B2K24

Thank You, Tom. I hope you & team are doing well

I'm back after a long hiatus and tried the latest beta after upgrading my GameEX & MAME to latest versions. Not sure if it's a problem on my end or the server is down. 8/2/2021 2:06:26 PM : GameTagger Plugin (Version: 1.1.5b1) 8/2/2021 2:06:26 PM : Loading XML... 8/2/2021 2:06:26 PM : Getting user data... 8/2/2021 2:06:26 PM : 16.97 INITIALIZED OK!: GameEx 8/2/2021 2:06:26 PM : Checking for network connectivity... 8/2/2021 2:06:27 PM : ERROR: Could not find the DracLabs server! Disabling Plugin! 8/2/2021 2:06:27 PM : ERROR: Connection to DracLabs could not be initialized! Disabling plugin! 8/2/2021 2:06:27 PM : Plugin has been disabled! Hasta la vista!

Yes, i would just keep the folder MAME. You also don't need 2 instances of PBX because you can have a MAME.xml and MAME ONLY.xml which then you can isolate only those in the game listing of PBX

Yeah, I was so excited everything was running that I took the pics before going into service mode and adjusting geometry. I have corrected the problem and am very happy with it.

It an almost perfect match to what I'm using now. I got my PS1 hooked up with S-Video and PC w/ CRT Emudriver going component. It makes retro gaming very nice. https://imgur.com/a/uOHGB

That's really awesome. Nice setup there

PBX doesn't scan your roms folder to generate a game listing, it reads an XML file to generate that listing. If you have the games listed in GameEX that you want shown in PBX then it's a simple mater of copying over the XML at location *GameEx\DATA\PINBALLX* VERTICAL.XML or w/e you want to use. In the setup wizard of PBX it must be [TABLEFILE] and are you sure your executable is named mame.exe? It's usually mame64.exe due to 64-bit being the best these days. Is MAME working and launching games outside of PBX? You might need to adjust rompath option in mame.ini

It would be nice if I could map 2 different buttons on my joypad in the setup wizard for advancing to next letter and going to previous letter when browsing through a game list.

I have a GroovyMAME PC setup that uses an old ATI Radeon card w/ component transcoder that's connected to a Sony Trinitron consumer grade CRT TV This PC has a barebones windows 7 Ultimate X64 with no updates because it's offline only. I've noticed after I installed Evo on this PC I get an error when I attempt to run Evo E_NOINTERFACE The requested COM interface is not available (-2147467262) EVO error.txt

I found 15.20 using google and put that on my GroovyMAME setup that's always offline with a bare-bones windows 7 Ultimate X64 and while it remedies the video/stuttering issues, it crashes with a message about missing database files. Unfortunately, Evo doesn't run on that setup either as it crashes with a message. I've put the latest version of GameEX back on the GM setup and I'll see if I can figure something out by tinkering around with settings.

I can reproduce this issue as I've just updated my GameEX because it informed me that an update was available. On my main PC after GameEX 32-bit version finished updating, it looks like the videos are playing about 1.5X - 2X speed compared to an older version I had installed. As A result of this I've noticed more RAM being used. I don't think this is strictly just a 64-bit issue. When I upgraded my GroovyMAME setup because Calamity released 0.202, I upgraded GameEX their too and get constant freezes/unresponsiveness as a result of the videos trying to play too fast. If a Mod or Administrator could send me 15.41 in a PM I'd love to see if this issue happens on multiple setups when rolling back. I might need 15.30 as well as I can't remember which version I had installed previously.

If I had a direct link to them I could attempt to convert it to horizont.zip and vertical.zip Everything I've seen though isn't generic and so you wouldn't want to see X-Men or some specific game when launching many different games. It would have to be generic.

Understood. It looks great on my 27" display but I don't have the means to try it on a giant HDTV so I'm unsure how that would look. Yeah, I wish I could have the filter and glass effect without the scratches and imperfections and such. I'll have to figure out how to make my own if I can. Thanks for giving it a look Yeah the Krakerman bezels look pretty nice. I dislike the fact though that it requires RocketLauncher. A guy named Phulshof takes them and converts them for direct MAME usage. I hope he can keep up with all the work KM does because I don't know how he converts them

That's the thing is this *is* considered a bezel which is applied to all games so it's meant to be used alone. If one is pleased with the look then the sacrifice would have to be acceptable. There's always the option of switching back and forth as well depending on mood.

@tthurman @Draco1962 I might have found something even better. I've really been enjoying the look I'm getting from using the artwork override feature in the mame.ini It seems to be a kind of filter that gives your LCD a glass look. I really like it on my display. So while you're using -video d3d with hlsl using the raster.ini, have MAME use the attached horizont.zip and vertical.zip I recommend to put them in an empty folder along with shadow-mask.png, or any other PNG files you might use and then change the artpath in mame.ini to point to this folder. In the Core Artwork options of mame.ini change it to match what I've posted here: artwork_crop 1 use_backdrops 1 use_overlays 1 use_bezels 1 use_cpanels 1 use_marquees 1 fallback_artwork 1 override_artwork Last thing is to stick horizont.ini and vertical.ini in the ini folder. Let me know if you guys like it test.zip

If you're running RA you may want to check out Analog Shader Pack version 3 It's got tons of shaders you can choose from including Arcade monitors, Professional monitors, Televisions and more.

Yes, yes it is Pretty active sub here --> https://www.reddit.com/r/crtgaming/

Although I'm someone that tries to mess around with shaders and different effects and such. The key here is that there's no substitute for GLASS Look at the beginning of the video when the TV and LCD is basically shutoff. Even without anything on the screen you can already see a distinct visual difference. I'm someone that's tried probably every shader on the planet. I even spent a ton of money on an Acer Predator XB271HU due to it supporting G-Sync which means I can run any game at it's native refresh rate. While I love it especially for newer gen games, I stumbled upon a reddit post one day and decided I had to try it out. Eventually, I found myself carrying out a Sony Trinitron KV-27FS100 out of a Goodwill store. When I got GroovyMAME and everything else hooked up and working perfectly, my jaw hit the floor. It literally is the best way to play these games as there's no substitute for glass and the way the colors pop especially when things are in motion. It's like looking at a photo and your LCD resembles the photo on dull matte paper while your CRT resembles shiny glossy paper that truly shines when you look at it. Another good resource ---> http://scarthunter.b...om/p/links.html https://www.aussiearcade.com/showthread.php/87668-A-guide-to-connecting-your-Windows-PC-to-an-SD-CRT-TV-PVM-or-Arcade-Monitor

Hah! The one in that video is the exact same one I have (Sony Trinitron KV-27FS100) Component + S-Video is sooooo good. I got a chipped PS1 connected to the S-Video then a PC VGA out into Component Transcoder uses the component connections. I highly recommend if anyone can get their hands on a similar unit or equivalent. I'd like to score 3 or 4 more as backups so when my main fails, I have a few more that work The Trinitron's are considered flat screen CRT's. I'd love to get a curved tube TV that has component as well just to see how it looks. Oh and then there's these things called PVM/BVM as well. The hunt never stops!

I've been keeping my eyes out for CRT's around 20" - 25" (especially Sony Trinitron's) that have component inputs because you can then use an old ATI Radeon card + component transcoder and connect your PC to it using CRT_Emudriver http://geedorah.com/eiusdemmodi/forum/viewtopic.php?id=301 If you live in the SCART part of the world then all you need is - SCART consumer grade TV + UMSA or custom VGA->SCART cable For us that live in the USA you simply need - Component consumer grade TV + VGA->component transcoder https://imgur.com/a/uOHGB I have since entered service mode on my Sony Trinitron KV-27FS100 and corrected the geometry issues that are present in the pics. 15 kHz 240P on a Trinitron CRT that has Component inputs looks so damn nice!!!! I wish I would've thought to do this 5 - 10 years ago. I might actually seek out a Sony PVM or BVM and mess around with a 14" or 20" unit for my desk and see what that's like GroovyMAME is pretty sweet because it's simple enough to add complete romsets to your rompath and there's tons of options when you add a complete set of Software List ROMs as well. GameEX has a low res Arcade mode you can use that makes navigation really nice and simple

For the very first time I used the PBX video capture to create some table videos and backglass videos using the latest VPX beta. This is such a cool feature and very useful I would like to make a suggestion to allow the user to specify a delay before recording in the setup wizard. Something like 10 seconds would be great. The problem I'm having with a few tables are the Visual Pinball software when it prepares the table for initializing and rendering, on these 4K tables PBX starts recording before this process has finished. Being able to set a recording delay would solve this issue. Thank You Tom for consideration

Not only that but a game such as 64th. Street - A Detective Story received significant bug fixes in 0.169 which you can see in attract mode if you run a version later than that. The video snap was created before 0.169 and while the majority of people may not notice, it catches my eye every time I play my GameEX setup That's just one example and makes me wonder of how many others possibly exist. Although asking someone to redo all the snaps is a bit insane as it's a lot of work - 0.169: Added VRAM mirrors to 64th. Street, this fixed missing background graphics interaction [Angelo Salese]. Use 68k byte write smearing on main RAM, fixes attract movement in 64th. Street [David Haywood].

Sorry for the confusion. This is a different system. You have to run -video bgfx instead of -video d3d There's a section in the mame.ini as well which I have like this Then when you have MAME running with bgfx video you can access sliders and change the effects in real-time # BGFX POST-PROCESSING OPTIONS # bgfx_path bgfx bgfx_backend auto bgfx_debug 0 bgfx_screen_chains hlsl bgfx_shadow_mask slot-mask.png bgfx_avi_name auto To make MAME use d3d for the raster and vector stuff just add this line to the top of those specific ini files video d3d

It seems like to me that a lot of the Arcade games I've laid eyes on were incredibly sharp if the monitor was calibrated correctly. I believe there's an over exaggeration these days on the blurriness or out of focus settings where they're super inflated when it's an inaccurate representation of the real thing. I mean, I could be wrong, but I just don't remember it to be that way regardless if my nose was pressed to the display or I was 10 feet back. Anyway, one advantage of running BGFX is it allows you to cycle through effects in real-time while MAME is running through it's menu. You just TAB into the Sliders menu and then you look for Window 0, Screen 0 Effect (or something like that) you then use the left and right arrows on keyboard (by default unless you've remapped them) and you can toggle different effects. The crt-geom and crt-geom-deluxe is also pretty good. I've modified those and renamed them while keeping the originals in place so you can cycle through those along with the modified hlsl as well depending on the look you desire to see at the particular time. The only downside to BGFX is it doesn't do vector stuff or the handheld systems in the preset folder like gameboy, GBC, GBA, etc. you'll want to use -video d3d for that which you can insert into those ini files if needed. Anyway, for those wanting to run with -video bgfx you can extract the attached zip on this post to MAME\bgfx\chains then cycle through the different effects while MAME is running chains.zip

You can TAB/Slider Controls and make adjustments but beware that anything you change doesn't get saved when you exit MAME. You'd have to write them down or remember them and apply them to the raster.ini