MAMEWorld Forums - MAME Artwork: Official - Re: Need help for Vectrex Overlay Files

Don't use the element as an overlay... I think that's what you're looking for.

When an element is set as an overlay, the screen and artwork are blended, so the final result you see is how it would look in a game like Space Invaders, where the monitor is lying down in the cabinet, with the overlay on top, then projected via mirror so the user can see it.

When an element is set as a bezel, with a color alpha of around 0.7, you should get the same effect as a vectrex, where you can visibly see both the monitor and overlay.

The existing vectrex artwork, now, the opacity is already built into the artwork file. This is why there is no color alpha setting in the current artwork.

As an example, in the screenshot below, I took the current artwork, simply deleted the overlay element, and just played the game using the artwork as a bezel. Is that close to what you're looking for?

Assuming you are cleaning up the current files as is, then you would need to add the color alpha setting on the bezel element, and play with it until you found the one you feel happy with.

That all make sense?

> Hi,
>
> I have vectorized now over the half of the full (official) set from Vectrex, but i am
> not satisfied with the tint result. I would like to have a tint effect like in this
> picture:
>
>
> Notice that the drawn vectors are only slightly tinted by the color of the overlay.
>
> My Overlay files currently looks like this:
>
>
> *note: this not the actual quality, the files are way sharper and 4k resolution, but
> my image hoster doesnt allow anything above 1024 pixels. Feel free to tell me one,
> that is free and can do more .
>
> As you see, the vectors are tinted completely, no matter how transparent i make the
> overlay sections (done in Photoshop with 20% transparency in this case here).
> Now R. Belmont told me that there is a alpha parameter that may control the tint
> effect.
>
> I have gone through this documentation:
> http://wiki.mamedev.org/index.php/Layouts_and_Rendering_for_MAME_Artwork_System
>
> and this:
> http://wiki.mamedev.org/index.php/LAY_File_Basics_-_Part_I
>
> but i understand it only partially and i am really sorry for this. I did a lot of
> tests yesterday, with the colorvalues and and the alpha parameter, only to find out,
> that it does quite the opposite of what i want to achieve. I had some success by
> using very bright (nearly white) overlay colors in conjunction with HLSL and the
> floor parameter, but this method have the downside that the overlay colours would
> change to a degree, that the whole thing is not accurate anymore and would way to far
> differ from the colors of a original overlay file. Just look at the first picture, it
> has a deep, dark green and blue color, but the drawn vectors are only very lightly
> tinted.
>
> If someone is good at this, he can do me a favor and create a example with the
> current artwork Vectrex .lay file, that would be nice. I need only one game, just to
> understand the logic. Thx in advance.
>
> Maybe its also just not possible to create a very light tint, i dont know. I wished
> we would have blending options like the ones in Photoshop (overlay, color dodge
> etc.).

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