1280x1024 overlays

ozboss

Hello
i'm trying to get some overlays working but i've got two problems:

the overlays are squeezed into my 1280x1024 (5/4) display. I guess they are made for 16/9 (overlay source http://retroarchborders.blogspot.de/). Is there a way to make them fit or do i have to crop them manually with some image tool?
the actual game is still streched across the whole screen and doesn't fit the overlay

if somebody could help me sort that out that would be great :)
(system:retropie 4.0 rc1
since i got a 5/4 display i'm mainly interested in making gameboy and possibly vertical arcade games work with overlays)

Floob

Yes, and ideally you need to crop them.
You can change the aspect ratio used here:
https://github.com/retropie/retropie-setup/wiki/Configuration-Editor

I can probably help more if you add info:
https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/3/read-this-first

ozboss

Ok so do i have to make the overlays completely custom? As i would also have to adapt the cfg file when i change the image file?
Does anybody know where to find finished overlays for 1280x1024?
The aspect ratio is fine (set to "core provided" in RGUI) it just doesn't downscale to fit the overlay

Guide:

I copied the overlay files from http://retroarchborders.blogspot.de/ on my RP (home folder)
I changed overlay directory to this folder (RGUI: Settings -> Directory -> Overlay Dir -> Folder)
Picked overlay (RGUI: Settings -> Onscreen Overlay -> Overlay Preset -> Overlay.cfg)

Infos about my retropie:
Pi Model: RP2 Model B
Retropie Version: 4.0 rc1
Build from: SD Image + Binary Update of all installed Packages
USB Devices Connected: Keyboard, Xbox Controller (wireless), DIY Arcade joystick
Controller used: Xbox Controller/DIY Arcade joystick

Floob

Yes, ideally. For any of the .cfg that set the size you would need to update them.
To reduce the size of the image (not change the aspect ratio) you would need to set the viewport sizes. Or just set the integer scale on and make your own overlays to fit.

Bear in mind this is much easier with consoles than arcade games, as the consoles will (pretty much) have a single resolution they play at.

Concat

Getting the view port the right size and in the correct position is something that is easier to do with the RGUI... I would actually recommend doing that first, and then when you have it right, copy the numbers down and close without saving. Then go in to the config editor and make the changes. (I actually go against the recommended practice for RetroPie and save in RGUI. Unless you know what you're doing and the implications of doing this, manually edit the .cfg files instead of saving in RGUI)

And yes, you are better off cropping or making your own images. There are tons of free image editors out there, so this part is the easiest...

If I remember correctly, each overlay has two files - the img, and then a config file. The config file only has like 3 lines or something. You just need a sample config file, and then change the image name that it calls.

I spent 90% of my time adjusting the viewport for the handheld emulators. Making my own image and the overlay config file was the easy part...

Concat

This post is deleted!

Concat

Here are the overlays I have set up. Side note... Is there a better gameboy filter other than mcgreen? Its too neon...

http://imgur.com/a/PISKY

Floob

@Concat You could check this post with a shader/overlay combo
http://blog.petrockblock.com/forums/topic/gameboy-shaders/

and here is a video with it:

Concat

@Floob

Thanks Floob. I actually have read that thread before, but it seemed like a lot of hassle to get one single shader to works so I didn't bother :O

I also tried the color palettes in Gambatte, but I remember it wasn't as straight forward as I thought it should be. I ended up just using McGreen shader, but perhaps I will try this route again...

I actually have two shaders set up, one for the color, and another to mimick the display pixels. I;m fairly satisfied with the latter, and if you open my image you can see what I mean.

ozboss

So i figured most of my problems out and will post what i've done as soon as i finished i just have one more problem the overlay opacity:

When i put the opacity high the game goes real dark and when i put it low the overlay gets less visible.
Is there a way to set the opacity full and don't influence my actual game image?

InsecureSpike

@Concat said in 1280x1024 overlays:

@Floob

Thanks Floob. I actually have read that thread before, but it seemed like a lot of hassle to get one single shader to works so I didn't bother :O

I also tried the color palettes in Gambatte, but I remember it wasn't as straight forward as I thought it should be. I ended up just using McGreen shader, but perhaps I will try this route again...

I actually have two shaders set up, one for the color, and another to mimick the display pixels. I;m fairly satisfied with the latter, and if you open my image you can see what I mean.

hi would you be willing to share the Gameboy Set?

thanks

Concat

@ozboss said in 1280x1024 overlays:

So i figured most of my problems out and will post what i've done as soon as i finished i just have one more problem the overlay opacity:

When i put the opacity high the game goes real dark and when i put it low the overlay gets less visible.
Is there a way to set the opacity full and don't influence my actual game image?

I don't recall having this issue. Can you post the image you are using for the overlay? It sounds as if the window for the game is not 100% transparent to begin with...

@InsecureSpike said in 1280x1024 overlays:

@Concat said in 1280x1024 overlays:

@Floob

Thanks Floob. I actually have read that thread before, but it seemed like a lot of hassle to get one single shader to works so I didn't bother :O

I also tried the color palettes in Gambatte, but I remember it wasn't as straight forward as I thought it should be. I ended up just using McGreen shader, but perhaps I will try this route again...

I actually have two shaders set up, one for the color, and another to mimick the display pixels. I;m fairly satisfied with the latter, and if you open my image you can see what I mean.

hi would you be willing to share the Gameboy Set?

thanks

I'm not sure what you mean by set. Do you just want the image for the overlay, and the names of the shaders I'm using? For both Gameboy and Gameboy Advance (?)

InsecureSpike

@Concat said in 1280x1024 overlays:

@ozboss said in 1280x1024 overlays:

So i figured most of my problems out and will post what i've done as soon as i finished i just have one more problem the overlay opacity:

When i put the opacity high the game goes real dark and when i put it low the overlay gets less visible.
Is there a way to set the opacity full and don't influence my actual game image?

I don't recall having this issue. Can you post the image you are using for the overlay? It sounds as if the window for the game is not 100% transparent to begin with...

@InsecureSpike said in 1280x1024 overlays:

@Concat said in 1280x1024 overlays:

@Floob

Thanks Floob. I actually have read that thread before, but it seemed like a lot of hassle to get one single shader to works so I didn't bother :O

I also tried the color palettes in Gambatte, but I remember it wasn't as straight forward as I thought it should be. I ended up just using McGreen shader, but perhaps I will try this route again...

I actually have two shaders set up, one for the color, and another to mimick the display pixels. I;m fairly satisfied with the latter, and if you open my image you can see what I mean.

hi would you be willing to share the Gameboy Set?

thanks

I'm not sure what you mean by set. Do you just want the image for the overlay, and the names of the shaders I'm using? For both Gameboy and Gameboy Advance (?)

yes please,

ozboss

So i finally got my overlays working here is a little guide on how i did it in case anybody else is having problems:

!!!Look for new guide some posts further down!!!

Overlay Settings for RGUI

Retropie Menu -> Retroarch -> Settings:
- Configuration -> Save Configuration On Exit -> ON
- Directory -> Overlay Dir -> Choose folder with overlays (I put mine in /home/pi/overlays with WinSCP)
- Quit Retroarch
Open any Rom within the Emulator you want to set up -> Open RGUI (Hotkey SELECT+X) -> Settings -> Onscreen Overlay
- Hide Overlay In Menu -> OFF
- Overlay Preset -> Choose overlay.cfg
Settings -> Video
- Aspect Ratio Index -> Custom
- Integer Scale -> ON (with this setting the gameimage will be centered, so you can't move it anymore with "Custom
  Viewport X/Y, but it helps shaders and to keep the original aspect ratio)
- Set "Custom Viewport Width/Height"
Settings -> Onscreen Overlay
- Set "Overlay Scale" if necessary
- Overlay Opacity -> 1.00
Quick Menu -> Resume / Quit Retroarch

@Concat said in 1280x1024 overlays:

Getting the view port the right size and in the correct position is something that is easier to do with the RGUI... I would actually recommend doing that first, and then when you have it right, copy the numbers down and close without saving. Then go in to the config editor and make the changes.

About this concern i don't think it matters as editing the configs is exactly what changes in the RGUI do.
If i'm wrong please correct me.

In case somebody wants to make their own overlays you have to make shure that the part of the picture where the game is going to be is exactly in the middle of the picture and is transparent.
To use it with RGUI you have to make a .cfg file (overlayname.cfg) which looks like this:

overlays = 1

overlay0_overlay = overlayname.png

overlay0_full_screen = true

overlay0_descs = 0

just put it together with the overlayname.png file

Here are my custom overlays for 1280X1024:
https://mega.nz/#!jRMmgThD!5upxCfwq4EKL18FcDa3Irhk5W4AJ3Du-YNkorFln940

This only contains GB/GBC/GBA overlays as with this screen ration these are the only ones that make sense for me, except maybe (vertical) arcade games which i might add later, if i can be bothered to make them :D
Maybe @Floob can add them to his video manager.

Thanks guys for the help you are awesome.

Concat

@ozboss
Hey man, careful about recommending people use RGUI to save config settings. RetroPie is designed with manual config editing in mind. When you stray from this and use the RGUI, you're asking for trouble unless you understand how it all works...

Retropie has custom config files for each emulator, and when you save in the in-game RGUI it completely overwrites this file and will cause headaches for people who don't know this, especially when the wiki documents how to edit the custom config files.

Save Config on Exit, for example, is notorious for causing problems with RetroPie users.

I actually DO use the RGUI to save config edits, but it took a while for me to understand all the problems I was having. Now that I get how it works, I prefer to use the RGUI for ease of use. For example, it took me forever to realize that the per core configuration option in RetroArch doesn't do anything because of the setup in RPi!

ozboss

Ok i didn't know but yes i had some problems with the "per core configuration"-setting too this should be left OFF.
So far i set everything up with the config files but with the overlays the RGUI setup is perfect for me.
For a lot of stuff the RGUI simply doesn't work either, for example when i try to set up shaders it doesn't find the .glslp shaders that i can switch through with the hotkeys, but have to go into config files to actually safe it.
Thanks for the info i still have to learn a lot about the retropie but i think i'm almost finished setting it up, just some finetuning to do.

ozboss

So i looked into my retroarch.cfg files and they are all messy as hell now, so i figured i better follow @Concat 's advice and edit my .cfg files manually, which is really no big deal as soon as you have all your settings figured out through RGUI, so here is the updated guide:

Overlay Settings

Open any Rom within the Emulator you want to set up -> Open RGUI (Hotkey SELECT+X) -> Settings -> Onscreen Overlay
- Hide Overlay In Menu -> OFF
- Overlay Preset -> Browse to and select your overlay.cfg (I put mine in /home/pi/overlays with WinSCP)
  (if you can't get there directly set: Settings -> Directory -> Overlay Dir -> Choose folder with overlays)
Settings -> Video
- Aspect Ratio Index -> Custom
- Integer Scale -> ON (with this setting the gameimage will be centered, so you can't move it anymore with "Custom Viewport X/Y, but it helps shaders and to keep the original aspect ratio)
- Set "Custom Viewport Width/Height"
Settings -> Onscreen Overlay
- Set "Overlay Scale" if necessary
- Overlay Opacity -> 1.00
- Write down all the values you just set
- Quit Retroarch without saving (default as long as you didn't change it)
Retropie Menu -> Configuration Editor -> Advanced Configuration -> Configure Libretro options -> Choose emulator you want to set up
Now you can set all the values that you just wrote down.
The only thing i didn't figure out how to set in this menu was the overlay.cfg file.
So for this you will actually have to go into the retroarch.cfg (eg. /opt/retropie/configs/gb/retroarch.cfg) for each emulator and copy the path into it.
Of course you can also go directly into the .cfg and write down the settings manually.

At the end the retroarch.cfg will look like this (here are also shader settings included):

# Settings made here will only override settings in the global retroarch.cfg if placed above the #include line

input_remapping_directory = "/opt/retropie/configs/gb/"
aspect_ratio_index = "22"
input_overlay_enable = "true"
input_overlay = "/home/pi/overlays/gb.cfg"
video_scale_integer = "true"
custom_viewport_width = "640"
custom_viewport_height = "576"
input_overlay_opacity = "1"
input_overlay_scale = "1.04"
video_shader_enable = "true"
video_shader = "/opt/retropie/emulators/retroarch/shader/gameboy-screen-grid.glslp"

#include "/opt/retropie/configs/all/retroarch.cfg"

In case somebody wants to make their own overlays you have to make shure that the part of the picture where the game is going to be is exactly in the middle of the picture and is transparent.
To use it with RGUI you have to make a .cfg file (overlayname.cfg) which looks like this:

overlays = 1

overlay0_overlay = overlayname.png

overlay0_full_screen = true

overlay0_descs = 0

just put it together with the overlayname.png file

Here are my custom overlays for 1280X1024:
https://mega.nz/#!jRMmgThD!5upxCfwq4EKL18FcDa3Irhk5W4AJ3Du-YNkorFln940

This only contains GB/GBC/GBA overlays as with this screen ration these are the only ones that make sense for me, except maybe (vertical) arcade games which i might add later, if i can be bothered to make them :D