I’m trying to get a decent 3s experience on PC, and doing a side by side comparison of ShmupMAME and PCSX2, it’s clear that PCSX2 has more visual lag, and ShmupMAME has more audio lag. All settings like vsync and Windows Aero are turned off, so it’s a fair contest. Thing is, at the time of ShmupMAME’s last update, MAME was known to have input lag with arcade sticks (no raw input), and it also doesn’t have a low audio latency API like PCSX2. I don’t know how good PCSX2’s input driver is, but at least I can set audio to 20ms with WASAPI exclusive mode, which is probably why it sounds quicker. Also there’s the issue of game speed. ShmupMAME’s dialog boxes claim the correct refresh rate and fps for the game, so it should be better in that regard.
Is there a way to combine the best of both worlds? Perhaps a branch of MAME or add-ons that allow raw input for joysticks, and more fine-grained audio latency adjustment (maybe WASAPI or ASIO)? I saw something like the latter for the official branch of MAME, but nothing for ShmupMAME.
Thanks. The last time I looked at Groovymame I was put off by how everyone using it was always talking about Windows XP and a ridiculously old driver version, and CRT monitors and all that shit and how your experience would be so much worse with a modern OS. I did dig around for a while back then, and it was my first choice over Shmupmame, but it also seemed like a difficult process to get it working, like stuff about monitor kHz and things like that? In the end I decided to wait until it became more user-friendly.
I was in fact thinking of Groovymame when I posted but wasn’t sure whether they’d added the things I wanted yet, or whether there was even a decent UI for it yet. If it’s as good or better than Shmupmame even for newer OSes and monitors though, I’ll gladly give it a go.
Groovymame does require xp if you want a custom refresh rate, which 3s has. I think you lose any advantages Groovymame has over other mames if you have a new os and non-crt monitor.
I thought I read that you still get some benefits like less input lag. Plus it still has black frame insertion, and what appears to be a user-made ASIO version of GM as well.