MAME oX work continues!

[zero5]

xport working on memox vm !

[zero5]

Xport comments

 

I don't usually latch on to existing projects, but instead of making yet another MAME port, I thought it would make more sense to give a jump-start to an existing one.

 

For this reason, I've implemented virtual memory into MAMEoX - here are some examples of what's working now:

[Prican25]

From xbox-scene.com

Xport: I don't usually latch on to existing projects, but instead of making yet another MAME port, I thought it would make more sense to give a jump-start to an existing one.

 

For this reason, I've implemented virtual memory into MAMEoX 

 

They all run well with at worst just an occasional hiccup.

 

I also don't usually make "announcement" posts. I'll just release something when it's done without any warning. However, I need some information from the user community and if I just asked the questions, I'm sure it would not be much of a mystery as to what I was doing.

 

So, what I need to get is a list of all the games that work in the Windows/DOS version of MAME 0.79 but do not work in MAMEoX 0.79. Most of these are probably the ones that required too much memory, but there are some others that just crashed regardless of how much memory was present (e.g. Tengai).

 

Yes, I plan on merging in the 0.84 core and yes I'm probably going to look at the lightgun code.

 

i suggest you go to the site's forum to view some pics he has posted to see what he has working. Xport is the same guy that gave us the lovely xboy advance, neogenesis emus and many more.

 

this is some great news (don't need to bother with the memory upgrade now )

 

sorry zero, i didn't see yours so i merged it with mine hehe

Edited July 19, 2004 by Prican25

[sammaz]

WOW...after shitting my pants i made a post on xbscene....this is gonna be great...we have to give him as much feedback on roms that need vmm as possible so we can get him to do them all at once or he will get bored and retire

[Prican25]

well the way it sounds like is that hes adding vm to the games that need it so that might be a prob for banned games (not 100% sure if thats what hes doing)

 

also he mentioned this:

re: constant maintenance - No, I'm not planning to do anything more than what I noted. Perhaps the original authors will find time again to continue with the merges. (Although from what I hear, their lives are quite busy at the moment.)

[Mr.X]

well the way it sounds like is that hes adding vm to the games that need it so that might be a prob for banned games (not 100% sure if thats what hes doing)

 

also he mentioned this:

re: constant maintenance - No, I'm not planning to do anything more than what I noted. Perhaps the original authors will find time again to continue with the merges. (Although from what I hear, their lives are quite busy at the moment.)

We needn't again the banned games, there 'R already 2 other emus.

 

All, we need 'R the former games like Street Fighter 1, PoW, & games as well as the banned games like Daraku Tenshi or Dragoon Might.

[N3oGhost]

I think a lot of people were waiting for the "All-in-one" emu. This is partly the reason for many people going to FBAX from kawax as it became a more efficient/convenient emulator (not talking about any technical advantages/disadvantages).

 

MameOX has the potential to be that emulator and I for one would like it to be an all-in-one emu for me.

[sammaz]

well all we can do to helpl is go post on xbscene and compile a list for him and get it to him ASAP!!!!!!

 

he wont be working on it for long.....

[Prican25]

new post by xport

Thank you all for the compliments.

 

I do like this DB and I recommend using it :

 

http://www.digitalhosting.ca/mamedb/

 

We seem to be straying from the point of the thread, however. The purpose of this thread is to extract information from the user community about what games currently give out-of-memory errors (or just crash) in MAMEoX 0.79.

 

I'm not changing the UI. I'm not taking ownership of the project. I'm not entertaining feature requests at this time.

 

Each problematic game has to be defined to use virtual memory if it needs it. If it's not on the list, then it's not going to be supported.

 

Also, please do refrain from asking for some performance-boosting miracle to occur. If the game runs in MAMEoX, but it doesn't run well, then that's just the way things go. I'm only currently interested in getting games running accurately. I may look into speed optimizations in the future, but definitely not now.

that site is basic listing all games for mame 79 and needs our help in telling it what is working and what isn't (out of memory error).

[Prican25]

2 new posts by xport worth to post:

There seems to be a misconception about virtual memory and how/why it's used.

 

First, if at all possible, you never want to use virtual memory. It should be avoided using any means necessary. Virtual memory is just that : virtual. The information has to be stored somewhere else than real, physical memory. In this case, as is the case with practically every other app, the information gets stored on the hard drive. Reading/writing to/from physical memory is a lot faster than reading/writing to/from the hard drive.

 

Virtual memory does not add physical memory to your XBox. It does not make games run faster. Quite the contrary, it makes them run slower. Most of the ones I've worked on (noted by the screenshots) work with barely a hiccup in performance, but they can take quite a while to load. The benefit is that you can actually play games that you could not before.

 

So, to sum up :

 

- Virtual memory is bad - use it only if you have to

- Virtual memory is hard drive space ; it is not physical memory

- Virtual memory does not make games run faster

- Virtual memory makes games run slower

 

The sole purpose of virtual memory is to allow games that give "out of memory" errors to load successfully.

 

Unless they've been keeping a list with such information as they've been adding/updating drivers (which is extremely unlikely) then they're not going to know. The only way they would be able to find out is by loading up the game and noting how much memory it's allocating. They may have general ideas of how much each driver wants, but that would only be for a small subset and would not be accurate enough.

 

The VMM settings are stored in a plain text file which can be updated and re-distributed so as to avoid downloading a new, recompiled binary.

 

Furthermore, end-users will be able to manually force VMM settings for games that are not supported OOTB. If you come across a game that did not make the initial cut, you can fiddle with the options until it loads and then add the information to the text file.

 

I'm asking people to report OOM games because I'm offering to setup as many as possible before the new release. If people don't want to take the time to note them, then they'll have to fiddle with them themselves instead of having something that "just works".

 

Also note, however, that if too many people just blindly add games to the database as "out of memory" without actually checking them, then I may become frustrated and just stop adding game settings to the VMM file. So think and test carefully before you decide something like, "I really want this game to work - I'll just add it to the list, willy-nilly."