Polycade Admins:
I have one of the original Polycade Lux machines from the 2020 Indiegogo era running AGS and I am trying to improve the appearance of my console games in RetroArch.
Right now, most of the games retain their original aspect ratios, which leaves plain black space on the sides. Rather than stretch the games, I would like to fill that space with console/game artwork.
I initially looked at The Bezel Project but since its Windows installer can create/update RetroArch configuration files, I would rather avoid making a large number of changes to the AGS managed RetroArch setup if possible causing downstream problems.
Instead, I was considering a simpler/manual approach using console bezels/overlays such as the artwork from OrionsAngel, combined with the HSM Mega Bezel Reflection Shader. I particularly like the glass/reflection effect demonstrated with Mega Bezel rather than having just a flat static PNG bezel.
The issue is that my Polycade is currently running RetroArch 1.8.5. From the Mega Bezel documentation, it appears RetroArch 1.9.8 or newer is required for Mega Bezel to use the presets such as MBZ3STD.slangp.
Questions:
Is it safe/supported to manually update the RetroArch installation that AGS uses from 1.8.5 to a newer version?
If I update RetroArch, could that interfere with anything AGS currently manages, such as the Polycade control mappings, cores, game launching, save states, emulator configuration or future AGS updates?
I saw in a recent Polycade email that a newer version of AGS is planned by the end of the year. Will that version of AGS also update the bundled RetroArch version to something new enough to support Mega Bezel shaders thus just wait and be patient?
Will the upcoming AGS version have any built-in support for automatic console bezels/overlays, whether through The Bezel Project or Polycade’s own bezel system, so that NES, SNES, Genesis, Atari, N64, etc… games can automatically fill the unused 16:9 space with artwork? Ideally I prefer this to be automatic vs manual effort.
Ultimately, I am just trying to replace the plain black side borders on my RetroArch console games with nice console/game artwork and a subtle glass/reflection effect, while keeping the rest of the Polycade/AGS installation as close to stock as possible with minimum effort.
