ScummVM - To enhance or not to enhance

[MusicallyInspired]

An interesting debate going on at the ScummVM forums. The creator of the undither feature (a feature that "undithers" the dithered colours in SCI0 backgrounds to simple flat colours of up to almost 256 separate shades of colours has forced the option to be enabled by default. Previously there was no option to disable this short of opening the command console, altering a setting in a seriously hard to find scummvm.ini file, or compiling your own build of the program itself. Now there is a checkbox option in the game settings window of the ScummVM GUI. But the setting is still enabled by default.

His stance is that Ken and the artists at Sierra had always intended to have more colours which is why they used dithered colours to begin with and so from their point of view they're giving the gaming experience that was always meant to be portrayed. Well, there's a lot of problems with that point of view as I'm sure you guys can agree with having created your own SCI backgrounds yourselves. A lot of the dithering is used (certainly by me, and no doubt Sierra artists who are way better than I am) in an artistic fashion to create subtlety in shading, minor details, and depth. Undithering everything results in those subtleties being lost and exposing a lot of ugly jagged lines in a lot of backgrounds. Many disagree with me but still think that the option should be left off by default to preserve the original intent and gaming experience.

What do you guys think?

[Collector]

I have already posted about this both on the ScummVM forums and on SHP. I am not sure what else there is for me to add at this point. One side point, it is easy to get to the scummvm.ini file from the run box. It work regardless of the version of windows.

%appdata%\scummvm

in the runbox will open the folder that the ini resides in. But you point is still taken. Most people that can't find it won't know the environmental variables, either.

[gumby]

Right, I voiced my opinion over on SHP: In my mind, nothing should be 'enhanced' by default.  Leave it as the artist intended (uninterpreted, unfettered, un-everything).  Couldn't find the thread over on ScummVM - I'll have to take a closer look and voice it there too.

[Collector]

MI linked to the thread at the beginning of his post.

[gumby]

In my hurry I missed it.  Thanks.

[MusicallyInspired]

It seems that undithering is now removed from being the default setting for the time being.

[Collector]

If you were just looking for the thread by a title, you would not find it. the thread's title has to do with the original question, which was about the DOS cursors being used with the KQ6 Windows game. It shortly got side tracked by the developer of the undither trying to defend why his view of what looks best should be default.

In the end, the undither amounts to someone's interpretation of another's creative piece. Interpretations of existing works is acceptable. Think of all the "Variations on a Theme by..."  (fill in whatever composer you wish) there are. But what is not acceptable is to present an interpretation as the original, which is what ScummVM is essentially doing with undither set as default.

[gumby]

In the end, the undither amounts to someone's interpretation of another's creative piece. Interpretations of existing works is acceptable. Think of all the "Variations on a Theme by..."  (fill in whatever composer you wish) there are. But what is not acceptable is to present an interpretation as the original, which is what ScummVM is essentially doing with undither set as default.

My feelings exactly (and you said it better than I did).