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

[TheNamec]

@oneshout

Just to fill your note in the theme.conf :

power_led : state 0 can be enable too with the same image but a little darker like as a minimum power supply when you"re ingame (power_led_0 and power_led_1)

hd, and md leds have read(1) / write(2) states

Just to fill the lack of official documentation! Ahahah thank you so much

@oneshout

It seem that STD_global.slangp refers to MBZ__2__STD.slangp from HSM_MEGA_BEZEL shaders but who don’t exist anymore (it’s MBZ__3__STD.slangp )

Potato and, Basic are broken too

Yes this is because of changes in the shaders structure in the latest RC cycle for Mega Bezel Reflection Shaders. This is the main reason because I had to insert the mirror for a previous version.

The stable shader is incoming, I was thinking about publishing an intermediate “hotfix” for my RC2 just for newcomers, but I have to test it against new features (i.e. corner crease) and this would require extra work and less time on RC3. I’ve been quite on a time constraint lately

[oneshout]

@TheNamec

Just to fill the lack of official documentation! Ahahah thank you so much

FrodeSolheim talk about a new CDTV/32 memory access state but don’t know if it’s the state 0 of the CD

[TheNamec]

@oneshout

FrodeSolheim talk about a new CDTV/32 memory access state but don’t know if it’s the state 0 of the CD

Maybe the parameter ‘md_led_pos’ refers to that? I was not able to trigger it during my tests, so I commented out for future reference…

[mr_blastman]

These are awesome, thank you!

Any chance on integrating some of these displays with a mouse/keyboard/full machine in the scene kinda like this?

Eviltar presents: Ultima Underworld, Just like Yesterday | Part 3

Kinda to give that “sitting in a room” feeling.

Your Bezeltron Philips tube is my favorite, by the way. I love that old retro 70s vibe it gives off, reminds me of when I was a kid!

[TheNamec]

@mr_blastman

These are awesome, thank you!

Thank you for making me consider a second take about importance of extra props in the composition of the “retro scenario”. I was actually inspired by the very same reference photo while building the new “ambient” Amiga 1000 scenario. I love the translucent post-it and the pile of floppies on the external drives, these really add realism to the scene without being distracting! (/me mumbles about props).

@mr_blastman

Any chance on integrating some of these displays with a mouse/keyboard/full machine in the scene kinda like this?

• JOYSTICK/MOUSE: I’d say YES. it’s possible and really nice but it should end up on the side, maybe with a moderate occlusion on the monitor frame: I don’t like when overlays end up on the actual gameplay area (with the exception of some historical arcade cabinet decals).

• MOUSE/KEYBOARD: I’d say NO. Objects leaning on the “scenario desk” end up being too low respect to actual monitor in the canonical 16:9/16:10 aspect ratio. In my experimentations I tryed to correct this by moving and shrinking the “scenario screen” around, by this ended up with a reduced gameplay area and unwanted artifacts because of scanlines.

• FULL MACHINE: I’d say SOMETIMES. With vertical machines, like the Amiga 3000T and 4000T (and PCs, WII, XBOX360, PS2-3-4) this may work fine as a recognizable portion of the machine can sit on side. With horizontal machines, the alternatives would be: a) the display ends up covering the machine, with just little details emerging on the sides, or b) the displays leans on the machine keeping IRL proportions, resulting in a really small gameplay area.

@mr_blastman

Your Bezeltron Philips tube is my favorite, by the way. I love that old retro 70s vibe it gives off, reminds me of when I was a kid!

That display ends up being pretty modern, being marketed around 2014 as one of the latest 4:3 flat ultraslim CRT! I’m happy you like it.

I need to add some more TV to the pack, they have that extra vibe for console retrogaming. What about a JVC D-SERIES?

[mr_blastman]

That’s a nice tube.

Someone actually found my tube(exact type) from when I was a kid on Youtube and posted some footage–a really nice 1981 high end trinitron set:

Unbelievable Rare Find Vintage Sony Trinitron 19" KV-1946R & 32" Sony...

Yeah, capturing more of the surrounding scene adds a lot to an overlay. When I game using dosbox it feels a lot like I’m there.

[jvlk]

Everything works ok when I try the shaders apart from the night lightning? The day and night version all look the same. Anyone has a clue what could be the problem of this?

[Duimon]

It may be that they are still using the old parameter. If so…

HSM_NIGHT_OPACITY

Needs to be changed to.

HSM_AMBIENT_LIGHTING_OPACITY

[jvlk]

Thx Duimon, that seems to fix it.

[TheNamec]

Heya pixel lovers! Easter is coming, so I decided to drop some EASTER EGGS and dutiful hotfixes. Without further esitations, let me introduce…

Mega Bezel Commodore Pack RC3 (April 16th, 2022)

Download link
New release for public testing, adding lots of blocky memories with Commodore64 and VIC20 packs. HAPPY EASTER BONUS: Amiga 1000 ambient preset and c264-series Commodore16.

Content:

• Added COMMODORE 64 Silver label presets and original assets, the first model
• Added COMMODORE 64 Breadbin presets and original assets, the real classic
• Added COMMODORE 64 ALDI presets and original assets, cheap consumer edition
• Added COMMODORE 64 DreanComm presets and original assets, with extra argentine flavor
• Added COMMODORE 64 G Series presets and original assets, with additional german taste
• Added VIC20 Gold label presets and original assets, first revision collector edition
• Added VIC20 Mark2 presets and original assets, the most widespread model
• Added VIC20 Mark3 presets and original assets, rainbow logo edition for Europe, Canada and Australia
• Added VIC-1001 presets and original assets, first Japan-only edition
• BONUS: Added AMIGA 1000 presets and original assets with a new experimental ‘ambient design’
• BONUS: Added Commodore 16 presets and original assets, from c264-series

Features:

• Added CURVED bezel presets to each display
• Added FLAT bezel presets to each display
• Added NORMAL SCALING presets, full display chassis visible
• Added INTEGER SCALING preset, automatic display zoom for cleanest pixels and less artifacts

Enhancements:

• Revamped MEGA BEZELS presets for much nicer depth, realistic lightning and customized decals
• Revamped DISPLAY presets for much nicer depth and better reflections
• Refactored DISPLAY preset names for a clear separation of presets variations
• Refactored FOLDER STRUCTURE for incoming future features
• Updated BEZELTRON CRT-SERIES presets and assets in favor of real-life brands
• Updated LO-FI MONOCHROME presets with tube texture to mimic phosphor surface
• Updated LICENSE and WATERMARKS to Creative Commons BY-NC-ND 4.0 because of bad guys stealing my assets without permission

Fixes:

• Updated MEGA BEZEL REFLECTION SHADER presets parameters to latest public MBR shader version
• Updated AMIGA CD32 led assets for proper YELLOW cd-drive indicator
• Updated MONITOR C1702 PRESETS NAMES typo C1072 -> C1702
• Updated MONOCHROME PRESETS with better brightness, wider contrast and a subtle ‘matheric’ texture
• Removed PERFORMANCE PRESETS as they are no longer needed (thanks to graphics caching)

Just 4k for now, the 1080p edition will follow soon.

Question time

What’s cool about latest Release Candidate?

Oh, lots of much anticipated Commodore goodies. Commodore 64 being one of the most requested features, I had to go deep in researches and build many regional and historical variants beyond the classic BREADBIN model.

The same process went on for Datassette and VIC20, and the little Commodore16 from the x264 series. The share a pretty similiar chassis, speeding up the design process. But hey, this required lots of logos to be customized!

I highly doubt anybody will ever emulate a VIC20 game in Retroarch, but that was a pretty interesting journey in memory preservation… and Commodore 16 being slick black is simply TOO COOL.

I also added some features to enhance visuals: a more CRT-like color correction from my incoming custom shaders, NTSC variants from almighty @guest.r, flat/curved variants for displays and integer scaling to reduce bad artifacts. Levels of zoom, being ‘near’ and ‘normal’, will let you decide how far from the simulated screen will your face be.

Is Mega Bezel Commodore Pack complete?

Nope, hence the Release Candidate tag.

I’d like to add more Amiga, Commodore 64, VIC20 and Commodore 264 series variations and data units. I’m pretty torn about pc-looking A1500, A2000, A3000, A4000. I already acquired references for these and will update as soon as I complete the visual shaders overhaul

What’s going on with the CRTgaming thing about PVM/BVM?

Lots of things are moving under the hood.

As visual permutations for CRT TECHS (dot-mask, slot-mask, aperture grille, plasma), SIGNALS (RGB/SCART, S-VIDEO, COMPONENT, RF MODULATOR) and FLAVOURS (smooth, sharp, soft, more monochromes) was taking a bit too long, I decided to give some love to the Commodore Suite.

Complexity of output is the real problem here: at the current status, permutations lead to over 200.000 presets, making Github management pretty difficult. I had to stop the very moment I tried to do a commit and my HDD failed while trying to calculate diffs… nothing is lost, but I need to work smarter.

I need a script for presets generation!

That’s all folks, happy easter everybody!

[Cyber]

This is wonderful @TheNamec. Can’t wait to take these for a spin!

I’m really glad you paid attention to making Integer Scale compatible variants because this is very important for detailed mask and shader preset design.

It would be great if @soqueroeu could also implement something like this in his TV bezels as that would probably make my life much easier when trying to integrate my shader presets with them.

You keep doing your thing man! Creating a legacy is what we’re doing!

[Duimon]

Just wonderful my friend!

The number of presets, the detail, the use of the Mega Bezel features…

An amazing accomplishment that betrays the many, many hours you spent perfecting it.

[RuySan]

Thanks for the great work. I noticed you also use guest_advanced are the primary shader of your presets, but it looks a bit different than the current default settings of HSM bezel. Less scanline heavy, and more with hive pattern (shadowmask?). I still don’t know which one I prefer…so many decisions:)

[RuySan]

I just noticed now that the “curved” presets main shader look significantly different from all variations of the “flat” presets.

The “flat” ones look exactly like the default HSM Bezel shaders, the guest_advanced shader, while the curved ones look quite dark and have the hive effect very pronounced? Is this intentional or a bug? On the HSM defaults, the curved ones look just like the flat presets.

[TheNamec]

@RuySan

Less scanline heavy, and more with hive pattern (shadowmask?)

@RuySan

The “flat” ones look exactly like the default HSM Bezel shaders, the guest_advanced shader, while the curved ones look quite dark and have the hive effect very pronounced? Is this intentional or a bug? On the HSM defaults, the curved ones look just like the flat presets.

The main idea is that scanlines interaction with bright pixels should be different between curved, flat and integer scaling, resulting in a variation of brightness.

Scanlines being a major threat for moire/artifacts in curved, with a minor impact on flat and zero impact on integer, I need to somewhat mitigate that with some extra tuning.

EDIT: I agree with you, tested “curved” presets on a non-QLED display and it feels a little moody. I’ll crank brightness a little up!

@RuySan

Thanks for the great work.

Thank you for feedback! And welcome to this little Commodore shrine!

[RuySan]

For me, the shader on the curved presets has a completely different, a bit stitchy, look, so I don’t know If it’s supposed to be this way. For example (in this case the preset has already been brightened up, like I said, the default is too dark:

While the flat presets look like this to me:

Both are Advanced_Smooth presets

[Duimon]

It appears the difference is the “Slot Mask Strength Bright Pixels – slotmask” and the “Slot Mask Strength Dark Pixels – slotmask1” parameters in the relative “tweaks.slangp”.

I’m not sure why it is giving this result… I don’t think it should.

[TheNamec]

Now I see what you’re talking about! Thank you for pointing out.

I’m quite sure this is related to the simulated slot mask attenuation parameters. I got these already separated in curved/flat preset fragments so fixing should be a (global) breeze!

I like the stiched texture more because it better reflects IRL commodore monitors micro-dotted slot mask, I found these pretty peculiar. Stronger, plain scanlines belong to PVM/BVM slot masks. I’ll consider this for incoming CRTGaming pack.

I love how these little details make the simulated experience even more unique!

I’ll release an hotfix download this weekend, I’ve already ironed out a couple nice bugs

[RuySan]

I’m still using it, and still undecided about it. It’s cool that it tries to mimic commodore’s monitors, but maybe the effect is too heavy. It’s been ages since I used one (my 1084 died in 1996, RIP), but I kind of remember the image being a bit more soft, but memory might be playing tricks. I wish I had one to try it out.

[Duimon]

You can soften the effect a bit by increasing the mask gamma.