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.
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| A fast photo of a Game&Watch game, please excuse the moire. |
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.
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| Attract Mode/Cosmo Arcade Display on my Mac - you cannot ask for more |
Shaders: BGFX/Metal/CRT-GEOM-DELUXE
What about shaders? I still favour CRT-GEOM-DELUXE in its Metal incarnation. As for HLSL (Metal), look again into my Blog to find some recommendations for enhancements. Either of the two provide an indispensable enhancement of your gaming experience.
Work in pogress: CRT-GEOM-DELUXE allows for screen flipping, as shown in the below screenshot. This might be a very nice thing to explore, since it adds tons of further realism, remember, you never played on a vertical screen!
Overlays: Tons of stuff to explore, realistic overlays rule
What about shaders? I still favour CRT-GEOM-DELUXE in its Metal incarnation. As for HLSL (Metal), look again into my Blog to find some recommendations for enhancements. Either of the two provide an indispensable enhancement of your gaming experience.
Work in pogress: CRT-GEOM-DELUXE allows for screen flipping, as shown in the below screenshot. This might be a very nice thing to explore, since it adds tons of further realism, remember, you never played on a vertical screen!
Overlays: Tons of stuff to explore, realistic overlays rule
Then overlays, which are so crucial for a gaming experience. I must mention the incredible work of Orions Angel - look into his YouTube channel, he does amazing things and is still not tired of providing new stuff. The newest thing he is experimenting on are screens that are tilted backwards, and the visual effect seems stunning.
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| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_uP234hgtpE&t=55s - tilted screen, what a great idea! |
You will find a lot on overlays in this Blog as well, including my own repository on Github. I must admit that work stalled a bit, but it is not dead:
https://mameonmacs.blogspot.com/2017/02/porting-retropie-artwork-to-official.html
iOS MAME: the next cool thing
https://mameonmacs.blogspot.com/2017/02/porting-retropie-artwork-to-official.html
iOS MAME: the next cool thing
Finally, welcome a new kid on the block: Retroarch/MAME on my iPad! Here iPadOS 13 makes a huge difference - I can finally play MAME - to be precise FinalBurn Neo - on my iPad via PS4 controller/Bluetooth! Of course no Jailbreak. Since Apple has decided to open iOS/iPadOS for third-party Bluetooth controllers, things suddenly become very interesting to play on my iPad! Just to rotate the iPad during play is awesome. Please expect a post on this exiting new development - but always expect more complications under iPadOS, so you always need to have to be ready for experiments and a lot of tweaking.
But just as on the iPad, RetroArch remains very fluid, and from release to release I encounter different small problems. This is also true for Retroarch on my Mac. But still it is always a lot of fun to look into this vibrant development, and the Apple environment is reasonably well supported.
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| iPad and PS4 controller - a very nice couple! |
Since all is so nice here, let's just game on and have fun. With style - see below ;-)
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteHi Estefan,
ReplyDeleteThank you for keep updating, I don't have my Hackintosh anymore I bought one AMD 3900x (amazing CPU), now I using only Linux (Arch) but your tips is still useful.
Thanks!
Most welcome!
DeleteHi Borsuk, many thanks for your kind words. May I reply here very briefly:
ReplyDeleteCRT Royale, with all its variants, are available in Retroarch only. Royale is known for being extremely resource intensive, yo you will see whether your system is able to cope with that shader, even in 4K. My 2013 iMac already has some troubles with CRT Royale when it comes to full speed. Oddly enough, you find the Kurozumi shader not in the "CRT" directory, but in the "Presets" directory.
If you want to look for more saturation, then you could look into the following shaders in Retroarch:
crt-yo06....... (crt directory) - I quite like them, but they are also very resource intensive
hqx2x (hqx directory) - gives everyting a comic-like style, you might like it
xbr (all variants) - similar to hqx
As for normal MAME, you may try out the different BGFX shaders easily, as soon as BGFX is running: In a running game, press TAB and head for "Slider Controls", there you find the currently running shader under Window 0 Screen 0 Effect. It is hard for me to recommend another shader from the available ones, maybe one of the XBR variants suit you on your big screen better.
Will consider another blog entry on shaders, but Retroarch is still not ready for prime time, in my opinion, when it comes to MAME...
Good luck, and if I can help further, just drop another note.
Many thanks. I will definitely have a shader posting as suggested by you. Good inspiration, also the links, which I have to consider. When it comes to BGFX, Macs do not provide any other option, so nothing to consider except for BGFX.
ReplyDeleteOnly one question: If you refer to "lag", I would assume that you mean 2-3 frames less performance, right? Because I do not experience any lag, in the sense that the screen or the controls would lag...
Another fast recommendation for Retroarch: CRT-EASYMODE is a n impressive piece of a shader because it looks nice, but has rather little performance requirements.
Best, Stefan
Many thanks again, Borsuk, it is very good to have all this information.
ReplyDeleteTwo brief remarks:
1- Input lag: I believe that a two frames lag (if existent at all) on a 60 fps monitor is far beyond my sensual capabilities. I tend to see that as 'excessive', like some other users point out. See also my post of today, BGFX seems to undergo a singificant performance increase right now, which has nothing to do with lag, but maybe something changed there as well.
2-CRT-GEOM-DELUXE settings: Frankly I do not know a lot. Everything in this blog on shaders is trial and error by canging the Slider Controls during the game. In particular if you refer to the shadow mask, I just switched between different shadow masks in game to find out the I like the original best. Probably I am just used to it.
And as a side note, things become even more complicated in Retroarch, where all these incredible amounts of shaders wait to be tested (only in their default configuration). You might end up in configuring, but no longer playing, all day long.
But that sounds too negative, I will share any new ideas here, and all your input is much appreciated!
best, Stefan
Well, as so often after reconsideration, I have to correct: MAME indeed can have a substantial input lag issue. Especially if you turn on Bezels and waitvsync. Also something to consider, very tough choices...
ReplyDelete