Zomb's Mega Bezel Pack

[Zombeaver]

Do you mean for 240p consoles I’d use Presets-1440p but for consoles that were 480i or 480p (DC or PS2) I’d use Presets-HiResContent-1440p ?

Yep, you got it! “Fake scanlines” are used above 240p and the ideal mask settings are a little different when they’re used vs normal scanlines so I made separate presets for both scenarios.

For content that switches back and forth periodically (like some PSX games), I would recommend the non-HiResContent presets, as it will look better on average. There are a handful of games like Tekken 3 that run at 480i at all times where you’d want the HiResContent ones but those are very few and far between. You also want to use HiResContent if you’re doing any actual internal resolution upscaling like some people will do with say PSX or DC.

[Unparallell]

I was wondering if you have plans for “Standard” (less demanding) preset release or, is it specific to “Advanced” shader in order to maintain the quality that otherwise can’t be achieved with the less.

[Zombeaver]

I was wondering if you have plans for “Standard” (less demanding) preset release or, is it specific to “Advanced” shader in order to maintain the quality that otherwise can’t be achieved with the less.

I do use some of the advanced functions so I wasn’t really planning on it, no.

[Duimon]

@Zombeaver

I wasn’t really planning on it, no

That is really a shame. Your work is just too good to not share with everyone.

If you change your mind, I would be glad to lend a hand converting these to vanilla and potato presets. Even standard overlays.

[Zombeaver]

Even standard overlays.

That’s certainly doable. As far as the bezel/overlay portion of these, most of those I created before working on this to begin with, and just reworked a bit for use here. I’ve made new ones for this that didn’t exist in that format but it wouldn’t be too difficult to convert back in that direction either.

Downgrading the presets I’m a little more dubious about. There are some things missing in the non-ADV presets like Sharpsmoother that I’m really quite fond of.

[Zombeaver]

Update 11-20-2022:

• Made a few adjustments to NTSC brightness and saturation in Scanner presets - particularly bright areas could sometimes appear a bit brighter than they should
• Added missing presets for LUTech for Atari 8-bit, DOS, and PC Engine CD
• Remade/improved MAME bezels (I was never really happy with the previous version)

It’s probably worth noting here that there are actually a couple alternate background versions available for rotated MAME (and a few others like Neo Geo and CPS1) as well. If you navigate to Zombs Mega Bezel\Resources\Images\MAME you’ll see a couple subfolders with alternate versions which you can copy out and replace in the MAME folder if you want to change it.

• Added preset variants for double and triple-screen arcade games like Warrior Blade and Darius respectively. These are available in the “Special” subfolder and then subdivided into “Arcade Dual Screen” and “Arcade Triple Screen” folders.

• Added bezel variant for Atomiswave

[Cyber]

@Zombeaver

Downgrading the presets I’m a little more dubious about. There are some things missing in the non-ADV presets like Sharpsmoother that I’m really quite fond of.

What I did, in order to get my GeForce GTX 970 to be able to run my presets in their full glory at 4K was clone my preset folder and replace the MBZ__0__SMOOTH-ADV_GDV.slangp base preset with the MBZ__0__SMOOTH-ADV-NO-REFLECT__GDV.slangp.

Everything but the real-time reflections remain intact using those base presets.

I subsequently made some Standard Presets using Soqueroeu Mega Bezel TV Backgrounds and found that they didn’t need the smoothing as much due to them being scaled down to fit a smaller viewport. Then I used my Custom Blargg NTSC Video Filter Presets to take care of things like de-dithering and to smooth things out a bit more.

If you haven’t already, you should try them. They’ll have a nice post processing effect on your presets that you might actually like. They’re already in the RetroArch Video Filters folder.

[FinalBoss]

I tried to run those last ones with a Gtx 1080ti and it had 45 fps.

[Cyber]

You can try what I mentioned above and switch to a No-Reflect base preset for improved performance but you’ll lose the real-time reflections of course.

[Zombeaver]

I’m sorry to hear that. You may want to try what @Cyber suggested as it will probably help. I’m getting about 260FPS in BSNES with my presets but I have a 5900x and a 3080.

[Zombeaver]

I’ve completely reworked the HiResContent presets. Basically the issue has always been that when fake scanlines kick in (above 240p), the mask, gamma, contrast etc. all affect them quite differently than they do normal scanlines, so I’ve kindof struggled to dial in good settings for those because what looks good/right with normal scanlines does not with the fake ones. But I’ve spent several days working on them and have some improved values that will be used in subsequent updates. Bright white areas were always the most problematic, as they would tend to clip, and contrast overall was much lower than I wanted. Pretty happy with the results of the new settings though.

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[Zombeaver]

Update 11-22-2022

• Completely reworked HiResContent presets to provide much closer approximation to the standard presets. Contrast, saturation, color adjustments, etc. are significantly better now, and high brightness clipping has been eliminated. See previous post for examples.
• Rotated presets in the non-HiResContent folders now simply reference the HiResContent equivalent in the corresponding 1080p or 1440p folder - the reason being is that fake scanlines are always intended to be enabled in this context
• Made adjustments to rotated presets based on changes in HSM Mega Bezel V1.6.2_2022-11-22. You will need to update your version of Mega Bezel, you can grab it here. The opening post has been updated as well.

I discovered an issue while testing rotated games in the FB Neo core when it comes to NTSC handling (which all my presets use). @HyperspaceMadness is aware of the issue, but for the time being all the rotated presets are intended for use with the MAME core, and not FB Neo. That was really always the case to begin with because of differences in the way rotation is handled in Retroarch between the MAME and FB Neo cores, but even if you were to go through the steps of replicating the orientation in FB Neo (disabling rotation in the core/RA, setting rotate CRT in the shader) they won’t look as good in that context because of the NTSC parameters. Whenever that does get resolved I’ll need a separate group of presets specifically for rotated FB Neo anyway.

[Zombeaver]

Update 11-24-2022

• Corrected bezel for Master System which previously had the text oriented incorrectly
• Added SCAN-Scanner-NoScanlines preset to the HiResContent folders
• Added bezel variants for CPS3 and Naomi; a rotated variant for Naomi will have to wait for the moment due to the NTSC issue mentioned in the previous post

[DreamOnNeon]

I love these presets Zomb. The look of the game is so pleasing to the eye nd the bezel art is awesome to look at. It reminds me of the kind you’d see on the arcade cabinets. Thank you for your hard work and thank you for making this available for all of gamers to use!

[Boz1978]

These are some of the best looking bezels/presets I’ve seen!! Wowza Excellent work @Zombeaver

[slikvik55]

@Zombeaver

That was really always the case to begin with because of differences in the way rotation is handled in Retroarch between the MAME and FB Neo cores, but even if you were to go through the steps of replicating the orientation in FB Neo (disabling rotation in the core/RA, setting rotate CRT in the shader) they won’t look as good in that context because of the NTSC parameters. Whenever that does get resolved I’ll need a separate group of presets specifically for rotated FB Neo anyway.

That’s a real shame. After using MAME for decades once I realised I could do 90% of my emulation in RA, FBNeo became the much better experience for me because of its tight integration with RA features, Quick Menu and Core Options (even more so that MAME2003Plus). Just to be clear are you saying that even Mega Bezel itself has issues because I’ve been running FBNeo vertical games with it and thought it was okay.

[HyperspaceMadness]

@slikvik55

Just to be clear are you saying that even Mega Bezel itself has issues because I’ve been running FBNeo vertical games with it and thought it was okay.

It should be fine as long as you have followed the Mega Bezel set up instructions and use the parameters to rotate the game screen when you need to.

[Zombeaver]

@HyperspaceMadness

It should be fine as long as you have followed the Mega Bezel set up instructions and use the parameters to rotate the game screen when you need to.

This is true so long as the preset isn’t using NTSC parameters (which all of mine do). Unless I’ve missed something, what we discussed previously hasn’t been resolved.

@slikvik55

Just to be clear are you saying that even Mega Bezel itself has issues

If the preset uses NTSC parameters, yes. All of my presets use NTSC parameters.

[SuperieurUltra]

Hi Zombeaver.

I would like to say that I really like the shader presets you are making. They are probably my favorite presets of the Mega Bezel project! I was wondering if you are planning to release new versions of the shader. Some composite presets with slight artifacting/fringing would be nice. I have a 4k display available so maybe I could help you to make some 4k presets.