MAMEWorld Forums - The Loony Bin - Re: I may get flamed for this, but this IS the loony bin so... (Retroarch Bounty)

> > it fills a void by taking every ugly shortcut possible, doing everything in the
> worst
> > possible way, overselling features that actually have as much as a negative affect
> on
> > the scene as anything else (at this point due to their 'run ahead' crap absolutely
> > zero emulation records can be considered legitimate anymore as it's literally built
> > in undetectable cheating)
> >
> > it's just a horrible, horrible project, it's the heroin of emulation or something
> > like that.
> >
> > competing with it would mean sinking to the same lows.
>
> Most people don't care about that stuff unless its someone like you who is actively
> involved in a preservation-focused project or a Gamophile that obsesses over every
> possible detail. If it loads the game and its accurate on the surface, then its GTG.
> I've never met a single person that messes with emulators (locally) that cares. This
> goes against what you're trying to achieve, but as with pirates vs the music
> industry, those people were never customers. People using RA were never going to do
> anything to forward MAME's goals.
>
> As you know, the draw with Run Ahead latency reduction is to help make up for the
> shit lag associated with modern TVs and whatever the emu adds. I use it on some
> console games. Its not a perfect solution and its not the most convenient to use as
> its per-game, but its a workable solution until something better comes along. I'm
> already reading about the beam racing method being looked into on their forums. For
> now, I'm happy that options are available.
>
> My RA usage is for console alongside Launchbox. Vanilla MAME gets used for Arcade
> stuff primarily. MAME's big disadvantage is its performance on low end SBCs like the
> Pi. No one can really use it on those devices unless its a hack of an older build.
> Unfortunate but unavoidable.
>
> As for Hi score records...I just don't care. I get that some do though. Maybe some
> sort of custom binary w/accompanying Hash values to prove authenticity?
>
> Not taking sides or defending one project over the other. Just offering my opinion as
> a lowly user.

If people wanted lag reduction for arcade games they could have used GroovyMAME since, what, 2013? even before? I don't remember. Can't cheat with it, as it's not designed to defeat the emulated hardwares natural lag, only that which comes after the core emulation which is essentially the video/sync and input lag.
And decent nearly or completely lagless flat panel TVs and monitors that don't break the bank have also been available without much effort since around that time.
I think lots of people use run-ahead to almost completely eliminate lag regardless of that of the hardware they play emulated 'just because they can' thanks to that feature, not because they care about realistic emulation.

Aside from that questionable 'too much', careless side of run-ahead, I think RA attracts people because of the multi-emulators aspect, but also a lot because of the great shaders, some of the convenience features, and maybe also the fancy UI.
Nothing of that in RA would be bad per-se if it wasn't going too far and messy in places. Though IMHO the opposite (too rigid, complicated and austere) is also bad because it's a stinker for the user.
Best world would be 'as much optimization and convenience as possible as long as it doesnt break emulation and respects peoples work', but today it's more like opposing parties each radicalizing on their own ideologies.

I think ultimately MAME will be almost everything people wish for and more, maybe by itself, maybe with the help of a much polished dedicated external FE.
But since MAME's busy being much, MUCH more than just a frontend with features, takes no detours and is very strict, also now does a lot of obscure niche machines emulation for expanded preservation, it all naturally takes a lot of time, during which it's beaten in popularity by opportunist things like RA that are not nearly as busy, don't care about doing it dirty and speak only to retro arcade & console games fans who are the considerably bigger demographics. Easy.

Easy, yet that pocket money bounty shows a pathetic side of their project. Did MAME ever buy development?

> MAME isn't about playing the games anyway.