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Mmmh... I don't quite get it. Why do you have to switch the resolution to 640-480 when you use the original resources anyway? I guess it would only make the file-size bigger then...Ã, 

That is because the backgrounds are vector pictures:

The pic (background picture) resource format used in SCI0 is rather complex in comparison to the other graphical resource formats. It is best described as a sequence of drawing operations on a set of four 320x200 canvases, three of which are later used in the game (visual, priority, and control), and one of which is used during the drawing process for auxiliary purposes
(see here: http://freesci.linuxgames.com/scihtml/x2396.html)

[Edit:]

Hi


I started this year another SQ3 remake. Right now it is like the Larry 2 remake (It uses the original resources but it will be at 640x400).
Here are some pics:




You can also try the WIP "demo": http://www.geocities.com/orieac/SQ3.zip

Edit: Run winsetup and set the game to 640x400.

Right now i need some help. I don't have the right skills but i would like to change the background colors (EGA -> VGA).

Orieac

Try ffdshow program to replace divx decoder. If this doesn't work try to compress the video with another codec.

It's still twice as big as the original DUK... but then, it now has twice the quality, so I guess it balances out in the end.

Try a lower bitrate to decrease file size.

I would say divx or xvid. But since some divx features are only available on the PRO version, my choise goes to xvid (free).

Mp3 is a good choice for the audio compression.


Orieac

I think the PC version of FF VII used that codec, but these were avi files. I have TrueMotion 2.0 codec required to convert these files in virtualdub.

Orieac

Does Radiant FontEdit allow creating SCI fonts with more than 128 characters? It's all very well if I was to add support for it to AGS, but if nobody could create the fonts then there'd be no point.

Sorry to come back with this but i had another sugestion. In AGS we can use an outline font with another one (two fonts). I think an easy way to support the other 128 caracters could be using another font. I think this don't require too many changes in AGS engine, and we can use the available version of fontedit.

Orieac

I've seen SCI fonts with accents, but they tend to use the first 32 characters for that. I've never come across a 256-char SCI font, if you have one please send it to me. Reading it would be easy.

I have some sci fonts with accents. But since fontedit can't open then i really can't say if the font has 256 char.  But have a look at the ones from the french version of SQ5, http://www.geocities.com/orieac/FontSQ5FREN.zip

Does Radiant FontEdit allow creating SCI fonts with more than 128 characters? It's all very well if I was to add support for it to AGS, but if nobody could create the fonts then there'd be no point.

So Radiant can improve fontedit. Can we see this feature after the final release of AGS 2.7?

Not presently, but it would be trivial to modify it so.

Could it be possible to open the new sci fonts. i think some of then already have accents.

http://freesci.linuxgames.com/scihtml/x2345.html#AEN2349

The SCI font resource
SCI font resources remained unchanged during the SCI revisions and were still used in SCI32. Their format is relatively straightforward and completely sufficient for any 8 or even 16 bit character table:


Table 3-1. The SCI font resource data structure

Offset Type Meaning
0 16 bit integer, little endian encoding Always zero (?)
2 16 bit integer, little endian encoding NUMCHAR: Number of characters
4 16 bit integer, little endian encoding HEIGHT: Number of pixel lines per text line
6 + NR * 2 16 bit integer, little endian encoding Absolute offset of the character #NR, where 0 <= NR < NUMCHAR


HEIGHT does not affect the height of a character, though- it only tells the interpreter how far to move downwards when displaying a line of text. The characters referenced to starting at offset 6 are encoded as follows:

Table 3-2. The SCI font resource character data structure

Offset Type Meaning
0 unsigned 8 bit integer character HEIGHT
1 unsigned 8 bit integer character WIDTH
2... bitmask, size HEIGHT * round_up(WIDTH / 8) Bitmask for the character

The bitmap consists of HEIGHT lines of n bytes, where n equals the number of bytes required for storing WIDTH bits. Data is stored with the MSB first, in little-endian encoding (first byte describes the 8 leftmost pixels), where a pixel is drawn iff the bit it corresponds to is set.

I thought i had the problem solved but i was not right. I can replace accented characters with ASCII 1-31 if the text is in the script. If i use a traslation file this doesn't work anymore. I think AGS only changes the string with the translated one when showed on screen. Every other functions use the original string.


I have a question for Chris Jones: Is it possible to increase the priority of the suggestion, http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/tracker.php?action=detail&id=119
If not is it possible to change the way AGS uses translated text? Because if i want to display the text centered i can't get the translated text width.

Thanks in advance
orieac

Edit: I would like to remake an old game and i would like to keep the original bitmap font.
Edit2: I will try GetTranslation (string original).
Edit3: I found the error. AGS was complaining about accents, but the problem was an empty string.

This was a great help. I notice that letter 0 can't be used.
But if we have many cases to change this may not be easy to edit/read. I made a small chance to the code.



function StrCCAux(string bf, string letter, int cs) {Ã, 
int charpos=-1; // stores character position
//Ã,  Ã, 
charpos = StrContains(bf,letter); // search for uppercase characterÃ, 
while (charpos != -1) { // start loop to replace ALL occurrences of this characterÃ,  Ã, 
StrSetCharAt(bf,charpos,cs); // replace with character standing inÃ,  Ã, 
charpos = StrContains(bf,letter); // check for next occurrenceÃ, 
} // exit loop if no further occurrences foundÃ, 
}

function StrCharConv(string buffer) {
StrCCAux(buffer, "á", 1);
StrCCAux(buffer, "à ", 2);
StrCCAux(buffer, "ã", 3);
StrCCAux(buffer, "â", 4);
// more cases
StrCCAux(buffer, "à", 12);
StrCCAux(buffer, "àâ,¬", 13);
StrCCAux(buffer, "àÆ'", 14);
StrCCAux(buffer, "àÆ'", 15);
// more cases
}

Use Radiant's fontedit (and search other topics before repeating more questions).

Radiant:
Do you have any plan to use fontedit to open&convert the SCI vga fonts? I think the format is a little different, but some of those fonts already have accents.

orieac

Yeah, this is already on my list but it's been a while, so I'll bump it up a bit.

Can we see this after AGS 2.7? I think this request is much easier to implement than many others.

Perhaps compression could be optional, as a game setting when compiling.

I agree. I had already made that sugestion some time ago for hi-res games (640x... or 800x...). Since hi-res games require faster computers i don't think anyone will notice big slowdowns.

Where can the sin function be usefull on an adventure game?

Would anyone else find this useful?

And why not for objects (i know we can use views)?

An English version of the first episode can be found here.

I've also downloaded "mmmgui" because i think Proskrito's template didn't support several languages. But looks like that only German and English language is supported. Can you share with us the addicional code used on the Maniac Mansion Deluxe 1.3. If i remember the game supports more than 7 languages.

Thanks in advance
orieac

Maybe it's reasonable to increase the limit to somewhere like 20, but 100 or even 1000 is quite ridiculous.

I'm using overlays to shown text in my game (just for the intro). I don't know if that's the best way to do that. Since i'm using overlays i'm also limited to 10. Icreasing the limit to 20 overlays sounds good.

Sorry, we're damn busy with real life already to slow down SQ3 remake production like this. But we'll certainly release some media to keep you interested.

Too bad you are starting all over, because then we have to wait more time.
And please resease some more media of the old project.