Reasoning for MAME not having proper autofire

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dilshfon
Posts: 1
Joined: Sat May 25, 2019 5:51 am

Re: Reasoning for MAME not having proper autofire

Post by dilshfon »

So, I registered my account looking for some information on inaccuracies by the Steam ports of some cave shooters.
I stumbled upon this thread and read from page one.

I don't know if Haze still browses this forum after all that undeserved personal attacks, but at around page 3, as a programmer I considered developing a lua plugin to replicate some of very needed autofire settings shown in many Japanese arcades. It seems someone has already done so, so I'll skip that.

Before this thread, I've always disliked MAME devs for generalizing the user base to be toxic.
I've always appreciated the devs because unlike some of the emulator projects, MAME truly stands for perfect accuracy, and have stayed open source with no commercial agendas.
But as many other MAME users, we don't just visit every release thread of MAME updates and say thanks. Most of popular Japanese and Korean streamers who extensively use MAME don't even care. More than half of them use a decade old version and just loves MAME and don't complain at all. Some English-speaking streamers and viewers (especially shmups) do tend to insult MAME for input lags, but I have never seen one insulting the devs.
There are many of us who really do care and appreciate the project. I think MAME devs sometimes miss that.

To be very fair, MAME does have input lags aside from ones created by slower displays (especially even more so now that users are moving away from TN for IPS or VA), WDM mess and a frame of delay due to emulation. However, every time there's a genuine, non-rude comments to discuss this topic, one or two developers would always disregard them with some comments (Reddit) and even some white knights shrugging it off with "I don't feel any input lag".
Seeing all that, and constant regressions from updates, using so much resources on non-arcade stuff made me really not like MAME devs.
I remember reading someone saying, "arcade drivers are pretty much as good as they can be, and there hasn't been any improvements because there is no one can". I strongly disagree with that. Most things I saw them fixed are usually due to some regressions just overlooked or never tested, or some forgotten (Batman Forever is still broken and have been confirmed IIRC).
I just wished the devs would care a little more about the arcade side of things as that is what MAME is used for mostly, and it is the most dominating emulator all arcade lovers who can't own hundreds of cabinets and PCBs use.

Reading this thread and especially Haze's responses, I'm glad to say I no longer have that feeling towards the devs.
Just like how my dislike was misplaced, I do hope that the devs realize it one day and return to the arcade scene.

I appreciate Haze for still trying to explain things despite rude remarks by some users, but I also appreciate some shmup fans being very vocal about issues MAME does have. Most of the times, especially on MAME update threads, despite all the problems MAME is having, there's no talks about it at all.
I understand that passionate players who love so much about the games MAME devs are trying to preserve feel very frustrated, so much that they channeled that into personal attacks, but I hope they also learn to be less rude.

I'm glad there is some on-going (probably not as extensive as I hoped) experimental attempts to remove input lag.
I read about it earlier this year, I believe, and all I heard was "we're leaving up to GroovyMAME to do this in the mean time". Was there any updates or progress?
I would be most grateful if anyone could link where I can read more about it.
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