help with mame.ini

[Arcade Freak]

hi folks,

i am having issues tonight with my cocktail. my games are really slow....lets back up a little. i uses to run mame32 on win 98se with 450 mhz, and 256 m ram and it was running great. now i installed xp added 128 to ram total of 384 m ram and the games are really slow.

i was told earlier that i should tweak mame.ini to make it perform better. now my problem is i do not know what to change.

does any one have any ideas??? HELP!!!!!

thanks

[gonzo90017]

You should be using an older version of mame. Preferably Mame 0.37b16. I'm using it on a 400mhz pc.

Here's my mame.ini

Code: [Select]

### mame.ini ###

### Frontend Related ###
clones                  1

### Windows path and directory options ###
rompath                 E:\videogames\mame37\roms
samplepath              samples
cfg_directory           cfg
nvram_directory         nvram
memcard_directory       memcard
input_directory         inp
hiscore_directory       hi
state_directory         sta
artwork_directory       artwork
snapshot_directory      snap
cheat_file              cheat.dat
history_file            history.dat
mameinfo_file           mameinfo.dat

### Windows video options ###
autoframeskip           0
frameskip               0
waitvsync               0
triplebuffer            0
window                  1
ddraw                   1
hwstretch               1
resolution              640x480
refresh                 0
scanlines               0
switchres               1
switchbpp               1
maximize                1
keepaspect              1
matchrefresh            0
syncrefresh             0
dirty                   1
throttle                1
full_screen_brightness   0.000000
frames_to_run           0
effect                  none
screen_aspect           4:3

### Input device options ###
hotrod                  0
hotrodse                0
mouse                   0
joystick                1

### Mame CORE video options ###
bpp                     0
norotate                0
ror                     0
rol                     0
flipx                   0
flipy                   0
debug_resolution        auto
gamma                   1.000000

### Mame CORE vector game options ###
antialias               1
translucency            1
beam                    1.000000
flicker                 0.000000

### Mame CORE sound options ###
samplerate              22050
samples                 1
resamplefilter          0
sound                   1
volume                  0

### Mame CORE misc options ###
artwork                 0
cheat                   0
debug                   0
# playback              <NULL> (not set)
# record                <NULL> (not set)
log                     0

### Configuration options ###
readconfig              1
verbose                 0



[Arcade Freak]

are you saying that the newer version are slower or need more power.

besides were can i get an old version like that?

besides now that its install what would be the process of changing it?

here is mine:
<UNADORNED0>             

#
# CORE CONFIGURATION OPTIONS
#
readconfig                1

#
# CORE SEARCH PATH OPTIONS
#
rompath                   roms
samplepath                samples
artpath                   artwork
ctrlrpath                 ctrlr
inipath                   .;ini
fontpath                  .

#
# CORE OUTPUT DIRECTORY OPTIONS
#
cfg_directory             cfg
nvram_directory           nvram
memcard_directory         memcard
input_directory           inp
state_directory           sta
snapshot_directory        snap
diff_directory            diff
comment_directory         comments

#
# CORE FILENAME OPTIONS
#
cheat_file                cheat.dat

#
# CORE STATE/PLAYBACK OPTIONS
#
state                     
autosave                  0
playback                 
record                   
mngwrite                 
wavwrite                 

#
# CORE PERFORMANCE OPTIONS
#
autoframeskip             0
frameskip                 0
seconds_to_run            0
throttle                  1
sleep                     1
speed                     1.0
refreshspeed              0

#
# CORE ROTATION OPTIONS
#
rotate                    1
ror                       0
rol                       0
autoror                   0
autorol                   0
flipx                     0
flipy                     0

#
# CORE ARTWORK OPTIONS
#
artwork_crop              0
use_backdrops             1
use_overlays              1
use_bezels                1

#
# CORE SCREEN OPTIONS
#
brightness                1.0
contrast                  1.0
gamma                     1.0
pause_brightness          0.65

#
# CORE VECTOR OPTIONS
#
antialias                 1
beam                      1.0
flicker                   0

#
# CORE SOUND OPTIONS
#
sound                     1
samplerate                48000
samples                   1
volume                    0

#
# CORE INPUT OPTIONS
#
ctrlr                     
mouse                     0
joystick                  0
lightgun                  0
multikeyboard             0
multimouse                0
steadykey                 0
offscreen_reload          0
joystick_map              auto
joystick_deadzone         0.3
joystick_saturation       0.85

#
# CORE INPUT AUTOMATIC ENABLE OPTIONS
#
paddle_device             keyboard
adstick_device            keyboard
pedal_device              keyboard
dial_device               keyboard
trackball_device          keyboard
lightgun_device           keyboard
positional_device         keyboard
mouse_device              mouse

#
# CORE DEBUGGING OPTIONS
#
log                       0
verbose                   0
update_in_pause           0

#
# CORE MISC OPTIONS
#
bios                      default
cheat                     0
skip_gameinfo             0

#
# WINDOWS DEBUGGING OPTIONS
#
oslog                     0

#
# WINDOWS PERFORMANCE OPTIONS
#
priority                  0
multithreading            0

#
# WINDOWS VIDEO OPTIONS
#
video                     d3d
numscreens                1
window                    0
maximize                  1
keepaspect                1
prescale                  1
effect                    none
waitvsync                 0
syncrefresh               0

#
# DIRECTDRAW-SPECIFIC OPTIONS
#
hwstretch                 1

#
# DIRECT3D-SPECIFIC OPTIONS
#
d3dversion                9
filter                    1

#
# PER-WINDOW VIDEO OPTIONS
#
screen                    auto
aspect                    auto
resolution                auto
view                      auto
screen0                   auto
aspect0                   auto
resolution0               auto
view0                     auto
screen1                   auto
aspect1                   auto
resolution1               auto
view1                     auto
screen2                   auto
aspect2                   auto
resolution2               auto
view2                     auto
screen3                   auto
aspect3                   auto
resolution3               auto
view3                     auto

#
# FULL SCREEN OPTIONS
#
triplebuffer              0
switchres                 0
full_screen_brightness    1.0
full_screen_contrast      1.0
full_screen_gamma         1.0

#
# WINDOWS SOUND OPTIONS
#
audio_latency             2

#
# INPUT DEVICE OPTIONS
#
dual_lightgun             0[/size]
cheers.

[SGT]

Yep, no amount of tweaking is going to help you run the newest versions of Mame on a PC that old.  Here is the link to the older versions of Mame.  Some adjustments to your rom set will undoubtedly be needed:

http://mamedev.org/oldrel.html

[Arcade Freak]

Yep, no amount of tweaking is going to help you run the newest versions of Mame on a PC that old.  Here is the link to the older versions of Mame.  Some adjustments to your rom set will undoubtedly be needed:

even if i change to a lower mame version....?

then what kind of adjustments are we taliking here?

cheers

[SGT]

What I mean is, if your set of roms is for the latest version of Mame, then some roms won't be valid with an old version of Mame due to changes to the rom set over the years.  You can either find an old set of roms or just get a rollback set and use a clrmamepro to make the necessary changes to the roms so that they will work with the old version of Mame.

[gonzo90017]

Some roms won't work others will. But you can only find out if you try.

[Turnarcades]

MAME underwent some major changes after version 0.116. I build many varying-spec PC's and found a similar problem. Although my initial upgrade to XP revealed some slowdown, this was soon remedied on any version of MAME by doing some XP tweaking (removing messenger and some other services or installing TinyXP).

The problem still exists however with the major graphics re-write in 0.116. The MAME dev team basically conceded and started writing the graphics drivers around modern hardware, thereby making new releases slow down or fail to work on older machines, but excelling on newer machines.

Cut short, if running a P3 or older with low-end graphics cards, stick with pre-0.116 MAME. If running a newer pc with better graphics hardware, go for MAME 0.116+.

[Arcade Freak]

this was soon remedied on any version of MAME by doing some XP tweaking (removing messenger and some other services or installing TinyXP).

when you are saying removing messanger are you talking thru the msconfig or ?

then what is TinyXP?

also i did not install SP2 for XP...should I???

thanks guy.

[Turnarcades]

Messenger is part of the basic xp install process, and can't be changed. It is also a big drain on RAM. There is a program called 'Windows Messenger Remover' out there that I use which kills the process, removes it and stops it's auto-reinstallation. Google for it. There are other tricks, such as increasing the page file size to act as RAM and disabling system restore and remote assistance that also stop more background services and free up more RAM.

Tiny XP is a (slightly dodgy) version of XP with loads of services you won't miss already stripped out, making it useable on older PC's that would otherwise struggle and perform faster. Again Google for it and get hold of it via bittorrent.

[SGT]

Cut short, if running a P3 or older with low-end graphics cards, stick with pre-0.116 MAME. If running a newer pc with better graphics hardware, go for MAME 0.116+.

I was thinking it was around Mame .107?

[Turnarcades]

Whoops, meant to put 0.106.

[Arcade Freak]

Messenger is part of the basic xp install process, and can't be changed. It is also a big drain on RAM. There is a program called 'Windows Messenger Remover' out there that I use which kills the process, removes it and stops it's auto-reinstallation.

i did it but it was really fast...by the time i hit enter and looked up at the screen it said that it was done. i then click on disabling it and it said that it was also done...but i just removed it...so how can we be sure it is remove?

such as increasing the page file size to act as RAM and disabling system restore and remote assistance that also stop more background services and free up more RAM.

were  do you disable these services to make sure they do not start ever again.

thanks guys

[Turnarcades]

It does the messenger removal fast. You'll know if it's worked if you re-start and messenger is absent from your lower-right tray.

To change those other options, go to control panel, then system and go through each of the tabs in turn, adjusting all parts for best performance.

[Arcade Freak]

It does the messenger removal fast. You'll know if it's worked if you re-start and messenger is absent from your lower-right tray.

to remove the icon messenger from the lower right tray all you have to do is start messenger once then go to option and de-select (remove) the check mark that says about starting msn everytime windows start. with that it will never start again. but that does not remove the program entirely..which i think is what also happens with any software that you d/l to stop it. besides i d/l a software to stop it and after it was all done i opened the tab of the programs installed in the control panel and found that the messenger remover that i d/l actually installed its own program...so guys don't d/l any programs to try to kill it because it will not work...just stop it from starting.

cheers,

[Turnarcades]

Well whatever it does, the process is not running anywhere on mine.