Im still new to this, and at the same time I'm needing info myself.... Basiclly I am taking the time to create different bezels for the different games...you can have just one bezel, I guess ...I just dont know how to make that one bezel work for ALL your games... yet
Like I said, Im still trying to figure this out...
Say for example I dont like the dead space I see when I am playing Pac-man on my 21 inch monitor. What I did was I went and located the artwork for pacman...( I myself went to
http://www.mamechannel.it/pages/artworks.php because I cant access Mr Do webpage because of work filters) The artwork for pacman is massive (hi rez) and when I placed the file in my mame artwork folder the image was too big ( only saw little of the artwork) or when I cropped the artwork, the actual game screen was small ( but the artwork was nice). Still sucked.
Now when you download Gameex, go to the actual folder and you will eventually find a folder named bezel v2 ( i think) inside is the generic bezel and .lay file. Now what I did for pac man was just used my photoshop and pasted the artwork over the generic bezel.
Now when you open the artwork zipped file in your mame artwork folder... You will find the different PNG files and a .lay file. Now since I am doing my pacman bezel ...I find the puckman.zip file located again in my artwork folder. Inside is the puckman.lay file. I copied it and opened it with notepad. I also opened the bezel .lay that was in the other folder....
Ok...Puckman.lay has this when you open the file with notepad...<!-- puckman.lay -->
<mamelayout version="2">
<element name="bezel_puckman">
<image file="puckman_kenophone.png" />
</element>
<element name="bezel_puckman2">
<image file="puckman_bezel_bootleg.png" />
</element>
<element name="bezel_pacman">
<image file="pacman_bezel_upright.png" />
</element>
<element name="bezel_cabaret">
<image file="pacman_bezel_cabaret.png" />
</element>
<element name="bezel_pacman_ck">
<image file="pacman_cocktail.png" />
</element>
<element name="cocktail_jpn">
<image file="puckman_cocktail_inst.png" />
</element>
<element name="cocktail_euro">
<image file="puckman_cocktail_euro.png" />
</element>
<element name="gray">
<rect>
<color red="0.5" green="0.5" blue="0.5" />
</rect>
</element>
<view name="Pacman_Upright_Artwork">
<screen index="0">
<bounds x="976" y="761" width="2040" height="2720" />
</screen>
<bezel element="bezel_pacman">
<bounds x="0" y="0" width="4000" height="3652" />
</bezel>
</view>
<view name="Puckman_Bezel_Unknown">
<screen index="0">
<bounds x="950" y="614" width="2040" height="2720" />
</screen>
<bezel element="bezel_puckman2">
<bounds x="0" y="0" width="4000" height="3730" />
</bezel>
</view>
<view name="Pacman_Cabaret_Artwork">
<bounds left="0" top="0" right="4000" bottom="3284" />
<screen index="0">
<bounds x="960" y="394" width="2100" height="2800" />
</screen>
<bezel element="bezel_cabaret">
<bounds x="0" y="0" width="4000" height="3455" />
</bezel>
</view>
<view name="Puckman_Bezel_Kenophone">
<screen index="0">
<bounds x="1025" y="850" width="1950" height="2600" />
</screen>
<bezel element="bezel_puckman">
<bounds x="0" y="0" width="4000" height="3992" />
</bezel>
</view>
<view name="Pacman_Cocktail_Artwork">
<screen index="0">
<bounds x="614" y="1000" width="1500" height="2000" />
</screen>
<backdrop element="gray">
<bounds x="0" y="0" width="2750" height="600" />
</backdrop>
<backdrop element="gray">
<bounds x="0" y="3400" width="2750" height="600" />
</backdrop>
<bezel element="bezel_pacman_ck">
<bounds x="0" y="0" width="2750" height="4000" />
</bezel>
</view>
<view name="Cocktail_Inst_JPN">
<screen index="0">
<bounds x="0" y="0" width="1125" height="1500" />
</screen>
<bezel element="cocktail_jpn">
<bounds x="1325" y="425" width="320" height="650" />
</bezel>
<bezel element="cocktail_jpn">
<bounds x="-520" y="425" width="320" height="650" />
<orientation rotate="180" />
</bezel>
</view>
<view name="Cocktail_Inst_EURO">
<screen index="0">
<bounds x="0" y="0" width="3000" height="4000" />
</screen>
<bezel element="cocktail_euro">
<bounds x="3200" y="1000" width="1148" height="2000" />
</bezel>
<bezel element="cocktail_euro">
<bounds x="-1348" y="1000" width="1148" height="2000" />
<orientation rotate="180" />
</bezel>
</view>
</mamelayout>
The Bezel.lay ( your generic) has this....<!-- bezel.lay -->
<mamelayout version="2">
<element name="bezel">
<image file="mame.png" />
</element>
<view name="Bezel Artwork">
<screen index="0">
<bounds left="140" top="0" right="500" bottom="480" />
</screen>
<bezel element="bezel">
<bounds left="0" top="0" right="640" bottom="480" />
</bezel>
</view>
</mamelayout>
All I did was copy the bezel and paste it under where the <!-- puckman.lay --> was....<!-- puckman.lay -->
<mamelayout version="2">
<element name="bezel">
<image file="mame.png" />
</element>
<view name="Bezel Artwork">
<screen index="0">
<bounds left="140" top="0" right="500" bottom="480" />
</screen>
<bezel element="bezel">
<bounds left="0" top="0" right="640" bottom="480" />
</bezel>
</view>
</mamelayout>
I then saved the modified puckman.lay back in the zip folder along with my modified bezel
Like i said, Im still learning my self ...I would love to just do one bezel and be done with it...