31 October 2019

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.


17 October 2019

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.

04 October 2019

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