Jump to content
LaunchBox Community Forums

Recommended Posts

Posted

I couldn't find info on how to do this so I'm sharing it.

Download the backdrop on this site: -->Downloads-->Game Media-->Arcade-->Asteroids Deluxe & Space Invaders - MAME Background / Backdrop

Assuming you already downloaded the stock bezel through the GUI, you just need to add astdelux.png to the artwork folder 'astdelux.'

Edit the default.lay file to this:

Quote

<!-- astdelux.lay -->

<mamelayout version="2">
    <element name="bezel">
            <image file="bezel.png" />
      </element>
    <element name="backdrop_a">
        <image file="astdelux.png" />
    </element>
    <element name="overlay_a">
        <rect>
            <color red="0.6" green="1.0" blue="1.0" />
        </rect>
    </element>
    
    <group name="backdrop_only">
        <element ref="backdrop_a">
            <bounds left="2" top="0" right="14" bottom="9" />
        </element>
    </group>
    <group name="bezel_only">
        <element ref="bezel">
            <bounds left="0" top="0" right="16" bottom="9" />
        </element>
    </group>

    <view name="Upright_Artwork">
        <screen index="0">
            <bounds left="2" top="0" right="14" bottom="9" />
        </screen>
        <collection name="Overlay">
            <element ref="overlay_a" blend="multiply">
                <bounds left="2" top="0" right="14" bottom="9" />
            </element>
        </collection>
        <collection name="Backdrop">
            <group ref="backdrop_only" blend="add">
                <bounds left="0" top="0" right="16" bottom="9" />
                <color alpha="0.3" />
            </group>
            <group ref="bezel_only" blend="add">
                <bounds left="0" top="0" right="16" bottom="9" />
                <color alpha="1.0" />
            </group>
        </collection><element ref="overlay_a" blend="multiply">
            <bounds left="2" top="0" right="14" bottom="9" />
        </element>
    </view>
</mamelayout>

Probably not the cleanest way to do that...but overlay, bezel AND backdrop display at once!

In case you want them, here are the mods I did to the .ini file for the game (vector upscaling, etc):

Quote

#
# CORE ARTWORK OPTIONS
#
use_backdrops             1
use_overlays              1
#
# CORE SCREEN OPTIONS
#
effect                    hq4x
 
#
# CORE VECTOR OPTIONS
#
beam_width_min 0.95
beam_width_max 3.50
beam_intensity_weight 0.75
flicker 0.25

#
# OSD VIDEO OPTIONS
#
video                     d3d
numscreens                1
#
# OSD ACCELERATED VIDEO OPTIONS
#
filter                    1
prescale                  1

#
# DIRECT3D POST-PROCESSING OPTIONS
#
hlsl_enable 1
#hlsl_oversampling 0
#shadow_mask_tile_mode 0
shadow_mask_alpha 0.5
shadow_mask_texture shadow-mask.png
shadow_mask_x_count 12
shadow_mask_y_count 6
shadow_mask_usize 0.5
shadow_mask_vsize 0.5
#shadow_mask_uoffset 0.0
#shadow_mask_voffset 0.0
distortion 0.0
cubic_distortion 0.0
distort_corner 0.0
round_corner 0.0
smooth_border 0.0
reflection 0.0
vignetting 0.0
scanline_alpha 0.0
defocus 0.0,0.0
converge_x 0.0,0.0,0.0
converge_y 0.0,0.0,0.0
radial_converge_x 0.0,0.0,0.0
radial_converge_y 0.0,0.0,0.0
red_ratio 1.0,0.0,0.0
grn_ratio 0.0,1.0,0.0
blu_ratio 0.0,0.0,1.0
saturation 15.0
#offset 0.0,0.0,0.0
#scale 1.0,1.0,1.0
#power 1.0,1.0,1.0
#floor 0.0,0.0,0.0
phosphor_life 0.05,0.05,0.05
#chroma_mode 3
#chroma_a 0.630,0.340
#chroma_b 0.310,0.595
#chroma_c 0.155,0.070
chroma_y_gain 0.2750,0.6011,0.2750

#
# VECTOR POST-PROCESSING OPTIONS
#
#vector_beam_smooth 0.0
#vector_length_scale 0.5
#vector_length_ratio 0.5
 
#
# BLOOM POST-PROCESSING OPTIONS
#
#bloom_blend_mode 0
bloom_scale 0.55
bloom_overdrive 0.35,0.40,0.45
#bloom_lvl0_weight 1.0
bloom_lvl1_weight 0.55
#bloom_lvl2_weight 0.32
bloom_lvl3_weight 0.24
bloom_lvl4_weight 0.16
bloom_lvl5_weight 0.24
bloom_lvl6_weight 0.32
bloom_lvl7_weight 0.48
bloom_lvl8_weight 0.64


I really enjoy the game SO much more like this! Hope you do too!

Screenshot2025-10-26083739.thumb.png.001051c09149e84e17712e2d71ed64ff.png

Posted

oops I had a couple of things wrong in the .lay file do this instead!

Quote

<!-- astdelux.lay -->

<mamelayout version="2">
    <element name="bezel">
            <image file="bezel.png" />
      </element>
    <element name="backdrop_a">
        <image file="astdelux.png" />
    </element>
    <element name="overlay_a">
        <rect>
            <color red="0.6" green="1.0" blue="1.0" />
        </rect>
    </element>
    
    <group name="backdrop_only">
        <element ref="backdrop_a">
            <bounds left="2" top="0" right="14" bottom="9" />
        </element>
    </group>
    <group name="bezel_only">
        <element ref="bezel">
            <bounds left="0" top="0" right="16" bottom="9" />
        </element>
    </group>

    <view name="Upright_Artwork">
        <screen index="0">
            <bounds left="2" top="0" right="14" bottom="9" />
        </screen>
<element ref="overlay_a" blend="multiply">
            <bounds left="2" top="0" right="14" bottom="9" />
        </element>
        <collection name="Overlay">
            <element ref="overlay_a" blend="multiply">
                <bounds left="2" top="0" right="14" bottom="9" />
            </element>
        </collection>
        <collection name="Backdrop">
            <group ref="backdrop_only" blend="add">
                <bounds left="0" top="0" right="14" bottom="9" />
                <color alpha="0.3" />
            </group>
            <group ref="bezel_only" blend="add">
                <bounds left="0" top="0" right="16" bottom="9" />
                <color alpha="1.0" />
            </group>
        </collection>
    </view>
</mamelayout>

 

Posted
On 10/26/2025 at 7:05 AM, sirbeers said:

oops I had a couple of things wrong in the .lay file do this instead!

 

any idea how to do this in retroarch?  I've got the megabezel reflection shaders, and FBNeo core running vector games in HI-RES mode.  Would love to be able to get the background artwork in there somehow.

  • 2 weeks later...
  • 1 month later...
Posted

Ok I've been messing around with this. The first problem with doing this on Retropie is that if you use the internal MAME artwork system then your retroarch shader applies to everything - bezel, backdrop, and screen. And even if you were cool with that you're only going to get the best results with lr-mame-2015/2016, and I'm using a pi3 and those cores just tax the system too much, especially when you add artwork to load in.

But the hack i've seen other people do is you load the bezel through retroarch and then the overlay/backdrop in MAME. Then your shader won't affect the bezel.

Let's start with the space invaders backdrop:

The .lay system in lr-mame-2008 just behaves very differently so I had to change the PAR to get it to look right, but it didn't look much better than lr-mame-2003 so I went 2003 and the old .art system for the backdrop.

The only downside is the default MAME red/green overlay is visible (you can see the rectangular outlines) but I don't mind it. Oh and the backdrop is a little pixelated but again we have to bump up to mame 2015 at least to fix that - you have to enable "alternate render method" in the core options and it kills your FPS.

For Asteroids Deluxe on a Pi3 the best core I've found is AdvMame. You can really dial in your vector settings and get things looking great. But then you cannot use RetroArch at all so you need to load the bezel AND backdrop the .art file way. So I made a whole new bezel for it while I was at it.

Anyway - learning experience for sure. I'll organize all these files and post them to the retropie forum and link them here or something. (The backdrop on asteroids looks brighter in the picture than it is.)

image.thumb.jpeg.007df7c0057d7576982848a6884fbb15.jpegimage.thumb.jpeg.0b2a91d7796e2f048a5c10f5376f81b9.jpeg

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Unfortunately, your content contains terms that we do not allow. Please edit your content to remove the highlighted words below.
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...