Mamewah not running games at full resolution??? suggestions?

[jacenwon]

greetings, guys/gals

i recently sat down to play a game of galaga on my machine, which is running mamewah as the frontend, and i noticed that the graphics seemed a bit "choppy" & not that easy on the eyes. i thought it may have just been my eyes playin' tricks on me, considering i had a few drinks before sittin' down... but then i ran mame.exe by itself, and noticed that galaga looked a HELL of a lot better!? it's obvious that mamewah isn't allowing the rom to run at it's sexy resolution... why is this? how can i fix this?

i scurried through the forums here, and couldn't find any previous solutions for this type of challenge. i searched through the c:\mame\mamewah.ini file, as well as the c:\mame\config\mame\mame.ini file with no obvious clues of why this is happening with mamewah.

for reference... here's the following:

my c:\mame\mamewah.ini info:

Code: [Select]

### mamewah.ini (mamewah v1.62) ###

### (Global) Screen-Saver Settings ###
delay                                     300
slide_duration                            3

### Audio Settings ###
enable_sounds                             1
sound_volume                              100
music_path                               
enable_music                              1
music_volume                              100

### Movie Settings ###
intro_movie_file                         
exit_movie_file                           
keep_movie_preview_aspect                 game_aspect
delay_before_movie_preview                2
music_movie_mix                           mute_movies
movie_volume                              100

### Misc Settings ###
emulator_root_path                       
auto_setup_emulators                      0
theme                                     
wrap_list                                 0
remember_current_game                     1
keep_image_aspect                         1
refresh_images                            0
delay_before_history_dat                  2
safe_mode                                 0
show_cursor                               0
keyboard_led_states                       -,-,-
lcd_com_port                              1
lcd_settings                             
exit_action                               choice
maxlogsize                                100000

### External Application Settings ###
startup_app_commandlines                 
exit_app_commandlines                     
exit_and_run_app_commandlines             

### Settings used by MAMEWAH ###
current_group                             
current_emulator                          mame
locked                                    0



And here's my c:\mame\config\mame\mame.ini info:

Code: [Select]

### mame.ini (mamewah v1.62) ###

emulator_title                            M.A.M.E.

### List Generation Settings ###
rom_path                                  c:\mame\roms
rom_extension                             zip
dat_file                                 
nms_file                                 
catver_ini_file                           c:\mame\catver.ini
list_generation_method                    rom_folder_vs_listxml

### Execution Settings ###
pre_emulator_app_commandlines             
emulator_commandline                      c:\mame\mame.exe [name]{nodosbox}
post_emulator_app_commandlines           
general_app_commandlines                 

### Artwork Settings ###
artwork_image_paths                       c:\mame\previews;c:\mame\snap
movie_preview_path                        c:\mame\previews
movie_artwork_no                          1
enable_fuzzy_search                       0
history_dat_file                         
history_dat_artwork_no                    2

### Screen-Saver Settings ###
enable_music_in_screensaver               0
select_random_game                        1
saver_type                                movie
movie_path                                c:\mame\screensaver_movies
movie_fullscreen                          1
quit_delay                                0
saver_commandline                         

### Additional Settings ###
music_path                                c:\mame\sounds\ambience
lcd_display_file_path                     
description_display                       [description]{scroll}

### Settings used by MAMEWAH ###
current_list                              0


as always, all help is GREATLY appreciated 

[Minwah]

If you are using MAME's 'resolution auto' setting (default) then MAME may not pick the best mode from the job, particularly if you are using a low-res. arcade monitor (I think you are).

There are a few programs available to generate game-specific ini's for each game in order to use the best mode.  Mine is available here:

http://mamewah.mameworld.net/downloads.htm

Note: Please read the note by the download, it is important! Also, I seem to recall some people having trouble getting this to work (since xml2info was stopped being supplied with MAME), but I'm sure it worked for me.  I really need to update that app to use built in xml parsing as per Mamewah...

Edit: Also note: If you're wondering why when you run MAME on its own it looks better than via Mamewah, it is probably because the outcome of 'resolution auto' differs depending on what resolution you are running when MAME is executed.

[jacenwon]

i'm using a super neo 29 machine - and whatever monitor that comes with... not quite sure what model monitor specifically.  windows is being ran at 640x480 on am arcadevga card, and mamewah is being ran at 368x240. i'm curious... if i ran mamewah at 640x480, would mame run it correctly then? i'm not quite sure i understand why individual ini's must be made for each game, if when ran by mame.exe straight up, the games run fine... but i'm not mame guru.

i'll take a look at that download, and try it out this evening.

thanks for all the help, minwah - you're awesome

jace

[jacenwon]

quick update - you were right when you said:

Also note: If you're wondering why when you run MAME on its own it looks better than via Mamewah, it is probably because the outcome of 'resolution auto' differs depending on what resolution you are running when MAME is executed.

i ran mame.exe without mamewah with a desktop res of 640x480, and the games looks perfect... i then changed the desktop to 368x240 and ran mame.exe without mamewah, and it was all jagged & choppy.

i'll try that download now, and hope it works out. if it doesn't, then i guess i'm forced to settle for the ---smurfy--- graphics

[jacenwon]

alrighty... so i've got the reso tool, thanks!

now that i'm going through the instructions, i noticed that the settings option is grayed out? and when i try and generate a native list, nothing shows up. am i missing something by chance?

*** update ***

i tried double clicking in the native list area, and the settings box opens, only to crash due to a runtime error 91?

xml2info didn't for out for me either... i ran the following: c:\mame\mame -listxml | xml2info > listinfo.txt, and nothing was generated

[Minwah]

i'm not quite sure i understand why individual ini's must be made for each game, if when ran by mame.exe straight up, the games run fine... but i'm not mame guru.

Partly for this reason:

Edit: Also note: If you're wondering why when you run MAME on its own it looks better than via Mamewah, it is probably because the outcome of 'resolution auto' differs depending on what resolution you are running when MAME is executed.

But also you cannot rely 100% on MAME (resolution auto) picking the best resolution, even if is seems to be working well for some games.  There will almost certainly be some games which don't run at the best resolution.

[Minwah]

now that i'm going through the instructions, i noticed that the settings option is grayed out? and when i try and generate a native list, nothing shows up. am i missing something by chance?

If the 'generate native list' option is greyed out then it usually means the mame.exe hasn't been pointed to...

i tried double clicking in the native list area, and the settings box opens, only to crash due to a runtime error 91?

xml2info didn't for out for me either... i ran the following: c:\mame\mame -listxml | xml2info > listinfo.txt, and nothing was generated

Hmm, maybe it is an xml2info problem.  I will have to update this program so it has built-in listxml parsing...it shouldn't be too difficult as Mamewah already does it, I'll just need to be a bit careful not to break the 'old' methods, and also there are quite a few xml format variations.  Will keep you posted...


Edit: in the meantime, you could try this alternative program: http://www.ultimarc.com/avres.zip

[northerngames]

I use avres with desktop and mamewah running 640x480 all the other auto res tools I could not geting working as easily and well as the avres tool.

[jacenwon]

thanks for all the assistance, fellas

Edit: in the meantime, you could try this alternative program: http://www.ultimarc.com/avres.zip

i actually found that restool shortly after posting my last msg. the tool works well however, i noticed that when it automatically generates ini's for the games, it's pretty much designating the same resolution for all games... galaga, for example, is given a 3xx by 2xx resolution within it's ini., while sunset riders is given the same. this struct me as being odd, cause galaga is a vertical game, and sunset riders is a full horizontal game. why would they be designated the same res if they're completely different sizes???

just for shits & giggles, i tried to designate 640x480 to both ini's (galaga and sunset riders), and they ran in what seemed to be the BEST looking res. nice & full, no jagged graphics... just clean visuals odd? can one of you guys make sense of this for me?

as always, much appreciated!!!!

jace

[jacenwon]

i had forgotten to reply to this:

If the 'generate native list' option is greyed out then it usually means the mame.exe hasn't been pointed to...

i made sure that all files/directories were pointed to mine is very simple - c:\mame\mame.exe

[Minwah]

just for shits & giggles, i tried to designate 640x480 to both ini's (galaga and sunset riders), and they ran in what seemed to be the BEST looking res. nice & full, no jagged graphics... just clean visuals odd? can one of you guys make sense of this for me?

Was it not flickery / a bit blurry? It should be in theory as it will be an interlaced mode!

Make sure your ini path is pointed to in your mame.ini file (it probably is already).

[jacenwon]

no, it was flawless running at 640x480. when i let avres designate the res size through the ini's, the screen is not as pretty