Using MAME Overlays/Bezels and shaders with RetroArch in RetroPie

Graboid

@Zigurana Do you have a copy of the 1943.zip.cfg file that resides in the ROMS folder? Mine doesn't fit properly, mainly the top and bottom are not fitting properly.

Graboid

@Zigurana Can you test this Donkey Kong overlay on your 4:3 screen, I want to make sure it's consistent across all 4:3 screen as I am creating my own 4:3 based on @UDb23 excellent work.

How it looks on my 4:3 screen
0_1487755610567_dkong photo.JPG

Overlay

space invader

Hi!

So I installed the rp-video-manager and the arcade overlays work well.

Only one question, I would like to apply that but without the scratches and reflections, so could it be posible to download the artwork in psd format or whatever where I could eliminate some layers and mantain the ones I want?

Many thanks for the hard work!

joelf

Hi @Floob

I have a 4:3 and want to have a few for vertical games.

Is there some way I can make the overlay to maintain proportions, center the image?

Maybe something to do with overlay0_rect ?

EDIT: yup, that was it.

This looks ok on my 1280x1024 monitor:

 overlay0_rect = "-0.22,0,1.44,1"

That is the positioning left, top, right, bottom. note that the padding on the right should be twice the positioning on the left to center the image. The unit is screen lengths or heights, "0,0,1,1" is default - the left side starts at the 0column of the screen, the top starts at the 0 row, and ends at the row that is 1 full screen length down, and 1 full screen right. If I placed "-1,0,2,1" I am telling the png to start at the column that is -1 screen to the left (1 full screen away) and the 2 is 1 screen length past the right side (the actual screen legnth is 1 plus 1 extra is 2).

This will be added to each of the CFG files found in \\RETROPIE\configs\all\retroarch\overlay\arcade-bezel-overlays

In the rom.zip.cfg, found in the roms folder, I am playing around with the height and width. so it looks ok. I found that

custom_viewport_width = "656"
custom_viewport_height = "875"

works well for this screen, when you are in a vertical game like 1943. Then to center the CRT monitor take the screen rez, subtract the width and height, then divide it by two.

I'm hoping there's a proportional/center toggle, so I don't have to do this.

joelf

I use my machine on two screens - a 16:9 and 4:5

I created 2 folders in /arcade-bezel-overlays /4by5 and /16by9 i added the game.cfg files in there and referenced ../game.png either as overlay0_rect = "-0.22,0,1.44,1" or overlay0_rect = "-0,0,1,1" to stretch the same 16:9 ong to fit one monitor or the other.

In the retroarch CFG I just add in the subfolder depending on the screen I am using, and adjust the placement of the center of the screen (I really wish there was a center token)

I then need a script the adjusts all the game.zip.cfg files to recenter them too. This is the guts of this script, but I'll have ti do a regex find and replace I think. https://pastebin.com/fnf4HCnS

phulshof

Has anyone created a script yet to convert MAME .lay files to RetroArch format? Is it even possible to do so?

I'm sitting on a ton of 16:9 MAME bezels (I converted practically every bezel I could find from RocketLauncher (Krakerman, Griffin518, Derek Moore, Ashurax, etc.) to MAME format), and I've been sharing the results via MEGA and EmuMovies, and I thought it might be interesting to have them converted for use in RetroArch as well.

UDb23

@phulshof I dont't think it's possible to do it automatically.
You have to rescale the actual game area for these bezels to adapt to specific retroarch core actual screen ratio and game area size. Also do you want to scale integer, maximum possible game area or full original bezel (small game area, like official mame bezels do) ?
And you need to create retroarch CFGs accordingly.
Automatically scaling or cropping mame bezels wouldn't do justice to those really nice original artwork.

In the end I choose to manually create the overlays/bezels for the games I like most and/or retropie forum users asked for.
See these posts.
Overlays Repository here.

phulshof

@UDb23

I have 1000+ 16:9 bezels here, so if it's in any way possible I'd like to script the conversion (image rescale if needed, and .lay to .cfg). 😀

There's not that much difference between the .lay and the .cfg parameters, is there? Can RetroArch support multiple overlays per game, and allow you to pick one?

phulshof

As an example, here's a bezel by Ashurax for Sexy Parodius. The .lay information that goes with it is
<element name="bezelA">
<image file="Bezel - 16x9 (Ashurax).png" />
</element>
<view name="Ashurax 16x9">
<screen index="0">
<bounds x="322" y="37" width="1277" height="1006" />
</screen>
<bezel element="bezelA">
<bounds x="0" y="0" width="1920" height="1080" />
</bezel>
</view>

As you can see, the bezel is defined as 1920x1080, with the viewarea defined starting at (322,37) with width 1277 and height 1006. What would such a definition look like in a cfg file for this bezel?
0_1498025832586_Bezel - 16x9 (Ashurax).png

UDb23

@phulshof
should be like this:

# 19 = Config, 20 = 1:1 PAR, 21 = Core Provided, 22 = Custom Viewport
aspect_ratio_index = "22"

# these two define the pixel size of the emulated screen

custom_viewport_width = "1277"
custom_viewport_height = "1006"

# the following two decide how far from the left and top the game screen is shown

custom_viewport_x = "322"
custom_viewport_y = "37"

UDb23

@phulshof Retroarch can't do overlay selection but with @meleu's Art install script you can select which overlay you want to install.

phulshof

@UDb23
Looks to me like it should be possible to script a conversion from .lay to .cfg then. :) I may have missed this part of the discussion, but does RetroArch automatically scale it to another 16:9 resolution or do you have to convert that as well? I know that some of the bezels I have are for 4K resolution, and MAME automatically scales that.

I'll have a look at converting a single bezel for this purpose. If successful, I will try to script a conversion of all the 16:9 bezels I have available. Assuming people would be interested: what would be the best way of offering them to this community?

phulshof

I just had a quick look; looks like I have over 2000 bezels for almost 1000 different games. That's not including the conversions Metalzoic did to show the game at full resolution (at the cost of some of the artwork).

edmaul69

This post is deleted!

keuc

@zigurana

@Graboid :
Hey, you can Graboid them here, or at least once it finishes uploading (~3hrs for 126MB, sigh).

Can you share that files again? The old link is dead...((