As of MAME 0.201, you can run BGFX/Metal shaders along with Artwork bezels without taking a huge performance hit. This is really great news. BGFX/Metal is finally becoming stable on Macs.
Just to remind you why Artwork matters (click to enlarge):
 |
| My iMac running 1943 |
 |
| My iMac running 1943 with Artwork |
Here is my testing of MAME 0.200 vs. 0,201 in BGFX/crt-geom-deluxe/Metal with Artwork/without Artwork - from the Terminal in the MAME main directory:
./mame64 -video bgfx -str 60 -noafs -bgfx_screen_chains crt-geom-deluxe -bgfx_backend metal -noreadconfig -nosleep -nothrottle (-nobezel) (romfilename)
| ROM | MAME 0.200 Artwork | MAME 0.200 no Artwork | MAME 0.201 Artwork | MAME 0201 no Artwork |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1942 (Revision B) |
274.35%
|
763.36%
|
743.95%
|
761.62%
|
| 1943 |
255.35%
|
755.49%
|
707.83%
|
760.09%
|
| 3wonders |
244.50%
|
585.32%
|
577.99%
|
582.34%
|
| elevator |
176.44%
|
— ***
|
588.24%
|
587.99%
|
| gyruss |
134.15%
|
295.29%
|
370.31%
|
379.10%
|
| inthunt |
280.20%
|
569.31%
|
584.24%
|
570.71%
|
| mslug |
254.77%
|
605.21%
|
605.41%
|
610.59%
|
| offroadc |
123.60%
|
—***
|
149.43%
|
167.06%
|
| rtype |
296.87%
|
655,00%
|
676.01%
|
631.30%
|
What this tells you:
- The absolute numbers are not that crucial, what counts is the differential between running artwork vs running no artwork. Prior to MAME 0.201, running artwork along with a bgfx shader resulted in a huge performance hit.
- Even more, if the artwork results in a smaller screen, e.g. elevator, inthunt or mslug, performance with artwork can be equal or even slightly better now.
- The MacOS Metal backend now seems to run rock solidly. There re no performance increases to OpenGL, however, since Apple will be depreciating OpenGL altogether in MacOS, the Metal backend is crucial for the future.
Hello Estefan,
ReplyDeleteFirsly, thank you for all the GREAT info for us Mac + MAME tinkerers! The results of your research and experimentation is VERY helpful and MUCH appreciated! I've been a fan of MAME since the first version of MacMAME by Brad Oliver running on OS 9 (do you remember MacMoon or MultiPac? lol).
Anyhow I have a BGFX question you might already have the answer to: Have you come across or found a way to add Bloom/Halation/Blur to the "HLSL" shader running under BGFX? I've got my hlsl.json file tweaked to my liking, but that is the one effect that seems to be missing. I really like how it looks in the CRT-Geom-Deluxe shader, but prefer all the other options as they are in HLSL. (This last bit will make it perfect to my eyes.)
Please let me know if you can point me in the right direction... and in case you haven't checked it out already, I wanted to suggest having a look at another Mac frontend that I've found recently: http://babelsoft.net/products/negatron.htm
It's a lot like QMC2, but with a lot of the cruft stripped away and a cleaner, more useful interface. While it lacks the ROM checking and deep config setting functionality (still prefer to edit the mame.ini directly)... it has GREAT Game List Filtering (!!!) and a very promising Favorites list... making it awesome for simply *playing and enjoying* MAME once the set-up has been tweaked to death. There are a couple aesthetic things that I'm hoping the author will fix in the next release, but other than that it has brought me back to the FUN of playing MAME vs. the frustration of fighting with unruly or anemic frontends.
Thanks and please keep up the great blog!
Peace
Hi, first I am very sorry for not having replied earlier. Somehow I did not receive a notification on your post. Just briefly: I frankly do not know yet. I agree with you that a Bloom/HLSL combination would be interesting. Please expect another post from me soon.
DeleteIf you do not mind, I would be very interested of your HLSL settings to the extent they differ from default.
Cheers, Stefan