PROMETHEUS wrote:I'm always very sensitive with things like input lag, and the difference between my PC setup and a cab with PCB in it I can't even feel at all (I can feel the difference between 1 and 2 frames of input lag). I've heard this sprite buffer stuff before, but how much lag are you talking about ? Have you tested it ? Can you make a demonstrable comparison of PCB/MAME/Console Port ? From my own experience, I can bet that if increased input lag there is on PC, it is so small that you can pretty much call it insignificant.
Depending on your setup, PC hardware/emulation will add a latency of
at least 1 frame. There is virtually no way to remove that single frame. Sprite buffers (almost) always add 1 frame as well; sometimes games will add more frames of delay, but those are built into the game and are on the PCB as well. Unfortunately, I have no possible way to do a demonstration of the input delays on PCB/MAME/port, but if I did, I'm betting that my analysis is fairly accurate.
PROMETHEUS wrote:Again, console ports have many "inaccuracies", be it with sound, graphics, or even gameplay mechanics and speed. Do we need to compare ports with MAME on those grounds again ? Do you not realize how much more speed inaccurracy affect playing the game than the most minor graphics glitch that every other guy even notices ?
(That said, I think many ports are good enough, the inaccuracies are minor enough. Which is why it is completely laughable in my view to call MAME inaccurate)
For what it's worth, that speed inaccuracy also comes up if you play MAME with VSync on. If you remove that inaccuracy, you get screen tearing. You have to choose the lesser evil. Obviously for a console port, screen tearing is something you just don't want to happen, so they opt for turning on VSync. The only way to avoid screen tearing AND have the same speed, is to be able to set your monitor's vertical refresh to the game's original refresh rate, which happens to typically be quite difficult. MAME tends to be inaccurate often times. Many of the CPU cores don't count cycles properly or wait-states are not emulated (most importantly, the 68000 core that's used by more than half the games that MAME runs; this issue is particularly obvious in almost every CPS1/CPS2 game), and the sound emulation is pretty mediocre (MAME .99 [base of SM3.0b] was
much much worse in this regard, and was downright awful for many sound chips).
PROMETHEUS wrote:Many of us are here because we fired up MAME as kids and discovered all those games. Some of them we loosely remembered having played in the long-dead game centers. I would never have been able to come back to them and develop such a strong interest if it wasn't for MAME. A huge number of people (who don't necessarily post on forums) know shmups and arcade games from MAME and play regularly thanks to it.
This point applies to original MAME, not ShmupMAME. So your original point there is still moot.
PROMETHEUS wrote:Because it is the fruit of voluntary work, produced and distributed for free, allowing us to play the games with additionnal functionnalities that seem indispensable although we never had them before, in nearly perfect conditions that ridicule professional ports, on any PC with any controller. It is proof that the industry only makes the shit that makes them money, whereas passionate people create to make the best thing, for free.
Again, a point about MAME, not ShmupMAME.