Retro Uprising - View Single Post - This is the Future of RU discussion group.

**Kong** · 04-03-2015, 01:11 PM

I ran into a huge time/energy suck problem that took all of March to fix and looking back I don't think it was worth it. I should have done things differently. I should probably still do things differently.

I did not realize these problems existed until I thought I had nearly finished everything. Before fixing the problems I should have stopped and asked myself why fix them. I was attached to finishing the same way I started and did not realize how much effort that was going to be.

mame = arcade emulator
mess = consoles and computers emulators
ume = combo of mame and mess.

All 3 of those use the exact same code. Make a change to one and it is automatically added to the others.

For now on I will refer to all of those as UME. The official MAME/MESS code is UME.

mameui = mame with a gui
messui = mess with a gui
umeui = ume witha gui

MAMEUI is part of the official UME code. First mistake: I assumed MESSUI and UMEUI were also part of the official UME code. MESSUI source code brakes MAMEUI and UMEUI is outdated, broken and I'm not sure if it ever worked right.

For our purposes the UI part is unimportant. Our average user wont use it. I only added it to my base code because I thought it would be easy and would add some small benefit in a few special situations. I have made a working version of UMEUI. It was totally not worth the effort and is missing one MESS feature but it is working. Huge waste of time.

Also before I realized all of that I chose to use MAMEPPKUI as my base code. MAMEPPK automatically added some features I thought were nice and I thought it was being actively developed. I chose it because I thought it would save me time. That was totally wrong.

First I'm no longer sure it is being actively developed. It is developed by one guy in Japan and is hard to get info on.

Second and bigger problem. MAMEPPKUI completely breaks MESS.

Before I knew that I added all of my work to MAMEPPKUI which means I had to rewrite it for MESS and for the UI part. It took all month to do that. It is done now but I should have started from scratch and worked with the vanilla official UME release.

mameppkui adds the following features.

Netplay through Kaillera - This was the main reason I choose MAMEPPKUI but it is not working smooth enough and I'm going to have to use a different option. Which means my #1 reason for doing this is a dud.
Scale Effects like Super Eagle. Makes games look less pixelated. - Kinda neat. Not a huge deal but cool. It is working but not sure if it will work when porting to MAC, Linux, Android.
Volume balance so all games are roughly the same loudness. - I like this.
Record to compressed AVI. - Not working right now. I haven't messed with it much yet though so might be an easy fix. Might not. Would make creating youtube videos much easier if it works. Might even be able to partially automate youtube uploads from submitted scores.
Currently when you watch score movies the buttons pressed are displayed at bottom of screen. MAMEPPK has a better display for this while playing a game. If I can get it linked to the movie playback it would be nice. Having trouble with that so far though.
Autofire in full mode.
Display time in full screen. Not that big of a deal.
Let's you add comments to specific frames of an INP/movie. Would be cool if anyone uses it but probably wont be used often.
Improved syncing of audio
Hacked arcade games and some arcade games not supported by official mame. Probably wont use any of them.
Display combos in game. Example Press a button and get a pop up that tells you how to make Ryu through a fireball. Pretty cool. Mostly used for fighting games.
Save personal high scores on your computer in full mode. Not very useful since our scores are not based on full mode.

So I went to all of that effort because I thought I was going to use Kaillera and now I am not and while some of that other stuff is cool, it mostly is just bloat that will make future updates more difficult. It will probably be easier and faster to start over with plain UME which means the past couple months were a waste of time. Right now I am going to think about that before doing anything else.

04-03-2015, 01:11 PM	#66
Donor Administrator 12,337 posts View Stats	Kong Re: This is the Future of RU discussion group. I ran into a huge time/energy suck problem that took all of March to fix and looking back I don't think it was worth it. I should have done things differently. I should probably still do things differently. I did not realize these problems existed until I thought I had nearly finished everything. Before fixing the problems I should have stopped and asked myself why fix them. I was attached to finishing the same way I started and did not realize how much effort that was going to be. mame = arcade emulator mess = consoles and computers emulators ume = combo of mame and mess. All 3 of those use the exact same code. Make a change to one and it is automatically added to the others. For now on I will refer to all of those as UME. The official MAME/MESS code is UME. mameui = mame with a gui messui = mess with a gui umeui = ume witha gui MAMEUI is part of the official UME code. First mistake: I assumed MESSUI and UMEUI were also part of the official UME code. MESSUI source code brakes MAMEUI and UMEUI is outdated, broken and I'm not sure if it ever worked right. For our purposes the UI part is unimportant. Our average user wont use it. I only added it to my base code because I thought it would be easy and would add some small benefit in a few special situations. I have made a working version of UMEUI. It was totally not worth the effort and is missing one MESS feature but it is working. Huge waste of time. Also before I realized all of that I chose to use MAMEPPKUI as my base code. MAMEPPK automatically added some features I thought were nice and I thought it was being actively developed. I chose it because I thought it would save me time. That was totally wrong. First I'm no longer sure it is being actively developed. It is developed by one guy in Japan and is hard to get info on. Second and bigger problem. MAMEPPKUI completely breaks MESS. Before I knew that I added all of my work to MAMEPPKUI which means I had to rewrite it for MESS and for the UI part. It took all month to do that. It is done now but I should have started from scratch and worked with the vanilla official UME release. mameppkui adds the following features. Netplay through Kaillera - This was the main reason I choose MAMEPPKUI but it is not working smooth enough and I'm going to have to use a different option. Which means my #1 reason for doing this is a dud. Scale Effects like Super Eagle. Makes games look less pixelated. - Kinda neat. Not a huge deal but cool. It is working but not sure if it will work when porting to MAC, Linux, Android. Volume balance so all games are roughly the same loudness. - I like this. Record to compressed AVI. - Not working right now. I haven't messed with it much yet though so might be an easy fix. Might not. Would make creating youtube videos much easier if it works. Might even be able to partially automate youtube uploads from submitted scores. Currently when you watch score movies the buttons pressed are displayed at bottom of screen. MAMEPPK has a better display for this while playing a game. If I can get it linked to the movie playback it would be nice. Having trouble with that so far though. Autofire in full mode. Display time in full screen. Not that big of a deal. Let's you add comments to specific frames of an INP/movie. Would be cool if anyone uses it but probably wont be used often. Improved syncing of audio Hacked arcade games and some arcade games not supported by official mame. Probably wont use any of them. Display combos in game. Example Press a button and get a pop up that tells you how to make Ryu through a fireball. Pretty cool. Mostly used for fighting games. Save personal high scores on your computer in full mode. Not very useful since our scores are not based on full mode. So I went to all of that effort because I thought I was going to use Kaillera and now I am not and while some of that other stuff is cool, it mostly is just bloat that will make future updates more difficult. It will probably be easier and faster to start over with plain UME which means the past couple months were a waste of time. Right now I am going to think about that before doing anything else.
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