4K Vertical Overlay Community Contributions

RetroArch Additions Overlays
#1898

Yeah, I use low powered computers myself sometimes and I can’t use the MegaBezel at all on those. I do wonder if @HyperspaceMadness could add an option based on some of the less demanding shaders and without the reflections etc, so we could still use the megabezel as a more universal distribution mechanism?

I think RetroArch did support .lay files as well at one point, but I think it was removed? I don’t know where it stands now.

It would be nice to have something in RetroArch that is as simple as lay files for the consumer, and the megabezel is one option to get there.

It would also be nice if the megabezel could support alternate image files, and have a way for the user to switch between them easily, perhaps as a shader parameter? For instance, we have coin door, CPO, alternative art, small screen, large screen variations in many cases. MAME lay files let you bundle the variations together and the user can just flip between them in the Tab menu.

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#1899

There are actually 8 image layers available in the Mega Bezel. (Background, Device, Device LED, LED, Glass, Decal, and Top.)

They all share the same parameters and the intent defines the layer order.

For a single image overlay you could have up to 8 different images and adjust visibility (Opacity) as you wish.

The Potato have no reflections and only one image layer. It is essentially just a border shader with the Mega Bezel scaling and CRT shader features. I don’t think they will load on a Pi4, but I have had them running on a GTX 750 with 2GB of VRAM. Probably work well on a legacy Intel iGPU.

I assume @HyperspaceMadness could put some kind of scale only shader together that could be prepended with a CRT shader. (Given enough interest and incentive. :grin:) But I think adding the aspect coordinates to the overlay CFG would be a more universally accessible feature.

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#1900

That is actually a side effect of many of those bezels not having a 4x3 aspect. The automatic placement cannot account for that. It also may work better to create a B & W mask from the overlay and use that as the placement image.

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#1901

I didn’t realize those layers were as simple as that. I’ll definitely take advantage of that to enable the overlay variations.

I will give the potato option a try on my potatoes too when I have some free time :smiley:

Agree on the cfg coordinate point too. It seems like an odd omission for the RA overlay framework given all the other capabilities it has.

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#1902

You will have to take care. Many of the layers inherit different scaling. (Background, tube, screen, Device etc.) You will have to change that parameter to be “Background” or “Full”.

2 Likes
#1903

Check out my section “— Per Game Art Variations —” in my thread. I account for this as well. It’s a simple adjustment in the main game.params file to change to another variation image.

2 Likes
#1904

Yeah, I saw that, we always had that option in the cfg based overlays too, but it required the user to edit the file themselves. I was hoping for a way to do it in the UI without the user having to edit files, as it is in MAME.

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#1905

For switching on the fly I think the “Next Shader” and “Previous Shader” hotkeys are best suited. ATM the system doesn’t “remember” the folder of an automatically loaded preset (Game, Core, or Content Directory.) but if/when that changes, separate variation presets may be cycled through with the keys.

Currently, if you manually load a preset, you can cycle through the variations before saving a preset.

I don’t know about the overlay CFG enhancement, but @HyperspaceMadness is the most likely candidate for changing the “Remembering” of auto loaded presets.

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#1906

That sounds like a great solution! @HyperspaceMadness, can you make this happen??? :smiley:

#1907

I’m not sure if I can make this happen :rofl:

I looked into this a while ago and the way it’s implemented it’s wound into the UI , almost as a side effect.

3 Likes
#1908

Well, that is a bummer… I guess the way RetroArch evolved over the years, things were probably built for expedience a while back with some unintended consequences :frowning:

If you have any other thoughts about how to simplify this via your own shader code, let us know!

2 Likes
#1909

I’m tryind to find a “sub-Potato” preset, able to have some basic reflection and a sort of “CRT-like” look. I personally think reflections are even cooler than CRT (and scanlines) emulation. Only for 1080p of course. If I could find that for my potato PCs (like the ones @ArsInvictus has :grin:), I’d be more than happy. Maybe @HyperspaceMadness can help on that. Thanks.

#1910

Star Wars Trilogy Arcade 4K Vertical Overlay

This is done but I am working with others on the side to figure out how to move forward with packaging these overlays.

The new reflection method has been implemented here. In addition to bezel reflections, you can now see reflections appear in the area below the marquee and as well as the control panel. Although it looks great, further changes can be made to improve on this, so consider these reflections a work in progress.

I can still create a normal package with the standard overlay art as well. So no real loss either way. Just cool to see how this looks in action now!

I will try to have the overlay ready to share by end of weekend

9 Likes
#1911

Gate of Doom Updated 4K Overlay

This is an update from @walter.farmacia’s overlay, which didn’t have the official bezel artwork at the time. I’ve also updated to a slightly clearer marquee image (hope to get an actual scan someday!). I still used Walter’s CPO image, so thanks again to him for that.

There’s some work going on to set up a MegaBezel based distribution which will greatly simplify things for everyone going forward. It’s still a work in progress, but if you download the directory in this google link:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1_BlCuOgesVKxf9o2Z1tBug_YCKsCqJ08&usp=drive_fs

And then drop the Mega_Bezel_Vertical_Packs into your MegaBezel shaders Preset directory (it’s a Slang based shader) and set the games shader to “multigame” in the Vertical_Packs directory, it should work.

Longer term, once we have the overlays converted, you would only need to set the default shader to multigame at the Core level in order to use it for all games (it will have a default overlay for games that we haven’t created specific titles).

Right now we don’t have universal region support backed in but are planning to have that in the future.

Let me know if you have problems setting up and I’ll try to help.

Screenshot:

gatedoom-ss1jpg
gatedoom-ss1jpg2160×3840 1.27 MB

7 Likes
#1912

Thank you. This game always deserved a bezel. That’s very well done. Elevator Action Returns would also make a nice bezel. It only has instruction cards.

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#1913

Thank you for all your hard work. It means a lot!

#1914

Pure Awesomeness :beers::beers::beers:

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#1915

I don’t use the vertical overlays, but this is impressively realistic looking. Also, this is the first live demo of the new MB reflections I have seen and they look so cool. I didn’t think they were ready yet. :+1:

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#1916

This is actually with the currently released Mega Bezel, not the new stuff yet, unless @far327 is using the in development stuff which I don’t think they are since it is not yet optimized

1 Like
#1917

sf3 flynns arcade
sf3 flynns arcade4564×2686 1.18 MB
I’ll take a look at that. I was just watching an arcade walkthrough of some place down in Florida and noticed they used my SFIII custom bezel on their cabinet. It’s kind of cool seeing the stuff I do for these overlays popping up on YouTube and actual arcade cabinets here and there :slight_smile:

9 Likes