Getting MAME HLSL to look as good as AAE did/does

[davepl]

I'm reasonably competent - I've worked on the source base, I've hacked Tempest roms to add levels, and I've written shaders.  But I'm still new enough to the HLSL features of MAME that I've not been able to configure them to look as good as AAE did.

 

The biggest issues I'm having is:

 

- Getting bright vector lines; in Asteroids Deluxe for example

- Getting bright shots and saucers

 

They're a little brighter, but not like a true vector monitor.  Games like Tempest that don't have variable brightness are great, but the games like Asteroids that are grey-scale and do have a brightness component aren't great.

 

I've tried several post-processing vector configs, but I'm not sure how a post-processing step could achieve much if they're not rendered bright vs dim accordingly.

 

Can someone tell me roughly how the bright v dim vectors are adjusted, and even better, where it's implemented?  Like do the Asteroids drivers have special code for it?

 

Many thanks!

Dave

[Metalzoic]

I can tell you this. I spent tens of hours messing with this and came to the conclusion that even with the newest Jezze HLSL shaders, no matter what you do, MAME doesn't look even close to as good as AAE (update 2) does with Vector games.

 

If you want truly great looking Vector games just use AAE instead (update 2, not 1).

[Jumpstile]

Read this entire thread. Should help: http://mame32fx.altervista.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=190

 

 - J*

[Kevinlives]

This might help someone too:

 

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=129737.0