Nice MAME2003 overlays repository

meleu

Hello friends.

Our fellow @UDb23 created a github repository where he puts his amazing artwork (the focus are lr-mame2003 overlays, but there may be some bonuses).

Here is the link: https://github.com/udb23/rpie-ovl

UPDATE
You can easily install the overlays this way:

git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/udb23/rpie-ovl.git
cd rpie-ovl
bash rpie-ovl.sh

After launching rpie-ovl.sh you just have to follow the instructions in the dialog boxes.

No, I'm not announcing this because I'm his Public Relations Officer! :) I'm just starting this topic because we were discussing about the repository structure and naming conventions in other thread and this was starting to get confusing...

I'm working on a script to simplify/automate the instalation of those overlays and that's why I'm interested in the file naming conventions.

UPDATE

We decided to use a text file named info.txt where we can explicitly tell which file is used for. The details of how to create this file can be found here: https://github.com/meleu/rpie-art/blob/master/INFO.md

Old convention (no need to follow this convention, use the info.txt file):

The folder in the github repository should have a "human friendly" game name. Example: Marvel vs. Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes
RomName.zip.cfg: the file that will be at roms/mame-libretro folder (maybe other arcade core directory too). This file must have the input_overlay line, where the script get the full path to the overlay config file.
RomName.cfg: the file that will be at /opt/retropie/emulators/retroarch/overlays/arcade-bezels/. This file must have the overlay0_overlay, where the script puts the overlay image file name.
RomName_ArtistName-ovl.png: the overlay image file. If there are more than one image, use a trailing _N-ovl.png in the name, where N is a sequential number.

meleu

Here are some screenshots of how the script's output will look like:

meleu

@UDb23 Since we will have some other image files in some directories (like the Burning Force artwork) I think that the overlays image files should be named RomName_ArtistName_Number_ovl.png. The trailing _ovl.png will be useful to avoid confusion with other -image.png and -launching.png files...

If you agree with it I can rename the files and submit a Pull Request.

UDb23

@meleu Wow. The tool looks amazing.
I see there will even be an image preview for selection.
thanks!!

Adding the _ovl ending to file names makes sense to me. Agreed.
Will require image renaming of the overlays images AND cfg editing accordingly.
I could do it in the weekend; if you do it before thru a Pull request I'll merge it asap.

UDb23

@meleu As the other image types end with "-image" and "-launching" maybe overlays should end with "-ovl" instead of "_ovl".

UDb23

@meleu said in Nice MAME2003 overlays repository:

No, I'm not announcing this because I'm his Public Relations Officer! :)

lol :-))

meleu

@UDb23 said in Nice MAME2003 overlays repository:

@meleu As the other image types end with "-image" and "-launching" maybe overlays should end with "-ovl" instead of "_ovl".

agreed. I'll do it tonight.

Will require image renaming of the overlays images AND cfg editing accordingly.

To be honest it wouldn't be necessary if the users install the overlays using the tool. ;-) But I'll edit the cfg files accordingly. No worries.

I see there will even be an image preview for selection.

Unfortunately this feature is useless when running the script through SSH. But it's nice anyway! :-)

jdrassa

@meleu Will your script handle overlays that can be used for more than one ROM? Specifically wondering about The Simpsons which has a 2 player and 4 player version.

meleu

@jdrassa said in Nice MAME2003 overlays repository:

Will your script handle overlays that can be used for more than one ROM?

No.

I thought about it and decided to not. I don't want to make the script check dat files searching for clone file names, etc.

The good thing is that doing what you want is pretty simple: just copy (or rename) the .zip.cfg file to match the clone file name. ;-)

Example:

cp simpsons.zip.cfg simpsons2p.zip.cfg

meleu

@UDb23 I faced two issues when working on the script and would like to propose two more "rules" (I could handle these in the script, but I believe we can leave the script simpler if following these rules):

don't use duplicated overlay0_overlay entries, even when commented (my PR #9 fixes this problem in some files). Example of what I'm saying to avoid (from Marvel vs. Capcom .cfg file):

overlay0_overlay = mvc_udb_1.png 
# overlay0_overlay = mvc_udb_2.png

don't use duplicated .zip.cfg files (I saw this situation on Moon Cresta directory). I think you did it to use with clone ROMs, but let's leave this task to the user (like I suggested in the post above).

meleu

I want to make available the option to install the overlays in other directories, not only the roms/mame-libretro. I'm thinking in these:

mame-libretro (obviously)
arcade
fba
neogeo

Do you guys use some other directory for arcade ROMs?

UDb23

@meleu ok. Let's stick to this.

meleu

@UDb23 If you merge my PR I think I can release an useful version of the script tonight. (This is not a blackmail! :-) It's just that I'm writing the script based on those changes)

UDb23

@meleu :-) Just came home; merge done right now !
Thanks for your hard work.

meleu

@UDb23 I've just made another Pull Request with the very first version of the script and an update on the README.

I think it's better to put the script inside your repository. It will simplify things. :-)

UDb23

@meleu merged!

meleu

@UDb23 Nice!

Hey guys, now you can easily install the @UDb23 's overlays this way:

git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/udb23/rpie-ovl.git
cd rpie-ovl
bash rpie-ovl.sh

After launching rpie-ovl.sh you just have to follow the instructions in the dialog boxes.

Any feedback is welcome.

I already edited the OP with these instructions. ;-)

UDb23

@meleu Great, will try it tomorrow.

pjft

@UDb23 @Meleu wow. These look amazing, and the setup script is the cherry on top!

A question: will it install all overlays regardless of whether I actually have the ROM there? Or do I need to add the Roms for the games for which there are overlays for beforehand?

Just checking the right process :)

Thanks for your contributions to the community!

meleu

@pjft said in Nice MAME2003 overlays repository:

A question: will it install all overlays regardless of whether I actually have the ROM there?

Yes. It was a conscious decision. I did this way because sometimes the user don't have the exact ROM as the @UDb23 created overlay for, but a clone. In this case the user just have rename the RomName.zip.cfg file.

Example: if you don't have the simpsons.zip (that version of The Simpsons for 4 players) but have the simpsons2p.zip (the version for 2 players where the player can choose the character), then you just have to install the overlay and then go to the rom directory and do a mv simpsons.zip.cfg simpsons2p.zip.cfg.

I'm sure somebody will ask for this "clone matching" in the script at somepoint, but it would add an unwanted complexity to the script, like searching for this info in some dat file... (C'mon guys! Let's learn some simple Linux command!) :-)