[Resolved] Filling Dead Space on MAME

[MrGrynch]

Next problem du jour... blank space on game screens.

I have to capture new gameplay videos and most games have a lot blank space.  I do not want to use bezels.  They make the playfield way too small.  I just want a solution to fill the empty top/bottom areas of the screen.  Its most pronounced with horizontal games rotated onto a portrait screen orientation.  I looked into Rocket Launcher, but its too intimidating to me.  I only care about MAME and all of these tools are designed for every system ever created, and their associated configuration needs

I appreciate any help!

[Tom Speirs]

I cant think of any suitable thing other than a bezel. What exactly is the issue with it? I dont understand what you mean by too small. There are various ways to use bezels you know?

[MrGrynch]

31 minutes ago, Tom Speirs said:

I cant think of any suitable thing other than a bezel. What exactly is the issue with it? I dont understand what you mean by too small. There are various ways to use bezels you know?

I don't know.  All I know is that the bezels I downloaded from EmuMovies make the game screen so small, it looks ridiculous on my 42" playfield.  If a bezel can fill just the top and bottom without affecting my game screen size, then that would be good

[Draco1962]

Some have theirs setup to play the horizontal MAME games play on the backglass. Don't ask me how, however.

[MrGrynch]

Just now, Draco1962 said:

Some have there's setup to play the horizontal MAME games play on the backglass. Don't ask me how, however.

One way is to have two instances of MAME with games split vertical/horizontal and then you can assign one MAME to a different screen.  I don't want to do that though.  I want everything on the main playscreen

@TerryRed did something similar, but instead used a third-party app to change his monitor configuration for each.

[Draco1962]

 

[MrGrynch]

Thanks @Draco1962!  I'm in the process of making a bezel now to test as well

[MrGrynch]

Turns out its not as simple as it once was.  MAME now requires these .lay files.  Can't get a bezel to display without it

[Draco1962]

Maybe this thread might be of help:

 

[Draco1962]

Not sure what you are using for a playfield display but likely the overall aspect ratio will be 9:16 with the horizonal games mostly 4:3.

[MrGrynch]

14 hours ago, Draco1962 said:

Not sure what you are using for a playfield display but likely the overall aspect ratio will be 9:16 with the horizonal games mostly 4:3.

My playfield is a 42" HD display.  Going to look into those .lay files to see if I can decipher them.  Thanks for the info!

[MrGrynch]

After tinkering around with the .lay file for a while, I think I have most of it figured out.  One thing I don't understand is this:

    <view name="Upright_Artwork">
        <bounds x="0" y="0" width="4000" height="2960" />
        <bezel element="bezel">
                   <bounds x="0" y="0" width="4000" height="3067" />
        </bezel>
        <screen index="0">
                   <bounds x="163" y="138" width="3653" height="2480" />
        </screen>
    </view>

These numbers are pixel counts, and they are very high.  I didn't set these bounds.  They are from an existing bezel file and I checked the image to confirm that it was actually the right numbers.  Any idea why these images would be so much larger than the pixel count of the screen displaying them?

[MrGrynch]

The image I am working with is a 4000x3067 image.  I don't know the significance of this but it seems to be fairly common.  It seems the .lay file I am using is just setting the relationship of the bezel to the playfield and gamefield displays, and MAME is then downsizing it to fit my screen so it all looks right.  Do I have this right?  I'm guessing that if I just made a 1080 x 1920 (9:16) bezel, it would still display just fine?

[MrGrynch]

Making progress!  I got Asteroids working with a custom-made bezel.  Going to add some top/bottom edge art to make it look a little cleaner.

 

[MrGrynch]

Finally!  I have something I can live with.  I can use this one for all horizontal games and will create a new one for verticals.  Again, thanks for your help!  Learning as I go.

[Draco1962]

Will be good to see what you come up with once you have it altogether!

[MrGrynch]

While creating bezels for my pincade I found a great tip to apply bezels to all games and use the correct one for vertical/horizonal!

Using default bezels

 

[Draco1962]

You know, I was thinking that the bezels might also be a for displaying the control panel setup for the game. Would be a little work but if you have a smaller, clean list of games, very doable.

Good job and thanks for sharing the link! This may be of great help to others!