[Scummvm-devel] Wiki Per Game Compatibility by Platform

[Thierry Crozat (Yahoo! Mail)]

Le 12 mars 09 à 05:12, Travis Howell a écrit :

> MetaFox wrote:
>>> kirben wrote:
>>
>>> Switch the Supported Engines by Platform table at
>>> http://wiki.scummvm.org/index.php/Platforms/Overview to a table  
>>> listing all
>>> games, instead of all game engines. That would be the best idea,  
>>> to provide
>>> more information and definitely isn't overkill.
>>>
>>> When people try a port of ScummVM, they want to know all the  
>>> games that can
>>> be played on that particular port. Listing via game engines is  
>>> simply
>>> confusing and misleading, even for developers. Since a game  
>>> engine can be
>>> supported but not all the games (due to memory or screen resolution
>>> requirements, or other issues).
>>>
>> Maybe if we separate the list by engines, then by games?  I put up a
>> table here: http://wiki.scummvm.org/index.php/User:MetaFox#Test_Bed
>
> I don't see the point in listing the game engines at all,  
> considering we
> currently have three game engines (AGOS, SAGA, SCUMM) with optional
> games. Along with games that might not work on particular  
> platforms, as
> I mentioned above.

I agree. If the list by engines is needed for other reasons (e.g. for  
developers) it can be on a separate page (so that the user do not  
have to see it). Otherwise I would say drop it.

>
>> I wanted to keep it easy to read at lower resoultions.  I use
>> 1024x768, which is probably at the low end of the spectrum on today's
>> computers, and the table doesn't need to scroll, so the information
>> doesn't look as cluttered to me.
>
> Yes, using rows for games, and columns for the platforms looks much
> better, while keeping the table more compact.

Also for consistency I think it would be good to do the same for the  
'Features supported by Platform' table (i.e. rows for features and  
columns for platforms).

>
> I think a single entry per game would be fine, only listing critical
> issues specific to each ScummVM port, that effect game play. Otherwise
> you would end up with extremely long list (ie Amiga, Apple IIE,  
> AtariST,
> Commodore 64, NES, DOS V1, DOS V2 for Maniac Mansion). And duplicate
> information already available in the compatbility list on the web  
> page.

I agree (again). There is no need to list all the variants of a game  
in that table. If the user wants details for a game he can click on  
the game name to be redirected to the game page. If you include all  
variants of a game into this table it will be huge and probably more  
difficult to read.
Maybe you can add a sentence before or after the table such as "Games  
noted as completable means that at least one version of the game is  
completable in ScummVM. Some other versions of the game may not work  
correctly. See the game page (by clicking on the game name in the  
first column of the table) for details of which version of the game  
work with ScummVM."

Also I am not too sure about "completable". For me it means the game  
can be completed, not that it is working fine. I would make the  
legend a bit more explicit: "Completable, no know issues" or  
something similar.


>
> An alternative idea:
> * Drop the compatibility list on the web site, instead link (as
> Supported Games?) to this game/platform table page.
> * Merge the current compatibility information, into the game specific
> pages on the wiki.
>
> That would mean users can easily tell which games are completable and
> supported on each port of ScummVM, by looking at a single page. And  
> can
> simply click on game or platform links, for more detailed information
> about a game or port of ScummVM.
>
> While we can centralise information for each game and port of ScummVM,
> on their specific pages on the wiki. Without duplicating information
> (compatibility information in this case), available elsewhere.

I like the idea. I think most users don't care for the short name on  
the compatibility list, and there was discussions on this mailing  
list in the past about percentages being overkill. I think your table  
summarises nicely the information for the user. Then move all details  
on the games specific pages.
For some (most?) games the information is already there, meaning that  
it is currently duplicated between the compatibility and the wiki  
games pages (and sometime it is not consistent). We need to clean all  
that.

Two comments though:
* We may want to have a bit more than three levels (Completable,  
Completable with Notable Issues, Not Completable). For example have  
an intermediate level between C and I for "Completable with minor  
issues").

* There are several versions of the compatibility page (for e.g. svn,  
0.13.0, 0.12.0). We probably want to keep that (i.e. have a page with  
the game/platform compatibility table for each released version of   
ScummVM + svn).


		
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