Backdrops in mame2003-plus

UDb23 · 1 Jan 2019, 18:54

Happy new year !

Newly created backdrop & overlay: Omega Race - cockpit version (1080p)

All required files available in the Repo.

Note: not tested on the Pi yet.

Clyde · 1 Jan 2019, 20:43

@UDb23 I didn't try your 1080p version, but you motivated me to make my own 1600x1200 one. Unfortunately, I don't have a repo myself. Do you have an idea how I could share my omegrace.zip with others here?

Anyway, I noticed that the original backdrop from arcadeartwork.org is too bright for the vector graphics of the game (first picture below). I had to add a line brightness = 0.4 for a playable display (second picture).

The images appear much darker in the forum than they do in my cabinet, but the different readability of the vector text should clearly visible.

You may want to check that in your own backdrop.

Clyde · 1 Jan 2019, 21:48

I experimented a little bit more and settled finally with brightness = 0.25 and a non-scanlines shader named "VecX" for the eponymous Vectrex emulator.

Again, this looks significantly brighter in my cab.

UDb23 · 1 Jan 2019, 23:55

@Clyde said in Backdrops in mame2003-plus:

how I could share my omegrace.zip with others here?

Do you have a github account ? if so you could add it to my Repo (e.g. 1600 subfolder of Omega Race cockpit).

Good finding with the settings. I reduced the saturation of the image colors directly in Photoshop to get better visibility of game. Mine will require some tweaking with the settings too anyway.

Clyde · 1 Feb 2019, 06:47

@UDb23 I actually have a Github account. I'll look into how I can upload files into your repo, thanks!

I think the brightness option is a nice and easy way to adjust the image to one's own monitor. So, I wouldn't mess with the brightness of the image itself, lest it may not respond as good to further adjustment in the ART file as an unmodified one. But your idea to reduce its saturation is a good one. edit: I may use your final image in my version, if you would kindly provide me with a highres image or even a direct 1600x1200 one. This would also ensure consistency between our versions if I put mine into your repo.

The original image wasn't very bright and colorful anyway:

But it may have been enhanced by blacklight, like the starfield image of the upright cabinet was according to this article (just search it for "blacklight"). So, maybe we should try to imitate that? Alas, I don't have the image editing skills for it.

edit: By the way, does anyone know why (only my?) mame2003-plus renders the vectors yellow instead of white like the original?

UDb23 · 1 Feb 2019, 08:14

@Clyde said in Backdrops in mame2003-plus:

does anyone know why (only my?) mame2003-plus renders the vectors yellow instead of white like the original?

Good question, I was wondering about the same. @markwkidd , @grant2258 probably know.

Very interesting video, I was aware of use of UV inks in the upright model (and mr Do's bd tries to imitate that) but not about the cocktail.

The image I used for the bd is very colorful, actually it's not the scan from Arcadeartwork. I think somebody recreated in vectors and posted the resulting raster image. Can't remember exactly where it comes from. I agree letting users modify the settings according to their monitors is better then pre-applying some brightness/saturation.

I think for UV ink there are some PS actions that could help. I'll give it a try to make the cockpit bd look like in the video; if successful I'll surely share the higher res image with you.

UDb23 · 1 Feb 2019, 10:41

Found another pic that shows how colors look on a real machine:

Vectors are white effectively.

grant2258 · 2 Jan 2019, 10:11

the driver uses a yellow overlay this is how it look if you remove it from the driver.

to disable the overlay comment this line of code out

https://github.com/libretro/mame2003-plus-libretro/blob/11951318360da64f996309a71b155f8631aa019c/src/drivers/omegrace.c#L602

UDb23 · 2 Jan 2019, 10:46

@grant2258 thanks for checking on this.

As it seems original machine used white beams (at least according to most videos & pics I could find) I would warmly suggest to remove the overlay from the driver (and therefore from official lr-mame2003plus).

If anyone wants it more yellowish it's easy to create a yellow RA overlay or thru the Mame .art artwork system.

What do you think ?

UDb23 · 2 Jan 2019, 10:48

In general, as we now got the artwork system working, I'd remove any "embedded" overlays from code, unless there's a very specific "per driver" reason (e.g. SI colors).

grant2258 · 2 Jan 2019, 11:44

@UDb23 I don't have push permissions anymore on plus. I gave that part up as I don't have the free time to justify looking after project I'm sure mark will read this and disable that one line I can't see any reason not too

Clyde · 2 Jan 2019, 12:51

@UDb23 Interesting, on the cockpit picture you found, the image doesn't look as dark as in the video, and it also looks not that much UV lighted to me. In addition, the backdrop seems to be much bigger than the game area. I may try to mirror that via different ART settings when I'm back home.

I look forward to your take on UV simulation via Photoshop.

@grant2258 Thanks for the information about the yellow overlay and for the pictures without it. I definitely prefer the white vectors, so I hope that @markwkidd will be so kind to remove the overlay and maybe others, since I second @UDb23 in that embedded overlays etc. seem to be outdated with a working artwork system.

Riverstorm · 1 Feb 2019, 16:05

Do you guys have any suggestions for tweaking the vector settings beyond what @Clyde listed above? When the vector updates were first implemented I messed around a bit but I didn't find the results satisfactory so I stuck with AdvMAME. Then when I saw @Clyde screenshot I thought that looks sharp and maybe I am missing a tweak. Using the exact same settings @Clyde posted above I still find AdvMAME quite a bit better. I used @UDb23's BD in both Plus and AdvMAME which works great after dialing down the brightness.

Vector setting in Plus look chunky and jagged and in AdvMAME they are slim, smooth and really nice looking. If I go below 2 beam width games like Tempest start loosing parts of the lines and at 1 it really starts to show. If your browser compresses the browser embedded image just right-click download and you'll see what I mean clearly.

@Using Clyde's settings listed above:

@Using AdvMAME with UDb23 BD:

@Using Clyde's settings listed above (you can see the D and some of the lines "disappearing" even at beam width of 2):

@Using AdvMAME with UDb23 BD:

Riverstorm · 2 Jan 2019, 16:08

It might be worth noting the background brightness/clarity between Plus and AdvMAME. They are quite different but both are using the same brightness setting in the .art file.

@Clyde - I forgot the ask does that no line shader work on the Pi or what does it do?

markwkidd · 2 Jan 2019, 16:46

@Clyde and @grant2258 I commented out the yellow overlay for Omega Race. Thanks!

UDb23 · 2 Jan 2019, 17:28

@markwkidd Thanks !!

grant2258 · 2 Jan 2019, 17:39

@Riverstorm put tate mode on and see if it looks any better to you

Clyde · 1 Feb 2019, 17:48

@Riverstorm Which resolution do you use? Your forum images are significantly smaller than mine. Maybe that plays into the different vector lines?

I can look into my vector settings when I'm home, but maybe only tomorrow, because I will be home late today. (Weekly pub meetup. o/ᵁ ᵁ\o )

I'm using the VecX shader on my Pi using standard Retropie 4.4, but I don't know where I got it from. I found it in the directory I where keep @ghogan42's zfast shaders, but I couldn't find it for the sake of my life on the web. Really, where the heck did I get it from??

@markwkidd Thanks from me, too! \o/

Riverstorm · 1 Feb 2019, 18:35

@grant2258 - Ok, so I tried you're suggestion and that got me thinking and I tried it on a monitor and Plus actually looks great. I think I almost prefer it over AdvMAME. The lines are bit sharper (than the arcade) but still very nice and with the signature flicker.

So it's my TV that's causing the issue. I have no idea what I can do to fix that. I will try it on a few other TV's for testing. I am running RetroPie 4.4.4 and Retroarch 1.7.6 on a Pi3.

@Clyde - Sorry I sometimes resize them if I can't get them to upload on the forums. I think it's 1MB max or something along those lines. I could never link a image that displays properly on the forums. I use an HD TV so 1920 x 1080. A weekly pub meetup is sounding pretty darn good right about now. If you can't find it when you get back and recover, if needed, maybe you can upload it later this week.

Omega Race - 1912 x 1080 (1912 instead of 1920 which is those lost pixels we discuss)
Tempest - 810 x 1080

UDb23 · 2 Jan 2019, 19:51

Played quite a lot with the backdrop image of the Omega Race cockpit to make it look like the "black light" picture above;
that's the best I was able to do:

I'm not that good at Photoshop when it comes to complex color editing with adjustment layers and similar... maybe someone else can do a better job.

Full res file available here.