Mame core - rotating vertical games

Libretro Cores
#1

Hello! I’ve been trying to figure this out for a few WEEKS now, and am totally stuck. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Standalone Mame honors a vertical.ini file with contents “rotation 0” to leave vertical games unrotated (that is - displayed sideways). For the life of me, I cannot get libretro:Mame to do the same. I’ve place vertical.ini in $SYSTEMDIR/mame and $SYSTEMDIR/mame/ini

If libretro:Mame does not support this, is it possible to create a controller shortcut in RetroArch to rotate? This is, of course, not ideal, but I’ll take ANY solution at this point…

Thanks all

#2

Have you tried putting them in $SAVESDIR/mame(/ini)? I can never keep straight what goes into system vs saves.

#3

Hi hunterk. Yes, I’ve also tried $SAVEDIR/mame and $SAVEDIR/mame/ini Basically, I’ve tried nearly all mame and cfg and ini folders.

In RetroArch config for the Mame core, the info specifically states $SYSTEMDIR/mame.

#4

did you also mess with the core options? e.g., ‘read configuration’ and/or ‘mame ini path’?

#5

Maybe I’m an idiot, but I don’t see any core options.

In RetroArch -> Settings -> Core, Core Option Categories is ON If I go to Manage Cores and select Arcade (MAME - Current), it just shows me the core details (name, version, author, etc). The only options I see is to Lock Installed Core, Backup Core, Restore Core and Delete Backup.

#6

While the core+content are running, go to quick menu > core options.

#7

Thanks for that tip. So, checking Core Options, Read Configuration is ON. MAME INI Paths and Write Configuration were both OFF, so I set them to ON, then saved RetroArch’s config and rebooted, but issue persists.

Anything else you can think of that I should check? I appreciate your help : )

#8

hmm, dunno. I’m admittedly not an expert on messing with the MAME core’s built-in functionality.

I do know there are some options (mostly video-related) that just straight-up don’t work because the frontend is supposed to handle that functionality. This could be one of them :man_shrugging:

#9

Thank you for all your responses. By chance, do you know if it’s possible to set a controller shortcut to rotate? I can manually rotate through RetroArch’s settings, but that’s cumbersome and being able to set a controller shortcut would be acceptable for me.

#10

no hotkey, no, but once you set it for a game, you can save a per-game config override in quick menu > overrides.

#11

system\mame\ini\vertical.ini is ok

Last time I checked it was working for
ror 1

edit: just tried, it’s still working fine on win10 with vulkan here.

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#12

I just tried system\mame\ini\vertical.ini with “ror 1” and still does not work. I also tried it in system\mame\vertical.ini

Also, I assume RetroArch config -> Settings -> Core -> Allow Rotation should be ON? I’ve tried both and it seems like neither settings really have an effect on MAME rotation.

#13

Mame core honors that file as well.

But if a game already has a .cfg file with different options that you added manually, that .cfg will take priority. Or at least that’s how i remember it working. The .cfg files are stored in saves/mame/cfg. Just delete the ones that create a conflict.

Most .cfg file are created automatically and they are pretty much empty. But if you changed anything in a certain game (like individual game controls or screen options) these changes will be saved there.

You could also delete all game ini files in the ini folder as well (but keep mame.ini).

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#14

Hi GemaH. I never purposely saved any MAME games, so all CFG files are autogenerated. I went ahead and delete all that I could find in all RetroArch’s folders. I also made sure there were no other ini files anywhere, except various vertical.ini files that I’ve places in different folders, not knowing which is the correct location.

However, even doing all this, the issue persists. This truly has been driving me nuts for about 5 weeks now.

Just wanted to point out that I am running Batocera - but I don’t think this is a contributing factor, is it? From all the forums I’ve seeked home on, the consensus is that this is a libretro/RetroArch issue.

Is there any way to toggle logging so that I can determine all the cfg/ini files that are loaded, and the order in which they are loaded?

Lastly, in vertical.ini - should I be using “rotation 0” or “ror 1”? Is there a functional difference between the two?

#15

I thought you pointed out that your files work in the standalone version. So i assumed you used the same ones in Retroarch? Did you test your files/settings in the standalone?

Also i’m not sure if it’s an issue with Batocera. I’m not using it so i don’t know if there are any changes in the behavior.

#16

Yes - vertical.ini works in standalone Mame. I was just curious if there’s a functional difference between “rotate 0” and “ror 1”

I use the same vertical.ini in libretro:Mame and it does not work, regardless of where I put the file (I’ve tried every single Mame folder), nor the contents of the file (I’ve tried “rotation 0” and “ror 1”).

Is there any way to enable verbose logging to see what config files are loaded?

#17

How do you create the vertical.ini? Is there a way to generate it through MAME? I tried one online source and the .ini it made was not a complete set of vertical games. I’m hoping there’s a more reliable way to make one. Thanks for the help.

#18

I’m not sure if the mame core even supports the ini. I personally would separate the roms and use a content directory override.

There will be other benefits soon for having the vertical roms in their own folder.

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Sony Megatron Colour Video Monitor
#19

Thanks, Duimon… yes, I have all my vertical and horizontal roms in the same folder. I can separate them using Launchbox or another tool I found on these forums, but both require a vertical.ini with all the games listed. Is there an easier way to separate them that I don’t know about?

#20

So, I was never able to get vertical.ini to work through Batocera. In regular MAME, it works with no issue, but I’ve tried nearly EVERY folder in conjunction with nearly EVERY setting in Batocera, and could not get it to work.

Not sure if it’s unsupported, or if it’s a bug…