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In the 80s and 90s, most video game screens had a 4/3 aspect ratio. Nowadays, screens mostly use a 16/9 ratio, which means that they provide extra space on the sides compared to a 4/3 aspect ratio.

Rather than stretching out the 4/3 image to fit into a 16/9 model, you can fill the extra space with a “background” image that provides an even more immersive experience. You can simulate the looks of an old TV set, or even a background that matches the game you are playing.

The DECORATION menu provides you several options for this:

  • several AMBIANCE options that simulate an retro TV set or an old arcade alley
  • integration with the Bezel Project that provides personalized bezels per gaming system, and for many of them even personalized bezels per game! You can select the systems you want to enable theBezelProject from the menu UPDATES & DOWNLOADSTHE BEZEL PROJECT.

You can also add your own bezels to Batocera.

Example of a well known arcade game, with theBezelProject on (and curvature shader applied).

If you have a nice TV and ask for a 4K 3840×2160 resolution to the emulators, but with a bezel that is HD 1920×1080: by default Batocera will add black borders around the bezel. If you want your display to be full screen, you can either:

  1. switch to a lower resolution (like 1920×1080)
  2. add a line mame.bezel_stretch=1 in your batocera.conf for each emulator you want to stretch. Or global.bezel_stretch=1 if you want to enable stretching to your native 4K resolution. WARNING this has an impact on the emulation performance.
  • decoration.1611487851.txt.gz
  • Last modified: 3 years ago
  • by fishou