SCI32 Templates

[Dhel]

I tried going through FotoSCIhop's source, but my C++ skills are sorely lacking. I have not even recently looked to see if Enrico has a newer version of it. When I asked him about it quite a while back he seemed to be mostly done with any further development of it. Nice to see you take it up.

Actually Enrico finished it up at the end of last year, which basically meant finishing linkpoint compatibility. So for him it is done and finished for the scope of what he designed fotoscihop for in the first place which is for translating sierra games and not necessarily graphical editing. This is partly why I decided to keep it going from where he left off as I need it for development in with a current sci32 project I am working on.

[Dhel]

Maybe it's just me but for SCI32 Picture support, I think being able to change positions and depths from inside the Picture Editor itself would be preferable. Are we all just too intimidated by how hairy the source code is to make the point editor (fills, lines, polygons) also work on cels? Cos I know I am.

Yes I think that would be very ideal and I have a strong interest in tackling all that as well. Not having actually looked at how the Picture editor is working though I can't say for certain whether its easy or difficult to do yet. In the mean time though I am trying to get as familiar as I can with how pictures and views work in code. Ill try to take a look this evening just to start getting the context of sci companion code in my head. 

[Dhel]

I have some curious thoughts about about the sci decompilation projects and the sci32 games that have come from that like SQ6 and KQ7 demos. I have not looked into it much, but are those able to be compiled and used in sci companion?

I have been wanting to play around with modifying and recompiling some of these games and also maybe earlier titles to test out some tools.

[Collector]

I believe that GK1 is about the first SCI32 game and to go in the other direction, Phantasmagoria 2 would be about the last SCI game.

[MusicallyInspired]

I believe Phantas 2 was about the only 16-bit colour SCI game too, no? I have a feeling all the others were 8-bit but I can't be sure.

[Dhel]

I believe that GK1 is about the first SCI32 game and to go in the other direction, Phantasmagoria 2 would be about the last SCI game.

Sounds about right, with the exception of the Realm which is sci32 that is still in use today. I think it branched from sci 2.1 or so and was modified for windows and network play. But all the resources and scripts are still very much sci.

[Dhel]

I believe Phantas 2 was about the only 16-bit colour SCI game too, no? I have a feeling all the others were 8-bit but I can't be sure.

As far as I can tell, truecolor was reserved for video playback only. I have not seen any evidence of a pic or view file being truecolor though so Phantas 2 was probably mixed with both elements.

[Collector]

The Realm is LSCI (Large-model SCI), a variant of SCI with networking built in, like TSN/INN.

[Dhel]

The Realm is LSCI (Large-model SCI), a variant of SCI with networking built in, like TSN/INN.

Yes exactly. I knew it forked off of INN and some later sci32 variants but I did not know it was termed LSCI. Good to know! I have actually been working on modifying resources for the realm which required full sci32 compatibility.

[Dhel]

So far after examining a bit of the code for sci companion and views / pics, I am feeling pretty overwhelmed by the difference in how it handles the code for this. Not only is the code a little over my head and will need some studying, but it doesnt seem to be broken down into a familiar structure I am used to seeing in both fotoscihop, sci32, or scummvm. For example a view file is generally structured as a view header, loop headers, cell headers, then a sequenced offset of image data / scan lines / links. Im not following exactly how it is structured in sci companion yet. Maybe I am not seeing it in context yet.

[Collector]

a user here, Aftertaste, was tinkering with the Realm trying to build some tools for it. https://code.google.com/archive/p/sci-palette-convertor/

[Dhel]

a user here, Aftertaste, was tinkering with the Realm trying to build some tools for it. https://code.google.com/archive/p/sci-palette-convertor/

Ahh yes I am in a friends / circle with Aftertaste. Group of fellow Realm lovers . Never spoken with him directly but I hear he has some pretty fun tools.

I think its intriguing that there is potentially some modern sci code still being used out there. If there was access to a modern sc, makevols, and an interp that could compile  and run on modern windows, what do you think could be possible for sierra games? Not to mention having access to networking. A multiplayer quest for glory 4 maybe?

[Collector]

Kawa has played around with the source of the interpreter, but I don't think he has made that major of any modifications. Of course he can speak for himself. Also, I do not believe we have any source for any of the SCI32 interpreters, either.

[lskovlun]

Kawa has played around with the source of the interpreter, but I don't think he has made that major of any modifications. Of course he can speak for himself. Also, I do not believe we have any source for any of the SCI32 interpreters, either.

https://github.com/OmerMor/SCI32/

[Dhel]

Kawa has played around with the source of the interpreter, but I don't think he has made that major of any modifications. Of course he can speak for himself. Also, I do not believe we have any source for any of the SCI32 interpreters, either.

Actually it does exist. Though not publicly available any where that I have seen.