Mame Bezel

[EssexMame]

Does anyone have their cabinet setup to show the game bezels?

I have a 1600x1200 native resolution monitor, so if I have bezels enabled in mame.ini, will it show the bezel with the game inside it at the correct resolution for each game?

To put it another way, can i have the bezels on as well as the game looking and playing as it should?

[drventure]

Sure. That shouldn't be any problem.

It's been a while since I've done it, and to add custom bezels, I believe you need to be able to recompile mame, but it's doable.

You can create bezels for vertical and or horizontal games, at various resolutions.

In fact, I believe you can create bezels for individual games where you don't have to recompile mame to use them, but I haven't taken it that far.

I wanted bezels to "fill in" the black space on a widescreen monitor when playing most games, and compiling was the answer. You have to put new files in

mamesrc\src\emu\layout

then recompile.

There's good tutorials floating about. I'll try to find one.

[EssexMame]

Thanks Dr. I don't want a custom bezel as such though, I have the bezels for each game and if bezels=1 in the mame.ini it shows them with each game.

However, on a smaller monitor I felt it wasn't then showing the game at the correct size. I may be wrong here of course. However, some especially were really good to have - the instructions and so on and of course the artwork that takes us all back to the 80's :-). I felt with the larger monitor I now have, I could fit in the bezel AND game without losing anything from the game.

I'm not totally sure what happens with mame though - does it change the monitor resolution to the game resolution in each case? If so, does the bezel get considered when it does it?

This is all too vague isn't it!

[drventure]

Other guys here probably have more details, but as far as I know, Mame won't change your monitor resolution based on the game.

Usually, Monitor res that mame uses is determined by config or command line switches.

I'm not sure what artwork set you have, but the per game bezels that I have are virtually all set for a standard oriented 4x3 ratio monitor, which, if you're playing on a typical widescreen, is going to leave black areas on either side, even when the bezel on.

BUT, you can modify the LAY file for a specific game, then create PNG files that fit the monitor ratio you want to support (16x9, 16x10 or whatever).

Here's an example I did for the TARG rom

<!-- targ.lay -->

<mamelayout version="2">
    <element name="bezel">
        <image file="targ_bezel.png" />
    </element>
  <element name="wbezel">
    <image file="targ169.png" />
  </element>
  <element name="wwbezel">
    <image file="targ1610.png" />
  </element>
  <view name="Widescreen 16:10 Artwork">
    <bezel element="wwbezel">
      <bounds left="0" top="0" right="2560" bottom="1600" />
    </bezel>
    <screen index="0">
      <bounds left="403" top="249" right="2130" bottom="1539" />
    </screen>
  </view>
  <view name="Widescreen 16:9 Artwork">
    <bezel element="wbezel">
      <bounds left="0" top="0" right="2833" bottom="1600" />
    </bezel>
    <screen index="0">
      <bounds left="537" top="251" right="2257" bottom="1541" />
    </screen>
  </view>
    <view name="Bezel Artwork">
        <screen index="0">
            <bounds x="348" y="311" width="800" height="600" />
        </screen>
        <bezel element="bezel">
            <bounds left="0" top="0" right="1500" bottom="1457" />
        </bezel>
    </view>
</mamelayout>


<!--

- Artwork type: Bezel
- Based on original TARG bezel from Mr Do.
- Converted for 16x9, 16x10 by drVenture 2012
- Lay file by Mr. Do, updated by drVenture

-->




Notice the 16x10 and 16x9 stuff. But I haven't seen any sets of artwork for those ratios. If you do, please let me know. It took FOREVER just to knock out this one layout for the two extra ratios.

[EssexMame]

This is what I don't get - my resolution is set to 1600x1200 (native) yet mame games still appear to fill all/most of the screen - I'd expect a 320x240 or somesuch, even 800x600 to be quite small, or stretched too large but neither seems to be the case. They can look a little blocky (helped with HLSL to make it more CRT looking) perhaps but that's it. Maybe I have a setting in my mame.ini (it's essentially the default with the HLSL and romdir changed) - I'll look tonight.

The artwork I don't even remember where it was from, but it seems to be a full bezel set most (if not all) have a decent bezel image. My monitor is 4:3 (1600x1200) so I don't need to make widescreen adjustments. It took some finding but I got there in the end!

[drventure]

This is what I don't get - my resolution is set to 1600x1200 (native) yet mame games still appear to fill all/most of the screen

That's the default Mame behaviour. There are various options to get mame to display in the native resolution of the original game, but that usually requires a special 15khz video card, drivers, and custom config. I'm not doing that on my build (I just use a Dell 24" widescreen lcd), but there's lots of threads on the forums here about doing so.

If you use a typical LCD, mame will scale up the graphics to fit the LCD. You can then apply some various scanline filters, etc to make it "look" a little more like the original, but it's just going to be an effect. the graphics will still be scaled up from the original 320x200 or whatever size.

Besides, a 320x200 window on a 1600x900 widescreen would be +tiny+. You're not wanting +that+, are you?

[Howard_Casto]

The gameplay area is SUPPOSED to fill most of the screen... actually all of the screen unless you have bezels turned on.  Why would you want it smaller?

Resolution has NOTHING to do with the size of the gameplay area. 

I think you are a bit confused.  If you have a high resolution monitor and you wish to use the artwork, you use the highest resolution your monitor can handle... this is to make the ARTWORK look good.  Because of the high dot pitch of your monitor, the games are going to look "blocky" regardless.  This is what hlsl or the "effect" command are for. 

[EssexMame]

You'd just think the 320x240 game on 1600x1200 scaled up would look terrible. I know LCD is blocky/too crisp compared to CRT (or at least I've been told here I've not seen it). I want the game to fill the screen really, just surprised it doesn't look worse/more blocky than it does!

So, in some way, having the bezel will improve things - the game screen area will be smaller and therefore less blown up/blocky (?)

The scanline HLSL stuff will help too (though in my Mame PC that's not going to be possible as the graphics card doesn't cut it). I'd assume also that the scanline would include the bezel, or does mame handle that I wonder (as it's all settings in mame.ini). You'd not want scanlines across the bezel which is supposed to look like a printed artwork on the side of the main screen.

Thanks for all your help getting it clear in my head here :-)

[Howard_Casto]

It sounds like you are new to mame. 

Don't take this the wrong way, but try things before you ask.  HLSL is NOT scanlines, it's a simulated dot-pich generator created via hlsl effects.  Scanlines (which are horrible and nobody should use) can be achieved via the "effect" flag.  But don't use the scanlines pngs, use some of the aperture ones instead as they simulate dot pitch, which is what you are after.  Of course "scanlines" don't cover the bezel.  Mame has been around for ages and is worked on by some of the best people in the industry.  Do you really think they'd let a bug like that squeak through? 

 

[drventure]

I want the game to fill the screen really, just surprised it doesn't look worse/more blocky than it does!

Mame does quite a bit of work internally to scale the old graphics up in an intelligent way, so that they look decent no matter what resolution you run at. There is a command line option to turn all that processing off (if you run on a less powerful machine with a low end graphics adapter, it can slow things down), and if you do that, THEN you'll see some pretty blocky graphics.

But with most modern machines, there's no need to turn that processing off.

[EssexMame]

DragonKing, I have mame 0.148 which, to what I've seen, doesn't work with the effects but scanlines are set/adjusted as one of the hlsl settings. Effect scanlines no longer works (certainly from what I've seen)

I am new to mame. I did discover it some years back but only realised its potential through this site really!

[Howard_Casto]

no effects are still in mame 148

They aren't related to hlsl at all, they are for people with lower end machines.  You'll have to download effect files and put them in your artwork folder Mr. Do's Arcade should have a list posted somewhere.  Then you set the name via the effect option in your mame.ini