Zombeaver

DOS76 said SSF has test builds on EmuCR I just can't get Daemon tools to work on the latest preview build of Windows o_O Dear god... I'd freak out if I didn't have access to DT. I probably use it more than my physical disc drives. Like I said, I'm all for moving away from SSF if there's actually a viable alternative. How many games did you test? Any notable issues (other than Die Hard Trilogy and Darius Gaiden)?

Jason Carr said Thanks all. I agree from a technical perspective, but users have come to know about "fanart" from Kodi, etc., so they know that it should be used as a background, and it has other meaning behind it. I'm afraid that "artwork" would be too generic. In that case, why not just call them "Backgrounds"? I mean, I like that less than "Art" or "Artwork" but I had the same thought about the term "fanart" being rather dubious a few days ago - I've been going through and auditing my DOS entries which tend to be lacking in this department, so my only real option is to use a screenshot from the game (which isn't great, but still better than a boring gray background). When I hear "fanart" I'm thinking something cobbled together and posted on DeviantArt haha. As much as you do or don't like that kind of thing, chances are most of what's currently being categorized under that moniker in the DB doesn't fit that description. This is basically all just semantics and is comparatively low in terms of importance... but it is a bit odd

SSF actually got an update not that long ago as well, weirdly enough - v0.12 beta r4. The settings have gotten even more bloated than they (already) were, but it seems to work pretty well with some tweaking. I haven't revisited Yabause in a while (probably about a year) because it was just so trash the last time I tried it. SSF is a convoluted, unwieldy monster but it's always provided the best results in my experience. If the newest incarnation of Yabause is actually on the same level as SSF in terms of compatibility/accuracy, I'm all for it; I would just be amazed if that were the case. My real hope for the future of Saturn emulation is in Mednafen, just because it has such a proven track record. I have the feeling it's still a ways off though

Can you? Technically, yeah. There's nothing stopping you, to my knowledge. Should you? ...no? Why would you think otherwise? When you buy a license, you are buying a license for use on as many of your computers as you wish - not you and your buddies (or vice versa). I mean, you do realize you're basically asking if it's okay to pirate a product on the forums of that product right? "Hey Adobe, I found a licensed version of Photoshop on The Pirate Bay. Somebody bought the license for it at some point I'm sure; I didn't, but someone did. Can I go ahead and use it? Is that cool with you?" Just save a bit and bite the bullet, it's worth it. Launchbox is still at your disposal, for free, until then. If you appreciate the benefits that Launchbox is providing you, chances are high that you'll appreciate those granted by a premium license as well. And if turns out you don't, or you have some problem that the community here isn't able to help you resolve, I believe Jason has always been good about granting refunds when necessary. I'm really not trying to be jerk, so don't take it that way, but come on man

Thanks a ton @Jason! I can totally notice the difference on the clear logos. I think that even the 150% scale scanline versions of the logos I made are just a touch small to achieve the effect I'm going for, but 250% looks pretty decent with the new resolution; and as an added benefit the normal versions look better too! Thanks again!

Well, I had intended to get more of these done today but I ended up binge watching the entire first season of Stranger Things on Netflix... Ordinarily I don't use fanart for these but I came across this one by Ivan Flores while looking for Metroid Prime images and said "Yep, that's the one." I tip my proverbial hat to him. Normal: Scanline: Scanline (150% Scale):

Well, I already used Snatcher for the Sega CD console banner that I made so I went with another excellent title which is also an adventure game and is also cyberpunk - Rise of the Dragon. I do love me some cyberpunk. Normal: Scanline: Scanline (150% Scale):

Excuse me. Do you know any places where sailors like to hang out around here? Normal: Scanline: Scanline (150% Scale):

Pants-err...dragon? Huh? I made two color variants for this one and I honestly can't decide which one I like more... Normal: Normal (Alternate): Scanline: Scanline (Alternate): Scanline (150% Scale): Scanline (150% Scale) (Alternate):

Hybrid Heaven may not be the most amazing game ever... but you can suplex lizard monsters so it gets my vote. Boston crab-boston crab-boston crab... A lot of artistic license was necessary considering this was the highest quality image I could find... it actually turned out better than I expected though haha. Normal: Scanline: Scanline (150% Scale):

lordmonkus said Dude for DOS it has to be Doom :) There's always room for alternate versions of these! My plan is to get through everything that I need for my collection and then start doing requests and alternate versions of the ones I've already done. Quake was actually one of my first choices but I couldn't find anything that would really work I'm finishing up N64 now.

What the hell is a rocket lawn-chair? Normal: Scanline: Scanline (150% Scale):

Apparently I'm in a survival horror mood... Alone in the Dark is often credited for being the first incarnation of what is known today as survival horror but truthfully it can be traced back even earlier to the 1989 title Project Firestart. Isolation, limited ammunition (that went with a weak weapon; for legitimately logical story reasons), graphic violence, backstory that's conveyed through journals... it's all there. It was way ahead of its time (and three years ahead of Alone in the Dark no less). Normal: Scanline: Scanline (150% Scale): EDIT: And here's an alternate set with a different text glow. I think I prefer this one actually. Normal: Scanline: Scanline (150% Scale):

Alone in the Dark wasn't my first choice but I had trouble finding acceptable images for the others I was looking for. I think it turned out pretty well in the end though. Normal: Scanline: Scanline (150% Scale):

Chances are nobody will end up using this other than me, but here it is. I have a custom platform setup for post-DOS PC games from the mid 90's to early 00's called "Classic PC" because for some reason I have issues grouping Thief, Gothic II, and The Longest Journey with say Crysis. Normal: Scanline: Scanline (150% Scale):

Awesome! Thanks @Jason! I could see that potentially making a difference. Thanks for putting up with my neuroses haha.

"Dammit, you're not the only hero!" Normal: Scanline: Scanline (150% Scale):

Jason Carr said It's probably not image quality so much as the method used in reduction. That's certainly a possibility, yes. I've tested running it through a number of different resampling algorithms and they all came out fine though - Lanczos, B-Spline, Mitchell, Bell, Triangle, and Hermite all look fine when resampled to 32%. I'm going to try actually saving resampled (small) images and seeing how they look in Big Box, that way I can take as much workload off of it as I can. EDIT: Yep, I definitely think there's something a bit off with the image quality in Big Box. Same image order as before, but this time the top image is at 100% size (resampled beforehand). The bottom is how that same image appears in Big Box EDIT 2: I guess the next step would be to determine the exact resolution that it's changing it to in Big Box so that it's not resampling it all all. 32% of my original size is close but it's not pixel-perfect; Big Box is actually outputting something a little smaller than that. EDIT 3: The image as seen in Big Box appears to be exactly 400 pixels wide. I resampled my image down to 400 pixels wide and tried again. It doesn't appear to have made a difference. I'm really trying here

A bit of creepiness for the PS2: Normal: Scanline: Scanline (150% Scale):

Jason Carr said The problem with the scanlines in Big Box isn't because the image quality is reduced; it's just that they're a lot smaller in Big Box. @Jason that doesn't coincide with what I'm seeing (below). Jason Carr said Since the scanlines are so close together, there's no room in the image for the scanlines once the size is reduced. Unfortunately scanlines get hairy really quick when you reduce the size of an image and there's not really anything we can do about that. You could try spacing them out a bit more, but then it would look silly at the large size. I understand that, that's what prompted the alternate 150% scanline scale in the first place. The problem I have with accepting this is that I can take one of these images and just straight up resize/zoom (no resampling whatsoever) and it looks clearer than what I'm seeing output by Big Box. Here's an example: The bottom is how it looks in Big Box. The top is the exact same image, no resampling, just zooming back to 32% size. There is a very clear disrepancy there. Is there some particular reason why a higher image quality option couldn't be added as a toggle like for the cover flow images?

DOS76 said Keep'em coming! You seem to be really enjoying yourself. I am actually haha alexis524 said Zombeaver, that MGS PSX logo is nuts!!! very smooth. Thanks! That one actually took quite a bit more time than the others; it was a bit more complicated than most of them. I think it turned out pretty well alexis524 said thanks for the different shader options to choose from. Yeah, the more options the better in my book. Unfortunately, for the time being you're best off just using the normal versions of these because you won't be able to see the finer details in Big Box yet. Some Zelda goodness: Normal: Scanline: Scanline (150% Scale):

And now for some MGS smexiness. When it's all said and done I'll have these packed up into separated folders so you can just drag out whichever style you prefer. Normal: Scanline: Scanline (Alternate): Scanline (150% Scale): Scanline (Alternate) (150% Scale):

Kirsten Marie said Those are awesome @zombeaver!!! Thanks for sharing! Sure thing! I'd make these for myself anyway so I might as well share! So I made a quick stop by the house to check these out in Big Box. As I feared from the get go, none of the scanlines are visible in Big Box, even at 150% scale. It seems like there's some serious downsampling and/or filtering going on for clear logos. I did a little digging in the options menu to see if I could find anything that would help, and noticed that in the "General" section there's a setting for "Coverflow Image Quality" which, by default, is set to "High (Slow)" but has a step above that - "Highest (Slowest)". As I kindof anticipated, however, this doesn't seem to have any impact on the quality of the clear logos. @Jason any chance of getting a similar option for clear logos? Pretty pretty please? If you want me to submit a Bitbucket ticket for that, I can. I know, I know... picky/OCD/anal/what-have-you... I won't deny it.

DOS76 said Yeah they look great in full screen thanks for making these up bro! No problem! I'm just worried about how they're going to look when scaled in Big Box. I think the scanlines might be too dense to scale correctly unless it's in a 25% increment. Based on my testing last night, Big Box seems to scale these down to right around 32-33% of their full size. I made another one at 150% scale on the scanlines to test. I think it looks bizarre in full screen but it seems to scale significantly better so maybe that would work; it's hard for me to say without being at home to test them out in Big Box. Normal (diagonal): Scanline: Scanline (150% scale):

Dude, @DOS76 thanks for giving me the scanline idea! I messed around with that for a bit and these are what I came up with. I get that not everybody digs scanlines so I'll still be doing both versions of each going forward. I'm not sure if it'll even show up in Big Box properly since I'm not at home at the moment to test (I know the diagonal ones don't). EDIT: Dear god when scaled down in the forum they look awful (which probably doesn't bode well for what they'll look like in Big Box). If you click on them and see them full size you'll see what they're actually supposed to look like