Duimon - HSM Mega Bezel Graphics and Presets - Feedback and Updates

RetroArch Additions Overlays
#1246

Alright folks. I’ve got some news and it will be good or bad depending on how you look at it.

The response to my PVMs has been so overwhelmingly positive I have decided to do presets for all CRT based systems. I will also do Night versions. As a matter of fact, I have in mind to do night presets for all my graphics, both Standard presets and Advanced.

That’s the good news. (Or bad if you think of how long it will take to complete. :grin:)

Now for the real bad news.

Since it has been forever since I did a “Plain” graphic version, (There really has been no need.) I have decided to rename some folders in my graphics repo.

The “Logo” folder will become “Standard” the “Logo_Advanced” will become “Advanced” and the “Overlay-Hybrid” will become “Hybrid”. The rest of the folders will stay the same.

Like now, the Hard Drive folder structure will mirror the changes. I will also no longer be sharing any of the graphics in the “Standard” folder with the Advanced presets, there will be some redundancy but I think it will make more sense.

The Hybrid folder rename is in preparation for a complete set of Hybrid presets and override configs.

In addition, the presets folder will be split into systems, each folder containing all the available presets for each system, for example…

Nintendo GameCube\
Gamecube.slangp
Gamecube_Night.slangp
Gamecube_Advanced.slangp
Gamecube_Advanced_Night.slangp
Gamecube_PVM20.slangp
Gamecube_PVM20_Night.slangp
Gamecube_TM20.slangp
Gamecube_TM20_Night.slangp

There are still some Advanced features that even the simplest graphics can take advantage of. (Like HSV adjustment on the Night Lighting.)

This will cause some of you a lot of pain and suffering and for that I am sorry. :frowning_face: The addition of the PVMs has caused me to do some thinking about future proofing the project. I think it will be for the best.

In the end there will be a MOUNTAIN of presets to choose from and they will be really easy to test to see which is your favorite.

I should have all the existing presets reworked in pretty short order. The question on my mind is how long such a large commit to GitHub will take and if it will break somewhere in the process. Wish me luck.

And again, I’m sorry… or… You’re welcome. :crazy_face:

I was just thinking. :thinking:

I have only been at this for one year. :astonished:

With future additions like more PVMs, Vintage TVs, Vector Vectrex Overlays, custom Decals, and of course, systems still missing from the collection, I can’t wait to see what this all looks like in another year. :grin:

11 Likes
#1247

Thanks for the response. Very exciting!

3 Likes
#1248

I do not know if I understood it well, everything will be cleaner and more organized, more configurations, nocturnal versions so as not to have to do it manually, will not we have the standard, advanced and hybrid folders? Instead, each system will have its folder with its pre-established configuration? I do not see where it is wrong or I have not understood it. :thinking:

1 Like
#1249

I have the same opinion!! :raised_hands: :raised_hands: :raised_hands:

I think this is the most important and interesting project regarding the “visual pleasure” of emulation. :heart_eyes: I’m sure you are taking a qualitative leap to shaders and overlays that will mark the future of emulation.

Thank you for all the effort you put into the project!

4 Likes
#1250

Hey everyone.

I have decided to split my graphics up into a folder structure that will mirror the preset folder structure. I will have a “Graphics” folder, and a “Presets” within the “Duimon” folder, inside the shader root. I will leave my presets uncompressed in the repo. This will eliminate redundancy in my repo. (The graphics folder is already 1.33GB. I would hate to double it.)

I will still be using the :/ syntax for everything. The presets will be portable within the Retroarch root but the graphics will be static.

I am thinking that this will allow people to install and update using Git like someone mentioned in the forum. I will have installation instructions for that method, (Once I get it working myself.) and manual install instructions.

The first step will be to finish getting the rest of the existing Standard presets converted to Advanced, using the current folder structure.

Then I need to create the folder structures and move everything into place.

All alternate versions will be in common folders, with the exception of the SEGA CD, and 32X. While they are technically alternates of the Genesis I don’t want it to get confusing.

Once that is done, since the folder structures will be mirrored I should be able to combine a “parent folder name” variable in my search and replace and get everything done in just two passes. (At least in theory. I will be working on a copy just in case. :grin:)

After the update, I will be slowly adding variations to the presets. For example, the NDS & 3DS Advanced graphics are the same as the Standard. There is no reason I can’t do a red variation for the standard base, at least two bezel colors for the Standard presets, down the road maybe some different night lighting options, etc.

The PVM variants will have top priority.

So it will be another day or two but I think it will be worth the wait. It will be nice to get this sorted so I can get back into creating some new graphics.

10 Likes
#1251

Looking forward to it, it would be really convenient to use it like this. Various effects can be easily tried out. Choose your favorite.

3 Likes
#1252

Prueba01
Prueba012591×1458 613 KB
I like this effect very much. But I don’t know how to prepare it. Can you provide me with the preparation documents? Thank you :咧着嘴笑:

4 Likes
#1253

Boy that was a long time ago. I will have try to do it with the current shader build. If I am successful, I will think about adding this kind of preset.

4 Likes
#1254

Thank you. I’m looking forward to it。

2 Likes
#1255

I am afraid that that pic wasn’t what it looks like. There is no way to do a reflection bezel on top of the glass preset because it would take 2 reflections.

The best I could do would be to use one of my overlays as a background graphic.

Super - Mario BROS SMB3 Graphics-210506-021701
Super - Mario BROS SMB3 Graphics-210506-0217011920×1080 427 KB

Which looks cool, but when the screen goes dark the background looks normal. (Opaque) It is not a smooth gameplay experience.

1 Like
#1256

Wow, that’s cool. Hope to provide preset , thanks.

#1257

Putting the frame on top of the reflection should be possible with the advanced preset.

Basically you would turn off the masking on the reflection layer, increase the reflection radial falloff A LOT, then set the layer order of the frame so it is over the reflection layer.

But this still may be weird in use…

1 Like
#1258

I may try a couple of things, like what you said, and putting the reflection behind a partially transparent layer, over a gray background. I may be able to find something that is more comfortable.

There will be a lot of room for presets in my new folder layout, I need to fill them with something. :wink:

1 Like
#1259

EDIT: This post has been edited to reflect changes inspired by the next few posts.

OK folks. The repo has been restructured and updated. The "/shaders/Duimon-Mega-Bezel" folder now contains both the graphics and the presets.

So the new file structures is…

/shaders/Duimon-Mega-Bezel
    		/Graphics
    		/Presets

An example presets folder and contents is…

/shaders/Duimon-Mega-Bezel
			/Graphics
			/Presets
				/Nintendo_3DS
					3DS-[ADV]-[LCD-GRID].slangp
					3DS-[ADV]-[LCD-GRID]-[Night].slangp
					3DS-[STD]-[LCD-GRID].slangp
					3DS-[STD]-[LCD-GRID]-[Night].slangp
					3DS_Vertical-[ADV]-[LCD-GRID]-[Integer].slangp
					3DS_Vertical-[ADV]-[LCD-GRID]-[Integer]-[Night].slangp
					3DS_Vertical-[STD]-[LCD-GRID]-[Integer].slangp
					3DS_Vertical-[STD]-[LCD-GRID]-[Integer]-[Night].slangp
					3DS_Vertical_Alt-[ADV]-[DrVenom].slangp
					3DS_Vertical_Alt-[ADV]-[DrVenom]-[Night].slangp
					3DS_Vertical_Alt-[STD]-[DrVenom].slangp
					3DS_Vertical_Alt-[STD]-[DrVenom]-[Night].slangp

You can install everything to a local clone and updated using the following method.

  1. Install Git. https://git-scm.com/downloads using the default settings.
  2. Enter the “Retroarch/shaders” directory and from the command-line run:
git clone https://github.com/Duimon/Duimon-Mega-Bezel

it will make a “Duimon-Mega-Bezel” folder inside the shaders folder.

To update, go into the “Duimon-Mega-Bezel” folder (note difference) and run

git pull

Thanks @drstupid for the method.

The old graphics and shader folders are no longer needed and you can delete them.

\Retroarch\overlays\bezel\Duimon <--- you can delete the bezel folder also
\Retroarch\shaders\Duimon
\Retroarch\shaders_slang\Duimon

The new documaentation is a WIP. My priority right now is to add the two PVM variants to all the CRT Advanced presets.

After that I will be adding DrVenom presets as alternatives for all the LCD systems, a couple color variations to the Standard presets that have HSV in the Advanced presets, and adding the default bezel color as an alternate in presets where I’m currently using a custom color.

Please let me know when you find anything broken and I will fix it ASAP. :grin:

4 Likes
#1260

Wonderful Duimon. I think this folder/file is missing "DecalImage = “:/shaders/Duimon/Graphics/PVM_PVM20/PVM_Decals/SONY_Decal.png”

1 Like
#1261

So one option which would help with the git repo update stuff is if the root of your git repo was the folder which you put inside of shaders, so for instance the base of your repo could be Duimon, and have Graphics and Presets inside it.

Then when someone clones your repo they get a Duimon folder which will have the .git folder inside it (it’s what makes it a repo). Now when you pull this repo it will update everything inside Duimon.

If you have the structure which I think you currently have you would get a HSM-Reflection-Shader-Graphics folder with a shaders folder under it, then Duimon under that then presets under that. And if it’s expected that these are under the Retroarch shaders folder for them to be used that means someone has to move or copy the folders out of the cloned repo, and therefore when you pull to update the repo the stuff that is actually in use won’t be updated and you will have to copy it again.

So to have it as simple as possible with a repo which can just sit in place and be used by retroarch I would suggest that you have the root of your repo named

"Duimon-Mega-Bezel"

or whatever you want to call it, then have the Graphics and Presets under this

Duimon-Mega-Bezel
              /Graphics
              /Presets

Then the user clones your repo, they get a Duimon-Mega-Bezel folder which they move into the shaders folder if it’s not already there and if they use git they can pull inside this folder and get the stuff updated

And as a useful workflow for you while you are working on your stuff you can stick your Duimon-Mega-Bezel folder inside the shaders folder and work on stuff in place. This is where I would personally suggest putting it, since this is where people usually access shaders.

This is basically how I work with the Mega_Bezel, although the shaders_slang is the root of my repo. If I ever adjust this I would make the Mega_Bezel folder the root of my repo.

3 Likes
#1262

I have two concerns about this method.

  1. There is no buffer between mistakes I may make and what users are using. I would like to assume that everyone makes a backup before they update but think that’s probably not the case.

  2. Will doing a pull delete any files that the user may have added to the folders?

If neither of these is an issue, I like the idea of renaming my repo “Duimon-Mega-Bezel”.

Edit: #2 was my biggest concern and the answer I think I will make the change and quickly before a lot of people clone the repo.

1 Like
#1263

So if you make commits in your local repo they aren’t on updated to the github version of this repo until you push, so you can only push when you are comfortable that people should be using the current state of the repo

Doing a pull won’t delete any new files added.

4 Likes
#1264

Hey @Duimon, one other thing to note is that you may want to check out how big your .git folder is in your repo, since you have lots of binary files (images) in your repo and have updated them over time it’s possible there are many copies of the data in the git database (which is in the .git folder) Basically your git repo never forgets anything, unless you explicitly tell it do lose history periodically.

So if your .git folder is big you may want to consider making a new repo so you have a fresh database, or go through the commands to delete history, but this is more techy.

Note:

There is a solution that you can use for dealing with repos with lots of big binary files called LFS (large file system) that you can add to your repo but that increases complexity and I’m not sure if the people cloning the repo need this installed to work properly, so I’m not sure if you really want to go that direction.

4 Likes
#1265

It’s 900MB now. I will learn how to trim it down later, thanks.

2 Likes