Overlays

[Substring]

Hey guyz,

A few members have been working on the overlays lately, and see how this could fit recalbox. I've been experimenting an automated implementation with @acris and @Nachtgarm with the necessary edits in configgen.

This lead me to notice one thing : adding overlays themselves won't be that hard. But the overlays themselves are the real burden. Let me sum up :

• an overlay must match a screen size : so far, I think 720p, 1280x1024 and a 4:3 resolution should be enough. Eventually consider 1080p if it can easily be downscaled to 720p. 1 stone, 2 hits
• the transparent frame of the overlay must fit the emulator viewport. Now we hit quite many cases. Consoles are easy as they have a single resolution most of times. But arcade is a whole different story : tons of different resolutions and screen ratios ... I can work on a table giving the original resolution of each game for mame2003
• and the last : interger scale (aka pixel perfect) ... Now that this option is available in recalbox and i find it quite nice with a shader, an overlay for a system should consider both cases : a "full screen ratio" (like it has always been) and the PP (pixel perfect) ratio, which is always smaller than the previous case.

So, all in all, this is how I see things, and wanted to share it with you to add it in recalbox 4.1 :

• define common screen resolutions used on recalbox. I mentionned 720p (1080p ?), 1280x1024 ... is that enough or not ? resolutions below DMT 4 should not be considered. Maybe we should add 800x600 or 1024x768, i have no idea which screens would use that
• for each system, define the maximum size for each resolution, as well as the max PP resolution
  ex : the gameboy is 160x144, screen ratio of 1.1111
  for 1280x1024, the max PP GB resolution is x7 : 1120x1008, the max fullscreen resolution is x7.1 : 1136x1022
  GB in 720p : max PP is 800x720, same as the max fullscreen
• this means we need 6 overlays per system : 3 resolutions, PP and fullscreeen

What do you think about that ? @acris @Nachtgarm @ironic @supernature2k + anyone who wants to contribute

[Nachtgarm]

@subs that is great and I totally second the 6 overlays per system? You mean 6 overlays per game, right?

[Substring]

6 overlays per system for consoles, 6 overlays per arcade game

[Nachtgarm]

@subs So you are suggesting one global overlay per console? Why not have overlays per game, as for the Arcade Games?

[voljega]

@Nachtgarm because they don't exist for console games

[Nachtgarm]

@voljega Sure they do. Sort of. Ghost'n'Goblins as example, but yes, they did not exist in real life. ^^

[Substring]

In my mind, consoles would have a generic default overlay beacause ... well .. .consoles ... it's not because the arcade version of the game had its bezel that it is something that feels natural for a console. But that's my own opinion. Anyway, the full SNES no-intro romst is approx 3.3k roms .... That's way more than FBA+MAME roms XD

[acris]

@subs said in Overlays:

In my mind, consoles would have a generic default overlay beacause ... well .. .consoles ... it's not because the arcade version of the game had its bezel that it is something that feels natural for a console. But that's my own opinion. Anyway, the full SNES no-intro romst is approx 3.3k roms .... That's way more than FBA+MAME roms XD

Me too

[voljega]

@Nachtgarm what you're showing is... the arcade overlay. Most of the times they contain the list of controls for the arcade version which doesn't mean anything for the console version.

In addition the screen and thus overlay ratio could be different on the console compared to the arcade so the result would be ugly...

That said I also deactivated most of them on my Pc Mame because :

• the game image is reduced to a small one sometime drastically
  -some of them are oddly cut and the image is not centered anymore
• a lot of them are ugly, especialky the neogeo one

[Nachtgarm]

Guys, guys... relaaax I just got carried away for a second

You are right and it's the best solution, to me, as proposed by @subs.

6 Overlays per Console
6 Overlays per Arcade Game

I'm in for that and am glad to help with creating the graphics. Show me that table and I'm on it

[Substring]

doing the consoles table for 1280x1024 and 1080p. I would like your opinions regarding the necessary screen resolutions

[Nachtgarm]

@subs

SNES
Lines in progressive mode

• 224 (NTSC)
• 239 (PAL)

lines in interlaced mode

• 448
• 478

pixel per line

• 256 Pixel in Standard mode,
• 512 in „High-Res“ mode

How would we "solve" this?

[Substring]

it's just an integer scale between all those ratios (except NTSC/PAL). Just a maths problem, no need to be scared ... yet ... haha

but ... how many consoles are THAT annoying ?

[Nachtgarm]

@subs

mmmh... allmost all consoles which are sperated by PAL and NTSC. Not really THAT annoying, but

NES
256×224 Pixel (NTSC)
256×240 Pixel (PAL)

*Sega Genisis/MegaDrive
320 × 224 (NTSC)
320 × 240 (PAL),
40 × 28 Text mode

Game Gear
Normal 160x144
Max 256 x 192

N64
256×224 to 646×486 (NTSC)
768×576 (PAL)

etc...

[supernature2k]

Hey bro, not a problem.
Take the ntsc reso and have a few black lines in pal. Seems good to me, no?

[paradadf]

Would this be somehow helpful?
https://github.com/libretro/arcade-overlays

[Substring]

@paradadf that's an overlay repo, among others. Arcade is best suited for overlays, indeed, and we have quite a few sources for them

For anyone having overlays resources, please share here

[ironic]

Overlays are nice but i only use Vectrex Bezels.
All others are just for fun.

On my Bartop, 1280x1024 (5/4), honrizontal games take full screen.
There is no area to draw an Overlay. (or shrink emulator viewport).

But for vertical game (Arcade), an Overlay is nice.
Just one i use with mame games.

For 16:9, some generic Bezels can be a good idea.

Make overlays (Bezels) for most games/most resolutions must be difficult.

I think, Recalbox must propose the possibility to put overlays but trying to do all/most overlays is difficult.

Hum, ok, a nice overlay can be cool...

Some Overlays/Bezels i found :
https://mega.nz/#F!5AJ0XRpL!wcyQdAyzn7GyydK0ONKy-A

[Substring]

@ironic so if i get you right : for 5:4 monitors, overlays are only useful for vectrex, vertical games or when integer scale is activated ?

[Substring]

Anyone tried a downscaled 1080p overlay on 720p to see if it fits right ?