Switching from Landscape to Portrait

enlikil

Ok if I hit the tab key once.. when the game is starting I get the Menu that says
SYSTEM: mame:-libretro
EMULATIOR: lr-mame2003
VIDEO MODE:
ROM: Mspacman
THen I have options
1 select default emulator for mame-libretro
2 select emulator for rom
3
4
5 etc.etc.
This is not the original menu that I seen that had the cabinet options? where did that one go? any thoughts?

enlikil

Got it... while im' in GAME I hit tab and get the menu....
Ok.. So now I just need to figure out how Rotate it and hold the aspect ratio... and i'm golden...

caver01

@enlikil said in Switching from Landscape to Portrait:

another issue I haven't figured out yet is how to get my screen to rotate 90.. and keep it looking right, it tries to squish it to the same size as the horizontal mode. I believe there is a way to set this for each rom as you mentioned above I just don't know the settings.
or what to set aspect ratios to, I had no problems getting it to work on my PC with mame, but when I switched to retropie I'm having some difficulties.

We can definitely get the size/rotation sorted for you. It's easy to describe things ambiguously, so when you say it looks squished, or that it's the same size as horizontal, it's hard to know exactly what you mean. Pictures can help (even if you just take a photo with a phone).

One thing that can help you make the transition from running a native version of MAME on a PC versus running libretro cores in RetroArch is understanding that RetroArch is a framework and inside that you can run different emulators. The nice thing is that once you feel good about running different libretro cores (lr-mame2003, or lr-fba-next, many consoles) you get the benefit of using some of the same configs among them which allows consistent video and shaders.

It's also nice to know that if you follow the documentation with respect to the retroarch.cfg files, you have an opportunity to setup a the config for all cores in the configs/all folder and a "cascade effect" with individual emulator configs overriding settings if needed. Finally, per-ROM configs can further override these. Because this can get rather convoluted, it might help to simply run the games and see how they look before you start making changes anywhere.

If your cabinet is like mine (linked in my previous post above) you have vertical controls on each narrow end, and a horizontal panel on a long edge of the display. Typical horizontal games are a non-issue, as they display in landscape mode and are played from the horizontal panel. I like to consider this a "deafult" as it represents how games like Joust are played, but also how almost all of the home console emulators will work (Atari, NES, SNES etc.). Back to arcade games, I play a vertical game like PacMan, I want it to, fill the screen, but oriented sidways by comparison. This works nicely on my cabinet because I simply move around the cabinet to the left and play from that vertical end.

If we start there, and pick a game like, say, Frogger, if I just launch this game, to get it rotated the way I want, next to my ROM I have a text file called frogger.zip.cfg and inside that file I have two lines:

video_allow_rotate = true
video_rotation = 3

You can experiment with the number depending on which way is "up" for your cabinet playing this game. Once you have it right, then you probably need to remap these controls. I do it in the MAME GUI because it is easier. Then, and finally, you need to set the DIP switch as I described earlier. After a reset, MAME will rotate for player 2.

I do this for each game that I want to setup this way.

enlikil

@caver01 Oh Thanks For All That. I got nost of it working, i am attaching a screen shot.
Or not... it saya ita to big. ..anyhow i habe it vertocle not but it ia,not going the length of the monitor its only in the middle! Ot is thr 11 inchc hoeght of thecmonitor instead of the length of the monitor

enlikil

@caver01 Ok update:.. I have a config for mspacman as that's what i'm working with IT definatly works.. .however my video area is not properly proportioned. Playing with the settings.
#video_force_aspect = true
#video_scale_integer = true
#video_aspect_ratio_auto = true
#video_aspect_ratio = true
But I haven't found the right ones to make it work right.
Not even sure this is where I should be doing this at but it feels like it.

enlikil

I got it.... so my aspect ratio is 1.33 on this monitor... Works like a champ... your post about mystery aspect ratio totally solved my issue.
Now to figure out how to map my controls :)

enlikil

here is what I ended up with
video_allow_rotate = true
video_rotation = 1
aspect_ratio_index = "19"
video_aspect_ratio_auto = false
video_aspect_ratio = 1.33

Now I need to figure out how to flip my entire retropie upside down because my view angle upright is No good haha

edmaul69

@enlikil change your video rotation to 3 to flip it the other way

caver01

@enlikil excellent work. Your research found a lot of good answers and it looks like you are using the right settings.

Question: is everything upside down, including emulation station? If so, you need to rotate your video in boot/config.txt by adding display_rotate=2 assuming you are using a raspberry pi. That will make everything you do upside down from the moment you boot.

Otherwise, if it's jut this game, change your video_rotation = 3 in your rom cfg file.

You are very close! Way to go!

enlikil

@caver01 Thanks,. I was able to achieve everything I was looking for. I can now start going through each game and writing the config files for them. I am ready now to start building the table and wiring up all the buttons, then a whole new level of fun comes..
Thanks for all the input and guidance. it completely helped me.

enlikil

@caver01 I ended ep doing just that, to the config. Its crazy that LED monitors vary so much in the view angle.. I can see perfect from 3 sides but now the Way it was originally intended to use... (all good now)

caver01

@enlikil I did the same thing. Older LCDs that are not widescreen may be better suited for retro gaming because of the more common 4:3 aspect ratio (mine is actually 5:4) but the best technology of the day had limited viewing angles. Since the screens were designed to be placed on a desk, they were built to be viewed straight-on or from slightly above. I too had to mount my display upside-down in the cabinet. I have done this with the last two cocktail cabinets I have built.

The only time this presents any issues is when you are setting up a new SD card. Once you set the option in boot/config.txt you really never worry about it again.

enlikil

yeah. it worked grteat.... I been building my table for the pastweek. I"M stumped tbhat only one of my controllers is showing up, So 3 of my 4 joysticks .... I'm searching now for information on how to msetup 4 controllers player 1,2,3,4 for each game.... What do you use so you don't need a keyboard?

caver01

@enlikil mine uses an older Ultimarc iPAC4 which is technically a keyboard controller.

pkg04011979

@caver01 hi where do you add the text to rotate the display?

caver01

@pkg04011979 said in Switching from Landscape to Portrait:

@caver01 hi where do you add the text to rotate the display?

Scroll up to HERE to my post from 12 months back. . .

edwardthehuman

This post is deleted!