it with mamewah, load a game that gives an error message (try galaga or 64street)

Now make the changes and load up the same games in Mamewah... it should load up immediately without any error message.

mccoy178 · « **Reply #17 on:** August 19, 2005, 01:19:23 am »

You have to idiot it down for us. Where exactly do you add that adjustment and exactly what should it look like? (i.e. -ftr 1, ftr 1, ftr1) We need some idiot vision on this one.

loadman · « **Reply #18 on:** August 19, 2005, 05:16:46 am »

I love that discovery! By chance I use Mame .79 because any version beyond that won't load Galaga (Fastshoot) without resorting to a tacky cheat option.

I just changed my mame.ini line to

darthbane2k · « **Reply #19 on:** August 19, 2005, 05:39:48 am »

woah woah woah! Hold up a sec..

So this will enable me to disable those "this game has no sound / inaccurate video emulation/wiggle OK to continue" messages on my .89 version of mame32 WITHOUT having to recompile it?

will this have any side effects on working games etc?

Minwah · « **Reply #20 on:** August 19, 2005, 05:44:51 am »

Quote from: darthbane2k on August 19, 2005, 05:39:48 am

So this will enable me to disable those "this game has no sound / inaccurate video emulation/wiggle OK to continue" messages on my .89 version of mame32 WITHOUT having to recompile it?

Yes

Quote

will this have any side effects on working games etc?

No

darthbane2k · « **Reply #21 on:** August 19, 2005, 06:56:18 am »

sweet as Candy!

Tiger-Heli · « **Reply #22 on:** August 19, 2005, 07:56:10 am »

Howard, great find, I can't believe it got missed in the Whatsnew.txt file.

BTW, I can confirm that adding "Frames_to_run 1" to the gamename.ini file works as well.

Also, this does not bypass the initial copyright warning screen or the game info screen, but these could be bypassed from the mame.ini file anyway.

Mccoy178 - I don't have MAMEwah set up on this computer, but if you are using my batch file, you would just edit it to change the line

MAME %1

to

MAME %1 -ftr 1

In MAMEwah, in it's MAME.ini file, change:

commandline_format [name]{autodosbox}{nosafelaunch}

to

commandline_format [name] -ftr 1{autodosbox}{nosafelaunch}

Blue elements are added, and red elements are optional, may not match your settings, and shouldn't be changed.

Minwah - pls comment if I got it wrong.

Try Lunar Lander with and without the fix to veryify it works.

mccoy178 · « **Reply #23 on:** August 19, 2005, 08:38:11 am »

Nice Tiger! I was doing that yesterday, but I had ' or something else going on, so it wasn't working. That is pretty cool Howard.

Minwah · « **Reply #24 on:** August 19, 2005, 09:49:09 am »

Quote from: Tiger-Heli on August 19, 2005, 07:56:10 am

commandline_format [name]{autodosbox}{nosafelaunch}

to

commandline_format [name] -ftr 1{autodosbox}{nosafelaunch}

Minwah - pls comment if I got it wrong.

I'd recommend you leave Mamewah alone, and do as you (Tiger-Heli) did and just set frames_to_run 1 in mame.ini - that's what I've done today

Edit: what you said is right and will work fine tho, I just think it's neater to use mame.ini.

mccoy178 · « **Reply #25 on:** August 19, 2005, 10:57:59 am »

Quote

I'd recommend you leave Mamewah alone, and do as you (Tiger-Heli) did and just set frames_to_run 1 in mame.ini

Just for the idiot in me, I applied this in my mame.ini within mamewah. It works, but is it correct?

Tiger-Heli · « **Reply #26 on:** August 19, 2005, 12:22:24 pm »

Quote from: mccoy178 on August 19, 2005, 10:57:59 am

Quote
I'd recommend you leave Mamewah alone, and do as you (Tiger-Heli) did and just set frames_to_run 1 in mame.ini

Just for the idiot in me, I applied this in my mame.ini within mamewah. It works, but is it correct?

No - if I understand you correctly.

There are three ways to run this (and it would help if everything didn't use the same names).

You can add -ftr 1 to the commandline format in the Mamewah\ini\mame.ini file - simple and direct, but not elegant.

You can add "frames_to_run 1" to your mame\mame.ini file as MAMEwah recommends - a little more straightforward but changes (not noticeably) games that don't require it.

You can add "frames_to_run 1" to your mame\ini\gamename.ini file - direct but requires you to individually figure out what games require it.

HTH

darthbane2k · « **Reply #27 on:** August 19, 2005, 02:40:58 pm »

Okay just want to clear something up
This works for the black box 'press OK to continue warnings' but it doesnt work for the bad ROM dump window that 64th street for example brings up.

Am I missing something?

Sonic Smash · « **Reply #28 on:** August 19, 2005, 02:47:55 pm »

cool im trying it!

M3talhead · « **Reply #29 on:** August 19, 2005, 03:05:47 pm »

Howard_Casto · « **Reply #30 on:** August 19, 2005, 03:35:27 pm »

Quote from: darthbane2k on August 19, 2005, 02:40:58 pm

Okay just want to clear something up
This works for the black box 'press OK to continue warnings' but it doesnt work for the bad ROM dump window that 64th street for example brings up.

Am I missing something?

No it works just fine.... the message still is rendered in those cases but you don't have to "press any key" which is impossible when a fe is launching.

Howard_Casto · « **Reply #31 on:** August 19, 2005, 03:41:33 pm »

Quote from: 2600 on August 18, 2005, 05:59:06 pm

Quote from: SirPoonga on August 18, 2005, 05:48:33 pm
What's new 0.79
Warning screens are now skipped if running with -ftr for less than 5
minutes [Aaron Giles]

That's pretty funny.

SirPoonga · « **Reply #32 on:** August 19, 2005, 03:44:40 pm »

Quote from: 2600 on August 18, 2005, 05:59:06 pm

Quote from: SirPoonga on August 18, 2005, 05:48:33 pm
What's new 0.79
Warning screens are now skipped if running with -ftr for less than 5
minutes [Aaron Giles]

That's pretty funny. The put it in the what's new and we all still miss it. At least, Howard discovered it for us now.

But ftr 1 is not 5 minutes, so there has to be more to this.

Tiger-Heli · « **Reply #33 on:** August 19, 2005, 04:01:31 pm »

Quote from: SirPoonga on August 19, 2005, 03:44:40 pm

Quote from: 2600 on August 18, 2005, 05:59:06 pm
Quote from: SirPoonga on August 18, 2005, 05:48:33 pm
What's new 0.79
Warning screens are now skipped if running with -ftr for less than 5
minutes [Aaron Giles]

That's pretty funny. The put it in the what's new and we all still miss it. At least, Howard discovered it for us now.

But ftr 1 is not 5 minutes, so there has to be more to this.

But it's definitely less than 5 minutes, although Aaron's original wording makes me wonder if something strange will happen AFTER 5 minutes. . .

2600 · « **Reply #34 on:** August 19, 2005, 04:03:38 pm »

Quote from: SirPoonga on August 19, 2005, 03:44:40 pm

Quote from: 2600 on August 18, 2005, 05:59:06 pm
Quote from: SirPoonga on August 18, 2005, 05:48:33 pm
What's new 0.79
Warning screens are now skipped if running with -ftr for less than 5
minutes [Aaron Giles]

That's pretty funny. The put it in the what's new and we all still miss it. At least, Howard discovered it for us now.

But ftr 1 is not 5 minutes, so there has to be more to this.

I totally missed the minutes part when I first read it.

Buddabing · « **Reply #35 on:** August 19, 2005, 04:18:45 pm »

There are two bits of code here. The first bit is what I posted earlier which will not terminate MAME if -ftr 1 is selected. The first bit of code is much older, it goes back to at leat v0.69, the earliest version I checked.

This second bit of code is what Aaron added in v0.79. Before he added this bit, you would have had to hit ok if you wanted to benchmark Galaga.

[code]
frames_to_display = ftr;
if (frames_to_display > 0 && frames_to_display < 60*60*5)

darthbane2k · « **Reply #36 on:** August 19, 2005, 04:23:58 pm »

just noticed that if you use mamescreensaver , when you add this setting it does not allow you to leave the game when run in screensaver mode. pressing escape only switches game and not exit back to front end.

Because of this issue I have now disabled the setting. I NEED my Mamescreensaver

mccoy178 · « **Reply #37 on:** August 20, 2005, 02:37:15 am »

Wow I crack myself up. Now that I have read the mame doc, I figured out that in the mame.ini in my mame folder (not mamewah mame.ini for the rest of us idiots), that there is an option called Frames_To_Run. Go figure! And better yet, it was set to '0'. Amazing! And when I changed that to '1', you all won't believe it...........it worked!

Now, I have been through that damn file about a half a dozen times looking at where to add this 'ftr 1', just like in mamewah's mame.ini. So, in closing, for all of us non dos, command line, programming minded individuals in the world, in the mame.ini, in the mame folder, there is an option more than halfway down, properly named Frames_To_Run, and it has a '0' to the right of it. Change that to '1'.

Okay, okay, idiot police may now arrest me. I surrender in peace.

darthbane2k · « **Reply #38 on:** August 20, 2005, 05:38:19 am »

Quote from: darthbane2k on August 19, 2005, 04:23:58 pm

just noticed that if you use mamescreensaver , when you add this setting it does not allow you to leave the game when run in screensaver mode. pressing escape only switches game and not exit back to front end.

Because of this issue I have now disabled the setting. I NEED my Mamescreensaver

anyone wanna address this problem?

SirPeale · « **Reply #39 on:** August 20, 2005, 08:21:00 pm »

Well...someone posted this @ Mameworld, and Haze states it will be fixed in a future release.

Link


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