Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Windows
Windows
It is
intended to cover aspects of using and configuring the program that are
specific to running MAME from the command line on a Windows-based system.
For common options that apply to all systems, please see config.txt.
Default Keys
------------
-[no]oslog
Outputs the error.log data to the Windows debugger. This can be used at
the same time as -log to output the log data to both targets as well.
Default is OFF (-nooslog).
Enables an internal watchdog timer that will automatically kill the MAME
process if more than <duration> seconds passes without a frame update.
Keep in mind that some games sit for a while during load time without
updating the screen, so <duration> should be long enough to cover that.
10-30 seconds on a modern system should be plenty in general. By default
there is no watchdog.
Specifies the name of the font to use for debugger windows. By default,
the font is Lucida Console.
Specifies the size of the font to use for debugger windows, in points.
By default, this is set to 9pt.
-priority <priority>
Sets the thread priority for the MAME threads. By default the priority
is left alone to guarantee proper cooperation with other applications.
The valid range is -15 to 1, with 1 being the highest priority. The
default is 0 (NORMAL priority).
-[no]multithreading / -[no]mt
Enables multithreading within MAME. At the moment, this causes the
window and all DirectDraw/Direct3D code to execute on a second thread,
which can improve performance on hyperthreaded and multicore systems.
The default is OFF (-nomultithreading).
-video <gdi|ddraw|d3d|none>
-numscreens <count>
Tells MAME how many output windows to create. For most games, a single
output window is all you need, but some games originally used multiple
screens. Each screen (up to 4) has its own independent settings for
physical monitor, aspect ratio, resolution, and view, which can be
set using the options below. The default is 1.
-[no]window / -[no]w
-[no]maximize / -[no]max
-[no]keepaspect / -[no]ka
Enables aspect ratio enforcement. When this option is on, the game's
proper aspect ratio (generally 4:3 or 3:4) is enforced, so you get the
game looking like it should. When running in a window with this option
on, you can only resize the window to the proper aspect ratio, unless
you are holding down the CONTROL key. By turning the option off, the
aspect ratio is allowed to float. In full screen mode, this means that
all games will stretch to the full screen size (even vertical games).
In window mode, it means that you can freely resize the window without
any constraints. The default is ON (-keepaspect).
-prescale <amount>
Controls the size of the screen images when they are passed off to the
graphics system for scaling. At the minimum setting of 1, the screen
is rendered at its original resolution before being scaled. At higher
settings, the screen is expanded by a factor of <amount> before being
scaled. With -video ddraw or -video d3d, this produces a less blurry
image at the expense of some speed. In -video ddraw mode, this also
increases the effective resolution of non-screen elements such as
artwork and fonts. The default is 1.
-effect <filename>
Specifies a single PNG file that is used as an overlay over any game
screens in the video display. This PNG file is assumed to live in the
root of one of the artpath directories. The pattern in the PNG file is
repeated both horizontally and vertically to cover the entire game
screen areas (but not any external artwork), and is rendered at
the target resolution of the game image. For -video gdi and -video d3d
modes, this means that one pixel in the PNG will map to one pixel on
your output display. For -video ddraw, this means that one pixel in the
PNG will map to one pixel in the prescaled game screen. If you wish to
use an effect that requires mapping n PNG pixels to each game screen
pixel with -video ddraw, you need to specify a -prescale factor of n as
well. The RGB values of each pixel in the PNG are multiplied against the
RGB values of the target screen. The default is 'none', meaning no
effect.
-[no]waitvsync
-[no]syncrefresh
DirectDraw-specific options
---------------------------
-[no]hwstretch / -[no]hws
Direct3D-specific options
-------------------------
-d3dversion <version>
Per-window options
------------------
-screen <display>
-screen0 <display>
-screen1 <display>
-screen2 <display>
-screen3 <display>
Specifies which physical monitor on your system you wish to have each
window use by default. In order to use multiple windows, you must have
increased the value of the -numscreens option. The name of each
display in your system can be determined by running MAME with the
-verbose option. The display names are typically in the format of:
\\.\DISPLAYn, where 'n' is a number from 1 to the number of connected
monitors. The default value for these options is 'auto', which means
that the first window is placed on the first display, the second
window on the second display, etc.
Specifies the physical aspect ratio of the physical monitor for each
window. In order to use multiple windows, you must have increased the
value of the -numscreens option. The physical aspect ratio can be
determined by measuring the width and height of the visible screen
image and specifying them separated by a colon. The default value for
these options is 'auto', which means that MAME assumes the aspect
ratio is proportional to the number of pixels in the desktop video
mode for each monitor.
-view <viewname>
-view0 <viewname>
-view1 <viewname>
-view2 <viewname>
-view3 <viewname>
Specifies the initial view setting for each window. The <viewname>
does not need to be a perfect match; rather, it will select the first
view whose name matches all the characters specified by <viewname>.
For example, -view native will match the "Native (15:14)" view even
though it is not a perfect match. The value 'auto' is also supported,
and requests that MAME perform a default selection. The default value
for these options is 'auto'.
-[no]triplebuffer / -[no]tb
-[no]switchres
-audio_latency <value>
This controls the amount of latency built into the audio streaming. By
default MAME tries to keep the DirectSound audio buffer between 1/5 and
2/5 full. On some systems, this is pushing it too close to the edge,
and you get poor sound sometimes. The latency parameter controls the
lower threshold. The default is 1 (meaning lower=1/5 and upper=2/5).
Set it to 2 (-audio_latency 2) to keep the sound buffer between 2/5 and
3/5 full. If you crank it up to 4, you can definitely notice the lag.
-[no]dual_lightgun / -[no]dual