mame32 and large sized chd related games

[emeralds]

i'm trying to run games life san francisco rush, california speed, wayne gretsky 3dm etc through mame32 and they are unbearably slow (any mid to late 90s 3d games basically). i need to know if it's my computer the roms or the emulator itself. i really doubt it's my computer as it's an 07 hp notebook trying to run 15 year old games but who knows.

it's an HP dv6000, 2GB ram, AMD turion tl-60 2.00 ghz processor. running mame32 plus 0.177. i haven't messed with any of the video or audio options. all default. what's the verdict?

on a follow up, if i ever do get this speed issue sorted out, how can i config racing games to keyboard? i can't figure it out going through tab.

also if there are any other heavier traffic mame/emulator related forums around i'd like to know. hoping someone can help me but notice it's 99% guests here.

 

[alcoatjez]

There's enough MAME knowledge available here (not me BTW).
These CHD games are known to run slow. It has nothing to do with how old they are. Many LaserDisc games are over 20 years old and they don't run very fast either.

 

[emeralds]

well they run at such a slow speed that i'm not sure why people would bother downloading them, especially at the size of a lot of them too. i just imagine there's gotta be a way to speed them up to at least playable condition.

 

[FatTrucker]

You need to understand how emulation works and how mame works.

Forget the relative age of the original systems. Your computer is doing everything in software and if a machine had a lot of dedicated chips doing different things its a big ask on a PC's processor to run them all 100% with perfect timing. Imagine buying a PC with no graphics hardware then trying to get it to emulate what a GeForce8800 does using just the processor, that's what emulation is doing.

There are hundreds of games dumped that aren't emulated or still have lots of work to be done. Usually when a new game or piece of hardware is dumped someone will write a provisional driver and then it will get worked on when one of the Mame development team get around to it. Games are dumped so the code is preserved at the point when the games and boards still work so it can be worked on later, that's why so many games exist in mame that aren't currently emulated or working properly.

Mame emulates thousands of different games that all ran on different hardware so its a massive project to share among the few dozen people that actively work on it at any given time. Patience is the thing.

Mame has a slightly different ethic to most emulators as first and foremost its an archival project. This means its not primarily geared towards optimising games to run as quickly as possible using hacks and workarounds as other emulators do, the whole point of it is that it preserves these old arcade games as accurately as possible. This makes the emulation slower as it gives the host PC more to do.

Currently the games you are having trouble with will play with a good framerate on a decent Dual Core System, using 64 bit windows and 64 bit Mame, other than that results can vary.

In all honesty there are about 60 or 70 CHD titles out of the 6000+ overall titles that mame emulates, its not a pre-requisite that you have to download them all, many are noted as WIP, others are known to run slowly on any hardware.

The AMD Turion is ok, however its not by any means a 'fast' dual core processor, you should be ok running things like Killer Instinct 1 and a few other CHD games. You can also try using F9 in game to adjust the frameskip speed to see if that helps.

Other than that its a case of waiting until one of the Mame teams gets around to working on them.

Hope that helps.

 

[emeralds]

that helps a lot actually. i just recently got into emulators about a month ago and just figured that since this movement's been chugging along for the last several years there wasn't all that much work left to be done. didn't understand why there isn't an emulator out that can play all platforms at this point but the way you explain it puts it much more into realistic perspective.

are you familar enough with mame32 plus 0.117 to help me config shooters/racers? i just use a keyboard. for basic beat em up/shoot em up/fighters i use wsad for movement, iop for 2-3 button games, iop kl; for 6 button fighters. it's automatically set for all games that fit the bill but when i try to load up a lightgun game or racing game it doesn't recognize my controls. i'd be greatly appreciative if you could help me. for lightgun games i want to use just the mouse for movement, left click to fire, right click for games with some kind of special.

racing, something like a=steer left s=steer right i=gas o=brake p=change gear

i also hope that when my usb 6 button saturn control comes in next week it will be an easy transition in the config.

 

[FatTrucker]

Using the mouse is easy for lightgun games etc. When you load Mame32, go to 'Options' in the toolbar at the top, then select 'default game options'. Now open the 'controllers' tab and click the box for 'enable mouse input'. Now open the 'controller mapping' tab and change the lightgun device to mouse. Your mouse will now be used as the default controller for lightgun games, you can also use the same screen to set mouse or keyboard for other types of optical and analogue controls.

In terms of your racing games, use the TAB menu in game to remap the controls, although in many of them, you'll find setting the mouse for left and right gives a more realistic feel and use the keyboard for gas, brake and gear changes.

 

[ozielmm]

Hi, im using that same version of MAME in my laptop and the option to use mouse input is not available, it wont let me check the box, any ideas on why is this? thanks in advance for your help

 

[alcoatjez]

Perhaps this will help you?
http://mamedev.org/devwiki/index.php/FAQ:Controls#Why_doesn.27t_my_mouse_or_trackball_work.3F

 

[FatTrucker]

Hi, im using that same version of MAME in my laptop and the option to use mouse input is not available, it wont let me check the box, any ideas on why is this? thanks in advance for your help

Silly question but do you have a mouse plugged in and running as your primary pointing device?.

 

[ozielmm]

Silly question but do you have a mouse plugged in and running as your primary pointing device?.

Hi, I have a USB mouse, at first I plugged it in after opening MAME, then i closed MAME, reopen it and it still wont let me.

I also changed the MAME ini file, now the mouse option appears checked but it still wont let me change it or use it.

Oh and MAMEUI32 works fine, the problem is when I try to use MAME Plus!Plus! 0.117.

 

[FatTrucker]

Do you have them all in the same folder?. MamePlusPlus will have its own config and ini files. Also are you using the GUI version of Mame++ or commandline?.

 

[ozielmm]

GUI, All of them in their veryown folder

 

[FatTrucker]

Create a new folder (just leave it called new folder). Copy everything from your .cfg folder into the new folder, then delete everything from the .cfg folder.

Try enabling and using your Mouse again.

 

[JoshM22]

Very informative bit there Fat Trucker.

 

[imm0rtalmask]

these games are very slowly loading,this is a fact