Page 1 of Vector games.... Vector shader? WTF???

Hello Robee,

I allready wrote to you on mameworld and looked at your robeej website but didnt find a e-mail. So i decided to register here, just to reach you.

I am interested in your vector shader works for mame, as i know a person who could probably port your work to a direct x shader. Are you still interested in this kind of stuff?

I would be happy to hear from you, but i think its better to answer me on mameworld ;) as i am more often there. Excuse my bad english.

cheers u-man

Lol, hi there! Glad you found me. :)

I've been meaning to finish off porting it to the newer mame source for ages. I'm not sure it actually needs any more direct-x shader work, because there is now a glow shader as part of the release, I think there is also a phosphur after image as well.

So basically the bits I need to rewrite are related to the flickering and point glow. They should be quite easy but I think I had a small issue with the dots showing as ovals last time I looked at it.

(btw your English is fine!)

Editor
DVD REVIEWER
MYREVIEWER.COM

My Flickr Photostream

First, thanks for replying ;) . Second, you didnt give up, very good sign.

So lets discuss the vector shader in MAME at the current state. Yes, there is a vector bloom scale (glow), but it starts very fast to get bloggy with artifacts (like bad jpg pictures). Indeed there is a phosphor parameter too, that seems to work ok.

Then there is a vector length ratio parameter, which at default of 500.00 is ridiciously high. Its better to start with 50.00 or even 20.00 to see a visual impact and to get a feel what it really does.

The flicker parameter looks ugly and is meaningless. Its either on or off, you can make it weaker with gamma, brightness and contrast parameters. Point glow is completely missing and in my eyes very important and needed.

So all in all, the vector HLSL part of MAME is not bad at all, but also not very good. The best vector shader in my experienced emulation world, can be found in ParaJVE, the Vectrex Emulator. I own a real Vectrex and must say, the emulation is very good, which till that point, I never thought it would be even possible to do it in a good, realistic way.

To be honest, I never tested your work, but from the pictures I saw, it reminded me instantly on ParaJVE :) . As I allready said, I know a talented german guy, who maybe can transform your work to direct x shader, so I am very interested in your work.

I still think that MAME needs a way better vector shader, then what we have now. Sadly, in the past, people couldnt help you much, but maybe we can change that ;) .

cheers, u-man

Yes the vector flicker in MAME atm is a joke. :/ I might try and make a new video of my old working build and put it on YouTube at 50/60fps, I found the flicker very convincing on it.

I'll check out ParaJVE, I have a Vectrex myself, which is sort of what kicked this whole fix-mame-vector-rendering thing off in the first place. :)

I think if I can fix the flicker code, and replace the dot with a sprite, all we'd be missing is a decent glow filter. I think I did a multi-pass box blur, which should be quite easy in HLSL.

Editor
DVD REVIEWER
MYREVIEWER.COM

My Flickr Photostream

Geeks. 

Ste

Yeah dude.... try it: http://www.vectrex.fr/ParaJVE/

A little Offtopic: http://www.zektor.com/zvg/index.html

Sadly they dont sell the card anymore, but I didnt give up hope. If I will ever get a chance, to get one, this would be make me so happy and would solve the vector problems for all time :D .

A jitter or "wobbling" effect (like in ParaJVE) would also be awesome. I am really excited, that you will look again on your work.If you have any problems, I can create a contact for you. Perhaps you can exchange your experience in a good way ;) .

And yeah.... "GEEKS" FTW

This item was edited on Tuesday, 27th January 2015, 13:49

Heh from what I've seen of attempts to use the Vectrex monitor with MAME, it's a bit too low spec and has a lot of wobbles. Plus some vector games like Star Wars just have to be played in colour!

I might take a look at this again one evening this week, and see how far I get.

That ParaJVE emulator is excellent! The glow looks very convincing.


Editor
DVD REVIEWER
MYREVIEWER.COM

My Flickr Photostream

I didn't get around to this last week, but this week I at least got the latest MAME compiling so I can have a fiddle.

Editor
DVD REVIEWER
MYREVIEWER.COM

My Flickr Photostream

That are good news.... cant wait for results :) .I am just happy, that you keep trying. Two big thumbs for your success.

cheers u-man

Hello again :) ,

I just want to bump this thread, because it is now over a month since my last post ;) . So I ask you kindly what happened or will happen :) . I am still very interested in your work and hope you didnt give up.

All best wishes, u-man