SCI Companion V3 - alpha build notes/bugs/feature requests

[Collector]

Just noticed that it won't open my FPFP v 1.000. It throws a warning "Error enumerating items: Corrupt resource header - mismatched types, yet the game does work. I can provide files if needed.

[troflip]

Sure, send them my way. I have FPFP v1 and it opens fine for me, so there must be some difference...

[Collector]

Check your PM.

[troflip]

Hmm, interesting. It looks like it's just unable to load the views, because it encounters something unexpected while enumerating them (starting at view 630). Your resource map does indeed look corrupt (SV.exe can't even open it properly). Have you applied patches to this or anything?

I'm not surprised the game runs, but if it tries to read views 630, 631, etc... it will probably crash.

[Collector]

It was the raw files from my floppies and installed from within DOSBox. I'll have to put the disk through the KryoFlux to see if the tracks have been altered. Could I get a copy of your v1.000 map file?

[troflip]

check your PMs!

[Kawa]

Which incidentally reminds me of this one time on an IRC channel related to a board I used to visit, where someone said exactly that without any capitalization. Bloody amusing. That'll be all, good night.

[Collector]

Which incidentally reminds me of this one time on an IRC channel related to a board I used to visit, where someone said exactly that without any capitalization. Bloody amusing. That'll be all, good night.

https://ia800501.us.archive.org/17/items/rimshot_739/rimshot.mp3

[Kawa]

Collector? Damn near wrector!

[Charles]

I just came across this project last week, and holy cow I am super impressed! SCI Companion 3 looks amazing. I am in complete awe over the features and amount of work you've put into this. I read through most of this thread and when I got to the part about LipSync support, I just about lost it. That is above and beyond anything I'd ever expected anybody to do.

My mind reels at the possibility of creating mods to some of my favorite Sierra games (goblin's hideout in QFG1? Extra planet in SQ3?), or fan patches for bugs/spelling/consistency, like the SQ1VGA thread, or creating enhancements to existing games like the SQV Fan Talkie thread. Simply amazing!

That said, I gave the latest version a try (3.0.1.7?) and I came across a couple of problems:
In theory, I should be able to recompile any script I've decompiled, right?
Laura Bow 1 was giving me some problems when I tried to recompile script 414. And would actually outright crash. Unhandled exception style. Not sure exactly why. It wasn't in response to me *doing* anything, unless it was trying to do something in the background.
Also, the Find/Replace wasn't working as I'd expected. I enjoyed adding comments to the decompiled code, trying to figure out how it works -- it's like doing the crosswords, for me -- and renaming variables and procedures as I learn what they're for. Trouble is I couldn't find any global Replace command (like the global find CTRL+SHIFT+F), without which it's practically impossible to rename global variables/procedures.
And the CTRL+H replace doesn't replace within the whole document ... only from the cursor down. I have to click it again to replace from the top. Not to mention the message it gives -- "<string> not found" -- is a little less useful than something like "3 occurrences replaced" or similar.

Anyway, these are mostly minor annoyances on what is otherwise and amazing program. If I'm using it wrong, can somebody please let me know the proper way?

[Collector]

Charles as in 'Unknown Hero"?

Anyway, I am sure that Phil will answer when he sees this.

[MusicallyInspired]

Re: recompiling Sierra game sources, you must decompile at least 3 times for the decompiler to get a lot of the symbol names right as it learns a little more each time. That said, some games still have problems recompiling be it due to code errors by Sierra, assembly code blocks that the decompiler couldn't decompile, or still yet some minor problems with the decompiler itself. It's not exactly perfect. Compiling single scripts works for the most part, though. Although, I couldn't even get a single script to work for an SCI32 game.

I have to agree that a global Find+Replace function would be great! However, you can easily get around it by just doing a Global Find for the symbols you want, open each of the scripts with that symbol, and then do a Replace on each one. Would be a little tedious, but it's easy enough.

[Kawa]

I have to agree that a global Find+Replace function would be great! However, you can easily get around it by just doing a Global Find for the symbols you want, open each of the scripts with that symbol, and then do a Replace on each one. Would be a little tedious, but it's easy enough.

Or just use another editor for such tasks. I would.

[troflip]

Thanks for the feedback Charles!

Global find and replace would be nice, but I've just been using another editor (visual studio) for that.

In theory, I should be able to recompile any script I've decompiled, right?

Thanks for the report about script 414 in Laura Bow, I'll look into it. SCI Companion compiles scripts in the background to handle symbol lookups, tooltips, autocomplete, etc...

The decompilation is not perfect, so it is not recommended to compile all - but instead selectively compile just the scripts you want to change. Decompilation not only produces scripts with compile errors, but sometimes - the worst thing possible - incorrect code that compiles fine. I hope to release a "service pack" for SCI Companion 3 at some point soon in which I include fixes for some of these issues.

[troflip]

Although, I couldn't even get a single script to work for an SCI32 game.

SCI Companion has pretty much no support for SCI32 at all... or did you mean SCI2?