DynamicArcade layout beta-v9 released 26 Jan 2021

[jclampy69]

Well that looks very nice! Definitely loses some available space for the video (unavoidably),

I have double checked, the video-snap *is* the same width and height as it was before. What you are noticing is the difference in cabinet appearance because of the different style of bezel.

but it's a really great option. But is there any good library out there of full-sized bezels (or at least as large as the side-bezel library that Yaron found)? If needed I'd be ok with doing some image editing for the games I use, but I only play a few dozen games so it's a very small subset of what others would want for a proper MAME library.

The Mame Artwork set currently covers over 1,500 (remember that clones will use the parents art files).

Seems like the ultimate group project would be a full set of cabinet images (control panel, marquee, bezel, snap, side art,...), with standard sizing but available as separate parts or combinable. But I doubt that anything like that exists.

Exactly, it is a combination of all items that give the overall end result.
I thought the same myself a couple of weeks ago, but was shot down by people not wanting to work together as a team, they thought it best to have half a dozen independant similar layouts floating around instead.

[tsaylor]

That's great, I didn't realize the snap size was still the same. Nice effect! It's tempting to do for every game regardless of orientation, but a complete solution would require a lot more logic, and knowledge of the bezel dimensions as well.

But yeah, just from looking around briefly it does seem like these efforts tend to be a bit ... fragmented. Each one for a specific purpose.

[jclampy69]

Well, it's understandable that everything is fragmented.. All bezels were initially intended to be used in a full-screen application. So it's uncharted territory.
If I find what I think is a nice 4:3 or 16:9 set then I could just make a layout option to toggle them off or on.

But, thinking outside the square it is possible to go much further.. cabinet images could be broken into further components; control deck, the part underneath that, leaving just the frame. Then, you could easily modify the look of these separate components and come up with further cabinets for various purposes, etc. Having some kind of full bezel artwork that ties in with the marquee, control deck, the part under that, etc could take things to the next level? Differentiating them further from the CoinOPs look.

It would be a big project though, would require a team. I'm not that worried either way. I'm already involved in two large projects in two other online communities which are 100% teamwork orientated. So, I don't have the time to get involved in another large artwork project at the moment, even if I wanted to.

[mahuti]

That's great, I didn't realize the snap size was still the same. Nice effect! It's tempting to do for every game regardless of orientation, but a complete solution would require a lot more logic, and knowledge of the bezel dimensions as well.

I have some code I wrote that looks at the .cfg files of Retroarch overlays and repositions and scales the snap image to the correct positioning relative to the bezel. 

The Mame Artwork set currently covers over 1,500 (remember that clones will use the parents art files).

I'm working right now on using mame artwork .zips to do the same thing. I have a script that looks in the .lay files xml for the positioning values. Basically, in a small way, I'm trying to recreate the mame artwork system for showing bezels relative to the snaps properly. The basic premise is straightforward, get the x,y,width,height of the open space in the bezel and move the snap there. The more complicated part is getting at those values using the existing assets rather than creating new ones. It's a work in progress, but once done I'll make it a module for any layout to use.

[tsaylor]

That sounds like an excellent module! Thanks mahuti!

[mahuti]

We'll see