Bob

RetroSpy Vision USB & MiSTer Demo

Posted on by Bob

RetroSpy has opened orders on version 5.0 of their “Vision USB” – A device that sits between your controller and a target USB device (console, PC, etc) and sends your button presses over the network via an ethernet cable.  These can be translated to an on-stream overlay that shows what buttons are being pressed, as you’re pressing them.  The price is about $150 + shipping for the hardware, but there’s also TOTALLY FREE software that you can use with devices like the MiSTer FPGA project (read more below)!

MiSTer Software Setup:  https://retro-spy.com/wiki/setting-up-retrospy-for-the-mister/
Purchase hardware here:  https://retro-spy.com/product/retrospy-vision-usb-input-display/

I recently had the pleasure of testing RetroSpy on my MiSTer and it worked great!  The instructions above explain the (easy) installation, then just select your controller overlay and capture the window in OBS.  It has a green background, so just remove it from a chroma filter and you get what you see above:  A “floating” controller that shows what buttons you’re pressing as you play!

I think casual gamers like myself can just load it up and start playing, but pro streamers could probably benefit from calibrating the delay – Maybe use your cellphone’s high speed settings to try and figure out the delay from when you push the button, to when it lights up on-screen (an LED would be a big help!).  It could be pretty close to your capture card’s delay, but if not you may be able to tweak the settings both in the app and in OBS.

Also, it would be great if we could get some community-submitted overlays as well!  Since this seemed to work perfectly with my MiSTerCade, it would be really cool to get some Astro City overlays or something – This would be especially awesome for some arcade tournaments!  Anyway, if you have a MiSTer, try it out yourself for free!

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