Using and configuring Joysticks with M.A.M.E./QMC2 - Update December 2018

Update December 2018: First thing to do is to test whether your joystick is fully functional under MacOS. The easiest way to do is to use an online Gamepad Tester like this one:
http://html5gamepad.com/
This gives you a basic understanding of whether your gamepad works in your OS or not. In the case of the PS4 controller, for example, everything shows up under Safari (Google Chrome misses out on the PS Button as B12), which gives you a good first feeling that this joypad should work in MacOS software.

Second, if it works, you have two choices: 

1. Leave it as is: My first joypad, for example was a Logitech F310 Gamepad, a good choice. Switched on the backside to Direct Input, it runs out of the box in QMC2. No drivers under MacOSX required.

Update November 2016: Since the X Input mode emulates XBox controllers, I gave this XBox driver from Github a try - and it works! The immediate advantage is that all things are configurable in the MacOS System Settings, and RetroArch automatically assigns the joypad to XBox configuration, which is nice. Further insights will follow, but that's a good thing. It is fully compatible with MacOS Sierra.




As a second joypad, I went for a PS4 controller, and this thing rocks, both on USB and Bluetooth. No additional drivers required. Build quality is superb, this is a clear recommendation. It is still my favorite joypad for MAME.




Read further for MAME Joystick settings...

MAME in MacOS 14.14 Mojave, Thoughts on Significance of GPU

After the hickups around upgrading iMacs equipped with Fusion Drives have been sorted out, I upgraded to MacOS Mojave. Also for MAME, it was definitely worth it.

For all of you having Fusion Drives plus Bootcamp on your Mac - it is finally safe to upgrade, provided that you first backup your Windows data, delete your Bootcamp partition and do the upgrade to Mojave thereafter: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT209057 (worked perfectly for me). My Fusion Drive is finally on APFS. Also the installation of Windows 10 via Bootcamp was entirely flawless.

Speaking of Mojave - I really love the new Dark Mode.

 

So what about MAME in Mojave - here I have really good news. From my first benchmark tests, Mojave seems to bring quite consistent performance increases to MAME running BGFX/Metal. This is the command from the Terminal:
./mame64 -window -video bgfx -str 60 -noafs -bgfx_screen_chains crt-geom-deluxe -bgfx_backend metal -noreadconfig -nosleep -nothrottle ROMFILENAME
In both instances the current MAME 0.204, with and without Artwork

Game	High Sierra	Mojave
1942 (Revision B)	743.95% / 761.62%	771.05%/767.06%
1943	707.83% / 760.09%.	704.09%/761.15%
3wonders	577.99% / 582.34%	822.15%/604.72%
elevator	588.24% / 587.99%	603.27%/604.03%
gyruss	370.31% / 379.10%	545.74%/590.24%
Inthunt	584.24% / 570.71%	615.52%/592.22%
mslug	605.41% / 610.59%	610.48%/619.22%
offroadc	149.43% / 167.06%	285.55%/284.72%
rtype	676.01% / 631.30%	696.62%/658.33%

I immediately noted the quite significant performance in Gyruss and Offroad Challenge. Which brought me to a long-standing question:

How important is the GPU of your Mac for MAME performance?

41.000 page views later ... the state of MAME on MacOS

I remember January 2016, when I started this Blog. MAME on MacOS was working, but a somewhat limited venture with scarce information being available on the Internet. I started this blog based on my own trial and error attempts. Since then a lot has changed to the better. 44 posts and 41.000 page views later, it's time to have a look at the current state of MAME on Macs.  

The bright side of things:

• The official MAME build shines on Macs, and there is really nothing to complain for the dedicated retrogamer.
• The BGFX Metal shaders now perform as expected, performance is comparable to OpenGL (with Direct 3D/Windows still being the performance king). For setting up BGFX:  https://mameonmacs.blogspot.com/2017/05/mame-0185-from-scratch-via-mewui-update.html and https://mameonmacs.blogspot.com/2016/05/bgfx-in-mame-tweaking-and-in-depth-look.html (needs an update after the October 2018 release) 
• The BGFX shaders are now performing well with artwork/bezels. One of the nicest improvement of this year. Read here: https://mameonmacs.blogspot.com/2018/09/mame-0201-major-achievements-with-bgfx.html
• All my joypads work nicely, but you may need to tweak your MAME settings. I did an update here: https://mameonmacs.blogspot.com/2016/04/using-joysticks-with-mame.html
• You have at least two very decent frontends available: Attract Mode and QMC2. Attract Mode is my current favorite, it builds nicely from source, and the available themes are eye candy. Read this for an introduction: https://mameonmacs.blogspot.com/2017/01/attract-mode-for-mame-under-osx.html While I had good experience with QMC2, I am not in favor of this interface tweaking MAME besides mame.ini - it often causes confusion.

The mixed picture:

• With newer versions of MAME (still have to figure out since when), the CRT-GEOM OpenGL shaders tested here no longer work. So you need to rely on BGFX with similar performance in the CRT-GEOM shader, which is basically no problem.
• Retroarch/MAME would be great, but only old versions work on Macs. The MAME/current core is outdated. MAME 2010 is decent for old school games, but from time to time buggy in my own testing. I am unsure about the stability of the Metal driver of Retroarch, it seems to crash from time to time. Retroarch/MAME under Ubuntu is a by far more stable experience (though it also has its limitations). I am particularly missing the brilliant Runahead feature in MAME/current cores (for Linux as well). So while I am constantly looking into this, current limitations are too many for a good MAME experience. 
• What about OpenEmu? While I really appreciate their Mac approach on emulation, it simply comes with too many limitations in MAME - for a reason the MAME emulation is only experimental in OpenEmu. OpenEmu seems to use version 0.169 of MAME, and if I am not mistaken, this is also where Retroarch/MAME currently stands. Despite the higher learning curve, I would prefer Retroarch over OpenEmu.

What is still true for MAME in overall:

• For best MAME experience, you should not shy away from text editors and config files. You will have a better system if you do your configuration in these files manually. Don't rely on frontends for configuring MAME - but go this way:  https://mameonmacs.blogspot.com/2017/05/mame-0185-from-scratch-via-mewui-update.html
• Shaders and in-game artwork (bezels and backtrops) make a huge difference. Just have a look at the title picture of this Blog, and you'll understand.
• Also have a look at the special realistic artwork bezels that I am building up in this repository. I am still blown away by their quality (mainly created by John Merrit and Orionsangel): https://github.com/estefan3112/MAME-Realistic-Bezel-Artwork

Since MAME lives from the community, may I repeat that any feedback form your side is much appreciated! Apologies for missing out on them from time to time, but I surely read them all.