One way you can see the horizontal resolution a game is using is by going into Shader Parameters and turning on Show Resolution Info. It’s the first parameter.
Custom Resolutions can be set in Settings…Video…Fullscreen Mode
But Windowed Fullscreen Mode would need to be turned off for these settings to have any effect.
You’re welcome! I’m glad you’re enjoying my presets. Feel free to share your tweaks and some screenshots!
Thanks, I changed the Resolutions in Fullscreen Mode to 1496x1120 and disabled the Windowed Fullscreen Mode. But now when I try to go fullscreen, it doesn’t cover the whole screen.
This is something I don’t interfere with so I don’t have much experience to guide you here but if the custom resolution you set is lower than the resolution of the screen then that might happen.
What Nesguy was suggesting was setting Custom Resolutions which were multiples (for example 2x, 3x, 4x or 5x) of the core resolution but just slightly larger resulting in some of the overscan area being cropped off.
Perhaps @Nesguy or @HyperspaceMadness might be of assistance? Also a little more information might help, for example what core, game, the resolution info and maybe a screenshot and a summary of what you’re trying to accomplish.
On another note, you can launch clones of Mame ROMs easily using LaunchBox. It’s as simple as right clicking and selecting which clone or version of the game you want to play from one entry for all of the clones. You can even set which one you want to be the default. I don’t know if you saw my reply on that.
You can also have the same ROMs setup to use both Mame and Final Burn Neo and easily switch between the 2.
Hey, the PVM editions look really cool! Nice job on them. I took the RGB Sharp PVM and modified it like the original RGB Sharp and got a result that’s fitting for my eyeballs. Unlike before, I’ve decided to keep your mask type, but lowered its strength. Looks good in everything from 8-bit to N64. I want to use it in PS1 games with 2x resolution, but unfortunately the scanlines look really odd. I’ll see about finding a solution later. But for now, here are a few screenshots and a download to this preset.
EDIT: Ok, so from my testing, only one PS1 game running at 2x resolution has weird distracting scanlines, and that game is Ghost in the Shell. Setting the Int Scale Mode to 1.00 fixes this, but understandably causes the picture to be smaller. Imo this is a better choice than simply removing the scanlines because removing them causes the picture to be too bright. Scanlines are hardly visible in any game at 2x res. Doesn’t really bother me tho.
Many of these CRT scanline shaders fall flat on hires (>240p) content. It’s something that I and others have came across and been working on finding solutions to. If you read some of my previous posts on trying to get Marvel Vs Capcom 2 for Dreamcast to look good. Also things like ScaleFX (which does smoothing don’t work as well on hi-res content and even some low-res looking 2D which uses “bunches of pixes” to render the sprites.
There have been some posts on this and I’ve had some early success in creating presets that provide a good balance. There are always going to be compromises it seems.
HSM Mega Bezel Reflection Shader has some presets to address this called the DREZ presets.
If you run 2x without adjusting the scanlines then that means you would have 2x the scanlines trying to share the same space so that can cause some issues. Separating the scanlines and phosphors more can help. So if use any setting that stretches the image out more it would make things look better. You can also lower the scanline resolution to 50% using the Opposite Dir Multiplier (Y Downsample for H Scanlines) setting. You can also change the mask size to a larger size for higher resolution content.
Thanks! I’m glad you like them!
Now that my 8 - 16bit era and low res 32 and 64-bit era stuff are fairly mature, I’ll probably start to do some more research to see what works best with the higher res stuff. So stay tuned and you can ask people like @HyperspaceMadness about these things since he would definitely know his way around his shaders better than me.
To use the DREZ presets you would have to change my base preset to one of the drez presets. So you can go ahead and try. Some of them add fake scanlines which can help but I don’t like the fake scanlines. I prefer even, pixel aligned scanlines.
Also, I don’t know which Integer Scale Setting you changed but the one you should adjust is not the one in the main RetroArch setting eh. It’s actually the Int. Scale Mode in the Shader Parameters. It’s not too far from the top. You can try changing it from 0 to 1. The effect you want is to see an expansion of the screen not shrinkage. You also have to make sure you crop any black bars on the top and bottom of the screen. This helps quite a bit. Again, this is from within the Shader Parameters.
Take a look at this post:
And also from this post, there are several on this type of issue:
Excellent screenshot album! Looks like you’re having a lot of fun with my presets! You know you can post images and image links directly in your post. The max image size is 4,096KB.
This is what happens when you post an imgur image link for example:
This way it will make it easier for others to see as they scroll through the thread. I used to like it before but I now prefer playing NES Games with ScaleFx Off. That’s why I created my Composite Pure preset. You can give it a try and apply your modifications. I just find NES sprites look a bit too inauthentic when smoothed out. Ironically, I find Atari games look really special using my Composite Sharp or Composite Sharp PVM Edition presets.
I just quickly tried Tmnt2(224p) on Mame current core. At full screen 1496x1120, RA just doesn’t actually go fullscreen but rather looks like a window. I can even see the remaining portion of my desktop.
Also, I have noticed that the blurriness in these Mame games that I mentioned earlier is not actually occurring from increasing the internal resolution, but from using the “MBZ__2__STD__HD-CORE__GDV.slangp” preset.
Seems like I’ll have to test these things myself. Thanks for taking me out of my comfort zone and providing me with these scenarios. Lol Final Burn Neo works perfectly with TMNT2 but we’ll get to the bottom of this.
As for the Windowed look if you’re using 1496 x 1120, perhaps @Nesguy can chime in? If you’re on a 1440p screen, then that’s understandable. If you’re on a 1080p screen then I’m not so sure. I have never interfered with custom resolutions in RetroArch before and I run it with Windowed Fullscreen mode On.
You can probable try higher resolutions which are multiple of your native resolution until you find the one that fills the screen. Or maybe it’s some other setting that is being overlooked. Is your system set to scale using the GPU or the Display?
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.