[Scummvm-devel] Parallax/Parallaction engine

Mikkel Eide Eriksen mikkel.eriksen at gmail.com
Sat Nov 25 03:27:49 CET 2006


On Nov 22, 2006, at 22:31 , Max Horn wrote:
> Am 22.11.2006 um 00:08 schrieb Eugene Sandulenko:
>> On Wed, 22 Nov 2006 01:33:27 +0100
>> Nicola <nicola.mettifogo at inwind.it> wrote:
>>> Even though the games' scripts interpreter is the same, at the  
>>> moment
>>> only NS is playable, with no music and some graphics issues. BRA is
>>> not yet supported because of notable differences in graphics
>>> management but its analysis is well underway.
>>>
>>> I'd be glad if I could count of ScummVM team's support now, since I
>>> never had a project reaching this size and complexity.
>> I've looked into the code. It is written as ScummVM module and  
>> already
>> works. Of course, it requires cleanup and completion. My estimate is
>> that about 90% of the engine is recoded.
>
> I haven't seen the code myself, but if you think it is good enough,
> that shall be enough for me.
>
> What concerns me more is whether the module will eventually be turned
> into something that adheres to our standards, and is actually usable.
> We have an aweful lot of modules already, and in some cases I am a
> bit concerned in the speed of development (or lack thereof). In other
> words, I think we should be careful not to spread out to thinly.
> Sure, new members work on "their" project. But what if they loose
> interest / time ? As has happened countless times (think of the MT32
> emu code in there, which is mostly unmaintained now). Is there
> somebody else to pick up the work or will it just linger there? Is
> the code even in a state where somebody can pick it up.
>
> This is something we should consider in general, something which is
> not specific to this particular engine (which I haven't seen at all
> so far). In particular, Nicola writes:
>
>> I'd be glad if I could count of ScummVM team's support now, since I
>> never
>> had a project reaching this size and complexity.
>
> So, what does that mean? What kind of help do you expect, Nicola? Do
> you hope for others to help you develop that engine? Well, they might
> be out there, but it's not automatic to get this kind of support just
> by joining the team. Or do you hope for general help with the usage
> of the OSystem etc. APIs? Those you can get w/o being part of the
> team, too...
>
> Folks, don't get me wrong, I am *not* trying to argue against this,
> but rather I'm seriously not quite sure what the expectations here
> are. From both sides, Nicolas and ours...

If I may, as an outsider, share a few words.

I think the benefits of adding an engine that may or may not fall  
into disrepair are greater than not adding an engine that may fall  
into disrepair. In case the engine is not finished, is it not a  
simple matter of removing it from HEAD but keeping it in the SVN  
repository? What I mean is, a lot of work has been done, it should be  
preserved, so why not include the engine and then decide what to do?  
If it is eventually fnished, keep it, if it is not, move the source  
out of the main tree and just keep it online for later usage if  
somebody comes along.

I know that I myself have been somewhat tardy with my Enchantia code,  
but it would be a shame if what had been done were to be lost. That's  
not to say that my Enchantia progress is anywhere near inclusion, but  
from what I understand, the Parallaction engine sounds ready for at  
least the inclusion I propose above.

Any comments are welcome.

Regards,
Mikkel/Del/Carthag (I have too many goddamn nicknames :) )





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