Update MAME 0.217 - Low Latency (WIP) and 60.000 views :-)

Update 15 Jan 2020: Performance tests with nine of my reference games indicate no performance losses when activating Low Latency

In the terminal, cd into the mame folder and run:

./mame64 -video bgfx -str 60 -noafs -bgfx_screen_chains crt-geom -bgfx_backend metal -noreadconfig -nosleep -nothrottle -lowlatency [game]

./mame64 -video bgfx -str 60 -noafs -bgfx_screen_chains crt-geom -bgfx_backend metal -noreadconfig -nosleep -nothrottle -lowlatency [game]

The test results are either identical or even in favor of low latency. MAME 0.217 is also a hot performer, so the BGFX shaders now really perform flawlessly. I could not be happier with current MAME performance-wise.

Update: With MAME 0.217, you can configure Low Latency within MAMEUI! I explained here how to properly access MAMEUI.

Thanks to a visitor of this blog (hi, Borsuk 😊), I became aware of a new MAME option that introduces a mode with lower input latency. 

As so often with MAME, info is rather scarce, both the Github commit and the MAME documentation explain the minimum:
https://github.com/mamedev/mame/commit/eab5bcac0029e4e298e1f194133c21580098508d
https://docs.mamedev.org/commandline/commandline-all.html (search for "lowlatency")

Things to consider:

• In running systems, you need to add the option to your existing mame.ini (and of course also in any game-specific inis).
• Currently the default is 'off' because of the potential side effects in some systems.
• First check whether your mame version is capable. Then you can look into your current configuration. In the terminal, within the mame directory, execute: 
• ./mame64 -showusage - under the header "CORE PERFOMRMANCE OPTIONS" you should find the following entry: 
  -lowlatency          draws new frame before throttling to reduce input latency
• then ./mame64 -showconfig - under the header "CORE PERFORMANCE OPTIONS" you should find: 
  lowlatency                1
• 1 for on or 0 for off. If not, you have to add it in your mame.ini

So is it worth the hassle? I am undecided right now. Further testing is needed.

And this blog reached 60.000 views since I started back in 2016. Thank you for all of you that are still into reading old-fashioned Blog entries. While I see the advantages of YouTube instructions in some cases, I still prefer sharing know-how as text - particularly because I try to update my posts if it makes sense and put them to a later date in this blog.