TheNamec - Mega Bezel Packs Amiga, Commodore 64, VIC20, CRTgaming soon

TheNamec · 8 September 2021 13:24

TAKING SCREENSHOT AT 4K ON A 1080P MONITOR

I’m experimenting with Nvidia DSR (Dynamic Super Resolution) to output a 4k image despite my 1080p monitor in order to produce much higher quality overlays for BASIC and POTATO performance profiles.

I think this can be done on AMD GPUs too using VSR (Virtual Super Resolution) feature.

This outputs a huuuuuuuuuuge 3840x2160 PNG screenshot weighting 8,55Mb taken on a 1080p monitor:

On a side note: considering how much my setup is struggling with 4k settings, have BASIC and POTATO a reason to exist on ultra HD resolution?

My RetroArch settings:

* Settings > Video > Output > Screen Resolution 3840x2160 (120hz)
* Settings > Video > Fullscreen Mode > Windowed Fullscreen Mode ON
* Settings > Video > Fullscreen Mode > Fullscreen Width 3840
* Settings > Video > Fullscreen Mode > Fullscreen Height 2160

My Nvidia Control Panel settings:

* 3D Settings > DSR factors: 4.00x
* 3D Settings > DSR Smoothness: 0%
* Resolution > DSR > 1080p, 3840x2160, HD (4.00x)
* Resolution > Refresh rate > 120hz

Duimon · 7 September 2021 22:15

I would say yes. Until I upgrade my GPU I am actually using my Basic-Reflect presets when I am playing. Although I have no issues using Photoshop, Illustrator or any other application.

In AAA games you can always turn down the output resolution on the fly.

There are probably plenty of casual gamers out there that have a similar setup.

TheNamec · 7 September 2021 22:27

That’s enough. I’ll do it for people out there with big screen, waiting for that RTX 3090 price drop.

Then we will merrily play Arkanoid at 4K/60fps.

TheNamec · 8 September 2021 13:00

Here’s gameplay of Dread (demo) on Amiga 1200 extreme overlay.

This showcases the impressive tech demo coded by Krzysztof Kluczek (KK/Altair), some kind of FreeDoom adaption capable of running on Amiga 500 real hardware. Of course, with RetroArch we can push performance to 60 fps quite easily!

It’s impressive how a homebrew software can do something that was tought to be impossible: a full-sized DOOM clone on Amiga that doesn’t need additional hardware.

Support KK/Altair on https://www.patreon.com/kk_altairKK/Altair

TheNamec · 11 September 2021 12:58

Well… there’s a lot to DISPLAY here
(tap to enlarge, looks like the board doesn’t enjoy huge vertical images)

It’s a beautiful day
The sun is shining
I feel good
And no-one’s gonna stop me now,
oh yeah.

TheNamec · 14 September 2021 16:09

RETROCOMMERCIAL AMARCORD

This is the original advertising aired on TV in 1993 to promote the short-lived Amiga CD32. It’s funny to see an Amiga CD32 spot using a simulated Amiga CD32 graphic pack, isn’t it?

RetroArch uses the FFMpeg core for video playback: movies can be postprocessed in realtime with Mega Bezel Reflection Shader to get this beautiful retro visuals despite the low 480p resolution.

TheNamec · 1 October 2021 23:03

TURRICAN 2 AGA CONVERSION PROJECT!!!

Here’s a gameplay of Turrican 2 MS-DOS to Amiga AGA conversion on Commodore Pack A600 + C1080 overlay.

This showcases the really impressive effort from coder Muzza to recreate Turrican 2 from scratch using much better PC edition assets together with Amiga AGA chipset capabilities. The game control really feels the same and the new graphics plus locked 60fps really add something new to the beloved Factor5 classic!

I really hope for Muzza to complete his project as soon as possible as he’s planning to restore some of the original Amiga sprites for the definitive Turrican 2 Experience!

Free demo is available on English Amiga Board.

PS: Turrican 2 MS-DOS is working fine with DOSBOX PURE core right now, maybe you can try it with my Amiga overlays to get the best of both worlds

TheNamec · 2 October 2021 13:54

Mega Bezel Commodore Pack Release Candidate 2 is out!

Download it while it’s still hot on the Official DevBlog

Mega Bezel Commodore Pack RC2 (October 2nd, 2021)

New release for public testing, including new display presets, responsive features for widescreen displays, lo-fi monochrome experience, refined performance profiles and tons of minor fixes.

Software requirements:

RetroArch v1.9.8 with aspect ratio set to ‘full’
HSM_Bezel_Reflection_V0.9.022_2021-09-05

Content:

Added MONITOR C1080, MONITOR C1201 and MONITOR C1902 modular presets and original assets
Added TV BEZELTRON 001 (PHILIPS-21PT3326-V7) modular presets and original assets
Added 4K CURVED & SQUARE OVERLAYS captured with Nvidia DSR (Dynamic Super Resolution)
Added CREAM MEGA BEZEL PRESET specific for use with A600, A600 and A1200
Added DARK-GRAY MEGA BEZEL PRESET specific for use with AMIGA CD32
Updated 1080P CURVED & SQUARE OVERLAYS with higher quality super-sampled versions
Updated AMIGA 1200 SYNTHWAVE design with new multi-floppy emulator and less banding artifacts

Features:

Added SPLIT HORIZONTAL support for adaptive background and LEDs layers fill mode
Added LO-FI MONOCHROME preset chain with classic amber, green and white variants
Added FAST SHARPEN effect to EXTREME presets
Added CUSTOM DAY LIGHTNING TEXTURE used in DAY presets variant
Updated POTATO PERFORMANCE PROFILE based on blazing lightweight ZFAST preset
Updated STANDARD PERFORMANCE PROFILE for display scaling and positioning
Updated FULL and ZOOM modular presets variations for multilayer displays

Enhancements:

Added BACKGROUND TEXTURES for assets to replace boring void gray
Added WATERMARKS and REFERENCES for assets to include Creative Commons badges
Updated SCALEFX RESAMPLING for EXTREME presets with fake scanlines and adjusted brightness
Updated TV PROCESS GTU for EXTREME presets with higher signal resolution and disabled component
Updated GLOBAL PRESETS with features lists
Updated DISTRIBUTION FILE STRUCTURE for use within shaders folder
Updated CURVED & SQUARE OVERLAYS with new background textures and displays
Updated AMIGA 600, AMIGA 600 HD overlay assets with the new C1080 display
Updated MEGA BEZEL PRESETS for bigger gameplay area, better lightning and reflections
Updated BEIGE MEGA BEZEL PRESET specific for use with A500 and A500+
Updated BLACK MEGA BEZEL PRESET specific for use with A1200 SYNTHWAVE
Updated CUSTOM DISPLAY DECALS for better readability in both DAY/NIGHT preset variants

Fixes:

Updated MEGA BEZEL REFLECTION SHADER presets parameters to latest public MBR shader version
Updated BEZEL TEXTURES ASPECT RATIO settings for layers and textures to prevent stretching
Updated CUSTOM DISPLAY DECALS for new adaptive design to prevent stretching and bad positioning
Updated MONITOR C1084 assets and modular presets to correct aspect ratio
Updated AMIGA 500, AMIGA 500+ overlay assets to correct C1084 aspect ratio
Updated LEDs TEXTURES for better nightly ambient visuals
Disabled NIGHT DITHERING SAMPLES to prevent slowdowns with NIGHT presets

TheNamec · 9 October 2021 17:20

SUPER CARS 2 AGA REMAKE/HACK

Lately I’ve been getting into the homebrew Amiga developers scene and I’m discovering lots of “new games” further expanding the huge Commodore Amiga catalogue.

Here’s a gameplay of Super Cars 2 AGA rebuild on Mega Bezel Commodore Pack Amiga 1200Synth + procedural Mega Bezel Black on Retroarch.

JTOD realized this full featured remake of Super Cars 2 by hacking in the beatiful assets from Supercars International 1996, full with 256 colors graphics, new soundtrack, tweaked controls and better performance, resulting in the definitive edition of the original 1991 Gremlin Interactive game.

The Super Cars 2 AGA remake is free to play and actively under development on English Amiga Board

To get the best framerate with Retroarch PUAE core, I suggest to crank up CPU SPEED setting to 500%

TheNamec · 30 October 2021 15:43

A NEW BEZELTRON CRT MONITOR APPEARS: JVC tm-h150cg

Hey shiny ones!

As you know, Mega Bezel is all about simulating CRT gaming, so I decided to bring some of the best retrogaming displays certified by experts from https://www.reddit.com/r/crtgaming/

This dev-update one brings one of the best CRT on the market, the JVC tm-h150cg, rebranded as Bezeltron-002. A little content update with a familiar caped frog!

The cool feature of JVC tm-h150cg are the bright green LED buttons, I had to find the monitor manual to be sure to lighten the right ones

Here’s the real life monitor I used for reference

Duimon · 15 October 2021 17:36

Very pretty! With all the perfect perspective tricks that make up your signature style.

Neofuuma · 15 October 2021 20:27

Ooooooohh, shiny!!

Edit: Just because I am bored finishing up work, I decided to play the GB version of Bonk’s Adventure, while using the Amiga 1200synth, and I must say this may end up being how I play Gameboy games from now on.

TheNamec · 15 October 2021 23:49

That’s the kind of crazy stuff I like to see!

Let’s Bonk together!

Hey @Neofuuma you’re using the old RC1 Amiga1200Synth! Don’t forget to update to the new RC2 version, it’s equipped with a new CD-ROM reader and multi-floppy dot matrix screen

TheNamec · 16 October 2021 17:42

RAID OVER MOSCOW (unofficial Amiga conversion)

Here’s a gameplay of Raid over Moscow unofficial Amiga conversion on Mega Bezel Commodore Pack Amiga 500 + Commodore 1084 Monitor on Retroarch.

Erik Hogan from Pixelglass Games decided to complete the unreleased Amiga port of this praised 1984 Commodore 64 classic taking on the assets from original developer Access Software, coding this faithful conversion from scratch adding a modern control scheme and original soundtrack.

The game made quite a sensation because of the cold war theme, resulting in censorship in Finland, circulation of unauthorized copies, gamers debating about somewhat “realistic nuclear war” games and becoming a top seller of its generation.

Raid over Moscow is free to play and downloadable on http://pixelglass.org/?#raidovermoscow

TheNamec · 24 October 2021 10:30

Outrun on Amiga: a vile feud! And a Cannonball solution

Here's a gameplay of Outrun Enhanced remake on Mega Bezel Commodore Pack Amiga 600 HD + JVC TM-H150CG PVM (aka CRT Series Bezeltron-002M) on Retroarch 'Cannonball' core.

Sega 1986 classic Outrun had a very, VERY low quality Amiga porting by US Gold one year after the coin-op release: everything from the cult soundtrack, the graphic and performance was messed up in a somewhat rushed and disappointing conversion. To add insult to injury, they even added an horrible digital voice intro, kind of a warning of how bad the gameplay was going to be as soon as START is pressed.

Cheesy assets + poor palette + unplayable framerate = Amiga Outrun from US Gold

Fastforward to 2009, coder Chris White started building his own Outrun engine from scratch, fixing bugs and adding native widescreen, hi-res rendering, new game modes and lots of quality-of-life enhancements. The engine was named Cannonball after the movie that was the main source of inspiration for Yu Suzuki masterpiece.

David Carradine is... CannonBILL!

In 2017 Lantus360 aka Modern Vintage Gamer released his own Amiga RTG porting of Cannonball to Aminet, finally fixing the outrage to Amiga enthusiasts after 30 years: much high hardware requirements and feature/performance compromises aims this porting to a pretty restricted user base.

Missing bg and shadow graphics... additional Vampire card required... still not definitive port.
(source. MVG Youtube Channel)

In 2021 Agermose started all over again with a native AGA port. Will this vile feud come to an end once and for all for the Amiga Fanbase to live happily ever after?

In the meanwhile, I think we can better benefit from Cannonball Outrun Enhanced edition with the native RetroArch core, waiting for the native Amiga Outrun AGA port to come alive!

TheNamec · 30 October 2021 16:13

A NEW BEZELTRON CRT MONITOR APPEARS: Sony BVM-20F1U

Hello there bezellers!

The little side-project with the best CRT Monitors is going on and today I can announce the second entry in the Bezeltron CRT series: Sony BVM-20F1U, rebranded as BZT-003M.

Here’s some screenshots from the incredibly funny Rygar AGA Conversion from my next gameplay video

IRL these BVM broadcast monitors had separate add-on control units, I decided to put it in the bottom for a classic ‘home entertainment’ configuration.

Here’s a photo I used for reference.

Funny thing about those PVM/BVM models is that they share lots of components, meaning I may do further variations in the future considering I built my library of buttons, knobs and leds used… sky’s the limit!

Any requests?

JHorbach1 · 30 October 2021 16:50

Hello, I have Mega Bezel installed and running but I don’t know where to put your megabezel-commodore-pack-1080p folder for it to work, can you help me?

TheNamec · 30 October 2021 17:23

Hello there! You can put the ‘commodore-pack-1080p folder’ everywhere as long as it is in the /retroarch/shaders subfolder.

It will connect to HSM Mega Bezel Reflection Shader automagically

Duimon · 30 October 2021 17:24

This is my new favorite word!

TheNamec · 30 October 2021 17:31

Ahahah in italian it would sound like ‘automagicamente’

Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious zero config would be a little to long