Need help with Pacman

[southpaw13]

I know this sounds silly, but I cannot get Pacman to run smooth.  I have more than enough computer, I am using a WG VGA monitor (640x480 at refresh of 60), and the latest mame command line build.  No matter what setting I use, the game studders from time to time.  Not the audio, just the video isn't smooth.  I've tried waitsync, triplebuffer, match refresh, and synch refresh.  What am I missing here?   There use to be a build called SmoothMame that forced all the drivers to refresh at 60.  I think it was also called TV Mame.  I know the problem is that Pacman wants to refresh at 61.  Does anyone know the correct settings or can point me to another build that fixes this problem?

Thanks,
southpaw

[jcrouse]

Sounds like frame skipping may fix the issue.

John

[southpaw13]

I thought that frame skipping only helped when there was not enough CPU power to get a game to run at 100%.  I did try it and it didn't run smooth.  I was looking at the Doc's for one of the latest u's released.  Looks like there were some core changes to video handling that will be included with Mame 104.  Does anyone know if the changes fix the problem I am having?

Thanks,
Southpaw

[leapinlew]

You have Pacman Fever....

Sorry Mr. Southpaw, there is no cure.

[Q*Bert_OP]

You have Pacman Fever....

Sorry Mr. Southpaw, there is no cure.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!!!!!

*now, and forever southpaw will run around in a dark room munching pills and listening to repetitive music

[SirPeale]

Make sure frameskipping is at zero, not auto.

And please post your mame.ini file.

[southpaw13]

OK, I switch the frameskip to 0 and got some improvement.  Mame says that it is running at a constant 99% at 60/61 fps.  This is the confusing part to me because if I have autoframe skip and frameskip set to 0, shouldn't it run at 100%?

I have attached my Mame.ini (renamed it to mame.txt)

Thanks for your help,
southpaw

[SirPeale]

Try this:

Code: [Select]

### mame.ini ###


### Windows video options ###

keepaspect              1

### Windows misc options ###

high_priority           1


### Mame CORE misc options ###
artwork                 0


[southpaw13]

Thanks, the suggestions did not change anything.  My problem lies in my refresh rate.  My monitor is set to 60 so this is why I am getting 99% 60/61.  If I change my monitor to 70, I get 100% 61/61, BUT it gets choppy again.  I think the only way for me to fix this issue is to find a driver that would recreate the refresh rate of 61.  Is this possible?  I saw a program called Powerstrip that looked like it could do this with some tweeking.

Any advice?
Thanks,
Southpaw

[SirPeale]

Try

matchrefresh            1

[southpaw13]

Tried it....Thanks...

So now it runs at 100% 61/61.  But after reading the Docs, I found out that Mame won't match the exact refresh rate, it is actually bumping it up to 70 which is still choppy

I still think that I need a driver or software that faithfully recreates a refresh rate of 61 to make it work 100%. 

Honestly, when it is running at 99% 60/61 it looks pretty darn good from where I started....

I never thought that it was the frame rate jumping the refresh around....

Thanks,
southpaw

[SirPeale]

You're sure you're @ 640x480?

Try (in mame.ini):

# resolution auto
resolution 320x240

[southpaw13]

Yes resolution is at 640x480.

 I tried 320x240 and it definitely got worse....

Southpaw