Making multiple .ini files.

[vettetek]

Ok....
So now that I have multiple mame.ini setups for games based on resolution, and type, HOW can I make individual game .ini files WITHOUT having to go through them one by one. Is there a quick way to do this?
Thanks!

[BadMouth]

Here's the lame way I did it....
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,135430.msg1400493.html#msg1400493

I'm sure there are better ways if you're more coding savvy, but I work with what I know.
If you make a change to the original, all you have to do is run the batch file again to update all games of that resolution.
Note the tabs along the bottom.  (seems you might have to click on a cell in the spreadsheet to get the other tabs to show up)
A lot of the resolutions are already there, but not all.
Ignore the "calculators" tab.  I was trying to make a formula to calculate the correct theoretical settings, but they all looked like crap on my large monitor.

I renamed the ini with the desired settings (the one I used for experimentation) to the resolution just to keep things straight (i.e. rename mspacman.ini   to  288x224.ini)
You could just have it copy whatever ini file you've made the changes to though.
Just remember to delete it from the list before launching the batch file.

EDIT: Keep in mind that thread is from 2013 and HLSL options could have changed since then.
I was using MAME v.146 on my cab at the time...and still haven't updated.

[Howard_Casto]

I think before we can answer your question properly we need to know why you want to have multiple ini files.  Lots of headaches can be avoided by simply turning switchres off and setting your monitor to it's maximum available resolution if you are wanting to do it for hlsl / glsl settings for example.  Also I don't know if the options have been removed but it used to be that you could make ini files named after specific groups and they would work (vertical.ini, vector.ini, drivername.ini, ect)  Tell us what you are trying to do specifically.

[vettetek]

Howard,
SPECIFICALLY:
I have a 50" plasma turned on its side.
Resolution is set to 1080x1080 now.
Im using bezels and wanting to tune HLSL for optimum closeness to the original look of each game.
I was able to generate multiple files as stated above (Thanks Badmouth!) based on the different resolutions.
Ive finally got a handle on this HLSL thing for the raster games, however the vectors are kicking ---my bottom---.
Got it looking close, however Im guessing that HLSL doesnt effect things like screen curve, corner roundness, and slot mask like a raster game?
If you have a better way to do it - and any information on vector setup - Id appreciate it!

[Howard_Casto]

Ok my suggestion, which you might want to try.... .  Set your resolution to 1080x1920, which is the maximum resolution of your monitor (rotated of course).  Now you have the full screen to work with.  Now if the aspect is off you can adjust that via the aspect option in the ini file.... it should be 9:16, but if that doesn't look right you can play with it.  Now resolution should be irrelevant.... all games will get scaled up to fill the screen and as you've probably already figured out the hlsl options use the screen resolution, not the game resolution, so they should look uniformly the same as well. 

For vector games making a vector.ini *should* work, but I haven't tried anything like that in years... they might have removed it.  Vector games take a lot of fiddling as they don't really have a resolution, so just stick with it.  Roundness and curve, ect should be in there because vector games were still displayed on crt monitors.... you just won't notice it due to the fact that vector games have a black background.

[BadMouth]

I haven't messed with HLSL since the mid v.150's, so I'm not sure how the options have changed.

When I was messing with it on v.146 though, I couldn't find a one size fits all solution.
To me, having the same shadow mask for all the games didn't look right, even though in real life it would be that way if using the same monitor for all games.
It looked particularly awful when the lines wouldn't line up with the edge of the pixels.

That said, a proper sized shadow mask for low resolution games looked like crap on such a big screen.  I ended up doing multiples of the "proper size" until it looked good to me.

The results I was most happy with were the ones where I literally counted the number of scanlines across a letter or life bar on the original machine and then adjusted HLSL to have the exact same number of lines falling in the same places.  Then I adjusted the darkness and other settings to try to get the same look.