Author Topic: SCI Studio bug-report  (Read 6663 times)

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Offline sith

SCI Studio bug-report
« on: September 24, 2002, 02:36:01 AM »
Hi,

Some bugs I encountered in SCI studio :

- Views get corrupt or completely turn to black
- Mirror-loop does not always work (active cell doesn't mirror correctly)
- When I click on a font I get something like "Illegal bitmap"
- Picture-Editor : When I want to create a dithered color, all the colors in all palletes turn to black.

No offence Brian, but I think SCI Studio leaks more memory then Spikey leaks acid ;)

I think there are some free libraries on the net, that automatically records every malloc() and free(), and detects memory-leaks. (I found one at www.flipcode.com, but it was for MSVC, not Borland)

PS : Last time I checked your site, the source-archives where offline. Will you put them up soon ?

PPS : Keep up the good work !  8)





Offline Te Rangi

Re:SCI Studio bug-report
« Reply #1 on: September 24, 2002, 03:23:22 AM »
Many of the bugs mentioned above will be fixed in SCI Studio 2.14  ;D

Offline sith

Re:SCI Studio bug-report
« Reply #2 on: September 30, 2002, 04:16:32 PM »
Brian,

I just made a donation, so you better fix those bugs fast  ;D

Greetzzz,

Jeroen

Pikachu14

  • Guest
Re:SCI Studio bug-report
« Reply #3 on: October 01, 2002, 02:04:12 AM »
Now that he mentioned Spike...

If Roger sticks his head in a pool of acid, he dies.
If Roger gets hit by an acid drop, he dies.
If Roger gets Spike stuck on his face, he lives.
How come?

Offline Brian Provinciano

Re:SCI Studio bug-report
« Reply #4 on: October 01, 2002, 05:36:00 AM »
Thank you! I've been actively working on the VGA stuff, but I'll fix those to another 2.1 release.

Offline Rono

not BUG, but a question...
« Reply #5 on: October 19, 2002, 07:26:35 AM »
This is not really related to bugs, but I'm intersted why is game-originated-script editing is not allowed?
And if it is because you don't encourage Sierra games script editing, why can't the script just be viewed as read-only?

That's the only thing that bothers me in SCI Studio, other than that, I want to tell you, Brian, that this is the only program that makes the cut in SCI editing!  ;D

P.S: Can you help me get documentation on SCI sound format? I'm interested in making a sound editor for SCI, and if it works, I would like for you to add it to the next version of SCI Studio. I've already written a DOS sound editor for AGI, and now I'm determined to make a Windows version of it and add it to AGI Studio 1.37.
Hopefully I'll make a contribiution to the Sierra games editing world... (Just like you, Peter Kelly, Lance Ewing & Eric Fullerton!)

Offline OmerMor

Re:SCI Studio bug-report
« Reply #6 on: October 19, 2002, 09:24:27 AM »
The reason that SCI Studio won't allow you to edit/view sierra's scripts is not because of Brian's policy, but because it's almost impossible.
Think of SCI scripts as compiled EXE files, and the SCI script source as a C source code.
The reason you don't see an SCI decompiler is the same reason why you don't see EXE files decompilers around. you can only disassemble EXE files, and edit them in assembler, and in the same way you can disassemble SCI scripts from sierra games, and edit their byte-code, but it's not an easy task to do. Ask Brian. That's what he was doing when he built his class framework out of Sierra's scripts.

About SCI sound specifications, you can check this sites for lots of information:
1) Ravi's site:
http://www4.ncsu.edu:8030/~rniyenga/sci/
2) FreeSCI's online documentation:
http://freesci.linuxgames.com/scihtml/book1.html

Notice however that Ravi is already making an SCI sound editor as well, so you might collaborate with him or something...

Good luck!

Offline Rono

Re:SCI Studio bug-report
« Reply #7 on: October 29, 2002, 04:04:34 PM »
Look Omer, I'm a programmer, and I know a thing or two about scripts... (not to be arrogant... of course!)
Now, I admit I havn't read about the SCI scripting, but I assumed the script resource is saved in a "translated" state, between a readable source and assembler, since the interpreter itself interperts it to machine code. Since Bri has already investigated this "translation" to make his class-framework, like u said, I figured it would be simply a shame to let all that work to waste, by not writing an editor...

Listen, the reason I'm so keen about it is that I would LOVE the chance to fix some silly bugs in some games...
U've read about them, Omer, in the topic I started...
I would really love to get Bri's response in this matter, anyway...

Offline Rono

Re:SCI Studio bug-report
« Reply #8 on: October 29, 2002, 04:07:15 PM »
Besides, wouldn't u love to get a peek at the code, just to figure out where some missing score (like, say, in conquest of camelot) is hiding?  ;D

Offline Nick Sonneveld

Re:SCI Studio bug-report
« Reply #9 on: October 29, 2002, 05:10:46 PM »
The reason why *AGI* logic decoding is so simple is because commands map directly to the syntax.  The syntax is very simple for a reason.

Disassembling SCI or even x86 + C is much more complex.  a single command could take a few lines and, due to optimisation, several commands might share code which makes it harder for a program to automatically disassemble.

Brian had to do all his work by HAND.

- Nick
Nick Sonneveld  |  AGI Dev  |  NAGI

Offline Brian Provinciano

Re:SCI Studio bug-report
« Reply #10 on: October 29, 2002, 09:34:35 PM »
It NEEEEDs to be manually recoded. Please go ahead and make a decompiler. Anything's possible. It would just require a lot of AI in the code. Second, all the scripts are linked together, so each time one is decompiled, all would need to be as well. Third, there are missing scripts in all games, so the game can never be 100% accurately decompiled/recompiled. Fourth, if it was decompiled, it would look like this:

(locals
   local_0000 $12
 ...
   local_1F3A 0
)

(procedure (proc_4E3C p1 p2 p3)
  (var v1)
  = v1 0
  (while(< v1 12)
     (send inst232:something(283 34))
   )
)

There are also missing selectors and classes which cause problems, and require workarounds to be written when recoding them. Also, 123 can mean 123, $7B, aSelector, anAddress, a text index, etc. These are just the problems after all the code to accurately translate bytecode to high level.

It would be so much work to do the decompiler, I'd rather write SCI Studio VGA and such.

Please, make a decompiler yourself though, since you are in fact a programmer.

Offline Rono

Re:SCI Studio bug-report
« Reply #11 on: October 31, 2002, 06:34:20 PM »
Woh, I get the feeling you're upset with me, don't be.
I didn't mean to be disrespectful at all, I just wanted to hear your oppinion in the matter, and I fully trust your knowledge with the SCI design.
You made some interesting points about the matter, but I don't understand the part about missing classes and selectors, after all, the interpreter can understand it (most of the time... :-) )
I disagree with your point on how it would look like: the syntax could be mostly controlled by the developer of the decoder...
Still it is hard to face the fact that Sierra's programmers designed a scripting mechanisim that can't be decoded, it doesn't make sense because the entire concept of scripting is quick maintanence without the need of a saved source... if this is truly the matter, then I wouldn't call a script and interpreter, but a compilation-based-code and binary file...

Offline Rono

Re:SCI Studio bug-report
« Reply #12 on: October 31, 2002, 06:47:54 PM »
Oh, BTW, I too think you should focus on developing SCI VGA, and not mess around with a disassembeling-like task...
All I wondered about was why haven't you done that job when you worked with it anyway... Again, I emphasize the fact that I don't mean to judge you in any way... Believe me, I admire the work you've done!

Offline Nick Sonneveld

Re:SCI Studio bug-report
« Reply #13 on: October 31, 2002, 07:32:29 PM »
I program stuff in C but I don't throw away the source code.. just like Sierra compiled stuff in SCI but they didn't throw away the original source code.

They didn't make it use a byte code language for quick maintenance.. they developed it so they would just have to port the interpreter to run it on a different system.  Having a system specially made for adventure games helps too.

- Nick
Nick Sonneveld  |  AGI Dev  |  NAGI

Offline Rono

Re:SCI Studio bug-report
« Reply #14 on: October 31, 2002, 08:38:34 PM »
I now understand what you're saying... It makes a lot of sense.

I wonder, since the quest for deciphering the AGI and SCI data formats, has no-one developed any decoder for the SCI scripts, even a non comprehendable one?
(Excuse me, but I am not informed about what has been developed in the script aspect, I'm more interested in the sound aspect...)


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