Adding borders to MAME.

[muxer107]

Hi All.

I'm using an old TV as my monitor for a MAME cabinet, but I've hit a snag with getting the full image on the screen (limitation of the TV). I'm missing a few pixels at the top and the bottom of the screen.

Basically, I want to know if it's possible to add a border to the top and bottom of the mame window?

[DarthMarino]

Yes. Many games have available bezels.  Take a look here and see if they have any of the games you are trying to play:

http://mrdo.mameworld.info/mame_artwork_ingame.php 

You can always make a generic one based on one of those and use it for all your games.

[muxer107]

Thanks for the reply,

How would I go about creating my own? I just need a small border at the top and I'll be set. To give an example of how small it is, it's just the top 3/4 of the words "highscore" in pac man.

Also, how do I make it the default artwork for all games?

[retrorepair]

If you are running groovymame and calamity's modified ATI driver you could always adjust the modeline in the included Arcade OSD app.

Just be careful not to adjust too far, take a note of the original settings and test after every change.

If you aren't I very much recommend it.

[muxer107]

I have edited with arcade_osd and changed video cards. No matter what I do, I'm always missing a few pixels. I have it centered so that its a few from the bottom and top to even it out.

I believe it's the TV more than anything. I tried with powerstrip as well and the best results I could obtain where the same as I was getting with arcade_osd.

[Howard_Casto]

This is just a standard thing.  TVs take 5-10% of the screen and ignore it because on a tv broadcast back in the day, garbage video info (like closed caption encoding ect) is displayed there. 

Now with digital tvs this isn't an issue, but the old tube tvs are designed to work that way. 

As retrorepair stated the only way to fix this is to adjust via the video card drivers, or to use one of these apps that hacks your video card to do custome mode lines and tweak the visible image that way. 

You CAN do a border in mame btw, but that isn't going to solve your problem.

[muxer107]

How do I add a border in mame? I've no way to edit the overscan area and it's impossible to get the TV synced on a mode that will show the missing information.

Adding a small border to the top of all the mame games will solve it..

[muxer107]

Here's some pics in case people don't know what I'm talking about. Can't believe how much trouble it's taking me to add a border in mame. I can't find it listed anywhere in the docs.

Of course, I can move the image up or down, so that I can read the full 'high-score' or 'Credit'.

[retrorepair]

That's actually a modeline issue so ultimately a groovymame setup issue. You would be better off asking this in the dedicated groovymame forum here: http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/board,52.0.html

[DarthMarino]

I think I figured it out. When you are in the game, go to "Slider Controls". Reduce the Horiz and Vert Stretch to numbers less than 1.000 and it will window box it for you.  Maybe someone knows how to make this a default for all games.

[Howard_Casto]

You CAN do a border in mame btw, but that isn't going to solve your problem.

What did you think I meant by that?

Unless you want to manually adjust every single solitary game in mame, you better do as retrorepair suggested. 

[muxer107]

So if I want to add a border, than the only way is to create my own bezel and create a copy in the MAME art folder? Shouldn't be too much work. I only keep about 20 games on the machine anyway.

[DarthMarino]

So if I want to add a border, than the only way is to create my own bezel and create a copy in the MAME art folder? Shouldn't be too much work. I only keep about 20 games on the machine anyway.

I think if you are going to do it per game, the other method with the sliders might be quicker.  These values save for each game.

[Gray_Area]

You don't want to create a border. Go into any arcade, and you'll find newer games with widescreen LCD where the image doesn't cover (and isn't stretched to) the whole screen - on purpose. Your situation is....trivial.

I should think you'd want the entirety of the image to display. Try DarthMarino's suggestion; those values should save to some file - if not ini, then cfg - hence you should be able to set a value for all games by writing it in the correct file.

By the way, include images at the outset of any help request thread you post.

[muxer107]

I missed Darths soloution and I'm going down to try it now.

Gray_Area, you aren't understanding my issue and I don't know how to describe it any further.

I should think you'd want the entirety of the image to display.

That's exactly what I'm looking for?

Go into any arcade, and you'll find newer games with widescreen LCD where the image doesn't cover (and isn't stretched to) the whole screen - on purpose.

Which is more or less what I want to do...

That's actually a modeline issue so ultimately a groovymame setup issue. You would be better off asking this in the dedicated groovymame forum here: http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php/board,52.0.html

I'd love to use groovey mame, but I'm running an older machine and so need to use an older version of mame. I don't think groovey mame could help in this instance anyway. It's not going to be able to generate a mode line any better than what I can do with arcade_osd.


EDIT:Where are slider controls? Mame version 0.72

[muxer107]

Does anyone know if it's possible to use negatives in the old mame zoom command? That would add borders?

[muxer107]

Tried the custom art bezel idea. I'd have to create a new one for every game to match the resoloution, so that's a no go

[muxer107]

I'm really sorry to bump this, but I can't find a soloution anywhere.

Can anyone even point me in the direction of another forum where someone might know?

[Gray_Area]

My points are:

- don't care about any 'dead space'

- the cut off text looks to me to be overscan, which should be handled by the image rendering in your card/display adapter properties. The MAME image adjustment stuff mentioned above was added in a much later version.