Is it possible to show only the backgrounds in the Unified Bezel packs?

[lilcheeks]

First off, the work that has been done on the unified bezel packs is outstanding!  So thank you for all involved with that.  I do have a question about editing them though.  When I load them up, I always see the monitor bezel along with the background.  Is it possible to only show the background artwork and not show that plastic/gray looking monitor part?  Just be more descriptive, when I look in the folder structure in C:\RocketLauncher\Media\Bezels\MAME\btime, I see background png files that look to be artwork to fill the space on the sides of a 16:9 display.  Then I see files called Bezel - Vertical.png, which look like a plastic frame, and those are the ones I don't care for.  So is there a setting to only display the background png's?  Or would I have to delete the bezel - vertical files in this case to only show the backgrounds?  

[griffin518]

The answer is yes, for most of them, assuming you're talking about the collection @Metalzoic has put together and maintains. Some of them, like the ones @Krakerman and I produce have only a single layer, with the monitor bezel baked in. I also produce alternate versions without the monitor bezel, but I don't think anyone else does.

What you're going to need to do is go into each game bezel folder and deleted the files that start with "Bezel." Leave the "Background" files and you should be set.

[Metalzoic]

Easiest way to do it would be to search the bezel folder for the word "bezel"

That should pull up a list of every TV border. Then just select them all and hit delete. That should do it.

 

EDIT: I should mention that that will also delete any non-tv border bezels as well like Griffins that he mentioned above, all the multiscreen bezels and probably a few more. So if you don't want to delete those too, remove them from your select all list before hitting the delete key.

[lilcheeks]

Thank you both!

[Metalzoic]

Word.

[lilcheeks]

On 12/26/2016 at 3:40 PM, griffin518 said:

The answer is yes, for most of them, assuming you're talking about the collection @Metalzoic has put together and maintains. Some of them, like the ones @Krakerman and I produce have only a single layer, with the monitor bezel baked in. I also produce alternate versions without the monitor bezel, but I don't think anyone else does.

What you're going to need to do is go into each game bezel folder and deleted the files that start with "Bezel." Leave the "Background" files and you should be set.

It's been a little while but I just got around to trying this and I ran into an issue.  When i remove the files in the bezel folders for a specific game, it just shows a generic background and still shows a bezel.  Maybe the generic background has the bezel in one layer, but it still strange its not showing the background i left in the folder.  I attached a screen shot of the bezel folder so you can see what it in in there.  I also attached a screen shot of the game once its started so you can see what shows up.  I'm sure its just a settings thing happening but i tried changing bezel settings and none seemed to change it. 

edit: on the screen shot of the game, the top and bottom are cut off by me when I took the screen grab.  I didn't want you to think something strange was going on there.

 

 

[Metalzoic]

Looks like it's jumping to the default because the actual bezel folders no longer contain a bezel.png. Makes sense (although I'm not sure why your default bezel is messed up like that... unless you use a 16:10 monitor instead of a normal 16:9 or something).

 

I also just realized that deleting all the bezels isn't going to change the fact that the ini's won't match up anymore.

If you want to do this I'd suggest just downloading each creators bezels as they made them. That will give you correct ini's etc...

The point of this pack was to unify them all so there's probably no easy way to reverse that without having all 2000+ original ini files.

 

EDIT: Have you tried removing your _Default bezels to see what happens?

[lilcheeks]

1 hour ago, Metalzoic said:

Looks like it's jumping to the default because the actual bezel folders no longer contain a bezel.png. Makes sense (although I'm not sure why your default bezel is messed up like that... unless you use a 16:10 monitor instead of a normal 16:9 or something).

 

I also just realized that deleting all the bezels isn't going to change the fact that the ini's won't match up anymore.

If you want to do this I'd suggest just downloading each creators bezels as they made them. That will give you correct ini's etc...

The point of this pack was to unify them all so there's probably no easy way to reverse that without having all 2000+ original ini files.

 

EDIT: Have you tried removing your _Default bezels to see what happens?

I just tried deleting the _default folder and they didn't change anything.  It looked exactly like the screen shot i had earlier.  Anyway, I'm fine leaving it the way it is.  My only reason i wanted it gone was the plastic bezel portion always covers up a part of the background.  Is that happening because I have a 16:10 monitor?  I'm curious what you noticed in my screenshot that made you think i had a 16:10?  If that is what you noticed, is there anyway to make that not happen with a setting in Rocket Launcher?  I didn't have a 16:9 monitor laying around so I used my 16:10.  Thanks for all your help!

[Metalzoic]

I could guess it's 16:10 because you have waaay more cutoff artwork than how it's designed to display. For example that default bezel you posted shouldn't be cutoff at all. It's designed to match that border perfectly.

Which means the other bezels are going to have the background art drastically cut off (I'm guessing 30% more based on that shot).

There's no way to fix that since your monitor is the wrong ratio.

Sent from my SM-G935V

[lilcheeks]

25 minutes ago, Metalzoic said:

I could guess it's 16:10 because you have waaay more cutoff artwork than how it's designed to display. For example that default bezel you posted shouldn't be cutoff at all. It's designed to match that border perfectly.

Which means the other bezels are going to have the background art drastically cut off (I'm guessing 30% more based on that shot).

There's no way to fix that since your monitor is the wrong ratio.

Sent from my SM-G935V
 

Thanks again!

[Temerariousnomad]

I'm having the same issue OP was with the bezel cutting off the background but I am using a 16 x 9 monitor, could it be a setting in RL? 

[Metalzoic]

On 11/2/2017 at 11:55 AM, Temerariousnpomad said:

I'm having the same issue OP was with the bezel cutting off the background but I am using a 16 x 9 monitor, could it be a setting in RL? 

The pack itself will have a lot of the artwork partially cutoff by design, just as it's all explained in the instructions/topic.

Is yours being cutoff more than that? For example does your default bezel look cutoff like the one lilcheeks posted a few posts back? Or does it all fit on-screen?

[extracampine]

I'm having the exact same issue - RL is putting the game screen over the edges of the background/cropping the background.

Can someone explain to me the difference between background and bezel? And which of these need an ini file? Also, what are "backdrops" (another setting in RL)?

I tried changing my monitor resolution from 1920x1080 to 1920x1200 - and the bezel is still cropped.

Any advice appreciated!

[griffin518]

50 minutes ago, extracampine said:

I'm having the exact same issue - RL is putting the game screen over the edges of the background/cropping the background.

Can someone explain to me the difference between background and bezel? And which of these need an ini file? Also, what are "backdrops" (another setting in RL)?

I tried changing my monitor resolution from 1920x1080 to 1920x1200 - and the bezel is still cropped.

Any advice appreciated!

The bezel pack you're using is designed that way, to have the art cut off (as a background), sacrificing it in order to allow for a full game area display. It's also created with 16x9 resolutions in mind.

Bezels need ini files. Backdrops are a special piece of art that's meant to be put behind the game screen... only a handful of games use this (like space invaders). MAME itself can run the backdrops, which is easier so I just use that.

Here's how I've answered the same question from others in the past:

Quote

As mentioned in the other thread, this was a way for @metalzoic to create a large bezel set using full-sized game displays across the board. He's just renamed the bezel (artwork) to background, then placed a monitor frame bezel image (with a name matching the artwork image). This results in the display area being presented on top of the artwork, and in full size, with the monitor bezel on top of it to make it look clean.

and

Quote

It's not the monitor frame bezel covering the artwork... it's the game display area. If you remove/rename the bezel image for the monitor frame and re-run the game you'll see what I mean. Your options are:

1) Use the bezel pack as is
2) Use a generic bezel 
3) Use no bezels
4) Create your own (labor intensive)
5) Using the creator info of the original bezels, hunt down the originals (which will mostly display with a reduced playing area to fit all of the artwork).

 

[extracampine]

Many thanks Griffin for this informative reply. 

One issue am I still unclear of despite your reply - what is the difference between a bezel and a background? They seem to be different things as they can be turned on & off independently of each other. I had thought that the bezel was the decorative artwork around the screen and did not know what a background was in this regard. I understand from you that a backdrop is something else entirely and is not commonly used. 

So you're saying that the bezel pack was designed this way, to have the art cut off. If you open the bezel image independently in Windows, then it shows the full thing, i.e. without any art cut off. When playing a game, it seems that around 30% of the image is cut off. So this is by design in order to allow a "full area game display" as you say. But why not compress the artwork to fit the space available and still have the full game display, rather than cut off this 30% (which in my opinion looks very messy and detracts from the whole point of a bezel!)?

Regarding the resolution, I set windows to a whole range of resolutions and none of them made it fit properly. So I am still at 16x10 for now (as that is the max resolution of my projector, which I use as a gaming screen).

I see what you say about the Metalzoic pack. Part of the confusion maybe comes from the fact that he renamed all the bezels to backgrounds. 

I have managed to get one game to look reasonably OK by spending a lot of time in a combination of modifying the bezel ini coordinates, and resizing the monitor frame image in an external editor (whilst maintaining transparency of course). It was a long process of trial and error and is still not perfect but it's almost there. And if it is possible this way, why isn't the pack released this way?

Surely there is an easier way to have RocketLauncher use bezels without all this hassle? I I have tried using MAME for the bezels, and some are OK though many go all the way round the screen which seems to result in a very small gaming screen size (I very much like Orionangel's realistic bezels, but I find that for horizontal games they often reduce the game screen size a bit too much). Is there a bezel pack somewhere which has the screen border effect (which I like) and has the bezel artwork just at the sides, though with all of it displayed?

Thanks again

[Guest hellsing001]

Hi,

I have manually removed the tv elemets from over 700 bezels and uploaded a file. They are 1920 x 1080 scale. Check here

Also all the others I have uploaded here are all done in the same way. They pack includes pretty much all the best games and the extra ones on here fill in some of the gaps.

hellsing

 

[extracampine]

hellsing, that sounds interesting - I will look into it. The link you provided links to your thread which has the download link, but you did not provide any screenshots there. Might it be helpful to post a screenshot or two so that users can know if they want to download it or not?

Also, I'm not sure what you mean by "manually removed the tv elemets"? 

And are these for use with MAME or Rocketlauncher?

Thanks

[Guest hellsing001]

If you look at any of the files I have uploaded in the bezels section they have screenshots. I took the artwork part and used that, removing the TV screen artwork as I didn't like it.

The artwork fills the black sections of the screen on each side of the game screen. I redid the bezels for the 4:3 games and the vertical games.

They simply go in the Artwork folder in MAME.

See this link.

 

[extracampine]

Many thanks for the clarification. I'm looking for something like the original arcade bezels to make it look as authentic as possible, so these aren't for me. Very nice work though!

[Guest hellsing001]

I kept some of the originals but I like the flyers so I manually did they myself - they are nearly all vertical shooter.

You could download the pack and see what you like and get rid of what you don't like.

You may need to download the ones you like and cut and paste them yourself, its quite easy and only takes a couple of minutes.

Alot of bezels are missing but the one "griffin" does are very good and you should check them out on his Youtube as he has links on his channel to his files.

[Metalzoic]

4 hours ago, extracampine said:

But why not compress the artwork to fit the space available and still have the full game display, rather than cut off this 30% (which in my opinion looks very messy and detracts from the whole point of a bezel!)?

It was a long process of trial and error and is still not perfect but it's almost there. And if it is possible this way, why isn't the pack released this way?

You just answered your own question. You just spent a lot of time on a single bezel. I converted and put over 2400 bezels in my public pack, coming from over 20 different creators who each made them in different shapes, ratios, game -sizes and designs with no uniformity. So I came up with this way to make them all uniform, at the correct ratio, at full size without having to re-create each one individually one at a time. ( God knows how many hours it still took). The tradeoff is the artwork cutoff. 

However if you have 600 hours to kill feel free to go through and re-arrange the art of all 2400 bezels in photoshop yourself.

 

Quote

I see what you say about the Metalzoic pack. Part of the confusion maybe comes from the fact that he renamed all the bezels to backgrounds. 

That is one way RL bezels are designed to work. A background and a bezel with the game sandwiched between. I just had to come up with a uniform naming convention that worked and could easily be updated with no naming issues or overwrites.

This renaming is what creates the structure so you can quickly cycle through all the bezels a game has while playing and also allows me to easily drop new bezels in for a game without having to rename anything and keep it all working. All while adding the bezel border to every single piece of artwork without ever needing to alter the artwork itself.

 

Quote

Surely there is an easier way to have RocketLauncher use bezels without all this hassle?Is there a bezel pack somewhere which has the screen border effect (which I like) and has the bezel artwork just at the sides, though with all of it displayed?

Both Krakerman and Griffin have created big bezel sets that do this, but they still aren't uniform to each other. And Krakerman uses the pixel ratio for many of his instead of the actual monitors aspect ratio.

I have most of their awesome work in my set already. Although Krakermans arcade cabinet set isn't because it is its own unique thing.

[Metalzoic]

2 hours ago, hellsing001 said:

If you look at any of the files I have uploaded in the bezels section they have screenshots. I took the artwork part and used that, removing the TV screen artwork as I didn't like it.

The artwork fills the black sections of the screen on each side of the game screen. I redid the bezels for the 4:3 games and the vertical games.

They simply go in the Artwork folder in MAME.

See this link.

 

Very cool work.

I might be updating my pack soon. Mind if I add yours into the Mega-Pack (all artwork in my set keeps the creators name)? Yours alone would bump the pack to over 3100 bezels.

This pack here:

 

[Guest hellsing001]

Metalzoin,

Sure you can add whatever you like. I did use some of yours, griifin518 's and other but I manually edited them all for my own use, creating simple bezels with no TV element.

The pack does contain a lot of the artwork in your packs and from the unified Mame Bezel packs on Emumovies but I have tried to fill in the blanks for obscure games - although original artwork is a problem.

I also cleaned up a couple up and redid some backgrounds, such as Tinkle Pit. Some I did are rubbish and just place holders so you can reject whatever you like.

I have done around 200 with the arcade flyers, mainly for the vertical shooters such as 1943, Brave Blade as I just like them, which look really cool on a big screen (well I like them).

hellsing

[Guest hellsing001]

The pack I have on Mega site contains around 721 files.

I have done more and they are all on this site from Dec 4th 2017, after the Neo Bezel packs,  up to 31 Dec 2017.

Most of these I couldn't find in any packs. and are quite obscure.

hellsing

 

[griffin518]

I'm happy to see a renewed discussion around bezels! I've been too busy to crank out anything lately, but it's good to see some conversation around them.

5 hours ago, extracampine said:

One issue am I still unclear of despite your reply - what is the difference between a bezel and a background? They seem to be different things as they can be turned on & off independently of each other. I had thought that the bezel was the decorative artwork around the screen and did not know what a background was in this regard. I understand from you that a backdrop is something else entirely and is not commonly used.

You are correct in that the artwork itself is commonly called a "bezel." This refers to original artwork from cabinets, etc. RocketLauncher is using "bezel" in a different way. Here's how the different RL files work, and how they're layered (in order, 1 being the bottom, 4 being the top):

1. Background - displays in full screen, whether the image fills the screen or not, behind all other elements
2. Backdrop - displays behind the game screen ONLY (as mentioned, I just use MAME backdrops for this to keep things simple)
3. Game display area - the emulator display, itself
4. Bezel - displays in full screen, whether the image fills the screen or not, on top of all other elements - NEEDS A MATCHING INI FILE with coordinates to size the game display area

So you see how @Metalzoic is sandwiching the display between the background (he's taken the original bezels, and renamed them to "background") and a realistic "tv monitor frame" (named "bezel" with a matching ini file that has full screen display coordinates).

5 hours ago, extracampine said:

So you're saying that the bezel pack was designed this way, to have the art cut off. If you open the bezel image independently in Windows, then it shows the full thing, i.e. without any art cut off. When playing a game, it seems that around 30% of the image is cut off. So this is by design in order to allow a "full area game display" as you say. But why not compress the artwork to fit the space available and still have the full game display, rather than cut off this 30% (which in my opinion looks very messy and detracts from the whole point of a bezel!)?

Because resizing takes forever. It's basically recreating the bezels from scratch. Most of the original bezels were created with the intent to be as faithful to the original cabinet images as possible, which means a smaller display area. We all wanted to have the focus on a full sized game area, with a good amount of art to fill in the black bars on the sides of 16x9 monitors. 

5 hours ago, extracampine said:

Regarding the resolution, I set windows to a whole range of resolutions and none of them made it fit properly. So I am still at 16x10 for now (as that is the max resolution of my projector, which I use as a gaming screen).

The vast majority of bezels were created with 16x9 format in mind.

5 hours ago, extracampine said:

Is there a bezel pack somewhere which has the screen border effect (which I like) and has the bezel artwork just at the sides, though with all of it displayed?

No. The art just doesn't fit. Even for those that I've created, by hand, to fit as much in as possible, some is still going to be obscured by the game screen.