Messages

511

SCI Development Tools / Re: Brian's SCI1 Script Compiler

« on: December 19, 2015, 02:59:26 PM »

I just noticed that the syntaxFail and semanticFail methods are never called from game code. So they must be called directly by the kernel. Which means it could be making erroneous assumptions about which selectors they correspond to.

This is true. The reason for the numbering change-over, btw, is the introduction of support for multiple languages in SCI01. The way it works is that the interpreter chooses between 900/901/902 or 910/911/912 based on the value of the parseLang and printLang properties of the game object. Having two sets of files allowed you to switch languages on the fly. The formats should be identical, but changed from SCI0 to SCI01 (Companion does support loading them; but are you saving them properly?).

The language codes follow the international telephone codes, so in general both selectors should have a value of 1=English.

EDIT: And of course, these selector numbers are hardcoded into the interpreter (it doesn't use VOCAB.994 here).

512

SCI Syntax Help / Re: Trying to Hijack the eventHandler

« on: December 14, 2015, 10:31:36 PM »

You had to do that in SCI0 too, at least for some things. I remember writing a keypad class that did this.

513

SCI Development Tools / Re: Brian's SCI1 Script Compiler

« on: December 12, 2015, 08:55:27 PM »

If I compile script 255 successfully, I get a "Freeway pather not available!" error displayed whenever I try to type something. No idea what that means...

That means that the mapping between kernel function names and numbers must be redone for the older interpreter. You are invoking the Intersections kernel call (which was never used in a released game IIRC, and was always a stub) instead of Said.
I can't remember whether the VOCAB.999 file is correct in this game... Sierra stopped updating it at one point.

514

SCI Development Tools / Re: Leaked Original SCI Source

« on: December 02, 2015, 04:39:29 AM »

Code: [Select]

        myself:


This is obviously not SCI in its final form. SCI in its final form calls this yourself (even KQ4), even though the purpose is the same: To pass the address of the newly created object on to the outer expression (adding it to the list), rather than what the second-to-last message would otherwise return.

515

SCI Development Tools / Re: Leaked Original SCI Source

« on: November 27, 2015, 01:46:24 PM »

It *could* be an issue with SCI, since there is no garbage collection

There is in ScummVM 

516

SCI Syntax Help / Re: PChase doesn't seem quite right

« on: November 27, 2015, 10:01:08 AM »

I changed them from Prop's that were init'ed to use addToPic instead and the stutter has gone away.

You could also have called stopUpd on them.

517

SCI Community How To's & Tutorials / Re: SCI Companion documentation

« on: November 11, 2015, 04:15:28 AM »

Certainly less work than writing something to scrape that html and come up with something that works in restructuredText (which is the document format I'm using for the documentation).

Have you given pandoc a go? It supports numerous formats...
http://pandoc.org/installing.html

518

SCI Community How To's & Tutorials / Re: SCI1.1: Persistent Settings

« on: November 02, 2015, 10:59:51 AM »

Clarifying edit: it considers DOSBox' "settings" first, but loads from "id-settings" if that's there too.

This is necessary, in case the game ships with a settings file. You never know. On the other hand, ScummVM already saves the volume separately, so this could cause trouble down the road.

519

SCI Development Tools / Re: SQ6 pic mystery

« on: October 30, 2015, 08:35:25 PM »

This one involves a dedication and typing a phone number on a keypad...

520

SCI Development Tools / Re: SQ6 pic mystery

« on: October 30, 2015, 08:12:18 PM »

I've attached the SQ6 decompiled source if anyone's interested to browse it.

Easter egg spotted.

521

The Games and other Sierra Adventure stuff / Re: Interpreter Detection: SSCI or ScummVM?

« on: October 17, 2015, 01:08:49 AM »

The full game has the following

Demo version	Full version equivalent	Used for
StrSplit(0 50)	RemapColors(2 254 60)	50/60% shaded shadow
StrSplit(1 112 175 62)	RemapColors(1 253 112 175 62)	Torch effect in starting cave
/td] RemapColors(0) Cancels the current remapping settings

522

The Games and other Sierra Adventure stuff / Re: Interpreter Detection: SSCI or ScummVM?

« on: October 16, 2015, 11:51:18 AM »

Except in the QFG4 Demo, which assumes color 254 and doesn't accept anything else~

(I was talking about SCI32)
My current thinking on the "divided in two" thing is that this may be platform specific. The 236 displayable colors are a limit set by Windows in an 8-bit graphics mode, so it makes sense to use the remaining colors for something else. I'm not sure what a Macintosh running in 8-bit graphics mode would allow, but it's possible that the Mac version allows 246 displayable colors and sets aside fewer for remapping. The division in two would then allow games to run on Mac with no code changes, but with slightly higher color fidelity.

523

The Games and other Sierra Adventure stuff / Re: Interpreter Detection: SSCI or ScummVM?

« on: October 16, 2015, 09:49:49 AM »

What does remapcolors do? How is it different than just setting a palette entry?

More concretely, the colors between 236 and 254 are treated specially (actually, that range is divided in two for reasons that I don't fully understand). When a view contains these colors, they affect things that are drawn on top and below (by altering their brightness, by displaying them in black & white, etc.). The desired effect of each color in that range is set with an initial call to RemapColors (typically in the room init) and the system takes care of the rest. This is in contrast to setting palette entries manually, where the script must do something on each game cycle.

524

SCI Development Tools / Re: SCI Companion V3 - alpha build notes/bugs/feature requests

« on: October 15, 2015, 01:40:58 PM »

Hmm, the only reference to such a message I can find in ScummVM is with message resources. Can you check whether your message files are readable in Companion? The version check in SSCI (one of the few places that have one) looks like it's flexible enough to let a broken resource through in your case.

525

The Games and other Sierra Adventure stuff / Re: Interpreter Detection: SSCI or ScummVM?

« on: October 15, 2015, 01:03:42 PM »

There are a few really good examples in GK1, such as the sunbeam in the Schloss Ritter entry hall.