MAME shmups improvements/fixes ideas

[dieKatze88]

Fix transparency display in Konami GX so Gokujyou Parodius, Sexy Parodius, Twinbee Yahoo and Salamander 2 display properly on all stages.

Fix audio on Konami GX so the full audio range of the hardware is actually forwarded to the sound output device.

I'll check the transparency issue, do you know if the bug is on mametesters?

Can you be more specific about the audio range?

The transparency issue I can provide video of. I don't think its on mametesters, but they kinda know about it because its marked "Not perfect" under video (and its obviously the only thing NOT done)

I can't be more specific about the audio issue, just that on every PC I try mame on, real soundcard or not, the audio in Konami GX games sounds like CRAP compared to the actual hardware (I have compared Gokujyou Parodius, Sexy Parodius, Twinbee Yahoo (no longer own it however) and Rushing Heroes)

[sunburstbasser]

I'd like to see work done on Taito's GNet hardware. And improvements to the FX-1 games.

[nimitz]

The transparency issue I can provide video of.

Please do!

I'd like to see work done on Taito's GNet hardware. And improvements to the FX-1 games.

I had completely forgotten about that, all of these Taito PSX based drivers (gnet, FX) are lacking music, adding that to the list. Thanks.

[Jockel]

Another vote for PGM.

[dieKatze88]

The transparency issue I can provide video of.

Please do!

I'd like to see work done on Taito's GNet hardware. And improvements to the FX-1 games.

I had completely forgotten about that, all of these Taito PSX based drivers (gnet, FX) are lacking music, adding that to the list. Thanks.

It will take a few days but I will provide some comparison video between at least Gokujyou Parodius on real hardware to Mame.

[emphatic]

Is it possible to get rid of the graphic glitches that plagues the left side of the screen in Storm Blade a couple of stages in?

[captpain]

although frame skipping doesn't seem to speed up the countdown in any way.

Disabling the 100% speed limiter (should be F10) will make the update process somewhat faster on a computer that can run that section of the emulation fullspeed. It's noticeable on a Core 2 Duo 2.4GHz, for instance. (Note that some games really crawl on the BIOS check sequence, especially if it's complicated, but are much less CPU-intensive in the actual game). I've tried playing around with the frame skipping (skipping the maximum number of frames ought to make things even faster, but I'm not 100% clear on how it works - possibly the speed limiter skips all frames as part of what it does).

Every so often, I get the impression that people don't know about this. I mean, MAMEUI even has a fast-forward key, not just a toggle. With the limiter off, and optional frame-skipping enabled, nobody should ever be sitting through self-test screens or legal warnings. Even on a markedly slow computer, you can get things moving at 1000% speed most of the time.

[clp]

Is it possible to get rid of the graphic glitches that plagues the left side of the screen in Storm Blade a couple of stages in?

This was already fixed in a recentish mame release i cant remember which one though.

[Dave_K.]

Another possible project for your list: fixing the nmk16.c driver, as almost all NMK shmups still have sprite layer priority problems, as well as music inaccuracy.

[trap15]

Sorry to break everyone's hopes, but PGM really has no where left to go.
The only thing that needs to be done is having the internal ARM ROM dumped for them (well, DoDonPachi 2 mostly). That has to be done by whoever has the PCBs (Haze said that he is going to eventually dump some of them, but DDP2 is low on the priority since it's a "horrible game" in his eyes ) In the case of the "Cave" PGM, those will not ever be emulated without an expensive decap because there is literally no way to read the internal ARM ROM on those boards through software.
On the subject of Raiden II, that's still being worked on (well, in a half-assed way...) by austere and I. We have PCBs, but we don't have full "debug setups", if you know what I mean. Once we do get a debug setup, it's just a matter of time before we've cracked Seibu's crazy encryption
I will be trying to fix any issues brought up here in UberMAME, so keep 'em coming

EDIT:

Another possible project for your list: fixing the nmk16.c driver, as almost all NMK shmups still have sprite layer priority problems, as well as music inaccuracy.

Mind saying which, and if possible some video or image of how it should look?

[evil_ash_xero]

Getting rid of the lag in Raizing's games. Batrider, Garegga, and Bakraid specifically.

[Jockel]

Sorry to break everyone's hopes, but PGM really has no where left to go.
The only thing that needs to be done is having the internal ARM ROM dumped for them (well, DoDonPachi 2 mostly). That has to be done by whoever has the PCBs (Haze said that he is going to eventually dump some of them, but DDP2 is low on the priority since it's a "horrible game" in his eyes ) In the case of the "Cave" PGM, those will not ever be emulated without an expensive decap because there is literally no way to read the internal ARM ROM on those boards through software.
On the subject of Raiden II, that's still being worked on (well, in a half-assed way...) by austere and I. We have PCBs, but we don't have full "debug setups", if you know what I mean. Once we do get a debug setup, it's just a matter of time before we've cracked Seibu's crazy encryption
I will be trying to fix any issues brought up here in UberMAME, so keep 'em coming

EDIT:

Another possible project for your list: fixing the nmk16.c driver, as almost all NMK shmups still have sprite layer priority problems, as well as music inaccuracy.

Mind saying which, and if possible some video or image of how it should look?

Sucks to hear that.
I guess i don't even have to ask about SH3?
Any progress on that? Or did nobody work on it since the whole Espgaluda 2 / Ibara / Deathsmiles bitchfest?

[trap15]

Sucks to hear that.
I guess i don't even have to ask about SH3?
Any progress on that? Or did nobody work on it since the whole Espgaluda 2 / Ibara / Deathsmiles bitchfest?

Actually, Cave SH-3 was a plan for austere and I to do eventually. However, mdl brought it to our attention that Cave specifically sent an email to MAMEdev saying that they would take legal action if they were emulated, so we're probably not going to even try. Maybe in a few years

[nimitz]

I'm not even adding SH3 to the list, Luca Elia has made it clear that he wont release anything before 2016 or so.

For those who don't know what I'm talking about : Link

[clp]

Suprised no ones mentioned cyvern yet so aye fixing the backgrounds in cyvern stage 4 and 5?

[lewisit]

It involves getting Thunder MAME 32+ (the 2nd one in that page, don't get UI it's broken)

first of all thanx a lot for making it public that the Toaplan-soundproblem is kinda fixed!

but: what is supposed to be wrong with the "UI-version"? it functions flawlessly (as far as i can tell...) on my PC and includes TV-scanlines, highscore-saving & Ghox [8-Way Joystick] all of which the former versions don't support...

[roker]

-Remove lag from Batrider and Bakraid (by any means)

I would kill for this fix.

btw, is Garegga lagless?

[Jockel]

I think you can play em on RAINE32 pretty much lagless.
I dunno how good shmupmame handles it, though.

[nimitz]

lewisit : Try to play fire shark in the UI version, shouldn't take long and you will see whats wrong.

roker : Yes lagless improves Garegga 1 frame (from 3 to 2), just like garemame does, but garemame has other Garegga specific fixes and should really be the only mame version used for garegga.


Also, Raine does not fix lag for Batrider and Bakraid it may remove slowdown as it does with pretty much every driver it has, but that's a bad thing and doesn't improve input lag for those at all

[Jockel]

Really? My bad.

[trap15]

Suprised no ones mentioned cyvern yet so aye fixing the backgrounds in cyvern stage 4 and 5?

Might have to fix this sooner than I was going to now

[ZOM]

Another vote for Cyvern's BGs and IIRC there still some sprite priority glitches left.

[sunburstbasser]

EDIT:

Another possible project for your list: fixing the nmk16.c driver, as almost all NMK shmups still have sprite layer priority problems, as well as music inaccuracy.

Mind saying which, and if possible some video or image of how it should look?

No video, but in Rapid Hero (notably stage 3) powerups fly underneath the giant battleship in the background, but are still collectible. In stage 2, a midboss flies in underneath a cloud layer but the sprite will overlap with the player.

[dieKatze88]

Transparency in Konami GX to my surprise seems to be working now.

[nimitz]

Transparency in Konami GX to my surprise seems to be working now.

Good to hear.

As for rapid hero, that's part of the nmk16 driver problems. Thanks for the specifics though, it will help for testing.

[Domino]

Downloading ThunderMAME right now to see how well the Toaplan fixes are.

Add in nmk16 drivers to be fixed. Rapid Hero sound is wrong and of course sprite priorities are all messed up.

[Domino]

Trying Dogyuun and comparing it to the PCB that I had awhile back this is very good. The volume for the SE might be a little high but shit it plays great!

Recommended.

[emphatic]

There's been some development in the latest MAME build that could be integrated into ShmupMAME:

- 03858: [Graphics] batsugun, batsuguna, batsugunsp, dogyuun: tiles/
tiles and tiles/sprites priorities problems (David Haywood)

[nimitz]

Yep, there's still a bit of cleanup to do though, Haze will be done in the next version (probably) and you can expect a mame build with sound on batsugun "soon" too. This is the only toaplan game which doesn't require decapping for fixed sound and the V30 core is being worked on by other devs right now.

[emphatic]

Would it be possible to get Heavy Unit playable?