Mame Input Delay (Keyboard lag/slowdown?) thru GameEx

[AtomicRoboKid]

Hi everybody. I am having a keyboard lag issue randomly when running mame through GameEx. When I am running Mame alone, the issue isn't apparent and I have essentially ruled that out as the problem. I also tried multiple keyboards (my standard PS/2 keyboard and a IPAC-4 enabled control panel via USB) so I don't believe that to be it either.

The problem is basically where I am playing a game for a little while and then only the character in the game hangs, then performs all the input I sent through the keyboard like its being controlled by a ghost. It is like it is queueing up the inputs then running them all when it gets a chance, but all the animation etc. seems to be running fine (ie. the AI is doing its thing, background is animating ok).

I have tested and tested and it seems as though its only occurring when I run through GameEx. Has anybody heard of a problem like this, or any ideas on what it might be??

I am running a registered version of GameEx on a new install, fairly modern system AMD Sempron 3100+ 1.8GHz Processor, 512MB RAM, ATI Radeon 9500. I am using an older version of mame it seems: "102b"

Everything else is running great! Love GameEx!

[emphatic]

I've also noticed input latency issues through GameEx, for example, Twin Hawk is very quick in MAME, but has a very noticeable delay through GameEx. Strikers 1945 however, has the delay with both of them.

I'm using an X-Arcade dual with USB connected to my laptop (2.8 Ghz P4 with 512 RAM, ATI Radeon Mobility 9800) that shows my MAME on a 21" PC CRT in my homebuilt cabinet. I'm using the latest MAME build 0.110 (MAME32FX). I don't know if my laptop is powerful enough or if it's a USB problem, but now it seems it's not just my hardware.

When I play Dreamcast games or PC games through GameEx, there's no noticable input delay.

I've been trying to find info about input latency in MAME everywhere, but without luck.

On a side note, if I'm running GameEx in attract mode for a couple of hours, .net framework (2.0) crashes with an "out of memory" message. I did get this with .net 1.1 also. Perhaps GameEx is using up a lot of my resources, perhaps it's something else, I don't know.

Here's another thread on this:

http://www.gameex.info/forums/index.php?showtopic=2545

Emph

[AtomicRoboKid]

Thanks for the reply. I noticed your thread while I was searching the forums earlier. Did you find that disabling the GameExtender and Advanced Options helped with your problem? I don't get any real noticeable slowdown, just unresponsive characters.

Someone mentioned a keyboard buffer and that sounds like what it could be. It's got to be GameEx polling for input before sending it to mame or something (thats how it catches keys like <ESC> right?) and maybe it just queues it up and sends it all at once to mame?

[emphatic]

If you're running Win XP, press your "shift" button five times. This should bring up a "feature" that Microsoft put there to help disabled people. You should have that deactivated, cause it can mess with your input.

Also, see this thread:

http://www.gameex.info/forums/index.php?sh...ic=2509&hl=

Emph

[AtomicRoboKid]

Thanks for the help Emph! I went through that last thread and tried the 'PageFile' adjustment mentioned and it seems to have fixed it - the input delay is gone!

Again, thanks a lot!