c64 C64 Dreams (massive curated C64 collection)

[Pixelpiper 53]

Making the screenshots now...

Can you let me know how to ENTER/SELECT and escape/back using the keyoard with the default config on the previous release of your set?  Using the mouse and keyboard together right now, tricky.

[Zombeaver 1,932]

Go to Input and turn off "Unified Menu Controls"

[Pixelpiper 53]

Vice PAL - Core aspect ratio - no zoom

Vice PAL - MAXIMUM zoom with Core aspect ratio

Edited March 18, 2020 by Pixelpiper

[Pixelpiper 53]

27 minutes ago, Zombeaver said:

Go to Input and turn off "Unified Menu Controls"

What's the magic incantation to get that setting (or any) to stick?  On this config it doesn't seem like autosave is working and even manually saving config to retroarch.default didn't preserve it or aspect when restarting retroarch (from its own menu, not re-launching the game).

Edited March 18, 2020 by Pixelpiper

[Zombeaver 1,932]

42 minutes ago, Pixelpiper said:

Vice PAL - Core aspect ratio - no zoom

Vice PAL - MAXIMUM zoom with Core aspect ratio

Well, it's not going to hurt anything in this case. If you took away the top and bottom portions of that second screenshot that's exactly how it looks on a 16:9 screen with the bezel turned off. The settings I used before probably wouldn't look right on a 4:3 / 5:4 monitor either. Even with the original custom resolution the blue portions to the left and right were still visible if the bezel was turned off (because it's maintaining the aspect ratio, and doesn't actually crop at all). My suggestion would be to dial in a custom value in the resolution settings that crops (zooms) it appropriately (horizontally) for your display and then leave it there (which I think was basically your plan from the get go). Since you'll have more of the top and bottom visible anyway that should cover basically everything with one setting. You're just going to have a small amount unused space on the top and bottom in some (probably most) cases.

[Zombeaver 1,932]

11 minutes ago, Pixelpiper said:

What's the magic incantation to get that setting (or any) to stick?  On this config it doesn't seem like autosave is working and even manually saving config to retroarch.default didn't preserve it or aspect when restarting.

That's intentional. It's so people don't change something, intentionally or unintentionally, and then mess everything up.

You can make changes to either retroarch.cfg or config\VICE x64\VICE x64.cfg. The latter of which is a core override so any settings specified there take precedence over retroarch.cfg. Specifically what you're looking for is:

menu_unified_controls =  (which you want to be "false")

You can also make a change and then go to Overrides > Save Core Override though I don't recommend that, as it'll remove any settings from the override which are identical to what's in retroarch.cfg (it's that way by design, but I like having common use things listed in the core override for testing purposes, even if what's in the base retroarch.cfg).

[Pixelpiper 53]

So it's something you've configured.  I just wanted to know if it was something messing up on my end because I thought I remembered my other installation (clean LB/RA) autosaving by default.

 

[Zombeaver 1,932]

No, it's that way by design. It's because there's a core override in place. When there's an override, that's used and not overwritten unless you specifically tell it to overwrite it by going to overrides > save core/game/etc. override.

[Pixelpiper 53]

Understood.  I thought the overrides also had autosave capability.

Totally unrelated question...  Did you by any chance do anything to lock volume (or know how to)?  In my clean install, pressing "-" on the number pad adjusts the volume and because of testing with your setup, I find myself regularly pressing it.  Ideally I'd like to lock volume at 100% as I don't want any software volume control on this system.

Edited March 19, 2020 by Pixelpiper

[Zombeaver 1,932]

32 minutes ago, Pixelpiper said:

Totally unrelated question...  Did you by any chance do anything to lock volume (or know how to)?  In my clean install, pressing "-" on the number pad adjusts the volume and because of testing with your setup, I find myself regularly pressing it.  Ideally I'd like to lock volume at 100% as I don't want any software volume control on this system.

It's not so much that I've locked it as I've simply changed what numpad minus does in Input  > Hotkeys. By default it's the hotkey to reduce the volume. In my setup it's "enable hotkeys".

It will default to 100% volume but I don't know if you mean you want an actual gain adjustment on top of that or not (as in, by default, it's 100% of a 0db adjustment which is "normal" volume). If you do want an additional gain adjustment, you can do that in Settings > Audio > Volume Gain. The maximum is 12db and the minimum is -80db. 12db will make it really loud.

[Pixelpiper 53]

No, I just want it set to 0db gain "normal" as I'll be using the system as pre-out to a external pre-amp. I suppose I'll have to disable the hot keys if there's no way to just disable volume control or lock it.

[Zombeaver 1,932]

You can disable it. Just remove the binding. It's a hotkey like anything else. Just remove the bindings for volume up and down in hotkeys.

Find the hotkey you want to remove and press Del.

[Zombeaver 1,932]

Another quick status update:

All of the 300 new games are done, bringing the count to 2000.
All version updates are complete (86 games updated).
I've added Blast From The Past volumes 16-25.
I've updated the controller mapping image to reflect the addition of the virtual keyboard function, as well as note some special keyboard keys (Esc = Runstop, Tab = Ctrl, etc.)
I've added 55 new custom notes overlays bringing the total to 80. (I originally thought it'd be 100 for this release but I honestly feel like I'm scraping to come up with more that really warrant it at this point so I'm going to stick with 80)
I've added 16 new demos bringing the total to 50.
I've added 10 new SID track bringing the total to 60.
Zzap!64 issues 36-50 conversion is complete.
PRG/Group/Version info is now complete for all 2000 games. (phew!)
I've setup a simple configurator panel as I do with some releases on Zomb's Lair to allow for quick selection/adjustment of different settings:

I need to add custom controls to 1 game.
I've created a new bezel with the updated aspect ratio for Project Firestart but I still need to do it for Black Tiger, Retrograde, Supremacy and hopefully one or two new ones. I also need to do this for 4:3 NTSC games - that's done for the Project Firestart one.
I still need to do a bit of housekeeping before releasing the early version.

Once this stuff is finished up I'll be releasing a version for testing here that will not be setup with Launchbox, since I've yet to even start that side of it yet. You'll just have to go into the Games folder then one of the subfolders for a game and start the .vbs inside to start the game.

[Pixelpiper 53]

Man, that's a lot of work you've done recently.

All the testing I've been doing with C64 lately has been strictly for RA, so not having integration with LB isn't much of a dealbreaker.  Looking forward to checking out all the updates.

 

[Zombeaver 1,932]

Spent a while working on some new bezels:

Bruce Lee:

Retrograde:

Times of Lore:Ultima III:

X-Out:

I still need to make some more for NTSC.

[jophran 27]

Great work @Zombeaver ! Do you ever sleep? 🙂

[Zombeaver 1,932]

Occasionally 

[jonnieboyrevel 9]

Hi Zombeaver

I just had a quick question regarding the !Automator.bat

I've used the bat to create the folders for a couple of games and they load up fine in Launchbox. However, the cmd window takes focus from the game and I need to either click back on thew game window or alt tab.

Do you have any suggestions as to how to solve this issue?

Thanks for any help you can provide and for creating such a great set of content.

 

UPDATE: Ignore my message. For some reason the vbs converter bit didn't happen. I've run it again and all is good.

Edited March 23, 2020 by jonnieboyrevel

[Zombeaver 1,932]

Yes, you don't start the .bat files, you use the .vbs files (which starts the .bat while hiding the cmd window).

What games are you wanting added? This is why I've asked (repeatedly) for any requests. They won't be in the next update at this point but I can add them to the list for the one after that.

[Zombeaver 1,932]

Okay so here's the version for testing. The version number is 0.20 instead of 0.19 because this one's kindof a milestone update so we're skipping. Shenanigans!

C64 Dreams v0.20-testing

I'm not going to post a changelog (which is quite extensive) at this point - I basically just want people to play around with it and let me know if they have any issues. The new NTSC bezels are done and cleanup is done. I still need to make custom joystick controls for one game (Renegade) but that can wait for the final release.

Reminders:

• This does not include Launchbox at the moment as that side of the update isn't done yet. It isn't needed to use these though. Just go into the Games folder and then into a subfolder for a game and start the .vbs file inside.
   
• There's a new configurator for quickly switching out shaders, overlays, and adjusting the base config.
   
• This should work out of the box for any 16:9 resolution. If you are using 4:3, 5:4, etc. it's going to need some manual adjustment. There are still 11 games that have 1080p-specific settings that won't be right on anything other than that resolution; and because the dimensions have changed somewhat, the previously provided settings for other resolutions will no longer be valid and new ones will be needed. The 11 games are listed below:

Alien Syndrome
Ballblazer
Brainway
Draconus
Forgotten Forest
Frogger Arcade
Gemini Wing
Genesia
Tiger Claw
Turbo Outrun
Zolyx

Everything else is setup in such a way that it should "just work" with any 16:9 resolution, including the three NTSC titles - Death Bringer, Donkey Kong (Atari), and Masquerade.