Electronic Bezel?

[garnerb350]

Had a question and I am wondering if anyone can help...I not even sure if it can be done.

I have Maximus Arcade installed on my cab, and I had a question...Is there a way that I can have and electronic bezel on my screen when I play games? When I was deciding on frontends, I noticed that one of the perks of  Gameex had it where if you where playing Vertical games on a Horizontal screen , you had an electronic bezel to cover the dead space. Can this be acomplished without Gameex?

I would love to cover the dead space while i am enjoying Pac-Man, or any other vertical game. Also can it be possible to have different "artwork" when I am playing different games?

Where ( if it exists) can I go to find this...Can it be done?

[Ginsu Victim]

It's a feature of MAME.
http://www.mameworld.net/mrdo/mame_artwork.html

[garnerb350]

Can this be done with Maximus arcade?

[BASS!]

You can make maximus look like anything you want if you know how to use photoshop and play with the skin editor. If you want to make a bezel for the edges just design that or download it and drop it into the skin frame.

[Bender]

actually I have related question

Is there a way to set a default bezel art for all vertical games in mame?
other wise I think you have to find art for every vertical Game

[Ginsu Victim]

Can this be done with Maximus arcade?

That's just the front end. If you want it done in-game, you have to do it through MAME.

[garnerb350]

I wanted to apoligize and say I'm sorry for asking a stupid question....The Bezel has nothing to do with the frontend...I sat last night at my computer and pondered and pondered and i finally figured it out...I had the artwork all along...and when I placed it in my artwork folder and tried my games out...I was totally disatified... Either the artwork was too big to really enjoy or when I cropped the bezel, it made the actual game too small to enjoy.  So I came up with this soulution.... I found the genieric Gamex bezel and the genieric bezel.lay file and I took photoshop and modified the bezel more suitible to my game. 

Now in the artwork files, the zipped folder...say for example Donkey Kong, the zipped folder is dkong. Inside there is the dkong.lay and 4 PNG which are the upright, and cabinet bezels. I modified the generic bezel and then saved it in the dkong zip file. Then I opened the genieric bezel.lay and the dkong.lay files with notepad. I then proceeded to cut & paste the information from the bezel.lay and thenpaste it over the info on the dkong.lay file.

Doing this covered my dead space while playing the game and also it didnt shrink the game...Uh-oh...the boss is looking...back to work... 

[cmoses]

So can you post a picture of the bezel you are using?

[garnerb350]

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...

[Necro]

I don't know if you can do this, but you could setup your monitor so that it has no taskbar and the background is your 'bezel'.  Then set MAME to run in a certain windowed resolution (with no frame/bar) that centers on your screen and is full height.

...I think that would work.

[Ummon]

??....There is a function in front end's that use a sort of standardized bezel when vertical games are played. It comes stock in GameEx. I was never able to get it to work, but it IS a feature. I wonder whether it's possible to use something like Romcenter or maybe Fileboss to make the same image have all the various names of roms, and then you only turn on bezels for vertical games.

[garnerb350]

??....There is a function in front end's that use a sort of standardized bezel when vertical games are played. It comes stock in GameEx. I was never able to get it to work, but it IS a feature. I wonder whether it's possible to use something like Romcenter or maybe Fileboss to make the same image have all the various names of roms, and then you only turn on bezels for vertical games.

Ummon, I agree... I found that bezel in the Gameex program folder.... See I am using Maximus, and  MA doesnt have that feature... Well I was told that MAME handles the bezel artwork etc...and so I figured wht would happen if i do this......( Basiclly I took the file and photoshop what ever I wanted for that particular game)  I then modified the .lay file and then inserted the files into the game zipped artwork file and opened mame and started the game and went to video options....and the bezel works...

I thinking ( stand back its dangerous) that it has to do with resolution of the file....The Gameex bezel is set for 640 x 480, while the artwork files I orginally had were GOD knows how high...and basiclly Im trying to fix it where I can play a vertical game and not have the stupid dead space....

Long story short is that it sucks for me, because I dont have internet at home and my work has the NO GAMES & PORN filter for thier internet...so there are certain websites I cant access...i.e. Mameworld...So I am trying going around other ways to find out the information I need...

[Bender]

I don't know if you can do this, but you could setup your monitor so that it has no taskbar and the background is your 'bezel'.  Then set MAME to run in a certain windowed resolution (with no frame/bar) that centers on your screen and is full height.

...I think that would work.

I'd like to try this
Has anyone done it this way?
I can't seem to find a way to get mame to run unwindowed without it putting the black background in, another words no frame/bar

[TelcoLou]

Yes, I have been doing this for all my veritcally-oriented games. I can't STAND looking at those black voids on either side.

Here's what I did:

• Downloaded the 1943 artwork file from MrD's site.
• Opened up the .zip, and altered the .png file (I'll post it here tomorrow)
• Re-named it to "generic_bezel.png"
• changed the .lay file to reference "generic_bezel.png"
• Re-named the .lay file to match the game rom
• Re-named the .zip file to match the game rom
• Voila! TelcoLou's Generic Bezel™

 

[Bender]

I'm sorry I'm so slow,

but wouldn't you have to do that for every vertical rom?

[TelcoLou]

I'm sorry I'm so slow,

but wouldn't you have to do that for every vertical rom?

Only these bits:

• Re-named the .lay file to match the game rom
• Re-named the .zip file to match the game rom

... see, the .png is already in the zip file, and the .lay (once altered to reference the .png file name) just needs to be re-named to match the .zip file.

For example:

I have ringking.lay and ringking.zip on my desktop.
I find a game that needs this bezel to fill in the black voids on either side, say donpachi.
I rename the .lay to "donpachi.lay", open up the ringking.zip file, delete ringking.lay, replacing it with donpachi.lay, then re-name the .zip "donpachi.zip" and place it in mame/artwork folder.

... hope this makes sense ...

[Bender]

Yep! that makes sense

that's what I was afraid of
I just wish I could have a generic background that replaced where mame puts the black bars without having to make a file for each vertical rom
I'm just Lazy

[TelcoLou]

I'm lazy too, but my hatred for the black bars gave me just enough incentive to do this 

[Bender]

create an easy one shot  bezel far ALL vertical mame games Mr. DO! to the rescue


Just did it, it rocks!
Took 5 min and now I have a generic bezel that maches my cab theme and NO BLACK BARS!!!!!!!!!!!
Plus you can easily change one .png file whenever you want to get a new generic bezel
Woo Hoo!!!!

  to MR. DO!  

and may thanks to TelcoLou

Lazy comes in handy once in a while!

Test by saint

[Bender]

WOW, this solution is even better than I thought!

If you have game specific bezel files in your mame Artwork folder it defaults to them.
or you can override those and use your default by selecting "Generic Bezel" in the video options section in mame
or you can get the black bars back by turning it off by selecting the standard or pixel aspect ratio, again under video options

Pretty cool
I think you may even be able to make more defaults by adjusting Mr. Do's file and adding another one (with a different name) before you compile mame
I'll try that next

EDIT: If any one need the files PM me the link on the mameworld sight is dead

[Bender]

just updating this cause the link in the Maneworld thread is dead

so I though I'd post em here with Mr. Do's instuctions


"
Download the attached file
Copy vertical.lay to...
(for 0.107 to 0.112)\src\layout in your MAME SRC tree. Compile.
(for 0.112u1 or later)\src\emu\layout in your MAME SRC tree. Compile.

The other file in the attachment is vertical.png. It is a generic 4000x3000 png; black on both sides, with a mask in the middle. Using your favorite graphics program, create any artwork you wish in the black area. Leave the mask blank.
When you are done with your graphic, save the file as vertical.png in your \mame\artwork folder. DO NOT zip it; leave it in there as is, just like your "scanlines" files.


That's it. Your new artwork is now available in any vertically-oriented game. In the "Video Options" menu, you will see the option "Generic Bezel," which is your new artwork, similar to the sample below. From here, and looking at the attached source file, it should also be pretty easy to figure out how to add your own generic horizontal bezel, if you so desire. Don't ask, though. It isn't going to be posted here.

PLEASE NOTE: If you do apply the source patch above, you MUST have a file named "vertical.png" in your artwork directory. If you do not, and you run a vertically-oriented game, MAME WILL CRASH!!! Don't say I didn't warn you."

[Bender]

Testing

I cant seem to attach a file here
Any thoughts??

[BobA]

Testing 

[Dazz]

I totally forgot about this when I re-did my cabinet.  I guess it's time to get this back in place.