Scott T: The Blog
The 7th Guest for Vista: An Update
Posted Tue, Jan 29, 2008 at 8:36pm by ScottTagged: games, programming
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Unfortunately I haven't done a lot on this project recently as I've hit a bit of a stand still. The performance issues haven't really been looked at, primarily because it isn't my number 1 concern for the project yet, but rather trying to work out how the Groovie engine actually functions.
To try and achieve this, I fired up Notepad++ (Portable version) with the hex-editor plug-in to try and nut out the format. While I don't have much to report, I thought I'd note down what I've found so far. So far I've only really looked into script.grv. And even then, only at the bottom part of it where a heap of .grv files are listed.
Example section of script.grv
3F jh.grv \n 2C AB 17 08 2D 00 00 00 44 00 00 45 00 00 \n 1A 02 01 B0 02 3E 17 00 15 0B 3E \n 1A 02 01 B1 0B 3E 15 AB 17 \n
Each .grv file block seems to begin with 3F followed by the file name (with terminating null) followed by 2C AB ... 45 00 00. This appears to terminate the "header". The following bytes (1A 02 01) seem to represent a property block with the property type being represented by the B0/B1/B2 byte. The next 2 bytes indicate where in the file the next block (either 1A or 3F depending on which is next) starts. The rest of the info is currently unknown although the offset within the file of the next 3F block seems to be repeatedly mentioned as well.
I'll be sure to post when I work out anything else.
Back For More?
Posted Sat, Dec 29, 2007 at 12:12pm by ScottTagged: games, programming
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[[img|/images/gallery/4/62_med.jpg||float=left]] How many people remember the game The 7th Guest? One of the original CD-ROM based games, it was filled with rather devious puzzles and featured full motion video.
Although a windows executable was developed for the game, it was originally written for DOS and neither run particularly well under XP or Vista. Due to this minor issue, I decided to attempt to learn C# by trying out the idea of a making a full windows compatible version. With the help of the Xentax and Multimedia wiki's, I am now able to read in any GJD file (the large ones on the CDs) with help from the RL file (small ones installed to the hard disk) to play any of the in-game animation sequences.
Unfortunately I currently am not getting too great a performance from using either the SDL (via SdlDotNet) or XNA library when trying to play the video sequences which involve palette changes (eg, whenever the camera moves within a room) while the FMV sequences play with ~20 to 30% CPU usage.
The Longest Journey
Posted Sat, Oct 27, 2007 at 7:06pm by ScottTagged: games, uni
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Only posting once per week is a valid option isn't it? Oh well... It is now.
The week started well with our tip across the city. Things didn't go quite so well as the first time (possibly as school was back from their mid-semester) and am sure we were stopped at possibly EVERY set of traffic lights for the trip across, eventually arriving 15 minutes late. Fortunately the prac wasn't as long this time so we still finished in time. The rest of the week was uneventful, with most of the time taken up by assignments and projects (which I should really finish).
Also on Monday evening, I found a new computer game, "The Longest Journey". Not really new considering it was released back in 2000, but a game I hadn't played or heard of. For those who haven't heard of it, it is of similar style game-play to that of Grim Fandango, the Monkey Island series and Full Throttle in that you control a lead character and puzzles are (almost) all inventory based, although the game setting is completely different.
Despite the aging graphics (compared to today's standards), it was very enjoyable and I even stayed up till the early hours of this morning to finish it. The game is heavily story driven so the game-play isn't as prominent but many of the games of the genre are similar to this. Now all I need is to find somewhere in Australia who stocks the sequel, Dreamfall.
I've also recently downloaded the Voices of the Lifestream album (a Final Fantasy VII OverClocked ReMix album). I am yet to listen to the majority of the songs (as they are on my computer, 300km away) however the first and last are very impressive so I have high hopes for everything else.
Only 4 weeks to go until summer holidays - scary.
