| Skyshark |
I've been keeping an eye on SCI Studio on and off for some time now and I'm fairly interested in the potential of the program to assist in the creation of mods for some of the old games. I imagine SCI Studio would be one way of analysing the code of games for some errors (such as Error 52 in QFG4: Shadows Of Darkness) and some others might tinker around and create some modifications for the games. What are people's opinions on such an idea, just out of curiosity? |
| AGI1122 |
Well it isn't possible to edit the game's scripts right now. The most you can edit is the graphics. But I know that Brian has been working on a script program which will allow us to edit the SCI game's scripts. And I doubt that SCI Studio will fix these bugs in games for you. The bugs are in the games themselve's which means they need to be fixed in the programming of the scripts. |
| Brian_Provinciano |
My decompiler is very good now, and only has an issue with code such as "= var (if(...) ...)(else ...)". It won't be a difficult fix, I just need to rewrite my if handler. Everything else decompiles perfectly. Fixing bugs in SCI games are a good idea. However, though it will be possible with the decompiler, it's not my goal to make SCI Studio edit Sierra's games. From day one it's been to create them. That being said, I'm not going to have tutorials on editing Sierra's games, it will simply be left up to the SCI elite. The type of people who can figure out things for themselves through the documentation. The type of people who can look at the code and figure out what "global_322" and "proc_003_11" do without help. It's one of those "you're on your own" type of things. (PS. in other words, the type of people who can code for themselves and won't just try to rip all of the code off Sierra games to put into theirs, heh) |
| AGI1122 | Well I already have plans to try and fix SQ4's timer bugs. What other games have bugs in them? |
| Omer Mor | *cough* *ahem* QFG4 *cough* *cough* ;) |
| Robin_Gravel |
Chris Cromer wrote: But put sq4 on the web is still illegal even if it fixed or not. Robin Gravel |
| Brian_Provinciano |
Robin_Gravel wrote:Chris Cromer wrote: One could simply distribute the new scripts and the players would just need to place them in the game's directory like Sierra's patches. |
| SkaZZ |
I don't use SCI Studio for create games, I use for translate games into Spanish, but other people translate into Italian, Russian... SCI Studio is a great program, because for translate a game of LucasArts, for example, I need a hex editor and I don't use characters how " |
| Drigo | Speaking of Sci games bugs, there's that annoying one in Gabriel Knight which freezes on load/save games under Windows version. I'm that kind of guy that put any kind of effort to figure out such problems and fix them, doing a lot of SCI scripts disassembling once SCIStudio disassembler is released. :) |
| AGI1122 |
Brian Provinciano wrote:Actually I have a program that makes patches for programs. I can have it compare the original and the fixed version and then it write's the patch. Then it will apply to patch to the original which means they will have to already own SQ4.Robin_Gravel wrote:Chris Cromer wrote: Um, I don't have any problems in QFG4... could you be more specific? :-\ |
| Perica |
Chris Cromer wrote: Is this program free, what's it called, and where can i get it ?? |
| Brian_Provinciano |
You couldn't actually "patch" existing scripts in the game because: 1. they are compressed in resource files 2. the new scripts would be recompiled scripts, and thus in a completely different order, different size, etc. Instead, just placing the new, recompiled script files in the directory would be the trick. |
| AGI1122 |
It adds and removes files and even changes the structure to match the new one. It will make their copy 100% identical to my copy including the new scripts in the scripts directory. Basically it compares directories and files and makes the patch file add/delete/modify the structure to match your changes to the program. I will have to find the site again, and yes it is free. They also have installers, and game making tools and other cool things. |
| ~Kurt~ |
Um, I don't have any problems in QFG4... could you be more specific? You, sir, are missing out on the most viscious timer error ever in the history of Sierra gaming. It makes SQ4 look like a slight annoying step up in speed. In the DOS version of QFG4, when you go to the tomb of the Mad Monk to retrieve the ritual and fight the Chernovy, some time between when you enter the screen, fight the Chernovy, and complete your task, the game crashes completely and gives you the simple message: Error 52. No amount of Turbo-ing, Mo'slo-ing, or up to this date emulating has ever been able to work its way around this problem. Try as you might, it always fails. Rather than fix this problem, however, Sierra offered save games...yeah right, like I'm gonna give up my character just to pass the Chernovy. There's even a fan support team dedicated to helping people out of these jams. It's a terrible time. Error 52 eclipses SQ4 in evilness by a landslide. So, yeah, that's why most QFG fans can't wait for this option on SCI Studio VGA...it really means life or death for them. -Kurt |
| AGI1122 | Ah, well that explains it... I use the windows version of QFG4. ::) |
| Brian_Provinciano |
I don't know if anyone else has come across this bug, but i was playing Leisure Suit Larry 5 many many years ago on my old 486/25 when it would freeze in front of the dentist's office. No matter what I did, I couldn't unfreeze it. Even saving/restoring wouldn't reslove it. I think this is a severe, but smaller and intermitant bug, which is one of the worst kind--harder to track down. I'm working on a new compiler (don't worry, I'm not tossing out the old one, and even plan to update the old one to support SCI11/SCI32) which supports typecasting, that is, variables are declared as "int something" and "object *anObjPtr". It will help the scripter write much better code. I truly believe that had the original Sierra compiler had typecasting as well, there would be significantly fewer bugs. The new compiler has code such as: varsomething = 10; instead of: = varsomething 10 I do like the SCI syntax, but even SCI Studio's syntax, which is based off the original is quite superior to the Sierra SCI one. It's almost like the authors rushed into making a quick and dirty compiler instead of a good, solid one, and never bothered updating it to support a better syntax. It's kind of odd how they were still using the "= somevar 10" syntax and such through LSL7, when they could have been doing the games in a more powerful and strict syntax like C++. When designing development systems, I ALWAYS give the external scripts priority over the compiler. If I need to put a little more work into the compiler to make scripts easier to code, more structured, and more efficient, it's always worth it. A better compiler will cut down on the script bugs. It will report error and warning messages instead of letting bad code slip by. Had Sierra coders had a better compiler back then, and a better syntax, the games would have a lot less bugs. |
| AGI1122 |
I can't wait to use the new compiler, I prefer the C++ code compared to the old code. Will we have to convert the code to the new compiler format by hand? Or will the new compiler be backwards compatible and be able to compile both types of formats, or be able to convert it to the new type? |
| Brian_Provinciano | I plan on having SCI Studio use the same script format up through SCI32 for current users. This compiler will be an optional addition to it. Users will be able to select the language the wish to use upon the creation of a new game. |
| Omer Mor | Brian - how do you know that Sierra still used the SCI syntax on LSL7 |
| Brian_Provinciano | Sierra has released snippets of code since AGI, generally in the "Official Books of X Quest"s and "Sierra Newsletter"s. The released some Police Quest SWAT code a while back, which is SCI32 as well. |
| Perica |
Chris Cromer wrote: Had any luck in finding the address of this site? I'm still very interested in getting this program and seeing what it can do..... |
| AGI1122 |
Oh, sorry I completely forgot about that, here is the url: http://clickteam.com/English/patchmaker.php |
| Paladinlover |
I'll be doing whatever I can to solve the problem with Error 52 after SCI Studio 4 comes out. But in the mean time, all I can do is wait. As for modding. Well, I'm not planning on doing any real modding, just adding and modifying some question that you can and cannot ask. I don't think it's that hard to do. Till next time stay cool 8) |