mame2003-plus: hundreds of new games, improved input, features, new bugs - now with runahead support

Riverstorm

@UDb23 - Here's a crude and not fancy spreadsheet in Excel that will calculate the position. All you need to do is enter backdrop x and backdrop y as backdrop dimensions and game x and game y as the game screen dimensions and the final number should be calculated after Position: near the bottom. Ignore all the other numbers (quite a few) or they could be moved off screen and just leave pertinent information. I left Space Invaders numbers in the spreadsheet as an example.

The formulas in backdrop x/y one and game x/y one are long and funky with trim, substituting, rounding, etc. that's all to get the final Position: string to match what it should look like in the .art file with just a cut-and-paste.

It's not been fully tested such as half/pixels or screen edges which I left after some quick and dirty testing due the final number calculations are carried out to the 100 thousands (5 decimal places) anyway and just don't seem affected to much.

Also I used some raw values for and made the assumption such as 0,0 is the top left corner (of the backdrop, not the game area). If they are negative x/y values I didn't know what to formulate them against or I would have created a formula such as game x being larger than backdrop x and make it zero unless it's a negative number, etc.

There's a lot of room for improvement, field naming etc. and just calculating the numbers directly vs. all the extras but I needed to do it long hand to get a grasp of how to do it first. I believe the formula should work for a majority of quick calculations on new backdrops.

If you do find ways to improve it just let me know or shoot me back a copy if you would. I am heading out and will be with family over the next 4 days (in and out but around home) so have a great holiday and Merry Christmas, if it applies.

Riverstorm

@UDb23 - One last thing, just to clarify game x/y in the spreadsheet are Core Provided values so your viewports should work perfectly.

UDb23

@Riverstorm Great work and really useful, thanks.
Will use it for my testing.
Merry Christmas to you and family.

Clyde

@UDb23 said in mame2003-plus: hundreds of new games, improved input, features, new bugs - now with runahead support:

@grant2258 ...but somewhat transparent in the green... again :-(

Sorry if I missed something in the previous discussion, but isn't the original space invaders also slightly transparent due to the mirror? At least I can see it clearly in the video you posted before.

I'll still have to test it in action, but just from the screenshots posted by @grant2258, I like the transparent version better.

UDb23

@Clyde In current version it's transparent by default. All considered I'd keep it that way.
For those wanting solid color just add the above mentioned ALPHA setting in the .ART file.

mikeylikesit33

Thanks for all your hard work guys! I've got a nice Asteroids Deluxe background going now, and maybe I can get the playfield set right with the new spreadsheet.

Big thumbs up!

Merry Christmas...

UDb23

@Riverstorm lr-mame2003 updated from source few hours ago.
SI (invaders.zip) game area is 720x960 (rotated 960x720) core provided on my 1080p TV (no overlay applied).
Created a better fitting backdrop image (still 1920x1080).

Applying the corresponding backdrop coordinates (calculated w rotated game area):

UDB screenshot.jpg

We finally get a properly proportioned Taito moon backdrop
:-))

UDb23

SI backdrop available here.

@markwkidd How can I upload this to the lr-mame2003 plus git repo ?

Riverstorm

@UDb23 - That looks really sharp! Do the spreadsheet calcs seem to be correct? Also looking forward to Omega Race and a few others you have planned. I'll do some testing later this evening when we get home late-ish. Sacrifices must be made, games must be played. All in the name of science, of course!

Riverstorm

@mikeylikesit33 - Maybe you can post your finished backdrop when you have it setup and completed.

UDb23

@Riverstorm said in mame2003-plus: hundreds of new games, improved input, features, new bugs - now with runahead support:

Do the spreadsheet calcs seem to be correct?

Yes they do work well, thanks !
Cross checked with my original excel sheet.
Will create an updated one that generates the full .art file ;-)

Currently creating a new overlay of the SI bezel from scratch to fit the backdrop best.
Cleaned up a high res original bezel scan, vectorising it now.

UDb23

@Riverstorm said in mame2003-plus: hundreds of new games, improved input, features, new bugs - now with runahead support:

Also looking forward to Omega Race and a few others you have planned

On step (backdrop) at a time...

robertvb83

@UDb23 maybe you can answer this...

Is that backdrop file independent from different screen resolutions or can we only use this for 1080p? I have a 5:4 pc monitor with 1280 x 1024. Do i have to modify something to match my screen?

UDb23

@robertvb83 the .ART mame artwork system places the backdrop proportionally to the game area. It should therefore scale it according to the monitor.
Has not been tested so far; try it and let us know.

mikeylikesit33

@Riverstorm I will. Playing with brightness on it currently.

A little too light, and it’s hard to see the game. A little too dark and why bother... there’s a big in-between that I am tweaking to find the sweet spot.

Also, my playfield is still just a tad off.

I’ll work on it more Monday

markwkidd

@UDb23 said in mame2003-plus: hundreds of new games, improved input, features, new bugs - now with runahead support:

SI backdrop available here.

@markwkidd How can I upload this to the lr-mame2003 plus git repo ?

I love that question! The simplest way to submit a PR to mame2003-plus is completely via the github site, which you can accomplish via this process:

go to http://github.com/libretro/mame2003-plus-libretro
in the upper right corner of the page, click the Fork button
add the artwork file to the metadata/artwork folder in your forked repository
go back to http://github.com/libretro/mame2003-plus-libretro
click the New pull request button towards the top-left of the github file browser interface

That should automatically make the correct PR to add your image. :)

If you wind up making regular contributions to the mame2003-plus repository, it might be worth it to learn how branches work and to set up git on your local PC. If it is just to submit a dozen or two artwork files all of that may not really be worth the trouble.

Riverstorm

@UDb23 - Definitely take your time. I didn't mean to imply I was in a hurry at all. By the way I love the SI Christmas Tree. I couldn't see it earlier, that's nice!

I was going to ask why you chose 720x960 for your calculations? On HD the y axis should be 1080 (to fill the screen vertically) and the x axis should be 810 (1080x0.75). Since you're resolution is also a 3:4 ratio I believe it should scale properly on different displays (even with different position numbers) but would it be more "true" to use 810x1080 vs. 720x960 for the position calculations?

Also interesting is once the backdrop is loaded in Plus I noticed my Core Provided numbers in RGUI changed to 1918x1080. One is it blows the whole 3:4 or 4:3, etc. ratios right out of the water. It looks fine but something to keep in mind as those number are true to the backdrop at that point and not the game ratio.

The other is remember when I mentioned half pixels earlier, I think this is where the 1918 vs. 1920 might come into play in the calculations. I decided it's not a show stopper by no means so didn't bother to round them up. Little things like those could be refined fairly easy in the spreadsheet but will change the number by only a few 10 thousandths.

@mikeylikesit33 - I agree. When I play some of the AdvMAME vector games I can't get it right due to exactly what you're saying. To bright and the vector lines of the ship or what not are lost and if you go to dim it almost looks washed out.

@markwkidd - Thanks for the instructions. Will they need to be named the same as the ROM to load properly? If artwork is user submitted, how will multiple backdrops for a single game from multiple users be handled?

UDb23

@Riverstorm said in mame2003-plus: hundreds of new games, improved input, features, new bugs - now with runahead support:

why you chose 720x960

I didn't choose it actually. It is what lr-mame2003 plus "core provided" sets SI as default (without any artwork) on 1080p monitor. I checked and mame2003 does the same.

It has correct aspect rato fo 3:4 and provides enough space for the bezel and backdrop to show without having a too small game area. That's why I kept it.

Concerning actual final screen resolution, as we have both RA overlay and Mame core generating artwork I wanted to be sure that the backdrop was fully and correctly displayed, I created a simple "test pattern" 1920x1080p backdrop. That shows correctly in SI so actual resolution should be 1920x1080 regardless of what RGUI displays. Anyway I can recheck.

UDb23

@markwkidd said in mame2003-plus: hundreds of new games, improved input, features, new bugs - now with runahead support:

the metadata/artwork folder

Thanks a lot. That in particular is what I needed to know.
I'm quite used to github so it should be no problem to make the pull request.

Riverstorm

@UDb23 - Yeah either resolution is 3:4. That's interesting though as that resolution you're using shouldn't fill the TV vertically. My core provided is actually 810x1080 (with nothing loaded like backdrops, shaders, etc.) which fills my screen vertically perfectly and the 810 just gives you a 3:4 ratio. 1080 is just the standard vertical resolution on a HD TV.

I'm not sure what to think is your TV HD as in 1920x1080? Is something being upscaled? You doing any boot/config.txt mods or game launch configs? Are rendering at the lower res and letting the TV upscale?

Beside a few exceptions all my 3:4 and 4:3 games are 1080 vertically.