Best frame_delay setting vs computer speed

[Tzakiel]

I have done some searching and reading on this but am just a bit confused. I know what frame_delay does and all, but I am just not sure what the right number is to set it to. I've seen people suggest 1, 3, 5 or even 8 depending on how fast the computer running groovymame is. I read one thread where someone suggested checking the unthrottled speed and then diving that by 250 to get the right frame_delay number.  The problem is, some of my games run at 150% or 200%, and others run at 900%+. So how is that supposed to be calculated if games run a wide variety of unthrottled speeds? It's a 4ghz machine running XP, pretty quick.

[Tzakiel]

Ok. I did some testing on some demanding games and I found that anything over "2" caused slowdown. So now I know that. I assume I could do this game by game or driver by driver to optimize if I wanted. My next question is, should I enable multi threading or not? And should I enable triple buffer? My goal is to get as little input lag as possible and still run 100% speed. I am especially trying to optimize for bullet hell games.

[big10p]

Yes, you need to set frame delay on a per game basis. I use an ASIO build of GM which not only does a great job of cutting sound lag, it has built-in bench-marking to find the best frame delay to use for a specific game.

[Tzakiel]

Yes, you need to set frame delay on a per game basis. I use an ASIO build of GM which not only does a great job of cutting sound lag, it has built-in bench-marking to find the best frame delay to use for a specific game.

Can you send a link or more info on that?

[big10p]

Yes, you need to set frame delay on a per game basis. I use an ASIO build of GM which not only does a great job of cutting sound lag, it has built-in bench-marking to find the best frame delay to use for a specific game.

Can you send a link or more info on that?

https://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/topic,142143.0.html

[Tzakiel]

Prety neat, thanks. In an ideal world, it would be awesome to turn on some sort of auto frame delay setting that just adjusts as it should for each game, on the fly or just once, as part of the GM code. Probably more complicated than it sounds, but one can dream.

[maiki]

I am not into this but isn't using Windows itself the wrong way? For years and years the only good choice to run Advance MAME was either DOS or appropriate Linux, to avoid all those timing problems, VSYNC and all that. Times may have changed but I would still bet on clean Linux OS (Groovy) without all that nasty stuff that Windows wil give you.

[Calamity]

I am not into this but isn't using Windows itself the wrong way? For years and years the only good choice to run Advance MAME was either DOS or appropriate Linux, to avoid all those timing problems, VSYNC and all that. Times may have changed but I would still bet on clean Linux OS (Groovy) without all that nasty stuff that Windows wil give you.

That sounds reasonable and it's a general belief. But it's wrong. At least, all experimental evidence shows a clear advantage for Windows.

[Tzakiel]

Anyone know if multithreading and triple buffer "should" be on or off? Or is it another one that depends on the game. If it depends, what does it depend on?

[Calamity]

Anyone know if multithreading and triple buffer "should" be on or off? Or is it another one that depends on the game. If it depends, what does it depend on?

The multithreading setting no longer exists. Triplebuffer should only be used when target refresh is not achievable with current config. GM does it automatically for you.

[Tzakiel]

Thanks calamity.

[schmerzkaufen]

Prety neat, thanks. In an ideal world, it would be awesome to turn on some sort of auto frame delay setting that just adjusts as it should for each game, on the fly or just once, as part of the GM code. Probably more complicated than it sounds, but one can dream.

Better: a wizard program where it looks for the best frame_delay value first, then lets you find the ideal sync_offset, and audio latency settings (+ save settings per driver or game of course) ZOMG

(Also in the future I expect GroovyMAME to do the laundry, auto-order my printer cartridges, and answer the phone for me. )

[buttersoft]

(Also in the future I expect GroovyMAME to do the laundry, auto-order my printer cartridges, and answer the phone for me. )

Ok GroovyMAME, code a 15kHz driver for my Nvidia card