You realize that "Comfy Shirt Kawa" is just a stupid little joke reference to what I was actually looking for, right? It's a thread title nothing more ;)Yep, I know that... I basically want this to have as many references to the SCI Programming Community as possible. :P
<ignoreable rant> there is not, when it comes down to it, a single "Sierra style". Each game (not even each series) does its own thing. For example, I'mma limit myself to character art: back in AGI, most games had the same graphical style simply because there wasn't much room to play with. But even back in early SCI0, you had things like this scene in PQ2 (http://www.mobygames.com/game/dos/police-quest-2-the-vengeance/screenshots/gameShotId,321423/). All these characters are in the same style... except for Larry. It's actually a pretty good shot, highlighting the differences. And in SCI1, things did not get much better. </ignoreable rant>I kind of mean more the SCI-Style, in terms how each game as similar to each other in design, although not exact... They all had the same kind of feel, until much later into Late SCI1.1 / SCI2, when the art style began to change drastically from game to game. In Paint.NET, how would I draw with a Color Scheme matching SCI Companion? Also... 320x200 is still the maximum drawable space, yes?
Anyway, Paint.NET and Anvil Studio.
In Paint.NET, how would I draw with a Color Scheme matching SCI Companion? Also... 320x200 is still the maximum drawable space, yes?
In Paint.NET, how would I draw with a Color Scheme matching SCI Companion? Also... 320x200 is still the maximum drawable space, yes?
What do you mean matching SCI Companion? You can export a palette from SCI Companion if you want to use a specific palette in paint.NET. You would do this for the fixed colors for characters/view, usually. For pic backgrounds, just draw whatever, and SCI Companion will figure out the best palette colors to use for the "flexible" part of the palette range.
SCI0 uses a fixed 16 color EGA palette with four different "virtual palettes" of 40 dithered colors available per background (in-game, your code can draw the background with any of those 4 palettes). SCI Companion doesn't limit anything, you can do whatever the engine supports. The docs should explain this well; if they don't let me know and I'll make it clearer.So... SCI1.1 doesn't have text parser? It looks like I will have to use SCI0 because of that. Because I feel that a Leisure Suit Larry-Style Game works better with text, and having more ways to do things; It allows for things that couldn't really be done with purely a Point and Click Layout, something like "look under bed" would be very difficult to do with Point and Click, because it'd have to be a "look area" under the bed, which takes away from the fun of working it out yourself.
Unless you need a text parse interface, though, I would almost recommend using the SCI1.1 VGA template, and just artificially limit your palette to the 16 EGA colors (or use a fixed 256 color palette that is the combination of all 16x16 dithered colors). This is because SCI0 backgrounds are vector-based, which most people find very challenging to draw (and they have to be drawn in SCI Companion). SCI1+ are bitmapped.
something like "look under bed" would be very difficult to do with Point and Click, because it'd have to be a "look area" under the bed, which takes away from the fun of working it out yourself.I don't see the problem here.
The fact that they could just use the look button and click under the bed, probably even by accident if they're on the wrong pixel (E.g: If they're trying to look at the bed instead of under it). With a text parser, "look at bed" would just give you a description of the bed, but you would have to TYPE "look under bed" to get the thing that might be under it. I just feel that this type of game would be more challenging (in a good way) like that, than using a Point and Click GUI.something like "look under bed" would be very difficult to do with Point and Click, because it'd have to be a "look area" under the bed, which takes away from the fun of working it out yourself.I don't see the problem here.
I get it... I kind of have a fondness for the parser games too, because of the ability to express yourself with clearer intent.Yes! Anyway, could a Text Parser System, and Menu Bar / Menu like SCI0 be made in SCI1.1? Or is it coded too differently to allow it?
If what you're looking for is VGA + text parser, I think there are some Sierra games that have that. Or if not, there are certainly some SCI1 Sierra games whose interpreters still have parser support built in, but it was never actually used in a game. Unfortunately, the interpreter that the SCI1.1 template game is matched with (from LSL6) does not have a built in parser. So I think you'd need to decompile an SCI1 game whose interpreter has parser support, and make a new template game based off that. A lot of work.Yeah... For the type of game I'm trying to do, I think I'll stick with SCI0.
Re-creating the text parser in script would be possible, but also a significant amount of work and you wouldn't be able to leverage any of SCI Companion's vocab editing support.
Finally, if all you care about is having the easy of bitmapped graphics (but are ok if they are just EGA) with parser support, then you can just use SCI0 and the "import bitmap to pic" function of SCI Companion, which converts bitmaps into vector commands to generate a pic. A number of fanmade SCI0 games use this...
Don't know. Never played it. I just hear everybody say it has a parser and they loved it. At any rate, I did say a parser "of any kind".I checked. It was. And then I whipped up a small POC where the template game's Custom verb throws up an EditPrint that it then responds to.
There's one Sierra "game" that is both VGA and supports a true parser: the 1990 christmas card VGA demo.Not only that, it had a functional menu bar, too! User won't decompile but I have the rest right here.
The demo crashes on decompilation of script 996.I see what you did there.
The demo + patches (downloadable from the post I mentioned) is fully decompilable.
Unless you limit yourself to playing in ScummVM, you can't use AVI files. At all. If you use the interpreter from King's Quest 6, you can use SEQ files, though.My idea for the opening of my game is CCTV-Style Footage. Nothing advanced, but I feel it adds "realism" to the scenes that follow. You COULD do something like that purely with views or the like, but I feel it'd be a waste of resources to do something as simple as that... But also using so many resources could be intensive on the engine, based on the fact that lots of views which are screen sized are being loaded back to back. How do .SEQ Files work in King's Quest 6?
First thing to approach for the game itself: familiarize yo'self with the scripting language, the engine, and all that stuff. Implement some basic mini puzzles like finding a key and using it on a locked door.
As the video thing demonstrates, ideas are great but oftentimes you'll have to throw one particular thing or another out the window because you or the engine can't handle something that grand.
CCTV footage, hmm? I'm reminded of this introduction scene from LB2. First two screenshots are unaltered, third has a little camera overlay that I whipped up for demonstrative purposes.My inspiration is this (http://shortformvideo.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/fake_cctv1.png); Notice: Monochrome Color + Noise, Scanlines, Timecode, Location Identifier, and Date Identifier. It's still going to be Sierra-Styled, but I want to maintain as much as this "realism" as I can. Can .SEQs be overlaid above other .SEQs, or over a background? Because I feel as if the background stuff needs to be one thing, and then the things above another. What is the best way to approach this?
KQ6's intro is dynamically picked depending on what the Platform kernel call says it's running on. If it's Windows, it plays the entire introduction cartoon as a single AVI file. If it's DOS, it plays those parts where there's little animation with views on pictures, and the rest as a series of SEQ clips, which are not entirely unlike Autodesk Animator FLIC files. So practically speaking it loads the picture with the decorative letterbox border, draws the "once upon a time" as regular text, all that, and then during the conversation between Alexander and Valanice every time only Alex's mouth moves and/or the lights flicker in the background, it's views. All the sounds and music in the cartoon are regular SCI sounds too. The SEQs on the other hand are for things like Valanice approaching, Alexander shifting, Valanice turning back, dramatic pans around the room, and much of the ship scene.
My inspiration is this (http://shortformvideo.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/fake_cctv1.png); Notice: Monochrome Color + Noise, Scanlines, Timecode, Location Identifier, and Date Identifier. It's still going to be Sierra-Styled, but I want to maintain as much as this "realism" as I can. Can .SEQs be overlaid above other .SEQs, or over a background? Because I feel as if the background stuff needs to be one thing, and then the things above another. What is the best way to approach this?
Can you not overlay one pic on top of another in SCI1.1? Wouldn't that be easier on heap/performance than a screen-sized view? I tried making a screen-sized view in SCI0 once. It doesn't like that very much lol.
Black scanlines in the visual screen, white scanlines in the priority screen y'all.
Looking at the opening to King's Quest VI (https://youtu.be/MNxKO1EW3yE?t=160) (I've never actually watched the Introduction to that game), I see that the .SEQ files have voice acting? Can .SEQ Files hold audio files or timing for when an audio file should be played? Or is it just some elaborate code that knows when these events should happen in the .SEQ File and plays them to match? I'd love to know!
How do I limit the game to a VGA Palette?
My idea is to take a real image (creative commons) and then try to convert it to VGA, and see what that's like, then work on drawing something from that, or if it's good enough then I might use it instead.
What I meant to say is that I want to limit Paint.NET to a VGA Palette. How do I do that? The same one that SCI1.1 Games use.How do I limit the game to a VGA Palette?
Not sure I understand that sentence. The game is VGA. It can use any palette.My idea is to take a real image (creative commons) and then try to convert it to VGA, and see what that's like, then work on drawing something from that, or if it's good enough then I might use it instead.
http://scicompanion.com/Documentation/pics.html#importing-a-vga-pic-background-sci1
What I meant to say is that I want to limit Paint.NET to a VGA Palette. How do I do that? The same one that SCI1.1 Games use.
Looking at the opening to King's Quest VI (https://youtu.be/MNxKO1EW3yE?t=160) (I've never actually watched the Introduction to that game), I see that the .SEQ files have voice acting? Can .SEQ Files hold audio files or timing for when an audio file should be played? Or is it just some elaborate code that knows when these events should happen in the .SEQ File and plays them to match? I'd love to know!Didn't I already say that all the audio for the DOS intro is done with regular SCI sound methods?
Can't remember. But I'm wondering how timing would be done on a .SEQ File with with regular SCI sound methods.Looking at the opening to King's Quest VI (https://youtu.be/MNxKO1EW3yE?t=160) (I've never actually watched the Introduction to that game), I see that the .SEQ files have voice acting? Can .SEQ Files hold audio files or timing for when an audio file should be played? Or is it just some elaborate code that knows when these events should happen in the .SEQ File and plays them to match? I'd love to know!Didn't I already say that all the audio for the DOS intro is done with regular SCI sound methods?
Can't remember. But I'm wondering how timing would be done on a .SEQ File with with regular SCI sound methods.You don't time it at all.
Well, it seems as though I'll need to do a whole scene as a .SEQ to implement some of the effects I'll need, as they're constant, that or randomly switch between .SEQ(s). It does involve large chunks of animation.Can't remember. But I'm wondering how timing would be done on a .SEQ File with with regular SCI sound methods.You don't time it at all.
Like I said, the actual conversation in KQ6's intro, between Valanice and Alexander, is done mostly with regular views and pictures, and the SEQ files for that shot only serve to do the larger animations like Valanice entering and leaving. The other use is for large dramatic moving-camera shots, and the only sound then is background music.
Also, my SEQ file creation tool doesn't work quite right and is very cheap about compressing the frame data.
Or you could sit back and rethink your plans.I'm willing to regarding other areas of the game, but this Intro scene... I'm not sure how I'd rethink it. It fits in with the plot of the game too well to let it go.
I know I have. Heck, I know Al Lowe and Roberta Williams have.
You don't have to rethink it. Phil and I already did that for you. You can do your CCTV thing and have it recognizable as a CCTV thing, even without noise effects. What makes video footage CCTV footage? The grayscales? The particular overlay things like "CAM1 (KITCHEN)"? Just because it has little to no scanlines and no noise at all doesn't mean it can't be instantly recognized as anything but CCTV footage if you have the grayscales and labels.I'm thinking that I'm going to do it the view way, as in have a 2 to 8-Cel Loop (haven't decided on length) that has noise and static, scanlines, Video Tearing, etc., and then overlay the information, like time, location and such as their own Loop, to allow for little bits of animation on that too. Since there's going to be thunder / lightning, I might alternate between two sets of 2 to 8-Cel Loops, one with additional lighting and the other without. Credits will then be their own Loop in the same view (Credits similar to Laura Bow II: The Dagger of Amon Ra). And hopefully, I'll have one view for the intro scene... Instead of having lots of views, I'm trying to consolidate it into as little as possible.
Practical example: Duke Nukem 3D has security cameras and monitors. If you activate a monitor, you're shown the scene as seen from the cameras linked to that monitor. There's no special effects involved -- no scanlines, no grain, not even a grayscale filter -- but the very fact that there are white corner brackets and a blinking ●REC makes it scream "these are CCTV images". The only real special effect here is that if you step back again, the monitor texture still shows the camera footage.