Command line MAME

[fabianscorpio]

I'm using the command line version of MAME, so that I can use it with
MAMEWah. Anyway, I can't seem to find where to add scanlines. I tried looking at the mame.ini file in my MAME folder, but the changes I made don't seem to do anything. I tried adding -effectscan50 to my mame.ini inside my MAMEwah config/mame folder, but that didn't seem to do anything either, accept not run the game.

If anyone can point me to a reference guide to command line options, or what the mame.ini means, it would be helpful. Thanks.

[FatTrucker]

You need to download the effects filters from here. Extract them in your mame/artwork folder.

Now open your mame.ini and in the Windows Video Options section where it says 'Effect' type the name of the effect you want enabled. e.g.

# WINDOWS VIDEO OPTIONS
#
video d3d
numscreens 1
window 0
maximize 1
keepaspect 1
prescale 1
effect scanlines
waitvsync 0
syncrefresh 0

Save the ini and away you go.

[fabianscorpio]

I'm almost certain that I did all that already. I'll double check again following your directions. Are there any other places I may have a video option set incorrectly? Should I have artwork set to 1 or will it interfere with the scanlines? Do I need to use -effect scanlines in my command line? So many questions... lol

Here is my ini for command line mame...

### MAME.ini ###

### Frontend Related ###
clones 1

### Windows path and directory options ###
rompath roms
samplepath samples
# inipath <NULL> (not set)
cfg_directory cfg
nvram_directory nvram
memcard_directory memcard
input_directory inp
hiscore_directory hi
state_directory sta
artwork_directory artwork
snapshot_directory snap
diff_directory diff
ctrlr_directory ctrlr
cheat_file cheat.dat
history_file history.dat
mameinfo_file mameinfo.dat

### Windows video options ###
autoframeskip 1
frameskip 0
waitvsync 1
triplebuffer 1
window 0
ddraw 1
direct3d 1
hwstretch 1
# screen <NULL> (not set)
cleanstretch auto
resolution auto
refresh 1
scanlines 1
switchres 1
switchbpp 1
maximize 1
keepaspect 1
matchrefresh 1
syncrefresh 1
throttle 1
full_screen_brightness 0.000000
frames_to_run 0
effect scanlines
screen_aspect 4:3

### Windows Direct3D 2D video options ###
zoom 2
d3dtexmanage 1
d3dfilter 1
d3dfeedback 0
d3dscan 100
d3deffectrotate 1
d3dprescale auto
d3deffect none
# d3dcustom <NULL> (not set)
# d3dexpert <NULL> (not set)

### Windows misc options ###
sleep 0
rdtsc 0
high_priority 0

### Windows sound options ###
audio_latency 1
# wavwrite <NULL> (not set)

### Input device options ###
mouse 0
joystick 0
lightgun 0
dual_lightgun 0
offscreen_reload 0
steadykey 0
keyboard_leds 1
led_mode ps/2
a2d_deadzone 0.300000
# ctrlr <NULL> (not set)
paddle_device keyboard
adstick_device keyboard
pedal_device keyboard
dial_device keyboard
trackball_device keyboard
lightgun_device keyboard
digital none

### Mame CORE video options ###
norotate 0
ror 0
rol 0
autoror 0
autorol 0
flipx 0
flipy 0
debug_resolution auto
gamma 1.000000
brightness 1.000000
pause_brightness 0.650000

### Mame CORE vector game options ###
antialias 1
translucency 1
beam 1.000000
flicker 0.000000
intensity 1.500000

### Mame CORE sound options ###
samplerate 48000
samples 1
resamplefilter 1
sound 1
volume 0

### Mame CORE misc options ###
artwork 0
use_backdrops 1
use_overlays 1
use_bezels 1
artwork_crop 1
artwork_resolution 1
cheat 0
debug 0
# playback <NULL> (not set)
# record <NULL> (not set)
log 0
maxlogsize 10000
oslog 0
skip_disclaimer 1
skip_gameinfo 1
skip_validitychecks 0
crconly 0
bios default
# state <NULL> (not set)

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

---Here is my mamewah\config\mame.ini

### mame.ini (mamewah v1.62) ###

emulator_title Arcade

### List Generation Settings ###
rom_path C:\MAME\roms
rom_extension zip
dat_file
nms_file
catver_ini_file
list_generation_method rom_folder_vs_listxml

### Execution Settings ###
pre_emulator_app_commandlines
emulator_commandline C:\MAME\mame.exe [name]{nodosbox}{nosafelaunch}
post_emulator_app_commandlines
general_app_commandlines

### Artwork Settings ###
artwork_image_paths C:\MAME\snap;C:\MAME\artwork
movie_preview_path [emuexepath]\previews
movie_artwork_no 1
enable_fuzzy_search 0
history_dat_file
history_dat_artwork_no 2

### Screen-Saver Settings ###
enable_music_in_screensaver 1
select_random_game 0
saver_type gamelist_slideshow
movie_path
movie_fullscreen 1
quit_delay 0
saver_commandline

### Additional Settings ###
music_path
lcd_display_file_path
description_display [description]{scroll}

### Settings used by MAMEWAH ###
current_list 0


Perhaps you can see something missing, or clashing.

Thanks.

[FatTrucker]

The mamewah ini doesn't factor into it at all.

Just put the name of the screen filter you want to use next to the Effect setting in your mame.ini

There are loads of different monitor effects available at the link I gave you and you modify the Effects entry to match the name of whichever one you want to activate.

[fabianscorpio]

ok...I have some PNG files of scanlines in my artwork folder. I changed the 'none' next to effects like so....

effects rgb3_kb.png

that didn't work, so I tried...

effects rgb3_kb

and that didn't work. I guess I am totally missing something here.

[FatTrucker]

Are you using an old version of mame?.

[fabianscorpio]

mame092b.zip is the zip file. Yeah, it's an older version because I wasn't sure if I'd have issues with the roms I have for MAME32 v92 GUI version. I've only ever used the GUI MAME and it was only recently that I decided to 'beef up' the cabinet and use MAMEWAH so it looked good. So, I was forced to use command line mame for mamewah. I chose to use an older version thinking that the 92 version of command line mame would have no trouble running the roms I already had for MAME32v92. Was I wrong to think this? What version of MAME should I be using, and will my roms work? The roms are about 4 years old...well...they were downloaded 4 years ago.

Thanks again for your time, and your advice.

[FatTrucker]

That would explain why the screen filters aren't working. The system changed from Mame0.106 when they did the big video system rewrite, and the new ones aren't compatible with the old versions.

You're quite correct that Mame32v0.92 will use the same romset as mame0.92, however this version of mame is massively outdated now. If your PC hardware can cope with newer versions it really is worth the effort to update your romset and use a newer version of mame.

If you're going to continue with mame0.92 then to enable scanlines then disble hwstretch and enable scanlines in the mame.ini:

### Windows video options ###
autoframeskip 1
frameskip 0
waitvsync 0
triplebuffer 0
window 0
ddraw 1
direct3d 0
hwstretch 0
# screen <NULL> (not set)
cleanstretch auto
resolution auto
refresh 0
scanlines 1
switchres 1
switchbpp 1
maximize 1
keepaspect 1
matchrefresh 0
syncrefresh 0
throttle 1
full_screen_brightness 0.000000
frames_to_run 0
effect none

Hope that helps.

Note: You can also apply the following to the 'effects' setting at the bottom for different results.

none - no effect (this is the default)
sharp - no effect, but gives a sharper image
scan25 - 25% scanlines
scan50 - 50% scanlines
scan75 - 75% scanlines
scan75v - 75% scanlines (vertical)
rgb3 - a certain "monitor mask"
rgb4 - another one
rgb4v - another one (vertical)
rgb6 - another one
rgb16 - another one
rgbtiny - another one. Choose the one you like best.

These are all built into old mame and don't require any additional files in the artwork folder.

[fabianscorpio]

That didn't seem to work either. Perhaps d3d needs to be set to 0 also, mine is 1. I'll try it.

Also, yeah, my system can handle it, but it took me weeks to DL the set I have now. I'd hate to have to DL another....



Which one of these underlined files do I want so I can run the most current mame release with MAMEWAH?

mame0125b.exe 6653 KB Download MAME 0.125 Windows command-line binaries.
mame0125b_i686.exe 6834 KB Download MAME 0.125 Windows command-line binaries (I686 optimized).
mame0125b_64bit.exe 7295 KB Download MAME 0.125 64-bit Windows command-line binaries.
mame0125b_debug.exe 6903 KB Download MAME 0.125 Windows command-line binaries with debugger.

[FatTrucker]

The first or second one's will both be ok.

You really want to keep D3D turned on. Ddraw is only really necessary if you're running custom resolutions with a real arcade monitor and you will take a significant performance hit by using Ddraw instead of D3D.