Messages

You could try and set the value lower? Just enough for the player to read the shortest sentence but not short enough to accidentally dismiss the text before reading it?

Yeah, that's how I had it originally set up, but players were complaining that they were still accidentally skipping past messages.

Is this something you could workaround by setting IgnoreUserInputAfterTextTimeoutMs to 0 in repeatedly_execute() and then to its real value whenever you say a line? (Through a function that wraps all your Say() calls, and which you set as your "saying" function in the new 3.5 setting.)

I just gave that a quick test, but it seems that when I set it back to 0 in the repeatedly_execute script, it still uses the 1000 ms delay from the last message that was on-screen. The setting of 0 only gets applied once the next new message appears (and gets immediately overridden by 1000 ms again).

Right, I've seen these, but kept forgetting to check them out.
Is any of these two a regression in 3.5.0, or they were both present earlier? I am asking because currently there are two development branches: one for patching 3.5.0, which I'd like to release ASAP for it contains few important crash fixes, and second branch is presumably for 3.5.1, containing few non-major updates.

What is your release deadline?

I just checked and both issues also occurred in v3.4.3.1.

I was hoping to get the game ported and mastered to DVD within a month.

Perhaps, try running game in 1280x800?

Ah, yes. this worked to remove the bordered windows in full-screen mode. It displays perfectly at full-screen now. Thanks for the suggestion! Looking at it closer in retrospect, I don't think a linear-type filter was actually being applied. It just looked like it was because the scaled-down screen window made all the pixels smaller so everything looked smoother.

BTW, is there any chance you might be able to look into the other two things I posted in this thread (the inconsistent dialog portrait mouth animation behaviour when toggling between voice and text-only modes and the IgnoreUserInputAfterTextTimeoutMs issue). I'm wanting to re-compile Mage's Initiation to master onto DVDs for our Kickstarter backers using v3.5.0 but it'd be nice to have those little quirks resolved for that definitive release if possible.

[Toonstruck]

Here are some photos of various games and how they display correctly on my ultra-wide monitor vs. how AGS games display on it:


Toonstruck

Quest for Glory 4

Mage's Initiation (AGS) - 4 borders and scaled-down screen

The log sais, that when you run in fullscreen, you explicitly ask for a 1280 x 1024 mode (in config), and it tries to make one, with game rendered in 1280 x 800.
I don't know how this suppose to work on ultra wide monitors, but if, as you say, your monitor adds side borders on its own, then in this case you will probably have borders on all 4 sides: top and bottom borders are created by AGS, and side borders created by your monitor.

When you start in windowed and switch to fullscreen at runtime, AGS does not have information to guess which fullscreen you want (except for scaling mode), and instead tries to find a mode closest to the desktop resolution automatically, and it inits 2560 x 1080 mode, with game rendered in 1728 x 1080.
In this case you will only have borders from sides (created by AGS).

This is as much as I can gather.

Sorry, my previous description was a bit inaccurate. My monitor doesn't actually add black side-borders on its own in full-screen mode. For all games (including non-AGS games, newer games, and older DOS games launched in DosBox etc.) by default, it runs the game with the horizontal width completely stretched out to fill the entire screen. This is a well-known issue with ultra-wide monitors. There's a setting for Nvidia video cards to prevent it from auto-stretching horizontally and to get it to obey the game's aspect ratio (In Nvidia Control Panel: Display>Adjust desktop size and position> "Perform Scaling on: GPU" & checking the "Override the scaling set by games and programs" box).

With those Nvidia options, it displays all full-screen games at the correct vertical size (i.e. no black border at the top/bottom) and at the correct horizontal width, relative to the vertical height. The monitor/video card doesn't add any black side borders. Rather, it just centers the game screen and the unused monitor space to the left and right of the game screen remains solid black. This behaviour occurs when launching all games EXCEPT for AGS games.  The 4 black borders only get added when launching full-screen AGS titles. And the way you can tell there are added side borders is because they're a lighter shade of black than the natural solid black of the monitor. Non-AGS games don't have these borders.

It's one ultra-wide monitor. It just puts black on the sides if running in full-screen mode.

[without]

This is something strange, in above log it sais that "nearest neighbour" was initialized. How do you tell it's linear filter, does it report so in Ctrl+V message, or you tell by the visual difference?
Could you post a new log of both launching fullscreen and switching with alt+tab?

I tested it again and you're right. When it runs within 4 black borders in full-screen mode, CTRL+V says that it's using the Nearest-Neighbour filter, even though everything on-screen is smoothed. This may be something my Nvidia graphics card is applying automatically, but it's strange that it only happens when the game is initially launched in full-screen mode, but not when ALT-TAB is used to toggle the game into full-screen mode. 

Also note that if it initially starts surrounded by 4 black borders, it will remember that full-screen setting and revert to it every time you ALT+TAB back to full-screen mode. Likewise, if you initially start without the 4 black borders, then this setting will be remembered and every time you ALT+TAB back to full-screen mode.

Here are the logs. In each one, I launched the game and ALT+TABbed a couple of times, then exited.

LOG: Initially launched in full-screen mode with Nearest Neighbour filter

Adventure Game Studio v3.5 Interpreter
Copyright (c) 1999-2011 Chris Jones and 2011-2020 others
ACI version 3.5.0.24

Installing exception handler
Initializing allegro
Initializing game data
Looking for the game data file
Located game data file: c:/Users/Chris/repos/MAGES_~1/Compiled/Windows/MAGES_~1.EXE
Opened game data file: game28.dta
Game data version: 50
Compiled with: 3.5.0.23
Setting up game configuration
Data directory: c:/Users/Chris/repos/MAGES_~1/Compiled/Windows/
Initializing speech vox
Voice pack found and initialized.
audio.vox found and initialized.
Setting up window
Initializing TTF renderer
Initializing keyboard
Initializing mouse: number of buttons reported is 8
Install timer
Initializing sound drivers
Sound settings: digital driver ID: 'AUTO' (0xffffffff), MIDI driver ID: 'AUTO' (0xffffffff)
Trying to init: digital driver ID: 'AXA ' (0x41584120), MIDI driver ID: 'W32M' (0x5733324d)
Installed digital driver ID: 'AXA ' (0x41584120), MIDI driver ID: 'W32M' (0x5733324d)
Install exit handler
Initialize path finder library
Load game data
Game GUI version: 119
Requested script API: v3.5.0.7 (7), compat level: v3.2.1 (0)
Game title: 'Mage's Initiation'
Checking for disk space
Initializing MOD/XM player
Initializing resolution settings
Game native resolution: 640 x 400 (32 bit)
Mouse confined: (0,0)-(639,399) (640x400)
Device display resolution: 2560 x 1080
Graphic settings: driver: OGL, windowed: no, screen def: explicit, screen size: 1280 x 1024, match device ratio: ignore, game scale: proportional
Using graphics factory: OGL
Created graphics driver: OpenGL
Supported gfx modes (32-bit):
   640x480;720x480;720x576;800x600;1024x768;1152x864;1176x664;1280x720;
   1280x768;1280x800;1280x960;1280x1024;1360x768;1366x768;1600x900;1600x1024;
   1600x1200;1680x1050;1768x992;1920x1080;1920x1200;1920x1440;2048x1536;2560x1080;
   2560x1440;2560x1600;3840x2160;
Attempting to find nearest supported resolution for screen size 1280 x 1024 (32-bit) fullscreen
Attempt to switch gfx mode to 1280 x 1024 (32-bit) fullscreen
Running OpenGL: 4.6
OGL: Tinting shader program created successfully
OGL: Lighting shader program created successfully
Succeeded. Using gfx mode 1280 x 1024 (32-bit) fullscreen
Render frame set, render dest (0, 112, 1279, 911 : 1280 x 800)
Requested gfx filter: StdScale
Graphics filter set: 'StdScale', filter dest (0, 112, 1279, 911 : 1280 x 800)
Using gfx filter: StdScale
Mouse control: on, base: 0.948148, speed: 2.000000
Mouse confined: (0,112)-(1279,911) (1280x800)
Initialize sprites
Initialize game settings
Prepare to start game
Audio is processed on the main thread
Engine initialization complete
Starting game
WARNING: channel 2 - same clip assigned
Game.SetAudioTypeSpeechVolumeDrop: type: 2, drop: 45
Game.SetAudioTypeSpeechVolumeDrop: type: 3, drop: 45
Game.SetAudioTypeSpeechVolumeDrop: type: 1, drop: 45
Game.SetAudioTypeVolume: type: 1, volume: 80, change: 1680
Game.SetAudioTypeVolume: type: 2, volume: 71, change: 1680
Game.SetAudioTypeVolume: type: 3, volume: 72, change: 1680
Game.SetAudioTypeVolume: type: 1, volume: 72, change: 1680
Attempting to find nearest supported resolution for screen size 1280 x 800 (32-bit) windowed
Maximal allowed window size: 1280 x 963
Attempt to switch gfx mode to 1280 x 800 (32-bit) windowed
Succeeded. Using gfx mode 1280 x 800 (32-bit) windowed
Render frame set, render dest (0, 0, 1279, 799 : 1280 x 800)
Mouse control: off, base: 1.000000, speed: 2.000000
Mouse confined: (0,0)-(1279,799) (1280x800)
Attempt to switch gfx mode to 1280 x 1024 (32-bit) fullscreen
Succeeded. Using gfx mode 1280 x 1024 (32-bit) fullscreen
Render frame set, render dest (0, 112, 1279, 911 : 1280 x 800)
Mouse control: on, base: 0.948148, speed: 2.000000
Mouse confined: (0,112)-(1279,911) (1280x800)
Attempt to switch gfx mode to 1280 x 800 (32-bit) windowed
Succeeded. Using gfx mode 1280 x 800 (32-bit) windowed
Render frame set, render dest (0, 0, 1279, 799 : 1280 x 800)
Mouse control: off, base: 1.000000, speed: 2.000000
Mouse confined: (0,0)-(1279,799) (1280x800)
***** ENGINE HAS SHUTDOWN

[close]

LOG: Initially launched in windowed mode with Nearest Neighbour filter

Adventure Game Studio v3.5 Interpreter
Copyright (c) 1999-2011 Chris Jones and 2011-2020 others
ACI version 3.5.0.24

Installing exception handler
Initializing allegro
Initializing game data
Looking for the game data file
Located game data file: c:/Users/Chris/repos/MAGES_~1/Compiled/Windows/MAGES_~1.EXE
Opened game data file: game28.dta
Game data version: 50
Compiled with: 3.5.0.23
Setting up game configuration
Data directory: c:/Users/Chris/repos/MAGES_~1/Compiled/Windows/
Initializing speech vox
Voice pack found and initialized.
audio.vox found and initialized.
Setting up window
Initializing TTF renderer
Initializing keyboard
Initializing mouse: number of buttons reported is 8
Install timer
Initializing sound drivers
Sound settings: digital driver ID: 'AUTO' (0xffffffff), MIDI driver ID: 'AUTO' (0xffffffff)
Trying to init: digital driver ID: 'AXA ' (0x41584120), MIDI driver ID: 'W32M' (0x5733324d)
Installed digital driver ID: 'AXA ' (0x41584120), MIDI driver ID: 'W32M' (0x5733324d)
Install exit handler
Initialize path finder library
Load game data
Game GUI version: 119
Requested script API: v3.5.0.7 (7), compat level: v3.2.1 (0)
Game title: 'Mage's Initiation'
Checking for disk space
Initializing MOD/XM player
Initializing resolution settings
Game native resolution: 640 x 400 (32 bit)
Mouse confined: (0,0)-(639,399) (640x400)
Device display resolution: 2560 x 1080
Graphic settings: driver: OGL, windowed: yes, screen def: scaling, screen size: 1280 x 1024, match device ratio: ignore, game scale: proportional
Using graphics factory: OGL
Created graphics driver: OpenGL
Supported gfx modes (32-bit):
   640x480;720x480;720x576;800x600;1024x768;1152x864;1176x664;1280x720;
   1280x768;1280x800;1280x960;1280x1024;1360x768;1366x768;1600x900;1600x1024;
   1600x1200;1680x1050;1768x992;1920x1080;1920x1200;1920x1440;2048x1536;2560x1080;
   2560x1440;2560x1600;3840x2160;
Attempting to find nearest supported resolution for screen size 1630 x 1019 (32-bit) windowed
Maximal allowed window size: 2560 x 1019
Attempt to switch gfx mode to 1630 x 1019 (32-bit) windowed
Running OpenGL: 4.6
OGL: Tinting shader program created successfully
OGL: Lighting shader program created successfully
Succeeded. Using gfx mode 1630 x 1019 (32-bit) windowed
Render frame set, render dest (0, 0, 1629, 1017 : 1630 x 1018)
Requested gfx filter: StdScale
Graphics filter set: 'StdScale', filter dest (0, 0, 1629, 1017 : 1630 x 1018)
Using gfx filter: StdScale
Mouse control: off, base: 1.000000, speed: 2.000000
Mouse confined: (0,0)-(1629,1017) (1630x1018)
Initialize sprites
Initialize game settings
Prepare to start game
Audio is processed on the main thread
Engine initialization complete
Starting game
WARNING: channel 2 - same clip assigned
Game.SetAudioTypeSpeechVolumeDrop: type: 2, drop: 45
Game.SetAudioTypeSpeechVolumeDrop: type: 3, drop: 45
Game.SetAudioTypeSpeechVolumeDrop: type: 1, drop: 45
Game.SetAudioTypeVolume: type: 1, volume: 80, change: 1680
Game.SetAudioTypeVolume: type: 2, volume: 71, change: 1680
Game.SetAudioTypeVolume: type: 3, volume: 72, change: 1680
Game.SetAudioTypeVolume: type: 1, volume: 72, change: 1680
Attempting to find nearest supported resolution for screen size 2560 x 1080 (32-bit) fullscreen
Attempt to switch gfx mode to 2560 x 1080 (32-bit) fullscreen
Succeeded. Using gfx mode 2560 x 1080 (32-bit) fullscreen
Render frame set, render dest (416, 0, 2143, 1079 : 1728 x 1080)
Mouse control: on, base: 1.000000, speed: 2.000000
Mouse confined: (416,0)-(2143,1079) (1728x1080)
Attempt to switch gfx mode to 1630 x 1019 (32-bit) windowed
Succeeded. Using gfx mode 1630 x 1019 (32-bit) windowed
Render frame set, render dest (0, 0, 1629, 1017 : 1630 x 1018)
Mouse control: off, base: 1.000000, speed: 2.000000
Mouse confined: (0,0)-(1629,1017) (1630x1018)
Attempt to switch gfx mode to 2560 x 1080 (32-bit) fullscreen
Succeeded. Using gfx mode 2560 x 1080 (32-bit) fullscreen
Render frame set, render dest (416, 0, 2143, 1079 : 1728 x 1080)
Mouse control: on, base: 1.000000, speed: 2.000000
Mouse confined: (416,0)-(2143,1079) (1728x1080)
Attempt to switch gfx mode to 1630 x 1019 (32-bit) windowed
Succeeded. Using gfx mode 1630 x 1019 (32-bit) windowed
Render frame set, render dest (0, 0, 1629, 1017 : 1630 x 1018)
Mouse control: off, base: 1.000000, speed: 2.000000
Mouse confined: (0,0)-(1629,1017) (1630x1018)
***** ENGINE HAS SHUTDOWN

[close]

@AGD2, there was a case of fixing one mistake and making another...
Reuploaded the build: https://www.dropbox.com/s/af2fnos9qxw9y0z/acwin-3.5.0-p2-opengl-nn-texels.zip?dl=0

This acwin.exe fixes the Open GL artifact glitches and most of the other problems like ALT+TAB not working.

There's just one issue outstanding, and that's when I attempt to launch the game in full-screen (Nearest Neighbour) mode, it still uses the linear filter and puts 4 black borders around a slightly scaled-down game screen.  This only happens when I initially launch the game and set it to full-screen mode. If I initially launch it in windowed mode and then ALT+TAB into full-screen mode, then it works properly (no black borders and no forced linear filter; the "Scaling method" abides by my winsetup selection when ALT+TABbing back and forth).

All  right, here's the contents of the log when I attempt to run the game in full screen mode from winsetup.exe using the initial settings I listed above.

LOG FILE CONTENTS

Adventure Game Studio v3.5 Interpreter
Copyright (c) 1999-2011 Chris Jones and 2011-2020 others
ACI version 3.5.0.24

Installing exception handler
Initializing allegro
Initializing game data
Looking for the game data file
Located game data file: c:/Users/Chris/repos/MAGES_~1/Compiled/Windows/MAGES_~1.EXE
Opened game data file: game28.dta
Game data version: 50
Compiled with: 3.5.0.23
Setting up game configuration
Data directory: c:/Users/Chris/repos/MAGES_~1/Compiled/Windows/
Initializing speech vox
Voice pack found and initialized.
audio.vox found and initialized.
Setting up window
Initializing TTF renderer
Initializing keyboard
Initializing mouse: number of buttons reported is 8
Install timer
Initializing sound drivers
Sound settings: digital driver ID: 'AUTO' (0xffffffff), MIDI driver ID: 'AUTO' (0xffffffff)
Trying to init: digital driver ID: 'AXA ' (0x41584120), MIDI driver ID: 'W32M' (0x5733324d)
Installed digital driver ID: 'AXA ' (0x41584120), MIDI driver ID: 'W32M' (0x5733324d)
Install exit handler
Initialize path finder library
Load game data
Game GUI version: 119
Requested script API: v3.5.0.7 (7), compat level: v3.2.1 (0)
Game title: 'Mage's Initiation'
Checking for disk space
Initializing MOD/XM player
Initializing resolution settings
Game native resolution: 640 x 400 (32 bit)
Mouse confined: (0,0)-(639,399) (640x400)
Device display resolution: 2560 x 1080
Graphic settings: driver: OGL, windowed: no, screen def: explicit, screen size: 1280 x 1024, match device ratio: ignore, game scale: proportional
Using graphics factory: OGL
Created graphics driver: OpenGL
Supported gfx modes (32-bit):
   640x480;720x480;720x576;800x600;1024x768;1152x864;1176x664;1280x720;
   1280x768;1280x800;1280x960;1280x1024;1360x768;1366x768;1600x900;1600x1024;
   1600x1200;1680x1050;1768x992;1920x1080;1920x1200;1920x1440;2048x1536;2560x1080;
   2560x1440;2560x1600;3840x2160;
Attempting to find nearest supported resolution for screen size 1280 x 1024 (32-bit) fullscreen
Attempt to switch gfx mode to 1280 x 960 (32-bit) fullscreen
Running OpenGL: 4.6
OGL: Tinting shader program created successfully
OGL: Lighting shader program created successfully
Succeeded. Using gfx mode 1280 x 960 (32-bit) fullscreen
Render frame set, render dest (0, 80, 1279, 879 : 1280 x 800)
Requested gfx filter: StdScale
Graphics filter set: 'StdScale', filter dest (0, 80, 1279, 879 : 1280 x 800)
Using gfx filter: StdScale
Mouse control: on, base: 0.888889, speed: 2.000000
Mouse confined: (0,80)-(1279,879) (1280x800)
Initialize sprites
Initialize game settings
Prepare to start game
Audio is processed on the main thread
Engine initialization complete
Starting game
WARNING: channel 2 - same clip assigned
Game.SetAudioTypeSpeechVolumeDrop: type: 2, drop: 45
Game.SetAudioTypeSpeechVolumeDrop: type: 3, drop: 45
Game.SetAudioTypeSpeechVolumeDrop: type: 1, drop: 45
Game.SetAudioTypeVolume: type: 1, volume: 80, change: 1680
Game.SetAudioTypeVolume: type: 2, volume: 71, change: 1680
Game.SetAudioTypeVolume: type: 3, volume: 72, change: 1680
Game.SetAudioTypeVolume: type: 1, volume: 72, change: 1680
Game GUI version: 118
Game.SetAudioTypeSpeechVolumeDrop: type: 2, drop: 45
Game.SetAudioTypeSpeechVolumeDrop: type: 3, drop: 45
Game.SetAudioTypeSpeechVolumeDrop: type: 1, drop: 45
Game.SetAudioTypeVolume: type: 2, volume: 71, change: 1680
Game.SetAudioTypeVolume: type: 3, volume: 72, change: 1680
Game.SetAudioTypeVolume: type: 1, volume: 72, change: 1680
***** ENGINE HAS SHUTDOWN

[close]

[@AGD2]

@AGD2 this is a strange oversight on my part, for some reason I thought that the fix is only necessary for linear filter, so it was disabled for NN, for "optimization", but looks like it is required unconditionally.

Here's the patched engine, please tell what are results in your game: https://www.dropbox.com/s/af2fnos9qxw9y0z/acwin-3.5.0-p2-opengl-nn-texels.zip?dl=0

Thanks. I tried the new acwin.exe but I'm unable to enter full-screen mode, as pressing ALT+Enter doesn't do anything in this build when launching in windowed mode.

And if I launch in full-screen mode, it automatically applies the linear filter (despite the fact that I have the NN filter selected) and the game appears in a slightly scaled-down window with black borders surrounding it on all four sides. This happens regardless of whether I have the Open GL, Direct Draw, or Software driver selected. These are the settings I used:

Driver: Open GL
Mode: 1280 x 1024
Fullscreen scale: Stretch, preserving aspect ratio
Windowed scale: Stretch, preserving aspect ratio
Scaling method: Nearest-neighbour

Only selecting "Fill whole screen" for "Fullscreen scale" will make the game display in NN full-screen mode without the black borders, but then it looks all weird and horizontally squished.

Yes, it only seems to occur with the Nearest-Neighbour filter, that's right.

I have only tested it under Windows, which is where I noticed it.  It happens in Mages Initiation. Would you need me to compile a new version for you in AGS 3.5.0 or can you test with the older version you have?

I'm also getting quite frequent sprite edge artifacts in 3.5.0 when using the Open GL driver in full-screen mode. They occasionally occur in Open GL/Windowed mode as well, but are nowhere near as severe. 

Here's a comparison of the screen in both modes. The image on the left is full-screen mode with the artifact visible along the bottom edge of the dead goblin sprite. The right image is a few moments later in windowed mode. The artifacts appear and disappear consistently when Alt-Tabbing back and forth between full-screen and windowed modes. They remain in exactly the same position and retain their shape and colors when re-appearing.



--EDIT--

I just tested in an older build of the game, compiled with AGS v3.4.3.1, using the same OpenGL settings and the issue didn't occur in that older build. Perhaps the Allegero upgrade in v3.5.0 reverted a previous artifact fix?

I noticed that when using Game.IgnoreUserInputAfterTextTimeoutMs (with a setting like 1000 Ms), it works as intended and prevents the player from accidentally clicking away a new speech audio/text message if they clicked a few moments after the previous speech message disappeared.

But this also creates an unintended problem if using the player character to narrate background comments to click on things. For example, if you click the Mouth icon on a rock, the player will say the corresponding message. When said message disappears automatically - not by clicking it away (and there's no subsequent message following it), you cannot click the mouth icon on anything else until the 1000 Ms have elapsed. Can the engine be made to disregard IgnoreUserInputAfterTextTimeoutMs setting if there's no new speech message currently on-screen?

This happens with all icons. And it also affects right-clicking, meaning that when using the Sierra-style icon interface, you can't right-click to cycle through icons until the 1000 Ms have elapsed either.

The strange thing is that it gives inconstant results if you toggle the speech between voice modes and then back to text-only mode.

In text-only mode, sometimes the portrait animation adheres to the phonemes in the corresponding speech file (which isn't audibly playing). The dialog portrait stops animating at the same time the speech audio would have stopped playing. Then the remainder of the dialog remains on-screen with the portrait's mouth closed. Note that setting Speech.DisplayPostTimeMs to any value has no effect whatsoever in this case.

While other times in text-only mode, it plays the dialog talking animation without referencing the phonemes. It just plays the animation loop in a regular "bubble gum chewing" pattern (same looped frames repeated in order) until the dialog box disappears. The mouth never closes. In this case, Speech.DisplayPostTimeMs works in accordance with whatever value you set it to.

Not sure where to post this, so putting it here.

There may be an engine bug in the following situation. If your game contains lip-synced speech audio with Papagayo .DAT files. You run the game with the feature enabled and see it working correctly. Then, while the game is still running, set Speech.VoiceMode=eSpeechTextOnly and then make a lip-synced line of character dialog play. Even though text-only mode (no voice) is enabled, the Sierra-style dialog portrait will still animate with phonemes, like it is reading and playing them directly from the .DAT files, although the corresponding voice won't play (as intended). Instead, the Sierra portrait is supposed to animate in a repeating loop, ignoring phoneme .DAT or .PAM files, until the dialog box disappears.

The glitch can be seen in Mage's Initiation. On the title screen, click Options and set the voice slider all the way to the far-left side (text-only, voices off). Then start a new game and go talk to any NPC. You'll see the game is in text-only mode, but NPC's character portrait mouth frames are using phonemes. You can reset the glitch by opening the options menu in-game, sliding the voice slider back up (this sets Speech.VoiceMode back to eSpeechVoiceAndText or eSpeechVoiceOnly). And then talking to an NPC again. It seems you actually need to talk and hear a line of lipsynched audio to reinitialize it, not just slide the slider. At this point, if you slide the speech slider back to "Text-Only" mode again and then talk to an NPC, their dialog portrait will work correctly - it will not use phonemes anymore in text-only mode, and will play their Animated portrait using the standard loop.

The reason I suspect this is an engine glitch is because AFAIK, there's no way for a user to manually enable or disable audio lip-syncing with a script command, and it's entirely handled internally, depending on the value of Speech.VoiceMode. Is that correct?

Yep, fixed for me, too.

[@AGD2]

@AGD2

I found a mistake in save loading, I think it may happen if a significant amount of managed objects (like Strings, dynamic sprites and so on) were created in script at some point and then deleted.
Here's the hotfixed engine that should load that savegame properly:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/bphc1uoovlus7it/acwin-3.5.0.16-hotfix.zip?dl=0

Yes, that seems to have fixed the crash, thanks!

I also noticed that if I ALT+X out of the game after using F5 to test it from the editor, it now always gives a message "The game engine does not appear to have shut down properly. If the problem persists, post the problem on the Tech forum."  I figure that's probably the intended behaviour, but just mentioning it, in case it's not.

Of the compiled game? Maybe. The version you have is probably an older beta.

I can send you a newer build if you need it?