Customization - Retroarch Mega Bezel Packs

• BEFORE YOU START CUSTOMIZING (IMPORTANT!)
• CUSTOMIZE VIA QUICK MENU
• CUSTOMIZE VIA DESKTOP MENU
• PRESETS LOADING
  • MANUAL LOADING
  • CORE PRESET LOADING
  • FOLDER PRESET LOADING
  • GAME PRESET LOADING
• COMMON CUSTOMIZATIONS
  • CUSTOMIZE DISPLAY SCALING AND POSITIONING
  • CUSTOMIZE AMBIENT LIGHTNING
  • FIX OVERSCAN / PILLAR BOXES / BLACK AREAS

Common presets customizations for game-tailored experience include:

• Fixing overscan and centering for each game. PAL/NTSC adaptions, damn you!
• Fiddling with display scaling, position and aspect ratio
• Tuning ambient lightning and reflection settings
• Invest countless hours in visual configuration instead of happily gaming

RetroArch really is a swiss-knife for customization, so go on with the reading!

[4.1] BEFORE YOU START CUSTOMIZING (IMPORTANT!)

⚠️ First of all, activate the Simple Preset feature to automatically save a custom preset containing parameters values, thus preserving default shader preset.

Enable Simple Presets:

• Quick Menu -> Shaders -> Save set Simple Presets to ON

ℹ️ Note: If you don't enable Simple Preset, your customizations may destroy the original presets and bad things may happen. Or maybe not. I wouldn't risk it 😰

[4.2] CUSTOMIZE VIA QUICK MENU

Quick menu lets you customize via gamepad by increasing/decreasing values for shader parameters. It's ok for trivial changes, but can fell a little slow for complex activities and requires switching between the quick menu and gameplay are to see the changes.

Adjust shader parameters:

1. Quick Menu -> Shaders -> Shader Parameters -> Parameters
2. Adjust settings to your preference
3. Quick Menu -> Resume and enjoy your customized game

To save your settings:

4. Quick Menu -> Shaders -> Save -> Choose one option

To determine which saving option is the better for you, please refer to the presets loading paragraph.

ℹ️ Note: unless you save your custom settings, you will lose all of them when you close the game or quit RetroArch!

[4.3] CUSTOMIZE VIA DESKTOP MENU

Desktop menu lets you customize shader parameters via sliders and input boxes with mouse and keyboard. You can use side-by-side distinct game window and parameters panel and see the changes in real-time. Desktop Menu is the ideal tool to quickly learn parameters effects and to develop deep customizations.

Load a game, you better choose one without time limits: 😉

1. Exit full screen by pressing f key
2. Windows-> select Toggle Desktop Menu
3. Desktop Menu window opens up, View-> select Shaders
4. Shaders Panel opens up, press 'Load' button, choose Load
5. Navigate to the shader you want to customize, select it and press Open button
6. Use the Shaders panel to customize settings, you can view the results applied to the game in real time in the RetroArch main window

To save your settings:

7. In Shaders Panel, press Save button and choose one option
8. Re-enable full screen by selecting Retroarch main window and pressing f key

To determine which saving option is the better for you, please refer to the presets loading paragraph.

ℹ️ Note: unless you save your custom settings, you will lose all of them when you close the game or quit RetroArch!

[4.4] PRESETS LOADING

For use with multi-system cores (a single core emulates more than one system), you have different choices to save and load your presets: do some experimentation and find the one that best fits your needs!

[4.4.1] MANUAL LOADING

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I'd like to manually load a preset each time you launch a game

• PRO: you are free to load whatever shader preset you like, regardless of game, core or path
• CON: you have to reload the shader preset each time you start a content

To save your settings:

• Quick Menu -> Shaders -> Save -> Save Shader preset as... -> give a name and save
• (Next time you boot a game) Quick Menu -> Shaders -> Load Shader Preset -> choose a preset

ℹ️ Note: Custom preset are saved in the /shaders folder.

[4.4.2] CORE PRESET LOADING

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I'd like to autoload presets each time you use a specific core (i.e. PUAE core)

• PRO: RetroArch will load the same preset for all games using a specific core
• CON: You can use ONE graphic pack for each core, meaning you can't have AMIGA 500 and AMIGA 1200 at the same time as they both work with PUAE core (see folder preset loading and game preset loading).

To save your settings:

• Quick Menu -> Shaders -> Save -> Save Core preset

ℹ️ Note: Custom core preset are saved in the /config/%CoreName% folder in a %CoreName%.slangp file.

[4.4.3] FOLDER PRESET LOADING

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I'd like to autoload the same preset for all games from a specific folder (i.e. roms/Commodore - Amiga)

• PRO: RetroArch will load the same preset for ALL the games in a specific folder. Usually this is the sweet spot to use more than one graphic pack on a multi-system core (i.e. for PUAE core I use three distinct folders for Amiga 500 floppies, Amiga 1200 hard drives and Amiga CD32 disks to apply separate AMIGA 500, AMIGA 1200 and AMIGA CD32 presets)
• CON: You can't have game-specific shader adjustments, most commons being overscan tuning (unless you use save separate core settings or go on with per-game presets, see game preset loading).

To save your settings:

• Quick Menu -> Shaders -> Save -> Save Content Directory preset

ℹ️ Note: Custom directory preset are saved in the /config/%CoreName% folder in a %FolderName%.slangp file.

[4.4.4] GAME PRESET LOADING

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I'd like to autoload a specific preset for a single game

• PRO: RetroArch will load a specific preset each time you boot a specific game. This way you can tune the shader settings to perfection, including position and overscan, for each game. You can also choose different graphic packs for each game.
• CON: You'll have to do this for every-single-game-you-love.

To save your settings:

• Quick Menu -> Shaders -> Save -> Game preset

ℹ️ Note: Custom game preset are saved in the /config/%CoreName% folder in a %GameName%.slangp file.

[4.5] COMMON CUSTOMIZATIONS

This section contains some step-by-step examples of some of the most used customizations. For more information about shader parameters, please refer to the HSM Mega Bezel Reflection Shaders documentation.

[4.5.1] CUSTOMIZE DISPLAY SCALING AND POSITIONING

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You can scale and position display and gameplay area (SMOOTH-ADV, ADV and STD profiles only).

1. Quick Menu -> Shaders -> Shader Parameters
2. Go to the SCALING section
3. Use NON-INTEGER SCALE % to set display dimension
4. Go to the POSITION OFFSET section
5. Use POSITION X and POSITION Y parameters to set display position
6. Quick Menu -> Resume and enjoy your customized game

To save your custom settings:

7. Quick Menu -> Shaders -> Save -> Save Shader preset as... -> give a name and save
8. (Next time you boot a game) Quick Menu -> Shaders -> Load Shader Preset -> choose a preset

ℹ️ Note: Custom preset are saved in the /shaders folder.

[4.5.2] CUSTOMIZE AMBIENT LIGHTNING

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You can tune the lightning level to obtain the best contrast between gaming area and backdrop:

1. Quick Menu -> Shaders -> Shader Parameters
2. Go to the NIGHT LIGHTNING section
3. Use OPACITY value to set the amount of darkness
4. Quick Menu -> Resume and enjoy your customized game

To save your custom settings:

5. Quick Menu -> Shaders -> Save -> Save Shader preset as... -> give a name and save
6. (Next time you boot a game) Quick Menu -> Shaders -> Load Shader Preset -> choose a preset

ℹ️ Note: Custom preset are saved in the /shaders folder.

[4.5.3] FIX OVERSCAN / PILLAR BOXES / BLACK AREAS

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You can make your old games go full screen by cutting away black areas:

1. Quick Menu -> Shaders -> Shader Parameters
2. Go to the CROPPING section
3. Set CROP MODE to CROP ANY
4. Use CROP TOP %, CROP BOTTOM %, CROP LEFT % and CROP RIGHT % parameters to cut away pixels, image will adapt accordingly (try to keep a nice aspect ratio!)
5. Quick Menu -> Resume and enjoy your customized game

To save your game-specific settings:

6. Quick Menu -> Shaders -> Save -> Game preset

ℹ️ Note: Custom game preset are saved in the /config/%CoreName% folder in a %GameName%.slangp file.