Change video settings per mame rom

[Mark32]

I am running my MAME setup with an Arcade video card and arcade monitor.

Here are the MAME Options I am using in GameEx to launch my MAME games:

-video -ddraw -nohwstretch -switchres -joy -skip_gameinfo

I think those are the correct Arcade settings.

I need to run one game with Direct3d to get 100% performance, under direct draw I only get around 68%.

Is there a way to launch this one MAME ROM through GameEx with the Direct3D setting and leave the rest Direct Draw? If possible I would like it to remain in the MAME list.

Thanks.

[bkenobi]

The only thing I can suggest is using MAME_Loader or MultiMAME. MultiMAME would be better, but it takes a bit more effort to get it set up. MAME_Loader is a script I wrote that is set up under AdvanceMAME. The only real disadvantage of it is that you lose the info at the bottom of the attract mode for MAME. Since it's one game, it's really a toss up whether you do one or the other. Of course I'm biased, but I would use the MAME_Loader script

[Mark32]

I have the game running in the high 90% range now by enabling the -mt switch (enabling Multi-Threaded rendering). I can't believe I didn't notice this sooner.

What a difference this made.

[emphatic]

What game is it?

Emph

[Mark32]

What game is it?

Emph

Cube Quest

[chriss]

Cube Quest

I also have it at a playable speed of around 90%. Just the sound is still stuttering but the video plays fine.

Bkenobi said in another thread that with a 64 bit compile you should be able to reach 100% but I just have normal XP Prof. set up on my arcade

[bkenobi]

Actually, I said that MAME was moving towards 64-bit optimized code, so you will probably do better with a 64-bit OS and 64-bit compile of MAME. However, I have no idea what that turns into in terms of a performance boost over 32-bit. If I were building my cab today, I might consider going with a 64-bit OS since all the cheap PC equipment is 64-bit anyway. The problem is that there are issues with codecs and some emulators running on 64-bit vista (from what I understand) and XP64 doesn't have the driver support of either XP32 or Vista (also from what I've heard/read).

Ehhh, what are you going to do...

[chriss]

I'm not a big fan of Vista (and actually don't wanna start this kind of discussion)

Just a quick note:

I tried it out once and some games ran much worse (eg Battlefield 2 was really slow) I found out that Vista indexing service wanted to do me a favor and started indexing my files while I was playing... probably vista is now better with SP1 but I still hear a lot of problems from people running Vista...

so that means XP Prof and no Cube Quest for me!

[fRequEnCy]

I am running my MAME setup with an Arcade video card and arcade monitor.

Here are the MAME Options I am using in GameEx to launch my MAME games:

-video -ddraw -nohwstretch -switchres -joy -skip_gameinfo

I think those are the correct Arcade settings.

I need to run one game with Direct3d to get 100% performance, under direct draw I only get around 68%.

Is there a way to launch this one MAME ROM through GameEx with the Direct3D setting and leave the rest Direct Draw? If possible I would like it to remain in the MAME list.

Thanks.

Just create a cubeqst.ini. Just copy your mame.ini and change the settings your wanting and your cubeqst.ini will over ride those settings. That way you can run Cube Quest with the settings your after while still leaving your other games with the current settings. You can create that file in your MAME directory or copy it into the ini directory. When mame first creates your mame.ini it sets the directory to ini. So just create the file into that directory and you're good to go.

[Mark32]

Just create a cubeqst.ini. Just copy your mame.ini and change the settings your wanting and your cubeqst.ini will over ride those settings. That way you can run Cube Quest with the settings your after while still leaving your other games with the current settings. You can create that file in your MAME directory or copy it into the ini directory. When mame first creates your mame.ini it sets the directory to ini. So just create the file into that directory and you're good to go.

Will the cubeqst.ini file override the switches I am using in GameEx under Advanced MAME?

[bkenobi]

AdvancedMAME or Advanced MAME Settings? They are different. You shouldn't really be using AdvancedMAME at this point IMO.

[Mark32]

AdvancedMAME or Advanced MAME Settings? They are different. You shouldn't really be using AdvancedMAME at this point IMO.

I should have said Advanced MAME Settings.

[fRequEnCy]

I should have said Advanced MAME Settings.

Well from what it looks like, you're calling your settings from MAME Options in the Advanced MAME Settings. Doing that will make your settings be called every time. The best thing to do is create a mame.ini.

So simply:

1. Create mame.ini by typing MAME -cc from commandline.

2. Change your settings as needed.

3. Erase all the content from MAME Options in the Advanced MAME Settings since they will still be called from the ini itself.

4. Make a copy of that file and copy it over to the ini directory of your MAME directory. Create it if it doesn't exist.

5. Rename file to cubeqst.ini and change your video settings.

6. Your new file will override your standard settings so you can have different video options (as well as others if needed) to run your rom without it affecting anything.

[Mark32]

Well from what it looks like, you're calling your settings from MAME Options in the Advanced MAME Settings. Doing that will make your settings be called every time. The best thing to do is create a mame.ini.

So simply:

1. Create mame.ini by typing MAME -cc from commandline.

2. Change your settings as needed.

3. Erase all the content from MAME Options in the Advanced MAME Settings since they will still be called from the ini itself.

4. Make a copy of that file and copy it over to the ini directory of your MAME directory. Create it if it doesn't exist.

5. Rename file to cubeqst.ini and change your video settings.

6. Your new file will override your standard settings so you can have different video options (as well as others if needed) to run your rom without it affecting anything.

Looks like a good solution.