ATTN: X-Arcade users

[emphatic]

Slightly off topic here, but :

I've recently noticed that my X-Arcade isn't as responsive in MAME as it is with PC games. Is MAME controls generally slower than PC games, or is it my X-Arcade (hooked into my laptop using USB) that's giving me a hard time?

When I compare playing my real Twin Hawk arcade PCB in my JAMMA cabinet to playing it in MAME 0.109u3FX from GameEx with artwork 'on' i notice a very annoying delay that leaves it almost unplayable. My PC games, such as Tetris Worlds (highly recommended btw) or Virtua Tennis is very direct.

So, are the controllers slower in MAME compared to PC games, or is it my configuration? Sometimes, the controls locks up completely causing instant death, but that happends without running GameEx as well. :/

Emph

[headkaze]

By artwork on do you mean bezel artwork? Alot of people are reporting lag with this. Have you tried turning it off to see if things change?

[firebrand_X]

Slightly off topic here, but :

I've recently noticed that my X-Arcade isn't as responsive in MAME as it is with PC games. Is MAME controls generally slower than PC games, or is it my X-Arcade (hooked into my laptop using USB) that's giving me a hard time?

Emph

I have an X-Arcade Dual, and it works 98% right. My big issue is that now and again the directional stick will get 'locked' in one direction during gameplay, but I'm not noticing anything 'slower' between MAME and PC.

[emphatic]

I have an X-Arcade Dual, and it works 98% right. My big issue is that now and again the directional stick will get 'locked' in one direction during gameplay, but I'm not noticing anything 'slower' between MAME and PC.

Okay, are you using the Bezels (yes headkaze, that's what I was reffering to)? The bezels worked great with MAME versions previous to the new graphics engine, but as it's "working" now, I'm seriously considering going back to .107 or whatever version it was and running another instance of MAME for games added after that. This way, most games will run smooth enough to play, and not just looking good. :/

The 'looked' issue is VERY annoying, and I'm guessing that it has something to do with X-Arcade+Win XP=crap combination. At least that's what the people at X-Gaming is telling me.

Thanks!

Emph

[Atari800]

I have x-arcade with USB on Winodws 2003 Advanced Server

There is no sluggishness that I can notice

X-arcade is notorious for the sticking in 1 direction syndrome

but I dont think sluggish is due to the x-arcade itself

Unless it has a few keys stuck that are being detected and are not programmed into mame

and just filling the kyboard bufffer

[emphatic]

I'm gonna try to set it up as two virtual joysticks and see if that increases the response in MAME.

I've noticed that the 'hanging' key (always player 1 right direction for me) only happens in MAME and not in other apps. So perhaps this is something that could be fixable. I'll let you know what I find out.

Emph

[Ricci]

I have noticed a difference too, but never posted thinking it was the joystick going goofy. It also hangs to one direction once in a while too

[emphatic]

I just tested MAMEFX without artwork directly (not from GameEx) and the controls are very fast. Then in GameEx without artwork with sluggish performance. I don't get it, isn't GameEx supposed to use zero resources when the emulator is running? Or why would i get a performance hit otherwise?

Emph

[headkaze]

GameEx doesn't use zero resources when an emulator is running, but close to it. I remember Tom saying it only polls for some input in the background. The only problem he thought that could cause a slow down was when using an Advanced Config because he polls that quite often. In Mame this shouldn't be the case.

So I'm not sure what's going on, perhaps there are some memory leaks or page faulting going on in newer releases? Even though .NET does memory management, you should still clean up best you can. But I guess it's something Tom will have to take a look at.

[emphatic]

Now I have turned off GameEx GameExtender (didn't do anything for me) removed all the mame command line options from "Advanced Mame Configuration" that has to do with video (no more sluggish performance, so I guess my Pentium IV 2.4 ghz laptop with 512 RAM ATI 9800 onboard ain't quite up to "it" for me).

I do however get the "slight pause" syndrome, and I'm guessing that's somehow sound related, because when I play Rygar for example, I get a slight pause when I insert coin or pick up powerup items (BIG sound effect moments). I don't know if this is some sort of conflict with GameEx jukebox (turned off in my case) or if this is a MAME issue. I'll be doing some more testing on this issue. At least now I can play games without making a sore face...

Emph

[emphatic]

I had a little get-together at home for a night of gaming madness, but it was totally ruined by MAME performing like crap with the X-Arcade. I haven't noticed anything for single play recently, but when trying two-player action, chaos came to town. A friend suggested that it was keyboard ghosting (he's been reading somewhere that if you press 4+ buttons at once on a keyboard, you get ghosting) but since PC games, like Virtua Tennis and Raiden 3 worked flawlessly, I don't think that is it. I'm growing really tired of MAME acting up...

If you are a successful user of X-Arcade in MAME with two-player action, please post MAME build, version and command line settings here. Pretty please.

Thank god I have a JAMMA cabinet as well for some serious arcade gaming...

Emph