Removing "Known problems"-Nag

[Endprodukt]

Hi guys,

I was out of the Mame Thing for quiet a while and I need to catch up. Is it correct that removing the "there are known problems" is not possible anymore, even with a No-Nag patch?

Thanks in advance,

Olli

[phulshof]

I doubt it. Try a no-nag build, and if it doesn't work just let me know, and I'll see what I can compile.

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk

[Haze]

Well MAME is Open Source, so it will always be possible to hack it in unwanted ways which are generally detrimental to the project.  We just hope that people don't.

I think however, what you've seen is that most people have come to accept that those screens are useful, calling them nags is nonsense.  They tell you that the emulation isn't going to be quite right, or maybe not even going to work at all.  That's an important thing for people to be made aware of whenever they start up the emulation as it dictates how the remainder of their experience is going to go, and gives them an opportunity to bail out.

Any research I've done has concluded that said screens have saved far more people from confusion than anything else, and that for keeping the requirement of a single extra button press on startup, that is absolutely worth displaying.

Typically people who have inadvertently downloaded builds with them hacked out have been left confused and spent large amounts of their own time trying to get things to work that simply don't work, reinstalling graphic drivers and changing MAME video settings etc. to try and fix video emulation bugs they're never going to fix, and messing with things like the sound settings in MAME to try and fix sound in cases where the sound simply isn't emulated, or is emulated incorrectly.  The latter two of those changes can even be detrimental to the emulation of perfectly working things as generally the default settings are correct, thus meaning they end up ---smurfing--- up their MAME configurations simply because they didn't see a required information screen.

The simple information screens telling them that those are expected problems is a massive time saver, and ensuring it can't be turned off in any normal way ensures that the majority of people will see that information and can't have accidentally disabled it.

Anyway, as a result of that, more and more people are (thankfully) shunning the builds with it hacked out, as having it hacked out is giving them a worse overall experience.  I guess that's what you're seeing.

[Endprodukt]

Thanks for taking a stand and I totally get the point.
But since I'm using Mame for roundabout 16 years I do know when a game cannot be tweaked to run perfectly because of its status.

Don't get me wrong. The screen isn't holding me away from enjoying. Would be nice if you get the warning, accept it and it's gone the next time. Just for convenience. But I do get that the status of emulation is a warning for inexperienced users.

[Osirus23]

The simple information screens telling them that those are expected problems is a massive time saver, and ensuring it can't be turned off in any normal way ensures that the majority of people will see that information and can't have accidentally disabled it.

Yes, seeing the exact same information each time a game is launched saves so much time.

[Haze]

The simple information screens telling them that those are expected problems is a massive time saver, and ensuring it can't be turned off in any normal way ensures that the majority of people will see that information and can't have accidentally disabled it.

Yes, seeing the exact same information each time a game is launched saves so much time.

I'm sure if you added the time taken to press the button needed to skip that screen for the every single time it's been pressed in the entire 20 history of MAME, across the entire userbase, it would still amount to less time than a single person who doesn't get to see the message wastes trying to figure out what they did wrong.  It's something like 0.00001% of the button presses you're going to make when playing something.

So yes, yes, it does, it saves an absolute ---fudgesicle--- ton of time, for both new users, and experienced users who might not have attempted to run something before, especially those coming back to the project after a long absence, or upgrading to a much newer version with a whole bunch of newly supported things, or things that have changed in status.

Thankfully your aggressive attitude about this is now very much in the minority as people have started to realise that yes, the devs behind the project do actually know what is best.

Showing it once isn't great either, because there's no guarantee of WHO pressed the button to acknowledge the message, especially on a dedicated gaming system used by multiple people.

[Osirus23]

The simple information screens telling them that those are expected problems is a massive time saver, and ensuring it can't be turned off in any normal way ensures that the majority of people will see that information and can't have accidentally disabled it.

Yes, seeing the exact same information each time a game is launched saves so much time.

I'm sure if you added the time taken to press the button needed to skip that screen for the every single time it's been pressed in the entire 20 history of MAME, across the entire userbase, it would still amount to less time than a single person who doesn't get to see the message wastes trying to figure out what they did wrong.  It's something like 0.00001% of the button presses you're going to make when playing something.

It's just funny seeing you lecture people on such a simple function that virtually any software should have. Just shows you can't tolerate anyone questioning anything related to MAME.

[Haze]

I can be as critical of MAME as anybody, but making sure these critical emulation status information screens get seen is something I'm proud to see we've kept up over the years, and glad to see it reaping benefits of in terms of it helping people.

I just wish MAME was as helpful in providing support and informing people / putting them on the correct path in other areas too.

If it were up to me the existing screens would be extended with bug report information pulled from dat files etc. to give people a more comprehensive explanation of what to expect, and what maybe they CAN do to help out if they want to improve the emulation.

[Endprodukt]

Guys. Calm down. To me it was easily a matter of cosmetics. I do believe there should be an option because the Mame faq clearly states that there isn't anything you can do to make a non working title play fine. Also from a programmer standpoint I think it's very understandable that they're tired of answering the same questions.

Still on a machine with only 160 titles used I would love to have the option to remove it. This is my personal opinion.

[phulshof]

I'm fully with Haze on this one.

That said: it just takes commenting out 2 lines of code (and a compile) to remove those screens. It really shouldn't be too much trouble to compile your own exe (or you could just Google for the results of someone who's already done it for you).