Video distortion, can't seem to fix

RetroArch General
#1

Hi all,

Thank you for looking at my request/issue. As of late I’ve noticed something strange in RetroArch which I can’t seem to be able to fix. I usually play MAME games and it seems the video on all the games is distorded. It seems the aspect ratio is not being adhere to. If I start the game in the actual MAME emulator, the aspect ratio is correct for every game. This was working it seems a few months back, but now I can’t seem to figure out the reason behind this particular issue. Does anyone have an idea of what may be happening?

Also this is happening on 3 different systems.

An Nvidia Shield TV A Windows 10 machine A Nexus 6P

Here is a link to what it looks like in RetroArch:

https://imgur.com/doT6xXj

Here is the same game in an emulator with the right aspect ratio:

https://imgur.com/OesWvW1

Thanks for the help in advance.

Jamdev12

#2

Yeah, the latest MAME libretro core has some video issues. We recommend sticking with an older snapshot (e.g., MAME2014).

If you need the latest version for some reason, you’ll have to use the ‘alternate renderer’, which works fine but does weird things to shaders.

#3

Last good one for win x64, that’s Mame 170:

https://mega.nz/#!FlU20RTK!yD-giErYYRDfj3eDfLga8Q549nFtLIproH34CxgqYdo

#4

[QUOTE=Tatsuya79;45035]Last good one for win x64, that’s Mame 170:

https://mega.nz/#!FlU20RTK!yD-giErYYRDfj3eDfLga8Q549nFtLIproH34CxgqYdo[/QUOTE]

Thanks Tatsuya79 for that. I’ll definitely try this.

#5

Hi hunterk,

Thanks for the reply. I have a few questions, if you would indulge me.

  1. What is the ‘alternate renderer’ and how do I activate it on an Android device? I have Google this term with RetroArch and come up with no conclusive results that are helpful.

  2. Is there a bug raised against this to fix in a future release, or is this permanent?

  3. How would I be able to obtain a previous version of a core for an Android system when only the latest version is available?

Thanks again for the reply and hope you can answer these questions.

Jamdev12

#6

After a little searching and going through configs, I found what you meant in terms of ‘alternate renderer’ on my first question. For those who may not know, under your installation directory there will be a couple of config files. One of them is called the ‘retroarch-core-options.cfg’. In this file you will find a setting called ‘mame_alternate_renderer’ and it is set to disabled. Just set it to enabled, save it and start RetroArch. Now the application will render MAME games better. What you will notice though is that this seems to be a very beta setting as it slowed my phone and shield considerably and it is more pixelated than normal. Hope this helps anyone out there having the same issue.

Hopefully you can answer the other 2 questions.

Thanks, jamdev12

#7

  1. it’s a result of some upstream changes that affect how MAME is libretro-ized. It’s probably fairly permanent unless/until we do some major surgery on the port. Nobody has the will to do so right now.

  2. You can go back to previous code in github and compile the older snapshot. We keep moving, so if something works for you currently, don’t update for no good reason.

#8

Hi Hunterk,

Thanks for taking the time and answering my questions. Yeah that was a big mistake for me in number 3. Wish I would have known, but now I know. I’ll have to see how I’ll be able to compile the previous version of libretro MAME core on ARM. Not as easy as in Windows or Linux for that matter.

Thanks again for the help. At least what I’ve been able to do is put the settings to enable ‘alternate renderer’, set my buttons up for my controller and save it, then disable it, so that the game plays at normal speed.

Jamdev12