Christmas 2019 - Updating MAME Bezels - 4k Bezels by ArsInvictus

As a small Christmas present, I have started updating my Github repo consisting mainly of John Merrit's fabulous bezels:

https://github.com/estefan3112/MAME-Realistic-Bezel-Artwork

Main priority is to smoothen down the corners, one of the bigger flaws of these bezels. Just have a look at all bezels until (including) frogger, they look significantly better.

Everything else is explained here:

https://mameonmacs.blogspot.com/2017/02/porting-retropie-artwork-to-official.html

Finally, do not miss out on these incredible new 4k bezels by ArsInvictus:

https://forums.libretro.com/t/new-4k-bezel-overlays/25247/73

On his Dropbox link, you will also find a dedicated MAME directory that already includes the .lay files. With his kind permission, I will include some of his bezels with those of John Merrit because they often match perfectly.

Enjoy and Merry Christmas!

MAME in Retroarch 1.8.1 - Mac and iOS (WIP)

Work-In-Progress: collection of my experience in using Retroarch on Macs and on my iPad for quite some time, i.e. approx. 2 years; during that time it made tremendous improvements and added a lot of interesting cores

Disclaimer first: Retroarch (at least on Macs and iOS devices) is very fluid and sometimes experimental. Crashes occur. For a stable MAME experience, I still recommend official MAME as the main focus of this Blog.

Valid reasons for trying out MAME in Retroarch:

• Retroarch GUI (RGUI): if you get used to this joypad-centric kind of configuration, it is very useful; during a running game, you switch to RGUI, change config and see results (this is a very disputed topic, and Retroarch opponents will call RGUI as the main problem, but for me, after quite some time, it is a very good way to test stuff) 
• Abundance of configuration options: again, many hat this, but these various config options show how much innovation happens in Retroarch; and they are worth testing
• Joypad support: great to fine tune - you will spend a lot of time here!
• Shader options: you can configure a lot of shader options if you are really into it
• Latency options: are quite interesting for the very competitive gamer
• Cross-core UI: if you run other cores, e.g. for consoles, you gain experience and can use this for MAME as well
• No bezel artwork: if you do not care about MAME artwork
• Because it's fun testing: just for learning Retroarch, I just enjoy experimenting with all these possible configuration possibilities

Mac vs Retroarch iOS

MAME 0.215 - clear BGFX Performance Improvements (WIP)

Yesterday MAME 0.215 came out, and the Changelog also refers to changes in the BGFX shader. While the main change, the implementation of a Vulcan shader, is entirely unrelated to MacOS, my initial performance tests with the usual candidates show massive performance improvements.

System: MacOS Mojave 10.14.6
MAME: official build 0.215 (http://sdlmame.lngn.net/)
Terminal command: ./mame64 -window -video bgfx -str 60 -noafs -bgfx_screen_chains crt-geom-deluxe -bgfx_backend metal -noreadconfig -nosleep -nothrottle (ROMFILENAME

Example 1942 (Revision B): 765.06% in MAME 0.201, 907,94% in MAME 0.215

Details to follow, I hope.

Attract Mode 2.6.0

Two days ago, Attract Mode 2.6.0 has been released, and you can currently grab the Mac dmg only here on the Github website:
https://github.com/mickelson/attract/releases
According to the changelog, this is an interim release that improves stability of the software. This is always welcome and worth a post. It's a great piece of software.

The State of MAME in October 2019

No post for a very long time - because basically everything works on my Mac as it should be. Here is the current state of MAME in October 2019 (updated 10 October 2019 once again).

Core: MAME Mac Binary

First and foremost: MAME, currently v.214, is rock stable in MacOS Mojave. Everything that I wrote in this Blog still applies:

- MAME installation from scratch
- What I said about MAME in November 2018 and further links inside this post

The developers keep staying extremely busy and the system just further evolves. Enhancements in my favourite Arcade games stay moderate, but they are all nearly perfect anyway. Game & Watch enhancements deserve to be mentioned, they all become more and more real eye candies - it is nice to remember these first handheld times.

A fast photo of a Game&Watch game, please excuse the moire.

Frontend:Attract Mode

The same applies to Attract Mode, my favorite MAME frontend on Macs. Version 2.5.1 is nearly one year old, but still rocks. The more adventurous can compile a version with the latest minor tweaks - I explained in my Blog how this works:

- Attract Mode - how to compile
- Attract Mode HowTo, part 1
- Attract Mode HowTo, part 2

Another very stable software for your Mac.

Attract Mode/Cosmo Arcade Display on my Mac - you cannot ask for more

Shaders: BGFX/Metal/CRT-GEOM-DELUXE

BGFX in MAME - Tweaking and In-Depth Look (plus a video) - Update January 2019

BGFX really rocks and after some MAME Updates, it became my standard shader.

Update January 2019: MAME 206 corrects the HLSL shader, so the purple screen is gone.
The 'Scale' values as described below are now in lines 186 and 191. Now I need to head for the new phosphor settings and update the below table for HLSL settings (I still do not like the default settings that much). Below you find the updated table of my current HLSL settings plus the Scale values for the lines 186 and 191.

Update December 2018: Since the October 2018 release, the HLSL shader has been updated by phosphor settings. As a result, BGFX/HLSL produces a purple picture, at least on my Mac in both MacOS and Linux - is this an SDL MAME problem? I am still investigating into that, and for the time being, I stay with BGFX/CRT-GEOM-Deluxe, which still provides very decent results.

HLSL under Windows (Bootcamp)

HLSL under MacOS and Ubuntu

Since both MacOS and Ubuntu is affected, this could point to an SLD problem.