Hi all. This is my first post here. I just picked up a 19 inch CRT for use as a secondary monitor (Primary monitor is a 17 inch Apple Flat Panel) and I would like to use MacMAME on this monitor. In my opinion games look more like they are supposed to on CRT's. Is there a way to get MAME to play on the secondary monitor. Im running OS X 10.3.3 on a Dual G4 800MHz with two video cards (Primary card is ATI Radeon 8500, secondary card is a ATI Radeon 7000. Any help appreciated. Thanks!

The short answer is no, not without putting the menu bar over there first.

You can also run in mirror mode.

This is another reason why the windowing code needs to be rewritten. Putting up a blanking window covering every display is dumb-- the video plugin should capture whichever display the window is currently on.

It should (and will, in the next release) let you choose the monitor rather than assuming the primary. This is a change that's long overdue. It doesn't necessitate a rewrite by any stretch though - the existing code was fairly easy to fix in this regard.

That aside, what are the other reasons why the windowing code needs to be rewritten?

For example, selecting triple size window, opening a game, and then opening a new game in fullscreen can sometimes screw up and result in no graphics, or a * + white rect covering most of the graphics.

Or, simply selecting a scale (3x, or 2x for a few games, depends on your display res) such that the window doesn't fit on the display = busted GL updates.

Or, the non-proportional window. Or lack of minification (w/ GL support) and zoom controls. Or just arbitrary resizing (like the Apple DVD player-- what's the excuse for only having three sizes? Just resize the window to whatever you want!!)

Anyway. You're right that it's not necessary to rewrite from scratch. Sorry, that was just my bias speaking out (I pretty much jumped from asm to Cocoa), someone with a real Classic/Carbon background can fix what's there easier than I can.

The fixed window sizes are a relic of the non-GL support. An arbitrary window size would force a fallback case to CopyBits for the software blitter, and that wouldn't really be worth it from a performance standpoint - it's dramatically slower. Obviously it doesn't hold true for OpenGL, which is a relatively new addition to MacMAME by comparison.

That said, there is a UI issue involved. Adding a resize widget to the GL window will clutter up the game display, so you'd need to either make it invisible or add a strip to the bottom of the window - or just suck it up have it draw on top of the game. I haven't been compelled to address this because I find that I'm largely satisfied with either the existing window sizes or running the game fullscreen.

In thinking about it now, however, I believe adding a strip to the bottom of the window makes the most sense. It would also allow me to stick other status info there, like a software implementation of the old LED keyboard lights or perhaps the framerate display text. Yes, that idea is definitely growing on me.

Invisible. That's the default you get when you fill a resizable window with a GL view.

Just throwing this out there, but check Shoot Things for my idea of how a game window is supposed to work.

No, it's not totally robust (no multiple video card configs to test on here) but try resizing (with Ctrl or Alt, too) and entering/exiting fullscreen mode on different displays just by dragging the window there. It also knows about 5:4, 4:3, 3:2, 16:10 aspect ratio displays, and the Dock, and picks an appropriate multiple for your res the first time you run it. And it minimizes GL content.

Hey Arekkusu,

Your "Shoot Things" game is pretty darn slick!! A nice little diversion from MacMAME.

It gave me a kernel panic the first 2 (and only) times I tried to run it. Does it use the non-Apple branch of OpenAL by any chance?