Command latency in MAME

[IIOIOOIOO]

Have any of you guys noticed that when playing fighting games (CPSII/MKx) there seems to be a significant variable latency on your stick inputs? I.E. it is VERY difficult to get the timing right on most special moves, when I can sit down at the arcade, put a quarter in each player, and crank out the moves consistently until the time runs out... And I'm not even talking about 3-fram combos or anything like that, I'm talking about double-tap moves like Scorpion's harpoon in MK... I can do it pretty consistently now, but I feel like I'm working around "something", and I'm pretty sure that the "something" is input latency.

Either that, or maybe something is wonky with my KeyWiz? But I have a pretty solid understanding of the process involved there, and am doubtful of that possibility.

[Wade]

This may or may not be related:

I recently finally installed my trackball after several unsuccessful mouse hacks.  Anyway, immediately I noticed a slight delay on the trackball input in Centipede and Missile Command.  At first, my heart sank because I thought it might be because I used a serial mouse hack instead of PS/2 (performance problem) but now I'm sure it's not that.  I just ran the same games on my notebook with a ps/2 mouse and have the same problem.

I played both of these games at an arcade recently and there was no delay or buffering at all.  The pointer moved around just like the mouse pointer does in windows.

Is there anything that can be done about this, or it just a mame thing?  Ideas?  I don't think it is a processor issue because both machines are over 1 ghz and run all games I've tried just fine.

Wade

[Howard_Casto]

I had it happen to me since they ported mame over to dx7.  It happens with a certian combination of settings turned on.  unfortunately I can't replicate it. So it's a bug in mame I'm just not sure what causes it.  But to get rid of it start messing with settings till it goes away.  

Good luck!

[Wade]

Howard,

   Are you talking about the command delays, the trackball delays, or both?

Thanks,
Wade

[IIOIOOIOO]

Hmm... Do they use DirectInput then? This weekend i'm going to test them out with related other emulators (Callus etc) and see if we get any better. Going through DirectInput layers then like 10 layers of modular MAME code to get to the "machine" can't help but add significant latency.

[u_rebelscum]

Hmm... Do they use DirectInput then? This weekend i'm going to test them out with related other emulators (Callus etc) and see if we get any better. Going through DirectInput layers then like 10 layers of modular MAME code to get to the "machine" can't help but add significant latency.

Mame has been using DirectInput since windows became the "official OS".  They started with dx5, and now are using dx7.  At least mame is using dInput; win32 API input is much slower.

[Wade]

I use the DOS version, these DI and DX delays wouldn't exist there would they?  I haven't noticed a delay with keystrokes (though if I played with a genuine machine side-by-side, I might).

I'm still wondering about the trackball delay.  Can anyone shed some light on this?  I don't get any delays in Windows or in a DOS mouse test program.  I'm thinking it's just a "feature" of mame.  But if there is any way to eliminate or reduce it, I'd love to know.  It really only affects a couple of games.

Thanks,
Wade