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

I have been adding the blank keyboard inserts to my graphics that need them. (As I threatened when I did the MSX series.)

I think it looks more complete than some keys floating by themselves. :grin:

Of course, they will only be visible on wide displays.

5 Likes

Couple of weird things happening with the CPC graphics. (The background canvas texture looks out of scale.)

I went back in and used my new Photoshop mastering step to add the background. :grin:

It looks like adding in these widescreen parameters will be about as valuable as getting screenshots for my site.

2 Likes

Hey look!

On a wide screen you can actually see some of the extended character symbols on the underside of the keys. :grin:

You can only see half of one using the TM20 PVM on a 16:9 display. (Makes me glad I took the time to create them.)

8 Likes

Keeping with the needed updates to some graphics…

The Elektronika didn’t have any keys on the left until today. :grin:

And the Dreamcast didn’t have power LEDs. :wink:

5 Likes

As I work on some of these older graphics, it’s kind of funny seeing how clumsy some of my earlier methods were.

As I have mentioned before, I will probably completely redo some of them. At the same time, in that far distant future, :wink: I may just add in enough keys on the keyboards that the blank section cannot be seen.

I have bulls-eyed a 21:9 aspect for my tests, which AFAIK is the widest aspect out there, (For now.) and anything between that and 16:9 will just take care of itself.

For the time being I am going take the fastest route, and make a return trip once the journey is complete.

2 Likes

Here how most of the handhelds will work.

The canvas background will expand to fill in the space.

There are a few, (The GBA and Linx etc.) that will just not work.

One that will be a bit different is the PSP.

I just happen to have designed it with the rest of the device off screen. By using an explicit aspect for the Device layer, (I can be accurate up to 6 decimal places. :star_struck:) the off screen parts will show on a 21:9 monitor.

That is just cool. :astonished: (This is still one of my favorite graphics.)


I suppose I can add doing off screen elements for the cropped handhelds to my list, but It will be a future project.

I’m also not sure of the performance impact. The size of the PSP graphic is 5335 x 2160px and weighs in at 4.43MB.

4 Likes

I think the performance impact should be minimal, basically only the slightly longer load time of the larger images and more memory used by the graphics card.

1 Like

Looking at this screenshot, I am a bit jealous of 21:9 monitors. :wink:

6 Likes

Here is a little…

“State of Duimon-Mega-Bezel-Graphics”

…address. :grin:

While getting screenshots for my gallery site I tweaked each and every one of my presets. (They should be squeaky clean now.)

Next I added wide screen support to every graphic that could support it. This work included creating separate backgrounds for any handheld systems that weren’t already using one. It also included adding some details to the normally hidden parts of a few of my graphics, to make them look a bit more presentable.

Cropped handhelds, such as the GBA and Lynx, were among those that don’t support wide screen. (Along with the TV1, 2, & 3 graphic. I just didn’t think it looked good.)

While I was at it, I renamed some preset folders to conform to naming standards. (Intellivision > Mattel_Intellivision, 3DO > Panasonic_3DO, TurboGrafx_16 > NEC_TurboGrafx_16, etc.)

I also added “[Bezel]” to the name of my presets that use the standard bezel, to clean up alphabetical order while browsing presets.

Finally, today I added an alternate bezel “[Custom-Bezel]” to my CRT presets.

The idea is to mimic the bezel in overlays by @Orionsangel and ReignStumble, that the overlay community has been such a fan of. (I am using a custom “Frame Highlight Image” so changing the width of the frame, opacity of the highlight, and bezel scaling, all work as expected.)

I have been using the latest alpha release of the shader for developing, so this puts me in a very good place for the next shader release.

I will probably start work on some of the remaining items in my list while shader development continues. Any graphic I make between now and the next shader release, will be released along with the shader. (This includes my most recent graphics.)

Up next, I think I will do the Mega Duck handheld for MAME.

md

It looks pretty fun! :crazy_face:

11 Likes

I’m hoping to test how just how nice 21:9 monitors are this evening. My aunt blessed me with a Dell U3419w curved monitor this week, as it was too large for what she needed a monitor for.

Now to find a place to put this monster. Not to mention, if my laptop only does 1920x1080, is hooking it up to this even going to benefit me?

4 Likes

It will display at the native resolution of the monitor: 3440×1440.

So if your GPU can handle it you will have a few extra vertical pixels for shaders to work with.

Let me know well you can run the Mega Bezel. If it’s OK I can let you know what parameters to change to make my release presets work.

3 Likes

Sadly, it seems my little ol 1050 isn’t gonna be able to do much - I only got 30fps just in the main Retroarch menu. Even moving my mouse around while I’m typing this reply is very slow. :disappointed:

On the brighter side, I can read my screen without my reading glasses on! haha.

**EDIT(2): It’s good now - sorta. running at 3440 x 1440 causes it to go to 29.963 Mhz. If I go down to 2520 x 1080 I can switch it to 60Mhz. I’m a lil confused now.

2 Likes

Is there a display button on your laptop that lets you choose between each display or mirroring etc. The idea is to make your monitor, not the laptop screen, the primary display.

Most laptops, if you change your power settings to turn off the screen only when shutting the lid, will switch primary displays when the lid is closed.

1 Like

This can be due to a couple things. First could be the type of cable you’re using to connect the laptop to the monitor. If the laptop dGPU is outputting through the Intel IGP and the IGP connected HDMI port only supports HDMI 1.4, then you might have that issue. If you have a proper Display Port cable and the laptop supports a high enough Display Port version you should be able to output at the full resolution of the panel at the 60Hz refresh rate. It’s a bandwidth and specifications issue.

My next theory had to do with RetroArch behaving very strangely with multiple monitors but since you’re getting 60Hz at a lower resolution it’s probably not that.

This suggestion would have been related to my second theory. In order to ensure single display and that the external is primary you can make the display your primary display in Windows then ensure you either restart the laptop or shut down then power on then Windows will fully configure itself and recognise it as Primary. Make sure your monitor is on before you turn on your laptop.

I’m pretty sure it’s my first theory and not the second but the second can also cause frame/refresh rates to be limited to 30fps/Hz in RetroArch.

2 Likes

True but it would be odd for a laptop with a 2017 GPU to use a 2010-2011 standard.

@Neofuuma What is the model of laptop?

1 Like

@Duimon @Cyber the laptop is a Dell Inspiron 5577. i7-7700 cpu, with 1050 GPU. Currently the laptop display is off while the monitor is connected.

The monitor came with a Displayport cable, and a couple of cables with Type C-connections.I do have it connected via HDMI cable currently, because I was not sure what the Displayport cable was for, since the plug looked different. Should I try the DP cable?

2 Likes

Even if the laptop uses a GTX 1050 many times the laptop’s display outputs would be connected to the IGP and not the dGPU. So an external monitor would have to contend with whatever the mediocre Intel IGP supports. I’m pretty sure if the laptop has a display port output that it would support a higher resolution and refresh rate than the HDMI outputs and based on my experience I think that will be enough to drive his monitor while it’ll continue to be a no go using HDMI.

It took AMD longer than nVidia to finally start supporting HDMI 2.0 on it’s GPUs and Intel possibly even longer. So having a standard being released and available doesn’t mean it won’t take a long time before it’s fully adopted across the industry.

1 Like

You should most definitely use the Displayport cable!

1 Like

The 5577 does indeed use HDMI 1.4. I don’t think it has a Displayport.

2 Likes

Correct, as far as I can tell. Looks like I would need an adapter to use the cable.

2 Likes