Vs. SMB: Graphics Glitch or System Slowness?

[GameGeezer]

When running 'Vs. Super Mario Bros.' in MAME 0.124u4, I notice that quite often the graphics glitch to create split effect where the centre two horizontal rows of tiles get shifted apart, as if the screen was splitting briefly.

I'm curious if this is a known bug with MAME's 'Vs. System' mapper mirroring, or if it's lag on my PC when emulating it, or if it's some other video error on my system. It looks very much like a mirroring error, but I can't be certain.

Can anybody check this and see if they also notice it? Rows of bloks and coins, enemies, etc. will split down the middle in the centre of the screen and their top and bottom halves don't align correctly very briefly on my system... I'll see about adding a screenshot later when my main Internet connection comes back on-line.

If this is a MAME bug, where should I report it? The mirroring is very well documented, so there's no excuse for being unable to perfect it other than being a non-priority...

Can anyone confirm if this is or is not a MAME issue as opposed to some problem tht only I'm having?..... Thanks! -GG

[nitz]

The problem you're describing sounds like tearing which is caused by the refresh rate of your monitor not matching that of the game. It's not a bug in the vs. system driver - it can happen on any game, but is most noticable on scrolling platform type games.

You can tweak various options in mame to remedy this such as syncrefresh, waitvsync, and triplebuffer. These tend to have the drawback of making the sound stutter and/or changing the speed of the game though.

Do a search on the forum for tearing and you should find lots of info about it.

[newmanfamilyvlogs]

If you're using an ATI card, and running on a CRT display, take a look at GroovyMame. It can dynamically alter the registry to run video modes at the native refresh rate of the game, which prevents tearing (and sound stuttering resulting from mismatched refresh rates). It MIGHT work on LCD displays as well, but I'm not sure how much testing has been done that.. It's probably rather dependent on driver board of the lcd.
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=110905.0

[GameGeezer]

Thanks: I'll look into both options... Does 'GroovyMAME' compile with the same tools and Diff patches and is it current?

It's the only title that does this and it looks quite a lot like mirroring troubles, which is why I suspected it.

As long as it doesn't happen commonly onother systems people are running, I have my answer. -GG

[newmanfamilyvlogs]

It's current and precompiled. Patches and diffs are available though.