[Scummvm-devel] Game enhancements

Travis Howell kirben at optusnet.com.au
Fri Nov 5 00:04:08 CET 2010


On 5/11/2010 5:54 AM, Filippos Karapetis wrote:
> So, the logical question to ask now would be: what should we do with
> game enhancements by default?

All enhancements should be optional, and disabled by default. So users 
are present with the original game experience.

> Currently, we have the following game enhancements (these come to mind,
> there could be others):
> - Replacement of original save/load dialogs in SCUMM and SCI

The original load/save screen in SCUMM games still aren't perfect, 
especially for COMI. Most of the SCUMM games used hard coded load/save 
screen anyway, rather than scripted.

> - Replacement of some sounds in MI1

You mean Largo's screams in MI2? that seems like more of a script bug. 
Those particular sounds were only available when sound card is set to 
Sound Blaster, which isn't an option in ScummVM.

> - A speed throttler in SCI

This sounds like a bug in the original again, where faster systems were 
never considered at the time. Maybe add optional fast mode?

> - Undithering in early EGA SCI Games

Already optional, should be disabled by default though.

> - Mouse support in AGI

Isn't this already optional though? users have the choice not to use the 
mouse.

> - Mixed Adlib/MT-32 mode

Already optional, and disabled by default.

> There was an idea to have a "Disable enhancements" checkbox, which would
> disable all of these. What do you think?
>
> And again, I'd like to bring in the topic of replacing save/load dialogs
> by default. Personally, I find that for engines that don't have scripted
> save/load, this is actually a very good enhancement, and can offer a
> better experience to the end user, coupled with screenshots and an
> increased number of savegames. What should we do with this? Offer an
> option like "Replace original save/load dialogs"? For example, I would
> like to replace the save/load system in Drascula, which is terrible, in
> my opinion.

Keep the original load/save screens by default, where supported and 
working. So users still get the experience of the original games.

Also a few games manage to offer compatibility with saved games from 
original versions, which would be lost, due to the additions (playime/ 
screenshots) to save game formats.

We could add an option to replace the original load/save screen in 
games, but it won't be available in all games (due to the way 
loading/saving is scripted), and that could lead to confusion.




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