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    Please do not post a support request without first reading and following the advice in https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/3/read-this-first

    Vectrex Overlay Artwork

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    • ClydeC
      Clyde
      last edited by Clyde

      Sorry for necroing this thread, but since I'm trying to get @mediamogul's overlays to work and this thread is almost the only one about Vectrex overlays in this forum, it may be a good candidate for a collective thread about this topic. If it would be better to start my own thread, please tell me so.

      I'm using the unmodified files from @mediamogul on my stock Retropie 4.4 on a monitor with 4:3 1600x1200 resolution. The overlays do work, but they are not in alignment of the game graphics. Three examples:

      raspi2png-20190210-210424.png
      raspi2png-20190210-210811.png
      raspi2png-20190210-211121.png

      As you can see, the overlay is a little bit too small or the game's graphics are too large. Although I could expand the overlay via an overlay0_rect option in overlays/gamename.cfg, that would cut off much of the overlay's border at the viewport's edge.

      The options custom_viewport_width and custom_viewport_height won't help either, since the overlay is part of the viewport and will change its size collectively with it.

      Any ideas how I can fit the overlay to the game's graphics or vice versa?

      Two things I noticed while trying to solve the problem:

      • Retroarch seems to ignore custom_viewport_width and custom_viewport_height even if video_scale_integer is set to "false". I tried to set them to 940:1200, but RA's XMB menu still showed them to be 846:1080, which is the resolution of the overlay's png.
      • The same goes for aspect_ratio_index = "22" (= custom). The games still start with "core provided" and I have to set it to "custom" manually.

      Any help is appreciated
      Clyde

      UDb23U 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • UDb23U
        UDb23 @Clyde
        last edited by

        @Clyde said in Vectrex Overlay Artwork:

        The same goes for aspect_ratio_index = "22" (= custom). The games still start with "core provided" and I have to set it to "custom" manually.

        Custom index has been changed to 23 some months ago by the RA developers.... impacting all already existing overlays using 22 in the settings.
        Try replacing 22 with 23 and see if it helps with the alignment issue.

        ClydeC 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 3
        • ClydeC
          Clyde @UDb23
          last edited by

          @UDb23 Argh, I read about the change somewhere, but I somehow remembered 22 to be the new value. So I thought that it's already fixed in my config files. 😒 Thanks for the tip!

          Alas, although "23" does fix my two issues about the custom viewport (the games start now with a custom viewport of 940x1200), it didn't change anything about the misalignment. I admit that I didn't expect it to, because any change I do to the viewport in the XMB menu affects both the game's graphics and the overlay alike.

          Just for the books, setting video_scale_integer on or off also doesn't change anything about the alignment between the two.

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • rkosterR
            rkoster
            last edited by

            I located quite a few more Vectrex overlays than were in the old .zip file, so I have created a github repo here with all of the ones I have: https://github.com/raphkoster/vectrex-overlays

            Note that these do not have .cfg files, they are just the overlays themselves. They've mostly been adapted to have PNG transparency so you don't need to set opacity lower than 1 for most of them.

            Github/helper scripts * Creativision/Arcadia/Astrocade guide * Amiga guide * Atari 8bit guide

            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • DNunoD
              DNuno
              last edited by DNuno

              ...and back to this topic!

              Well, I still cannot display overlays in Vectrex Emulation on Retropie.
              Note sure if it's because I'm (obviously) doing something wrong, or it's because this topic is a little bit too old and things (emulator) changed over the years?

              Anyway, here's my configuration :

              VecX 1.2 b78b3d1 on my RetroPie

              Let's do the Job for one game : Scramble

              I've downloaded the overlay file & configuration file from the link provided by @Lizard and put those files into this directory

              pi@retropie:/opt/retropie/configs/all/retroarch/overlay/vectrex $ ls -altri
              totale 692
              15976 drwxr-xr-x 19 pi pi   4096 ott 14 11:54 ..
                978 -rw-r--r--  1 pi pi 692255 ott 14 11:54 Scramble.png
               5106 -rw-r--r--  1 pi pi     95 ott 14 12:19 Scramble.cfg
              88150 drwxr-xr-x  2 pi pi   4096 ott 14 12:20 .
              

              Here's the content of the Scramble.cfg file :

              pi@retropie:/opt/retropie/configs/all/retroarch/overlay/vectrex $ more Scramble.cfg
              overlays = 1
              
              overlay0_overlay = Scramble.png
              
              overlay0_full_screen = true
              
              overlay0_descs = 0
              

              OK, so what I'm doing next is starting the emulator, then going into its menu, and select :

              MAIN MENU -> Configuration -> Load Configuration and select the Scramble.cfg file previously uploaded :

              alt text

              But selecting this file push me out of the emulator :-(

              What Am I doing wrong or what I missed?

              Thanks in advance for your help.

              davejD 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • FollyF
                Folly
                last edited by

                @DNuno

                I think you are missing a second config file near your rom.

                If you rom is called Scramble.zip , make a config called Scramble.zip.cfg and place this into this cfg.

                input_overlay = /opt/retropie/configs/all/retroarch/overlay/vectrex/Scramble.cfg
                input_overlay_enable = true
                input_overlay_opacity = 0.375000
                input_overlay_scale = 1.000000
                
                #custom_viewport_width = "600"
                #custom_viewport_height = "800"
                
                #custom_viewport_width = "846"
                #custom_viewport_height = "1080"
                #custom_viewport_x = "0"
                #custom_viewport_y = "0"
                
                #aspect_ratio_index = "22"
                
                #video_scale_integer = true
                

                Hope this works for you.

                DNunoD 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                • davejD
                  davej @DNuno
                  last edited by

                  @DNuno said in Vectrex Overlay Artwork:

                  ...and back to this topic!

                  Well, I still cannot display overlays in Vectrex Emulation on Retropie.
                  Note sure if it's because I'm (obviously) doing something wrong, or it's because this topic is a little bit too old and things (emulator) changed over the years?

                  That version of the emulator you're using is very old. Even before my GPU rendering changes, the emulator was changed to allow scaling/shifting the game screen via game options. One advantage of this new method is it defines values relative to a logical screen, so if you change the screen resolution you are using it automatically adjusts to suit and you don't need to go and edit all your game files.

                  You should definitely update to the latest version.

                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • DNunoD
                    DNuno @Folly
                    last edited by

                    @Folly My rom name is called : "Scramble.bin"

                    I have a file in that same (rom) directory called Scramble.cfg

                    Should I have to rename it "Scramble.bin.cfg" ? following your reply? I tried but it doesn't help anyway :-(

                    Anyway, here's the content of that file :

                    pi@retropie:~/RetroPie/roms/vectrex $ ls -altri
                    totale 704
                     2347 drwxr-xr-x 39 pi pi   4096 ott 12 19:38 ..
                     4922 -rw-r--r--  1 pi pi   4096 ott 14 11:03 Scramble.bin
                    69171 -rw-r--r--  1 pi pi    327 ott 14 13:28 Scramble.cfg
                    88151 drwxr-xr-x  2 pi pi   4096 ott 14 14:45 overlay
                    

                    ...that includes this :

                    pi@retropie:~/RetroPie/roms/vectrex $ more Scramble.cfg
                    input_overlay = /home/pi/RetroPie/roms/vectrex/overlay/Scramble.cfg
                    input_overlay_enable = true
                    input_overlay_opacity = 0.375000
                    input_overlay_scale = 1.000000
                    
                    custom_viewport_width = "846"
                    custom_viewport_height = "1080"
                    custom_viewport_x = "0"
                    custom_viewport_y = "0"
                    
                    aspect_ratio_index = "22"
                    
                    video_scale_integer = true
                    

                    ... and inside the file

                    /home/pi/RetroPie/roms/vectrex/overlays/Scramble.cfg

                    I have this :

                    pi@retropie:~/RetroPie/roms/vectrex $ more /home/pi/RetroPie/roms/vectrex/overlay/Scramble.cfg
                    overlays = 1
                    
                    overlay0_overlay = Scramble.png
                    
                    overlay0_full_screen = false 
                    
                    overlay0_descs = 0
                    

                    But overlay still not display :-( should I check other settings in the main emulator configuration file (/opt/retropie/configs/vectrex/retroarch.cfg) ?
                    I tried in there to find a verbose mode to see what happened, but didn't find this option? I do not believe this line is relevant for it -> cheevos_verbose_enable = "false" ?

                    Any idea to debug this ?

                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                    • FollyF
                      Folly
                      last edited by Folly

                      @DNuno

                      It only works if i use "Scramble.bin.cfg".

                      This is what I have :

                      pi@raspberrypi:~/Desktop/roms/vectrex $ ls Scramble.*
                      Scramble.bin  Scramble.bin.cfg
                      pi@raspberrypi:~/Desktop/roms/vectrex $ more Scramble.bin.cfg
                      input_overlay = /home/pi/RetroPie/roms/vectrex/overlays/scramble.cfg
                      input_overlay_enable = true
                      input_overlay_opacity = 0.375000
                      input_overlay_scale = 1.000000
                      
                      custom_viewport_width = "846"
                      custom_viewport_height = "1080"
                      custom_viewport_x = "0"
                      custom_viewport_y = "0"
                      
                      aspect_ratio_index = "22"
                      
                      video_scale_integer = true
                      pi@raspberrypi:~/Desktop/roms/vectrex $ cd overlays/
                      pi@raspberrypi:~/Desktop/roms/vectrex/overlays $ ls scramble.*
                      
                      scramble.cfg  scramble.png
                      
                      pi@raspberrypi:~/Desktop/roms/vectrex/overlays $ more scramble.cfg
                      
                      overlays = 1
                      
                      overlay0_overlay = scramble.png
                      
                      overlay0_full_screen = false
                      
                      overlay0_descs = 0
                      

                      /dev/shm/runcommand.log should give you "Executing :" :

                      /opt/retropie/emulators/retroarch/bin/retroarch -L /opt/retropie/libretrocores/lr-vecx/vecx_libretro.so --config /opt/retropie/configs/vectrex/retroarch.cfg "/home/pi/Desktop/roms/vectrex/Scramble.bin" --verbose --appendconfig /dev/shm/retroarch.cfg'|'"/home/pi/Desktop/roms/vectrex/Scramble.bin.cfg"
                      

                      You can paste this command in your terminal. Though the output does not show how the overlay is loaded.

                      If it still does not work :
                      Sometimes there are unseen characters in the beginning of text files. Try to make new configs. Type the first letter and copy paste the rest.

                      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                      • DNunoD
                        DNuno
                        last edited by

                        It still doesn't work :-(
                        Can you provide me your full Vectrex configuration file? (mine is /opt/retropie/configs/vectrex/retroarch.cfg)
                        Because I've done too many modification during my attempts... maybe something is wrong in there since? I would like to compare few parameters.
                        Thx in advance for your help.

                        FollyF 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                        • FollyF
                          Folly @DNuno
                          last edited by

                          @DNuno

                          It's a standard one.

                          # Settings made here will only override settings in the global retroarch.cfg if placed above the #include line
                          
                          input_remapping_directory = "/opt/retropie/configs/vectrex/"
                          
                          #include "/opt/retropie/configs/all/retroarch.cfg"
                          

                          Do you have a good ovelay picture, can you check with a viewer ?

                          Perhaps you should update Retroarch and reinstall the vectrex core.

                          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
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