Custom Bezels for MAME?

[RIP-Felix]

I have a unique (well, uncommon is more accurate) setup. I'm using a 32" LCD mounted in portrait (Vertically). It works great with 1941, it fills the screen. But the downside is that regular 4:3 Games have Black space above and below instead of left and right. This make using premade bezels hard. Some when cropped look ok, but I'm wondering how to edit my own PNGs and update the .LAY file as necessary.

I starred with a homebrew bezel and modified the PNG to my needs. I opened the LAY file and found where the old PNG is displayed on the screen:

</view>	<view name="Bezel_Homebrew">		<screen index="0">			<bounds x="905" y="707" width="2160" height="1620" />		</screen>		<bezel element="bezel">			<bounds x="0" y="0" width="4000" height="3144" />		</bezel>	</view>

I have made a Bezel, now how do I change the way MAME displays the PNG?I want to display the bezel 9:16, but it squeezes it to conform with a standard 4:3 aspect ratio.

[Adultery]

Did you try to set the mame resolution at your aspect via command line?

I don't know if that works in that way, I use the -noka switch which stretches it to fit my widescreen monitor, and that is just fine for my setup.

[RIP-Felix]

I don't want to sretch the game window. I want the game at pixel ratio or 4:3, I just want the bezel I created in 9:3 to be displaed correctly and not squashed into 4:3 around the game window. I'm sure I just need to specify the bounds correctly in the LAY file. I messed around with them a bit but I don't know what each x, y, width, and height coordinate correspond to.

[Adultery]

I understand you don't want to do that, I was just saying that I do that, not that you should.

Someone feel free to jump in here, but I honestly don't think it's as simple as changing the dimensions in the .lay file. I'll step back and leave this to someone more qualified to answer though.

[RIP-Felix]

Anyone out there who has created their own Bezels, backdrops, etc in MAME?

I found this but it wasn't much help:

http://mamedev.org/devwiki/index.php?title=Layouts_and_Rendering_for_MAME_Artwork_System

[nullPointer]

It might be worthwhile to give this a shot.

[Krakerman]

Look here. Hyper Bezel ][ works with GameEx but this is where I started and learned on how to design your own bezels for MAME.

[RIP-Felix]

I actually played around with the lay files some more and got the hang of it. Most of the games that have homebrew bezels have enough artwork for me to rearrange into a PNG that will suit my needs. Just requires a little paint.net magic. Any way I figured out that the entry "Screen index="0"" refers to the Game window. X is the horizontal position on the screen and Y is vertical. Height and width are self explanatory. The numbers are ambiguous so it just took some trial and error till I got the hang of it. The following is the default lay from Mortal Kombat.

Once I knew what each entry was I could move them around accordingly. I came up with the following:

They turned out pretty nice I think. Here are some other pics of the cab.

	<view name="Upright_Artwork">		<bezel element="bezel">			<bounds x="0" y="0" width="4000" height="3600" />		</bezel>		<bezel element="inst">			<bounds x="778" y="2973" width="2444" height="556" />		</bezel>		<screen index="0">			<bounds x="440" y="482" width="3120" height="2340" />		</screen>		<marquee element="marquee">			<bounds x="0" y="-1125" width="4000" height="1175" />		</marquee>		<cpanel element="cpo">			<bounds x="-200" y="3650" width="4400" height="2204" />		</cpanel>	</view>	

[DazzleHP]

Those are great! Being a bit of a shmupper i always wanted a vert-cab if i ever get around to it, but wondered how tricky it would be and how to pretty-up the 4:3 games as the huge black borders on 4:3 just look terrible on a vert screen. Nice job and very inspiring!

Nice cab too!

[RIP-Felix]

It's been a lot of work, but it is doable. I've certainly ran into more obstacles than a regular 4:3 or even a 16:9 monitor would have. My favorate Arcade games are the scroll down shooters like 1941. So I wanted to do a vertical screen from the beginning. Setup in MAME wasn't that bad it's all the other assorted emulators that end up turning you grey. It's been about 9 months since I Built the thing and I think everything is starting to settle into a robust arcade. I'm enjoying it more and more now that there isn't some random issue poping up all the time. It's been a lot of fun though. Pushed my limits technically and mechanically.

If you do decide to do a portrait build, here are a few things to look out for:

1. Make sure your computer can rotate the screen 90 or 270 degrees and keep that setting. I have and old laptop I was going to use but it could not rotate the screen. And make sure it doesn't randomly reset after shutdown or during Full screen resizes (many emus have different resolutions that load and go full screen automatically).
2. Make sure your monitor or TV can display a good resolution in portrait using the RGB input. I found that the RGB input was the only one that after loosing signal, when the computer shuts off, will shut the TV off automatically after a bit and wait for a signal to turn it back on again. The HDMI inputs did not work for me, and my tv doesn't have DVI so I can't comment.
3. Use a Smartstrip energy Saving Surge Protector with Autoswitching Technology. like this one:http://www.amazon.com/Smart-Strip-Protector-Autoswitching-Technology/dp/B0006PUDQK/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1377277923&sr=8-1&keywords=smartstrip You can set the monitor as the switching device and the marquee light, coin door LED, cabinet Fans, and etc as switched devices. Then the computer goes in one of the unstwitched outlets. This way when you turn the computer on the monitor receives signal via RGB and turns on also, then all of your switched outlets are turned on automatically when the power strip senses the voltage increase in the switched device. Everything comes on at the press of one button, which you could put anywhere you want!
4. Put your cabinet on casters. You'll thank yourself later.
5. There will be a lot of software tweaking to get your emulators to display correctly but I have been able to get most to work. I have had to try new emulators to do it though. Some simply wont work, and other will but not very well. Luckily MAME works great and does it almost automatically. MAME is awesome!

[RIP-Felix]

Those are great! Being a bit of a shmupper i always wanted a vert-cab if i ever get around to it, but wondered how tricky it would be and how to pretty-up the 4:3 games as the huge black borders on 4:3 just look terrible on a vert screen. Nice job and very inspiring!

Nice cab too!

Actually on a 32" TV in portrait the 4:3 game fill a space that is just as big as it would if you used a standard monitor. The black space isn't that annoying, it's just a convenient place to put the artwork, control panels, and marquee! That just requires some custom bezel work since this is an uncommon setup. I'd say go for it!

[Draco1962]

Nice job! Be sure to post an entry in the Cabinet and HTPC Setups Running GameEx thread!