Space Invaders colors

mediamogul

Unfortunately MAME .78 does NOT have overlay options...
MAME versions starting from .107 fully supports both Overlays and Backdrops...

Thanks for doing the research. It is much appreciated. I know that I would have eventually been banging my head against a rock on this one.

UDb23

Solved: using lr-mame2010 and corresponding Space Invaders ROM, Mame provides the game with a "color overlay" option (tab-> video options). Colors of the game are generated, simulating the original cellophane; no external overlay files needed.

Concerning Artworks, Mame 2010 is supposed to fully support them (> .107) but it seems lr-mame 2010 isn't detecting the folder; probably due to some issues with folder paths/mame.ini file.

mediamogul

@UDb23

Also solved is why I happen to have the the artwork folder I mentioned earlier in this thread. I remember now, that I was trying a combination of many different things to get artwork read by one of RetroPie's MAME options. This would have been around the time I started that thread you referenced. I guess I gave up at some point. It's a shame there's no support for this because the artwork does indeed add so much to many of the games. Some even require the artwork to fully emulate feedback from the original machines. I might do a little research on what dankcushions mentioned there and see if learning to add such support is within my capabilty.

UDb23

@mediamogul Got it working !
Right path for mame2010 has to be "~/artwork/".
Mr. Do's invaders artwork looks great.
Unfortunately full screen Artwork, with overlay, bezel and backdrop all enabled, makes even an old game like Space Invaders too slow to be really playable.

Still backdrop only, with "crop" video option, works nicely.
lr-mame 2010 Artworkt

mediamogul

@UDb23

Wow! Well done sir! Are you sure there's nowhere in the gui to correct the aspect? This really is nice.

Edit: In the excitement, I went text blind to your comment about the slowdown. However, backdrop & crop is the only way I ever run it on my main Windows cabinet anyway. I can't wait to test this myself.

UDb23

@mediamogul That's the output with 1080p using the standard invaders Artwork package from Mr Do's artwork website. I do believe correct aspect ratio can be obtained thru changes in the included .lay file but as this nice full overlay slows the game too much I stopped further testing on this artwork for the time being.
You do can play Invaders at correct speed with backdrop only (and colors) by keeping this artwork file but using the "crop" option.

Next test I'll do is with older Artwork (before .0107) and Advmame. Will keep this post updated.

UDb23

Work in progress: using Mr Do's old mame original artwork (.ART file based layout), without any modification.

AdvMame .94: colors are ok but only backdrop is working (no bezel). Screen size correct

AdvMame 1.4: artwork is ok but actual game area is too small; bezel not intended for 16:9 screen.

Will try to create a new .ART file with specific Bezel: goal is to get maximum game area (full height) with backdrop and bezel filling black bars on the sides on a 1080p TV.

chavatar

@UDb23 Very cool. I've been playing with the various artwork options, wondered about mame2010 art and couldn't get it to work - so thank you! And after that, my idea was to try to move some newer format work into the .art format...so very interested to see how you get on :)

UDb23

More testing with Space Invaders with Retroarch (lr-mame2003):
1080p bezel - maximum game size with integer scale.

Unfortunately Retroarch does not support real backdrops and lr-mame2003 does not provide the game colors.

Thanks to Floob for info on how to setup the required cfg files.
Artwork coming from Metalzoic's MAME Mega-Bezel Pack; created by him and others for use with RocketLauncher.

Note: sorry for the image quality... still trying to understand how to get a screenshot WITH bezel with RGUI... meanwhile... I simply took a picture of the TV :-)

nitemarestang

I am new to mame. I have mame32 0.104u6. Does that support artwork? Thanks

UDb23

@nitemarestang That version of Mame should support the older .ART format artwork.
Check Mr. Do's MAME ARTWORK FAQ.

nitemarestang

Thanks, I will try that

nitemarestang

Ok. I downloaded the correct file for 1942 and placed it in the artwork file but still cannot get it to work

mediamogul

@nitemarestang

The only version of Mame that I've heard of in RetroPie that supports artwork is lr-mame2010 and the results apparently slow down emulation considerably. @dankcushions has made an effort to add support to lr-mame2003, but those efforts have been met with quite a bit of technical difficulty that might ultimately prevent it from working at all.

UDb23

@mediamogul Also Advance mame 1.4 supports artwork (see screenshot above).
The required older .art format uses a coordinate system that's not exactly user friendly.
Additionally with advmame you lose all retroarch benefits (e.g. keys/gamepad config)

UDb23

@nitemarestang The artwork zip file you downloaded has to be placed in a specific artwork subfolder for mame to see the artwork. Please check your specific mame32 (windows?) folder structure.

mediamogul

@UDb23 said in Space Invaders colors:

Also Advance mame 1.4 supports artwork (see screenshot above).

Ah, good to know. I missed that one.

chavatar

@UDb23 mame4all supports the colours over mame2003 just in case you hadn't tried it.

I spent a morning trying to wrestle with advmame 1.4 .art files to use something better and fill the screen - I ended up giving up, couldn't produce anything acceptable. I really didn't know enough and it was hard to find documentation. But I assume it's possible, just tricky:

Now, if you're familiar with the old artwork system, you may be scratching your head and thinking, why do we have to specify the aspect ratio of the screen? In the old system, the screen was always positioned from (0,0)-(1,1) and the aspect ratio of the screen (and the resulting artwork) was determined by flags in the game. This is true, and in retrospect, was a mistake. Not only did it make things confusing for positioning purposes, but it meant a lot of the artwork needed to be rotated and tweaked so that it stretched correctly.

http://wiki.mamedev.org/index.php/Layouts_and_Rendering_for_MAME_Artwork_System

UDb23

@chavatar Thanks for the mame4all tip.
Concerning artworks for advmame 1.4, you can get detailed info on the ART file coordinate system here: https://github.com/mscottford/pinmame/blob/master/src/artwork.c

I'm working on an excel "tool" to automatically generate the .art file with the correct coordinates, starting from monitor/TV screen size (bezel size in pixels) and actual game area.
I'll update this post on the results.

chavatar

@UDb23 Thanks for the link, good luck with the tool :)