I’m on a 1080p screen, and system is set to scale using display. I use the default Windowed Fullscreen mode in RA too, but turned it off to make the custom resolution work better as you advised.
I think I saw your reply about Launchbox but forgot about it due to the issues at hand. I have been thinking about it but Idk if it’s easy to pick up and use right now as I’m even new to RA, but I’ll see if I can.
Being new to RA and HSM Mega Bezel as well as my shader presets, perhaps you should start with what works well for others who use this HSM Mega Bezel Reflection Shader setup for example myself, @Tromzy, @HyperspaceMadness, @Duimon, @TheNamec and try to mimic our setups first by asking questions. Instead of going it alone. It’s almost as if you’re setting yourself up to have a more difficult experience instead of making it easier to start having fun first then experiment on the side.
So for me, I primarily use Nestopia, Final Burn Neo, Higan, Genesis Plus GX, PicoDrive, Stella, Beetle PCE Fast Cores and Beetle SGFX Cores. I also use LaunchBox as my Frontend because I like the presentation and it makes things a lot easier to launch. Less time fiddling means more time having fun. Time and happiness are two things I find very valuable.
So today marks another significant milestone in the brief history of my CyberLAb Mega Bezel Death To Pixels Shader Preset Pack! It’s only been 16 days since creating this thread but already we have had over 2,200 view as well as several hundred downloads! I’m glad to know that other users are able to share in the kind of experience that I am having and that they are also sharing this experience with others!
So this calls for some sort of celebration. In commemoration of this achievement I’m posting this excellent installation guide created by jtay9562 who came across my Shader Preset Pack over on reddit! He took his time and was meticulous in his presentation and this should go a long way in making these resources, tools and works of art even more accessible to new users. With much thanks to jtay9562 and all who have worked and contributed to create these shaders and presets, I present:
Really with normal use of the Mega Bezel, you will want to have retroarch in fullscreen mode, and not windowed unless you need that for a reason I’m not aware of. Your retroarch video aspect ratio should be set to “FULL”. With normal use of the Mega Bezel you should never be using the custom aspect ratio where you actually set the resolution in the retroarch video settings.
I understand what you’re saying. I’m just trying to get to a point where every game that I play is at an acceptable level to me. I’m just using what I’m accustomed to and have experience with. That’s why I’m focusing only on Mame and Dreamcast/Naomi games atm. I’ve never used FBNeo and from what I’ve found about it, it will need a different set of roms too because apparently it doesn’t support the current updated Mame rom versions. I’ll look into it though.
Yes, I actually am using RA in fullscreen, but using the Windowed Fullscreen mode which is the default. @Cyber has just mentioned using the same. Only for trying out the custom1496x1120 resolution, I turned off Windowed Fullscreen as @Cyber advised me to. I didn’t know I was supposed to generally just set the Windowed Fullscreen permanently to off for using your shaders. I have followed your instructions, and I have just re-read them and didn’t see it being mentioned that the default Windowed Fullscreen mode shouldn’t be used. Aspect ratio is already set to 'FULL" as per your instructions.
Yeah there is no problem using Windowed mode. I was just trying to point out that it isn’t necessary and that having it run fullscreen is an easy way to use it (When I’m talking about fullscreen mode I’m talking about if retroarch is in windowed mode pressing the f key will put retroarch in fullscreen mode).
Hopefully that makes it more clear what I was trying to say (rather than more confusing 
)
Yes, there definitely seems to be a slight bit of confusion with room for even more misunderstanding here. When I first mentioned custom resolutions it was only because I realized that that’s what @Nesguy uses and was just trying to understand out of curiosity and also for when trying his presets. I don’t recall recommending that @Aeoliza use custom resolutions, I was only responding to him stating that he tried using them and they didn’t work for him. So I told him that he needed to turn Windowed Full Screen Off in order to use the Custom Resolutions. I’m not saying that he said that I recommended using custom resolutions but based on how it’s stated, it could just as easily be construed as such.
So long story short @Aeoliza. Don’t use custom resolutions unless you know what you’re doing and trying to follow @Nesguy 's advanced methods of setting things up.
Excellent tutorial. I am hoping someone can create a tutorial adding the Duimon Bezels in as well.
I second that motion!
Here is an excellent video of my CyberLab Mega Bezel Death To Pixels (Arcade - Sharp) preset in action courtesy @TheNamec ! It features his Amiga 1000 + Commodore C1080 RetroArch Overlay from TheNamec Mega Bezel Commodore Pack. The game being played is Jim Power in Mutant Planet
Dear Cyber,
could you please elaborate on the below?
For lower end systems, you can replace the Base CRT Preset reference shader line with this:
#reference ":/shaders/shaders_slang/bezel/Mega_Bezel/Presets/Base_CRT_Presets/MBZ__3__BASIC-EXTRA-PASSES__GDV.slangp"
I want to use the CyberLab Mega Bezel Death To Pixels Blending and Transparency 1080p Edition but my GPU steps at 99%.
So I edit CyberLab Mega Bezel Death To Pixels Arcade Sharp (I guess this is the Base shader of it) and put the lower spec shader you suggested…but I get no reflections. Is that normal?
Thank you
Wow, thanks for your very detailed reply! I greatly appreciate your help. I’ve learned a lot. Messing with your presets has been a highlight of my week. It’s been fun exploring this fascinating shader. At this point I think I’m done tweaking stuff. Now I can finally relax and enjoy playing these games. I’ve updated my preset once again, this time with a solution to the super narrow aspect ratio in Ridge Racer Type 4’s intro and menu. In the shader parameters, I forced an aspect ratio of 4:3; preventing the screen to ever change shape. This problem bothered me long before I knew of your work, so I’m really happy to see this problem fixed. Anyway, thanks for all your help and good luck on perfecting your presets! You’re the reason I’m gonna buy a 4K monitor.
Yes, once the CRT filtering looks the same and you’re seeing the plain bezel with no reflections you did it correctly. These shaders are a bit GPU intensive, however in the next update performance is supposed to improve significantly.
There are 2 other tricks you can use to squeeze out some better performance though.
The first is to use a lower desktop resolution than your native resolution and just use a preset that is optimized for that resolution. So for example, if you had a 4K screen, you could have lowered your desktop resolution to 1440p or 1080p and use one of the corresponding shader presets for the lower resolutions. (PVM Editions work fine at either 4K or 1080p and there are optimized ones for 1440p). So in your case you can also try my CyberLab Mega Bezel Death To Pixels Blending and Transparency PVM Edition preset on your 1080p display. Just edit the base preset in the same way. It should actually be the same Arcade Sharp base preset you already edited I believe so you wouldn’t have to change anything.
The second is to look for an older version of HSM Mega Bezel Reflection Shader - version 9.21 to be precise and use that instead of the current one because the older one is measurably faster than the current version. Older versions are available on HyperspaceMadness’s GitHub page I believe. The information on how to find it is the first post of his shader thread.
If you want to use a different version then be sure to rename or delete the other bezel folder.
You can also combine any or all of these methods for a cumulative effect.
You’re welcome! Please help others to share in this experience if you can. You can report this behaviour with Ridge Racer 4 to @HyperspaceMadness so that he can include an automagic fix for this in the future!
Listen, getting a 4K Monitor is good, but if you can, the ultimate experience with these shaders is using them with a 4K OLED TV or monitor! So see if you can get a deal on one or find the cheapest you can afford. I think Visio is starting to make them and LG is supposed to be releasing some smaller, cheaper models next year.
I don’t have the experience to back this up but a Samsung QLED TV might also give you a pretty great experience due to having good contrast and black levels and also excellent brightness, colour volume and motion clarity.
A TV with proper functioning BFI at 120Hz is also an exceptional option from what I’ve been told.
Something with Mini-LED with lots of dimming zones might also be a good alternative or a Dual Cell technology TV.
Look at this thread for some recommendations. I’m not sure if it’s been updated though:
And also this one:
Hi Cyber, im using a hd crt 4-3 aspect ratio sony tv with the mega bezel and looks awesome to me, im about to create another retroarch folder to use with your shaders, i want to try your arcade pvm version and some composite for old systems that i feel your shader gives me the most pleasant picture to my eyes that i remember with those systems. I have a question, im using a custom resolution of 1920x1440i not p in my pc with my hd crt, this is the biggest res my tv can accept, its interlaced but my tv handles very well without slowdowns at 60hz, what resolution of the ones you have available in your shader would be the best in my scenario?
The simplest answer is the ones that look best to you. I’ve never tested these presets on a CRT and most certainly not in any interlaced modes but I would think that the 1440p optimized presets might be a good starting point. The optimizations for the different resolutions don’t really have much to do with whether interlacing is enabled or not. They’re optimized to have feature sizes and sharpness that lower resolution screens can display and better resemble the standard presets which are all made and tested on a 4K screen.
So whether 1440 progressive or interlaced it’s still 1440 lines per frame and the number and size of the scanlines and mask should still be a proper match but the proof will be in the testing. So go ahead and enjoy them. Your setup might be the ultimate setup for my presets with that CRT glow, excellent black levels and response times and finally perfect motion clarity!
I can just imagine what it must be like! I’m glad you like the way they look! I’m looking forward to seeing some video footage (or some photos) of this setup in action if you feel the urge to share!
As soon as i set it to work im going to take some pics and videos, thanks a lot. Ill use your 1440 presets to see whats up.
Question; I installed everything fresh as shown in the Youtube installation video, but my games don’t take up the whole box like they do in the examples. I’m running N64 games and those have varying amounts of black borders. How can I make it as shown? I’m new to all this, thanks for any help!
Welcome to the forum. You have to use the crop/zoom feature of the shader.
Launch your game and go into the Quick Menu.
Then Shaders…
Then Shader Parameters…
Scroll Down from the top until you see the Cropping and Zooming Settings. It’s close to the top of the list. There you can Zoom - which crops all sides simultaneously, or Crop the sides, top or bottom individually. There’s also an option to set the Auto Crop Black Threshold which is supposed to automatically crop the black borders which is useful for games that change resolutions.
When finished cropping go back then click Save…then Save Game Preset.
You can let me know if you get through!
