Image Files

Overview

The primary feature of tty2pico is displaying transparent PNG, GIF and animated GIF files when a new core or arcade game is loaded. The /logos/ folder of your storage device (flash or microSD) will be searched for an image with the name of the core or arcade set name. Loading images is simple since your tty2pico device will show up as a flash drive on your computer. Just copy the images into the /logos/ folder and you're set!

Image File Names

If using a custom image set, refer to the MiSTer documentation for Core Names and MRA Setnames for guidance on file naming. Note these lists are not complete since MiSTer is being updated constantly.

File names are not case sensitive. For example, a PNG image for the SNES core could be named snes.png, SNES.PNG or SnEs.PnG and all would work.

If tty2pico doesn't find the requested image, or an image from the missingCoreImage Configuration option, then the core or arcade set name will be displayed on the tty2pico screen.

PNG

PNG files should be saved in a non-interlaced RGB or RGBA pixel format, as they will be converted to RGB565 values for display. We've also found success using image optimization tools such as imagemin and imageOptim to compress the files and possibly increase compatibility.

If an image is smaller than the display, the image will be automatically centered and the top-left pixel of the image will be used to fill the space. If that top-left pixel is transparent, that transparency is used and then blended with the configured background color (defaults to black) instead.

GIF

Static and animated GIF files with transparency are supported. By default an animated GIF will play once through the animation cycle targeting the intetended frame delay from the file, leaving the last frame visible until another image is loaded. Use the following naming convention for your GIF files if you'd like to alter the playback options:

• To force a GIF file to play on a continuous loop, add .loop to the filename: gba.loop.gif
• To force a GIF file to play without a frame delay (no FPS limit), add .fast to the filename: gba.fast.gif.
• Combine both to playback at top speed on repeat: gba.loop.fast.gif

The performance of GIF files found in the wild can vary greatly. You can try something like Ezgif.com to resize and try optimization steps like using a single color table for all frames, reducing color depth or adjust frame counts and timings. Compression can work but doesn't always produce great results. The optimize transparency option can greatly reduce file size, but usually in a very destructive manner to the output when using anything but the 0% value. If running from an SD then file size shouldn't be too much of a concern, as the images are streamed from the SD card as they're animated.