Rom specific config files for custom aspect ratios

[jamietuley]

Hi Everyone,

I have an arcade bartop and in order to fit my bezel to the exterior of the cabinet I'm going to have to do some tweaking to the screen size (reducing)..

So after reading alot on the forums I'm thinking that rom specific config files are the way to go? So after playing with the video settings in retro arch I was able to get the screen the right size which was:

Custom aspect ratio W: 1120
Custom aspect ratio H: 840
Custom aspect ratio X pos: 79
Custom aspect ratio Y pos: 92

My question is how would the contents of my rom specific config file look to achieve this? I've never opened config files to play around with them. I know I have to name it ROMNAME.zip.cfg and also put it in the same folder as the rom..

I have other values which would sort out the upright screen games too but just need to know about what to put in the config files.

Any help much appreciated

Cheers

[mitu]

@jamietuley Use the Overrides menu from the RGUI to save a game override, then inspect the resulting .cfg file to see what values are written there.

[jamietuley]

@mitu thank you for your reply..

Do you mean that a rom config file will be automatically generated by doing it that way? If so then just copy and paste what's in that config file and make the rest by hand (copy first generated config file and just change file name to another room file that I want the same custom ratio?)

Apologies for my lack of knowledge.. you can prob tell I don't tinker with settings that much!

[mitu]

Do you mean that a rom config file will be automatically generated by doing it that way?

Yes, and it will be loaded automatically when you start the game.
Unfortunately it will contain more than the necessary options, making it a bit difficult to pick just the viewport settings and replicate it for other games. For reference, I think you're looking for your ROM .cfg file to have:

custom_viewport_height = 840
custom_viewport_width = 1120
custom_viewport_x = 79
custom_viewport_y = 92
aspect_ratio_index = 23 

If so then just copy and paste what's in that config file and make the rest by hand (copy first generated config file and just change file name to another room file that I want the same custom ratio?)

Yes, that was the idea, but see above - the number of options saved in the override makes it complicated to first pick the right options. But experiment with the options I've enumerated above and the ROM's .cfg file and see if it works.

[jamietuley]

@mitu thanks so much for all your help! So I was all set to give this a go but I'm struggling to find where the game rom cfg file is saved? I'm purely having arcade games on my cabinet so I've WinSCP to my pi and looking in:

/Home/pi/RetroPie/ROMs/arcade/

I'm using the quickmenu and right at the bottom selecting 'Save Game Overrides'

I thought the cfg file would just appear next to the rom? Am I looking in the wrong place??

[mitu]

@jamietuley said in Rom specific config files for custom aspect ratios:

I thought the cfg file would just appear next to the rom?

That's a RetroPie configuration option, it's not where RetroArch saves the overrides.

Am I looking in the wrong place??

Yes, the game overrides are saved in \\retropie\configs\all\retroarch\config\<core name>\<game_name>.cfg

[jamietuley]

@mitu thank you so much for your help.. I will be getting back to this as soon as poss this week!

Hopefully I won't have to bother you with it anymore.. I'll no doubt have some new issues 😉

[jamietuley]

@mitu I have another question I'm afraid.. are game overides the same as game/core remapping? I was reading up on the official retroarch pages and got a bit confused! Was specifically looking at the cheatsheet here:

Option 3 the core input remapping? Or hang on.. is that purely to do with configuring controls only (not an option to tweak and save video settings we've been talking about)

[mitu]

@jamietuley said in Rom specific config files for custom aspect ratios:

I have another question I'm afraid.. are game overides the same as game/core remapping?

The game/core input remapping saves only the input related settings. Overrides can save other settings - not just input configuration.