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Author Topic: Skip_Startup_Frames (SSF) ini files for every game in MAME  (Read 13659 times)

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JoyMonkey

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Skip_Startup_Frames (SSF) ini files for every game in MAME
« on: January 17, 2006, 09:33:36 am »
Edit:
I've started a SSF Wiki to help correct all the SSF start frame numbers. If you'd like to help out, please go and check/edit some of the numbers on the list. Cheers!

For anyone unfamiliar with Skip_Startup_Frames:
Fast_Startup_Frames (FSF) and Skip_Startup_Frames (SSF) are extra options that that can be added to a custom build of Mame using patch files by SA Dev. These options can be used to skip past the initial boot screens for each game (like when the screen fills with garbage for about 15 seconds when Galaga starts up or the rom/ram check screens and 'Not For Use Outside Japan' screens. FSF will accelerate through these screens (like they're in fast forward), SSF will accelerate through them without displaying anything.
I've been looking at these startup frames for nine years now, and at first it was really cool to see how the game booted up, but after a while it looses its magic.

Recently I compiled Mame with the Skip_Startup_Frames patch and I really like it. The only problem is I have to manually figure out the start frame for each game and make individual ini  files for each one.

I realize that there's a file out there somewhere called boundary.txt (related to MameMovieMaker/BuddaMame) that contains the starting and end frame numbers for each game.
Is it possible to get a batch file to read boundary.txt and generate the appropriate skip_startup_frames ini files based on the starting frame number?

And could anyone post boundary.txt or show me where to find it?
« Last Edit: January 23, 2006, 12:53:06 pm by JoyMonkey »

Buddabing

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Re: How to generate Skip_Startup_Frames ini files from boundary.txt ?
« Reply #1 on: January 17, 2006, 10:53:49 am »
You can find the boundary.txt at Silver's website.

« Last Edit: January 17, 2006, 10:56:11 am by Buddabing »
I have changed my nickname to "Cakemeister". Please do not PM the Buddabing account because I do not check it anymore.

Please read the wiki!

JoyMonkey

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Re: How to generate Skip_Startup_Frames ini files from boundary.txt ?
« Reply #2 on: January 17, 2006, 11:07:16 am »
Thanks Budda, but the 'Generate Current AttractVideo Frame List' link isn't working. Do you have a recent copy that you could attach here?

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Re: How to generate Skip_Startup_Frames ini files from boundary.txt ?
« Reply #3 on: January 17, 2006, 02:27:36 pm »
No, I don't. I suggest PMing Silver and telling him that the page is broken.

I have changed my nickname to "Cakemeister". Please do not PM the Buddabing account because I do not check it anymore.

Please read the wiki!

JoyMonkey

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Re: How to generate Skip_Startup_Frames ini files from boundary.txt ?
« Reply #4 on: January 18, 2006, 09:56:16 am »
I figured out how to get all the ini's generated from ssf.txt using a couple of text editor macros.

Boundary.txt should have the start and end frames for pretty much every game, right? Or am I a little confused?

I emailed Silver, so hopefully I'll get my hands on it sooner or later.

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Re: How to generate Skip_Startup_Frames ini files from boundary.txt ?
« Reply #5 on: January 18, 2006, 10:39:35 am »
I don't have boundary.txt but do have ssf.txt.  Sorry can't really help

Silver

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Re: How to generate Skip_Startup_Frames ini files from boundary.txt ?
« Reply #6 on: January 19, 2006, 11:06:49 pm »
Right. SSF all the way.....

New host for website: http://www.silverfoxy.f2s.com/

New SSF.txt database page: http://www.silverfoxy.f2s.com/ssf.html

Currently database is based on a vdb file set for Mame 0.99 or so (ie the first frame from Buddabing's attract movie mame). It also has the handmade ones from the original ssf.txt (from 2600?) which is around 100 games, and I've also put all the neogeo games this same as I believe they all boot exactly the same way/time.

This leaves a LOT of errors. Lots of readings will be too high, I've not done any checking. But as anyway corrects them/finds there own, email me  silver@silverfoxy.f2s.comand I'll update the list.

While we are at it, can anyone check the ssf patch still works on mame. And can anyone modify it just to pick up a single ssf.txt file instead of looking for the frame in each games .ini file?

JoyMonkey

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Re: Skip_Startup_Frames ini files for every game in MAME
« Reply #7 on: January 19, 2006, 11:31:27 pm »
That's pretty sweet!

I put together a little batch file that will make ini files for each line in your ssf.txt
Just save it into an empty folder and run it.
joymonkey.com/misc/ssf/ssf-011906.bat

Thanks again Silver!

Edit: Sorry, just realized that bat doesn't work. Here's one that works:
http://www.joymonkey.com/misc/ssf/ssf-01-21-06.bat
« Last Edit: January 21, 2006, 06:00:42 pm by JoyMonkey »

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Re: Skip_Startup_Frames (SSF) ini files for every game in MAME
« Reply #8 on: January 20, 2006, 12:39:11 pm »
If anyone is up for using this we should be able to update some values quite quickly...

Also, a very quick and crude way of doing this would be to run a game with normal mame, watch as the bios screens go by, and then as soon as the bios portion is over, just hit Esc to quit back to the command line. Mame will report the number of frames run (as well as average frame rate). Not frame accurate, but quite effective. I'll do some too, prob starting with all the obviously "too high" values in the ssf.txt right now.

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Re: Skip_Startup_Frames (SSF) ini files for every game in MAME
« Reply #9 on: January 23, 2006, 08:31:07 am »
Here's a thought; during the skip_starup_frames sequence on games with a long startup (where the screen would display black for a few seconds) would it be possible to somehow display Johnny5 without pausing Mame? And perhaps pause Mame when only it reaches the specified start frame?

Or maybe the source could be altered to display a png of the Mame logo, or even the text "Mame Loading, Please Wait..." until it reaches the start frame.

Anyone think this would be possible?

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Re: Skip_Startup_Frames (SSF) ini files for every game in MAME
« Reply #10 on: January 23, 2006, 09:32:29 am »
Hi guys,

I'm glad to see someone is using my -fsf/-ssf options.  JoyMonkey emailed me this morning as I didn't know you guys were working on this.

I am already planning on updating the -fsf/-ssf options to use a single file instead of the MANY INI files it takes now to specify each game manually.

If we could get a few people working on this, each one knocking out a certain number of games per day, I think we could have a complete and updated list in a little bit of time.

I really want to do this as accurately as possible (if practical).  I can make a MAME option that outputs each frame as its frame number (at least its frame number according to fsf/ssf) and we can pick through the frames to find out the exact frame that is the last of the diagnostic frames.

The problem is that games are continuously being updated and sometimes changed (to be more accurate for example) and a number we come up with today may not be valid tomorrow.

For this reason I am thinking about alternate ways to identify games that are no longer the same as when we analyzed them originally and figured out their appropriate number of skipped frames.  One idea is that besides recording the number of frames to skip, we could calculate a crc of the last frame being skipped and the first frame we wish to display and store this info in our ssf file as well.  That way when a new version of MAME is released we can run a process that analyzes all the values we've done so far to make sure they are still valid.  I could be overthinking this, I just don't want everyone to spend tons of time figuring out these values only for them to be out of date at some point.

I welcome any ideas people have on the issue.  I should point out that games also behave differently whether a nvram file is present or not, and there might be other factors to consider as well...

I will probably have two ssf/fsf values, one for if the game has an nvram file present and one for if it does not.  Whether the nvram is present or not will cause the game to sometimes need more or less frames to be skipped which is why I think we need both numbers.

Thanks,

SA Dev

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Re: Skip_Startup_Frames (SSF) ini files for every game in MAME
« Reply #11 on: January 23, 2006, 09:48:26 am »
Maybe I should set up a Wiki so people can at least start updating the SSF numbers for the current version (0.103) pretty easily and add the CRC details when available.

How much of the startup should be skipped though?
I like to skip past the initializing/garbage screens and also the 'Winners don't take drugs' and 'Not for use outside Japan' screens.

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Re: Skip_Startup_Frames (SSF) ini files for every game in MAME
« Reply #12 on: January 23, 2006, 11:27:24 am »
You can avoid the "Winners don't..." messages usually either by using the "World" version of the game, or setting the dipswitch to "world" or some non-US country. Usually it makes no difference to gameplay.
NO MORE!!

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Re: Skip_Startup_Frames (SSF) ini files for every game in MAME
« Reply #13 on: January 23, 2006, 12:03:25 pm »
Okay, I've put a quick Wiki with a page listing the roms and start frames here:
http://ssf.joymonkey.com

I've broken the list into groups of 10 to make things a little simpler. However, the list still needs to be updated to include all Mame 0.103 parent sets.

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Re: Skip_Startup_Frames (SSF) ini files for every game in MAME
« Reply #14 on: January 23, 2006, 12:19:49 pm »
I am already planning on updating the -fsf/-ssf options to use a single file instead of the MANY INI files it takes now to specify each game manually.

Excellent...

Quote
If we could get a few people working on this, each one knocking out a certain number of games per day, I think we could have a complete and updated list in a little bit of time.

I really want to do this as accurately as possible (if practical).  I can make a MAME option that outputs each frame as its frame number (at least its frame number according to fsf/ssf) and we can pick through the frames to find out the exact frame that is the last of the diagnostic frames.

This is exactly what Buddabings Mame Movie maker does (saves every frame to a png, named after its frame number. Handpicked start frames have come from looking at the pngs....

Quote
The problem is that games are continuously being updated and sometimes changed (to be more accurate for example) and a number we come up with today may not be valid tomorrow.

True. But at this stage the majority of games don't change from version to version, although I'm not basing that on much....

Quote
For this reason I am thinking about alternate ways to identify games that are no longer the same as when we analyzed them originally and figured out their appropriate number of skipped frames.  One idea is that besides recording the number of frames to skip, we could calculate a crc of the last frame being skipped and the first frame we wish to display and store this info in our ssf file as well.  That way when a new version of MAME is released we can run a process that analyzes all the values we've done so far to make sure they are still valid.  I could be overthinking this, I just don't want everyone to spend tons of time figuring out these values only for them to be out of date at some point.

Again, similar to how Buddabings mame worked - analysing each frames CRC's (and then comparing to them to all the previous frames to detect a loop....). Note we would have to choose a non black frame to end on but thats no problem.... Analysing frames crc does add an overhead though, so yes it would have to be a process that could be run on a new version release. Would require a custom mame though.

If we go down this route, then we probably need a mame option where we can specify a frame number, and it will return a CRC (or even better, save it in the ssf.txt automatically). It may be then that we have to  be more accurate from the outset - the large number of inaccurate results in the current ssf.txt my site generates (its based on the 1st frame of the a detected movie loop) it just going to cause problems I suspect.

Quote
I welcome any ideas people have on the issue.  I should point out that games also behave differently whether a nvram file is present or not, and there might be other factors to consider as well...

I will probably have two ssf/fsf values, one for if the game has an nvram file present and one for if it does not.  Whether the nvram is present or not will cause the game to sometimes need more or less frames to be skipped which is why I think we need both numbers.

This is one of the biggest issues I think. However, I think we should just aim for 1 set of results for when nvrams ARE present. They are ony really not present if a game has not been run before, and if an nvram effects the startup a lot, its often for manual calibration of driving controls or guns, so there is no standard startup in this case anyway.... just a thought.

Another comment - currently the database I've got only has parent roms in. Any knowledge on different startup frames for different versions of the same game?

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Re: Skip_Startup_Frames (SSF) ini files for every game in MAME
« Reply #15 on: January 23, 2006, 12:23:30 pm »
As a general comment, if anyone wants to work on this, you can use Buddabings Mame attract movie version of mame, and either edit the associated batch file to NOT create a movie and then delete the frames, or simply run it from the command line. Once the games roms have booted, quit and all the frames will be saved for you to look at. (Try the Ifun viewer for quick views of multiple PNGs.....)

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Re: Skip_Startup_Frames (SSF) ini files for every game in MAME
« Reply #16 on: January 23, 2006, 12:38:22 pm »
Just out of curiosity; how did some games end up with a negative start frame? Cabal says -7 ?
Does that mean that the movie generated has 7 blank frames added to it at the start?

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Re: Skip_Startup_Frames (SSF) ini files for every game in MAME
« Reply #17 on: January 23, 2006, 04:55:07 pm »
Hi guys,

>I like to skip past the initializing/garbage screens and also the 'Winners don't take drugs' and 'Not for use outside
>Japan' screens.

Here is one of the issues I think we will need to iron out before we start building the list.  My personal thought on the matter is : If what you see if *ever* repeated during the attact mode, then it should be included, even if it is something undesireable such as don't use drugs, don't use outside country, etc.  If we used this definition, then we would skip only the frames that are never repeated.  I'm not saying this is the right definition, just that if we build a uniform list, that we should try to define what will and won't be skipped.

>This is one of the biggest issues I think. However, I think we should just aim for 1 set of results for when nvrams
>ARE present. They are ony really not present if a game has not been run before, and if an nvram effects the startup
>a lot, its often for manual calibration of driving controls or guns, so there is no standard startup in this case
>anyway.... just a thought.

Lets talk the nvram and When it is not present, some games start up and allow you to calibrate them for example.  You probably don't want to skip these calibration frames if they exist, but I don't know of a game that will timeout on calibration and skip by it even if we did.

My reasoning on having a with NVRAM and without NVRAM value was so that even the first time you start the game it would still skip the junk before the calibration and then start displaying at the first frame of calibration, then the with NVRAM value would be used the next time you start it to skip until the game starts.  I don't truly know if this is a necessity or not, it just offers a bit more flexibility.  The downside is that when we come up with the numbers, we will have to (1) determine if the game uses nvram or not (2) determine the number for no nvram present, and (3) determine the number for nvram present.  It is more work when figuring out the values.

So, we can do is easier (1) just one value, assume nvram is present, or we can do it with more difficulty (2) coming up with values with and without nvram.  Each way had its tradeoff.

Also, how accurate do you guys want to be? 

How I always figured out values before was using the method of (1) start game (2) let it run until the point the diag screens are done (3) hit esc (4) look at the number of frames reported and finally (5) start guessing with ssf values until I find the one I like.

We can still do it this way, but I think it is probably better to add an option into MAME that saves every frame to PNG with its frame number as the filename part.  You can then use your favorite image browser to see exactly what frame to start on.  This will require a custom MAME, but hey we're compiling it to include the -ssf/-fsf options anyway...

Lets keep thinking about how to do this!

Thanks,

Alan

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Re: Skip_Startup_Frames (SSF) ini files for every game in MAME
« Reply #18 on: January 23, 2006, 07:43:00 pm »
Just out of curiosity; how did some games end up with a negative start frame? Cabal says -7 ?
Does that mean that the movie generated has 7 blank frames added to it at the start?

Hmm that is odd - I took a look at the virtualdub script file, and it is odd - it appears to have detected a loop starting at -7 frames. However, I suspect this is a side effect of the detection method and fact that cabal has no bios to skip. Frame 1 is black, frame 2 draw attract sprite, frame 3 is draw background. So the loop was detected at frame 0. If the 'end frames' of cabal attract loop were the same as the startup, its possible something like this would happen.....

Anyway, if that didn't make sense. Dont' worry. Basically, the correct value for cabal is 0. Verified by checking the individual frame images.

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Re: Skip_Startup_Frames (SSF) ini files for every game in MAME
« Reply #19 on: January 24, 2006, 07:48:37 am »
Here is one of the issues I think we will need to iron out before we start building the list.  My personal thought on the matter is : If what you see if *ever* repeated during the attact mode, then it should be included, even if it is something undesireable such as don't use drugs, don't use outside country, etc.  If we used this definition, then we would skip only the frames that are never repeated.  I'm not saying this is the right definition, just that if we build a uniform list, that we should try to define what will and won't be skipped.

I see where you're coming from, but I'd still like to skip the first instance of any export/drugs/copyright screens. Although, I guess that would mean you'd be stuck looking at a blank screen for longer, so I'm undecided. What does Silver think?

Lets talk the nvram and When it is not present, some games start up and allow you to calibrate them for example.  You probably don't want to skip these calibration frames if they exist, but I don't know of a game that will timeout on calibration and skip by it even if we did.

My reasoning on having a with NVRAM and without NVRAM value was so that even the first time you start the game it would still skip the junk before the calibration and then start displaying at the first frame of calibration, then the with NVRAM value would be used the next time you start it to skip until the game starts.  I don't truly know if this is a necessity or not, it just offers a bit more flexibility.  The downside is that when we come up with the numbers, we will have to (1) determine if the game uses nvram or not (2) determine the number for no nvram present, and (3) determine the number for nvram present.  It is more work when figuring out the values.

So, we can do is easier (1) just one value, assume nvram is present, or we can do it with more difficulty (2) coming up with values with and without nvram.  Each way had its tradeoff.

I'd like to keep it to just one value (with NVRAM) if possible. I think doing an additional 'without NVRAM' list for the 3000 games would create too much unnecessary work right now.

Also, how accurate do you guys want to be? 

How I always figured out values before was using the method of (1) start game (2) let it run until the point the diag screens are done (3) hit esc (4) look at the number of frames reported and finally (5) start guessing with ssf values until I find the one I like.

We can still do it this way, but I think it is probably better to add an option into MAME that saves every frame to PNG with its frame number as the filename part.  You can then use your favorite image browser to see exactly what frame to start on.  This will require a custom MAME, but hey we're compiling it to include the -ssf/-fsf options anyway...

The 'hitting Esc' method is what I've done in the past, but it is pretty hit or miss until you get a good start frame (one thats not in the middle of a display or sound sequence). I'd like to give the 'browse for a specific frame' method a try, but at the end of the day I'd use whichever is quicker. I think this should be more a personal preference than an overall rule.

The list of games on the SSF Wiki has been updated to match all 0.103 parent sets. All bios and non-working sets are included, I'm not sure if that matters. As soon as we decide on how it should be done, it's all set to edit.
« Last Edit: January 24, 2006, 07:52:20 am by JoyMonkey »

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Re: Skip_Startup_Frames (SSF) ini files for every game in MAME
« Reply #20 on: January 24, 2006, 10:57:39 am »
Seeing as we are creating a master list, and people are free to edit their own custom lists, I think its best that we just skip the actual bios stuff - not the "don't use drugs".

My main thing in all this is skipping the bios stuff when the game is non-responsive. A lot of games which have "winners don't" messages, you can at this stage stick in money and skip them. Just my opinion.

I also think ideally we should be choosing frames numbers through manual inspection, althuogh seeing as we have a fully editiable wiki, there is no harm in improving some numbers using the "hit esc" method. For example, some of the current entries are 5000 or something which will almost definately bee way to high, so a quick improvement to 400 or something using the esc method would be fine.

Regarding the wiki, is it backed up on a regular basis? Can someone just come along and mess up all the values? Not that they would, of course.....

Oh and re:alan's comments on custom mame for the png files - there already is one, buddabings mame movie maker mame... you can get it here:

http://cpmaker.mameprojects.com/

currently up to v0.102. If I recall, to run:

mame ROMNAME -window -noartwork -makemovie -movieloops 0

This will stick all the pngs in a subdir called moviesnp.
You can always make a batchfile with:

mame %1 -window -noartwork -makemovie -movieloops 0

save it as run.bat or whatever, and then just type "run zookeep". Hit Esc to quit when you've passed the bios point, and look at the pics to find the best point. A mulitple image viewer (ie more than 1 image at a time) really helps here.

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Re: Skip_Startup_Frames (SSF) ini files for every game in MAME
« Reply #21 on: January 24, 2006, 12:07:15 pm »
Each page of the Wiki is backed up every time a change is made to it, I think the backups stay for 1 year or until I delete them. So there's not much chance of it all being destroyed. I could make it so a password is required when making changes, but I don't think there's any need.

I'll see if I can give BuddaMame a try tonight, I was imagining getting all the PNGs would be more difficult and time consuming, but it sounds pretty painless.


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Re: Skip_Startup_Frames (SSF) ini files for every game in MAME
« Reply #22 on: January 24, 2006, 12:26:00 pm »
No its easy. I already had buddamame set up from rolling my own videos, so all I had to do is literally run the game, hit esc, double click on one of the pics and look at the 1st non-bios image which is conveniently named after the frame number.... Easy!

The batch I posted above works fine, so long as you have your rom folder listed in the mame.ini

You can quickly build up a large number of pics though so its worthwhile deleting the folder as you go (buddamame will make a new one called moviesnp automatically if its not there.)

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Re: Skip_Startup_Frames (SSF) ini files for every game in MAME
« Reply #23 on: January 24, 2006, 04:47:54 pm »
Hi,

I can make the mods to my tweaks to assist on this, but it may be a little bit of time before I can actually calculate values and update the list.

I do have some recommendations:

Instead of using BuddaMAME, let me implement an option (-sf_dump_to_png) which saves PNG files with a frame number for the filename.  The reason I recommend this is that I use my own frame counter for -fsf/-ssf and the option I create will be perfectly matched.  For example, if the 000099.png is the last BIOS frame, then you can do a -ssf 99 and know for sure that it will start displaying 100+.

Instead of starting with a list that has many values that are wrong, how about making a new list which only games we've calculated the correct way.

My recommendation on deciding what to skip is to see if it is displayed more than once.  Start a game and unthrottle it, let it run until it repeats and repeats.  If the export message is repeated, then I say it is part of the attact.  If it is only displayed once at power up, I say it is part of the startup and should be skipped.  This may take more time to run through the attract frames 5 or 10 times to determine where to start skipping, but I think it is a worthwhile tradeoff.

I will add support for these new options (-auto_skip_startup_frames | -assf, -auto_fast_startup_frames | -afsf).  When enabled, they will look for a startup.ini in the folder with mame.exe which is in this format:

[startup frames]
gamename,framestoskip
mspacman,290

It will look for the gamename and use it if found, if not found and the game has a parent, it will also look for the parent name and use it if found.

What do you think?

Thanks,

Alan

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Re: Skip_Startup_Frames (SSF) ini files for every game in MAME
« Reply #24 on: January 25, 2006, 03:36:41 am »
Do any of you involved in this follow the AdvanceMAME development?  They have a pretty big list of startup frame numbers already.  AdvanceMAME fast-forwards (ie: no-throttle) through startup frames on games that are in it's internal database.  I'd say they have a few hundred listed already.  You might want to "combine forces" so to speak?

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Re: Skip_Startup_Frames (SSF) ini files for every game in MAME
« Reply #25 on: January 25, 2006, 03:53:12 am »
@alan2k

Works for me. Lets dump the dodgy list, use your mod and go from there. Let us know when you have a modded mame ready to roll.

Export licenses. Hmmm. Still in 2 minds. Originally I'm thinking that once the game is responsive to user input, it should be unthrottled. But, seeing as I will probably run it visible (but fast) anyway its not too much of an issue for me. So lets go for your suggestion.


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Re: Skip_Startup_Frames (SSF) ini files for every game in MAME
« Reply #26 on: January 25, 2006, 04:27:09 am »
Do any of you involved in this follow the AdvanceMAME development?  They have a pretty big list of startup frame numbers already.  AdvanceMAME fast-forwards (ie: no-throttle) through startup frames on games that are in it's internal database.  I'd say they have a few hundred listed already.  You might want to "combine forces" so to speak?

I did not know this. I've taken a look, and yes they implement exactly the same thing. Looks like they have almost 900 entires, based off mame ver 0.87 and 0.81 (it appears some may be repeats, not checked this). Its all in startup.h of the advancemame source.

I would suggest it is largely accurate in comparison to the bodge list currently. Alan2k - you mentioned concerns that the frame count as used by ssf is possibily different to other mame mods, but at most all I can see would be 1 out depending on if you count from 0 or 1?

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Re: Skip_Startup_Frames (SSF) ini files for every game in MAME
« Reply #27 on: January 25, 2006, 07:18:36 am »
I use AdvMame in my cocktail cab (don't know why I didn't mention this before), and I don't think the frame numbers are too accurate; I'm pretty sure most games on my cab (there's only 20 or so) throttle during the first few frames of gameplay too (Galaga comes to mind). The PC in the cocktail cab isn't so fast, so the throttled frames are really noticeable.

That said, the numbers are probably more accuracte than a lot of the high numbers currently in the list, but I still think that we should start from scratch with 100% accurate numbers once Alan2k has the new patch is ready.

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Re: Skip_Startup_Frames (SSF) ini files for every game in MAME
« Reply #28 on: January 25, 2006, 08:33:17 am »
Ok guys, I'll get to work on the mods.  I hope to have something in the next 3 or 4 days you guys and compile and get started with.

Thanks,

Alan

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Re: Skip_Startup_Frames (SSF) ini files for every game in MAME
« Reply #29 on: January 25, 2006, 08:36:33 am »
cheers alan, good stuff!

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Re: Skip_Startup_Frames (SSF) ini files for every game in MAME
« Reply #30 on: January 31, 2006, 11:07:47 am »
Hi guys,

It will probably be the end of Feb before I can do this unless I find some time here or there.  I've got a bunch of work related stuff to knock out in the next few weeks, sorry for the delay...

Alan

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Re: Skip_Startup_Frames (SSF) ini files for every game in MAME
« Reply #31 on: January 31, 2006, 12:49:08 pm »
I think it's too much of a hassle to have thousands of .ini files.

I have implemented a -ssf_file option for BuddaMAME which will scan the specified text file (usually ssf.txt) for the game name. The -ssf option is also implemented for compatibility with the thousands of .ini files.

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Re: Skip_Startup_Frames (SSF) ini files for every game in MAME
« Reply #32 on: January 31, 2006, 12:59:22 pm »
I think it's too much of a hassle to have thousands of .ini files.

I have implemented a -ssf_file option for BuddaMAME which will scan the specified text file (usually ssf.txt) for the game name. The -ssf option is also implemented for compatibility with the thousands of .ini files.

I think that's what Alan is planning on doing with the next update, along with a few other tricks.

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Re: Skip_Startup_Frames (SSF) ini files for every game in MAME
« Reply #33 on: January 31, 2006, 01:09:58 pm »
Hi,

Yep, that is the plan.  Buddabing--do you want to post a sample of your INI file so I can make my tweaks compatible with the same format?

Thanks,

Alan

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Re: Skip_Startup_Frames (SSF) ini files for every game in MAME
« Reply #34 on: January 31, 2006, 03:36:52 pm »
Hi,

Yep, that is the plan.  Buddabing--do you want to post a sample of your INI file so I can make my tweaks compatible with the same format?

Thanks,

Alan


mame -showusage gives:
Code: [Select]
-skip_startup_frames / -ssf <int>    skips the specified number of frames                                                                         
-ssf_file <string>                   skip startup frames from file                   


For the ssf.txt file I just used the link from Silver which generates a comma-delimited file.
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Re: Skip_Startup_Frames (SSF) ini files for every game in MAME
« Reply #35 on: February 01, 2006, 02:10:55 pm »
The csv is simply a plain text file with romname,frame

so:

005,42
1942,640


etc where the frame is the first frame to display/play normal speed.

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Re: Skip_Startup_Frames (SSF) ini files for every game in MAME
« Reply #36 on: February 02, 2006, 12:03:38 am »
Budda, the version up on the site now (.102) has this implemented or an upcoming update to .103?

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Re: Skip_Startup_Frames (SSF) ini files for every game in MAME
« Reply #37 on: February 02, 2006, 11:48:06 am »
Budda, the version up on the site now (.102) has this implemented or an upcoming update to .103?


0.103

You can download it now (from here), but it is preliminary. There is a change I'm making to the movie making code which is not included, and there is a feature I want to add to the CPMaker GUI before I make the final release. The preliminary release does have the -ssf and -ssf_file options implemented.

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Re: Skip_Startup_Frames (SSF) ini files for every game in MAME
« Reply #38 on: February 07, 2006, 11:48:00 pm »
Hey, buddabing, let us know once you have your full version ready so we can take advantage of the updated -ssf options along with your other awesome features.

yeah, that's right.

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Re: Skip_Startup_Frames (SSF) ini files for every game in MAME
« Reply #39 on: October 21, 2011, 12:57:09 pm »
OK people, dont kill me for bringing this thread back after 5 years.   It is the most recent one on the topic, and I wanted to know where SSF stands today.   Do we have features in current MAME builds that make SFF obsolete?

If not, does anyone still have the SFF patch code from Steve's old site (now dead)?  I'd like to add to my own compile...    thanks
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