Mame bezels/artwork showing up lower res? Please help!

[TPR]

I've been trying to figure out how to get MAME artwork to appear at higher res. For example, Canyon Bomber. This is how it looks on my build:

but if you look at the original it's clearly much higher resolution:

I've downloaded the artwork from both Mr. Do's and Progetto-Snaps and I get the same result.
I'm dropping them into either my lr-mame2016 or lr-mame artwork folder. I'm a Pi 4 with the most up to date version of everything.

Is there any way to get these overlays to appear in higher resolution?

[UDb23]

@tpr Using Libretro overlays you can get full res images. E.g. check here.

[TPR]

@udb23 I'm already using those for games which don't require any special processing by the emulator. I have about 900 of them installed currently. They just slap onto the sides via RetroArch. See, I'm already using the Zaxxon overlay you mentioned in that post! :)

What I'm talking about though is different. It's an artwork set that is two pieces composited by the emulator and the .lay file also sets the correct screen size for the game to work with the art set.

I'm asking about if there is a way to get these types of art pieces in higher quality that load up directly with MAME, not overlays that I drop in via retroarch. They are different.

[TPR]

@udb23 For example, I'm having the same issue with Gorf. You can see that the original artwork for the light panel that MAME is using to light up the ranking on the right hand side is higher res:

But when I drop it into MAME, it looks crappier. This is what i'm trying to find out if there is a fix for:

[dankcushions]

@tpr as always, please provide all of the info requested here, including verbose log: https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/3/read-this-first

[TPR]

@dankcushions I already said I'm on lr-mame & lr-mame2016 using a PI4 and everything is current and updated.

[dankcushions]

@tpr the verbose log which i specifically requested may show the resolution that mame is requesting. my suspicion is that it will be too low, because a retroarch core does not know the display resolution you are running. it would have to be exposed in core options - https://retropie.org.uk/docs/RetroArch-Core-Options/ - if it’s anywhere.

stand-alone mame should not have this problem, but it may have performance issues until the next SDL is in retropie.

[TPR]

@dankcushions I've actually done exactly this before I even posted this. I've tried several different core settings for resolution and the results are always the same.

That's why I'm asking the question if those bezels can be displayed at a higher resolution or not. Clearly from my other response above, I have the retroarch bezels displaying in high res, so I'm familiar with how the core resolution settings work.

But no matter what I choose, either core I load up, lr-mame or 2016, and I have even tried them in 2003-plus, the end result is always the lower resolution display, even though the source art on the build is much higher resolution.

[TPR]

@dankcushions Holy crap! I just figured it out.

In lr-mame2016, I turned on this setting:

"Alternate Render Setting = ON" and look at the results:

BEFORE:

AFTER:

And then in mame-2003-plus I found this setting:

"Artwork Resolution Multiplier" and I set it to 2. Here's the results:

BEFORE:

AFTER:

Now I just need to go through these games and see if there are any knock-on effects to these settings.

Hopefully this may help someone else who is in the same situation!

[UDb23]

@tpr It looks better but still not full res. I have no experience with mame2016 but afaik bezels in current mame should be high res (latest mame won't run on Pi).
As you are using lr-mame2003plus would you try my overlay for GORF that uses both LR overlay + mame backdrop (for the lamps animations):
https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/20486/backdrops-in-mame2003-plus/330
It is high res.