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

[Duimon]

Here’s a WIP on the Amdek Monitor.

I kind of Frankensteined this one a bit.

I wanted it balanced, and the screen a bit larger, so I took a few liberties. Because of this I almost removed the branding but decided to keep it. It may not be authentic but it looks legit.

A couple of things are bugging me but it’s close.

BTW. I installed my additional 32GB of system memory. I can’t really believe how much difference it makes. Illustrator is faster, the shader and games load faster, it’s awesome!

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The young man inside my head that remembers that “No-one will ever need more than 640MB of system memory” can’t believe that he has 64GB.

At the same time my first “Off the shelf” HDD was 220MB, I have 15.5TB of HDD space today.

[Duimon]

Here is another WIP.

The base was giving me nothing but problems. I could have worked on it a bit more but I thought that if I was taking liberties, I would take one more.

The Control and logo placement are more authentic, so overall it is more realistic even with the altered base.

Of course this can also scale.

Personally, I think the small screen feels more authentic when playing. This monitor, and others like it, were really common and they were only 13 or 14 inches.

[Duimon]

Here is a final on the Amdek.

I added the color badge on the top right.

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I was thinking I would add a couple of things to my list.

I want to do a vintage monitor for the TI/99.

And in all the rush, we forgot the Tandy CoCo 3 on the MAME SL.

Here is a shot of a game running on the current core.

And a shot of the same game running on a requisite Tandy color monitor.

I am going to finish up all the work on the Atari trio.

Then I’ve got some maintenance to do on the presets since the latest shader update. The TV5 needs some tweaking with the bezel inner corner fix and the Vectrex presets need to be modified and added back into the collection.

(I am toying with the idea of getting ahead of myself and doing a vector conversion of one of the existing Vectrex screen overlays. Just to see how it goes. )

This will probably take a while, then it’s on to the Sharp X1 and SEGA Pico!

[Neofuuma]

Can’t wait to try out the Vectrex presets! Also would love to see one for that TI/99 monitor. The TI/99 4a was my first ever computer.

Also @Duimon, all your awesome work has inspired me to try my hand at vector artwork, so I downloaded Inkscape (since it’s free) to see if I can be motivated enough to delve into actually getting paying for Illustrator at some point. Any pointers you can give to help me get started?

[HyperspaceMadness]

Another program you could try for vectors if you decide you are looking for a paid option and not already committed to Illustrator is Affinity Designer, it’s about 50$ US for a permanent license (No subscription ). This is what I use for a lot of my work. It also loads Illustator files quite well.

[Duimon]

@Neofuuma

Any pointers you can give to help me get started?

First of all, I highly recommend taking HSM’s advice and getting Affinity.

Then I might download some of my source and take a look. Tragically, Affinity doesn’t do well converting layer and object names, so my very clean and organized source will look pretty crazy.

Keep a few things in mind…

1. Almost anything we see can be broken down into a set of primitives.

2. Clipping masks are your friend.

3. Sometimes, within a single object, it is possible/beneficial to stack and order multiple strokes and fills.

4. Nothing we see has an absolutely sharp edge, ambient light blurs everything a bit.

5. Have fun!

[Neofuuma]

@Duimon, @HyperspaceMadness I’m on the Affinity website right now checking it out. Definitely seems worth getting for that price. Thank you both for the tips!

[oneshout]

hello @Duimon , trying to follow instructions here for Vectrex https://forums.libretro.com/t/duimon-hsm-reflection-shader-graphics-feedback-and-updates/28146/590 Just to be sure, No preset to use with the GCE vectrex core ?

i trying to use gel layer for the transparent but without luck for the moment Is it the good line : “ColoredGelImage =” ? Tks in advance

[Duimon]

I should have the Vectrex Presets in the repo in just a few minutes. They were waiting for features and fixes that were introduced in the most recent shader release.

I am testing them now.

All the Atari stuff is ready so I just need to tweak the TV5 preset and maintenance should be complete.

[oneshout]

still amazed by your fast answers and dedication

[Duimon]

Yeah. I am a little obsessed, but I like it.

BTW. Are you using the GitHub method of installing and updating my graphics and presets?

[oneshout]

yep, i using the GitHub method to update your work

[Duimon]

! ! ! Pretty big update ! ! !

I added all the new Atari stuff. (800, XE, XEGS, and ST) along with the vintage monitors in both Standard and Advanced and PVMs in Advanced.

I created new Vectrex presets using the new shader Gel layer features. There are game overrides for both Standard and Advanced presets.

I fixed the Bezel corner issues in the TV5 Standard presets.

Thanks @HyperspaceMadness for all the recent hard work that made this possible.

Make sure to get the newest shader release from his thread.

HSM’s thread

I wanted to get this part up before I did the DOSBox monitor additions so look for that and a Vectrex Readme very soon.

BTW. I updated the naming conventions in the PC-8801 and 9801 monitor presets so if you are referencing them you will have to edit your presets.

This was a pretty big update so I may have screwed something up. As always let me know and I will fix it ASAP.

[Duimon]

DOSBox presets are updated with the vintage monitor for the Standard.

While I was in there I noticed a few issues concerning the LED layer.

When I made the new leap to presets, the shader was lacking some recent features. As a result my DOSBox graphics and presets were outdated and a tiny bit broken. There are all better now.

I also wrote a short Readme for the Vectrex Presets.

[Duimon]

@Duimon

Currently there are 83 cores/systems represented:

[oneshout]

with the new update, i’m a bit old but like a kid with a new toy tks a lot @Duimon and @HyperspaceMadness
hope @TheNamec will be back soon for my favorite one

[Unparallell]

Such a massive update, thanks a lot! My favourite is no doubt is the Atari 800. Since the system has more point of interest in visual aspect, it really makes it pleasure to look at it The problem is I’m quite confused with differentiating roms for 800, XE, XEGS systems

[Duimon]

When it comes to cartridge games there is no difference, they all shared the same cartridge.

The difference would be when it comes to software.

The xex format would imply the EX. I will do some research and see whet I can find out. It could be that some later games required more RAM.

[Unparallell]

Ah that makes sense. So far I found xex, cas, bas and bin file formats in my Atari 800 collection along with atr which might stands for Atari 800 format.

[Duimon]

From Atariage…

• Disk Images: Common(ATR/ATX), Less Common(ATR.GZ/DCM/XFD/XFD.GZ/SCP/PRO)

• Tape Images: Common(CAS), Less Common(HEX/WAV/OGG/FLAC)

• Cart Images: Common(BIN/CAR), Less Common(ROM) (Also ROM is used for dumps of Firmware as well as Cart Images)

• Binary executables: Common(XEX), Less Common (EXE/COM/OBJ

Apparently BAS are compiled BASIC programs.