Overlays, modifying default, adding images

RetroArch Android devices
#1

I’m new to using retroarch. Went hunting around on the web for ways to get an image of the game console to be displayed instead of just the black screen with buttons that the default configuration has.

The particular portable game device I’m looking to work with first is the Atari Lynx but I doubt it matters which portable I’m working with.

I found a nice collection of images for pretty much every portable console. Each has a corresponding .cfg file. I think my problem is that the person who was nice enough to provide these was working on a computer without a touch screen because the configuration file is just 1 item, the portable device. So if I use the provided configuration file I’m stuck using a Bluetooth controller because there are no buttons.

I figured that all I needed to do was add the image to the default configuration file that gets used when I initially set up the Lynx core.

That was as far as I managed to go before I found this forum. I found a useful thread here that helped someone without root access. I never thought of downloading just the controller and configuration files (and images, etc.). With that whole subtree of files I can now try to do what I originally planned on.

I want to add the Lynx console image to the default configuration, which I believe is the ‘flat’ one. I’m thinking that since there isn’t an interactive graphic tool for creating the configuration file but just editing text that it would be easier to start with the Lynx console image and all the default button definitions. I will then be able to make decisions like make the button smaller, move it left or down, etc.

I figured all I had to do was take the single item definition from the console image configuration file and just add it, at the bottom if it matters, to the default configuration file. I even renamed it just to be sure that I was using the edited file instead of the original.

But I’m ending up with just the default black screen with buttons as if nothing is changed from the default.

Any general help on what I should be looking for to figure out what I’ve done wrong?

#2

Did you increment the number of “descs” in the overlay? For example, if you’re editing overlay0, there would be a line that says “overlay0_descs = 23” or whatever. You need to bump that number up by one or it won’t ever load the new item.

Just FYI, what you’ll want to do is increment that number, add a new desc at the bottom of that overlay with the function line set to “nul,0.5,0.5,rect,0.5,0.5”. Then, you’ll make an overlay*_desc_overlay that points to the border image.

I’m not sure if the border will be drawn on top of the buttons or below them, or even if it does them in any kind of consistent manner. You might have to swap places with the first desc if it draws them first to last.

#3

Thanks hunterk

That was the bit of magic I was missing. I figured out the desc part. Even made the correct overlay0_desc35 bits. Didn’t catch that there was a count item to change.

You are also correct in your guess that it’d be drawn over top of all the other buttons. So I’ll need to swap it with the desc0 item.

Follow up question on that… The left for the dpad is the current desc0 item. Can I just make it the desc35 item even though the right, up and down items are still desc2-4?

#4

Yeah, they’re all self-contained. The order doesn’t matter.