DS-specific Feature request

[cde]

Great to see the new version, I was thinking about the difference between playing on a PC and a DS and had an idea...

Would it be possible to integrate a text viewer/image viewer into SVMDS, so that people can carry walkthroughs/maps/etc. on their memory cards and not have to save, exit, run Moonshell, exit & run SVMDS in order to get past a tough spot?

I'm sure there are lightweight jpeg/txt libraries out there, and I'd love to think this could be integrated in SVM, even if it does mean more work

...come to think of it, having "associated files" available in other ScummVM builds could be a nice feature anyway, I might post this elsewhere on the forums...

[iso jussi]

Walkthroughs, in my butt.

[fingolfin]

No, this won't happen. Neither are we going to add support for controlling external toasters, voice chat, or multiplayer mode.

[Tybee]

What would be awesome would be a DS port of the Universal Hint System reader. Not necessarily as part of ScummVM, but on there somehow.

Unless said animal somehow exists and I've missed it.

[PsYcO]

No, this won't happen. Neither are we going to add support for controlling external toasters, voice chat, or multiplayer mode.

correct me if im wrong, but you don't work on the DS port, so how do you know...

however, im up in arms about the toaster news

[fingolfin]

No, this won't happen. Neither are we going to add support for controlling external toasters, voice chat, or multiplayer mode.

correct me if im wrong, but you don't work on the DS port, so how do you know...

First off, because I can apply common sense and recognize a (pardon me) rather silly idea as such, and am pretty sure that agentq can do the same. What's next, add a calculator so you can compute how many Indy points you are missing from the maximum, a rolodex so you don't have to quit ScummVM to look up your contacts and a blog editor so that you can post about you latest success in beating an adventure (of course with the help of the walkthrough in the text viewer) ?

The other reason I "know" is that as long as I hold that pesky position of "project leader", I will explicitly (ab?)use my powers as benevolent dictator to veto such an addition. I usually am loathe to do that, but my vision about what ScummVM is and should do, and what not, is crystal clear in this regard. So it'll only happen in a fork (thus under a different name), or after I left the project, or if I am hit by lightning, turning my brain to mush and thus suddenly come to the conclusion that this is a wonderful idea after all (but I *really* hope I'd die instead ).

Anyway, if you are a wimp who needs walkthroughs, I think it's only fair you have to suffer a bit to be able to use your cheating solution.

[fingolfin]

P.S.: One final alternative: Somebody comes up with a really really *REALLY* excellent explanation as to why there *MUST* be a text/picture viewer built into ScummVM instead of e.g. people just printing out that map / walkthrough they absolutely need. For example, if kitties and children will die otherwise or so.

But I just can't imagine such an explanation will happen -- but then I do not claim to be able to imagine everything under the sun, so there is a tiny, tiny chance somebody will manage to pull of that trick. But right now I am convinced hell will freeze over first. Well, only time can tell

[PsYcO]

No, this won't happen. Neither are we going to add support for controlling external toasters, voice chat, or multiplayer mode.

correct me if im wrong, but you don't work on the DS port, so how do you know...

First off, because I can apply common sense and recognize a (pardon me) rather silly idea as such, and am pretty sure that agentq can do the same. What's next, add a calculator so you can compute how many Indy points you are missing from the maximum, a rolodex so you don't have to quit ScummVM to look up your contacts and a blog editor so that you can post about you latest success in beating an adventure (of course with the help of the walkthrough in the text viewer) ?

The other reason I "know" is that as long as I hold that pesky position of "project leader", I will explicitly (ab?)use my powers as benevolent dictator to veto such an addition. I usually am loathe to do that, but my vision about what ScummVM is and should do, and what not, is crystal clear in this regard. So it'll only happen in a fork (thus under a different name), or after I left the project, or if I am hit by lightning, turning my brain to mush and thus suddenly come to the conclusion that this is a wonderful idea after all (but I *really* hope I'd die instead ).

Anyway, if you are a wimp who needs walkthroughs, I think it's only fair you have to suffer a bit to be able to use your cheating solution.

your obviously living in a world of ignorance, have you even seen any of the new phones out there? namely the iphone.
you can do pretty much everything and anything while talking to someone, it wouldn't be hard(once people can crack it) to talk to someone and play on ScummVM, you wouldn't even need to write any more code for it to work

[PsYcO]

P.S.: One final alternative: Somebody comes up with a really really *REALLY* excellent explanation as to why there *MUST* be a text/picture viewer built into ScummVM instead of e.g. people just printing out that map / walkthrough they absolutely need. For example, if kitties and children will die otherwise or so.

But I just can't imagine such an explanation will happen -- but then I do not claim to be able to imagine everything under the sun, so there is a tiny, tiny chance somebody will manage to pull of that trick. But right now I am convinced hell will freeze over first. Well, only time can tell

once again, theres not really a 'really really *REALLY* excellent' reason for ScummVM to exist

if your gonna be anal about it go the whole hog

don't get me wrong i love scummvm, but i wouldn't loose any sleep if it didn't exist

take a look at this http://www.telefragged.com/thefatal/ind ... _si_ds.htm all(imo) you have to do is integrate a tool like this into scummvm

[clem]

your obviously living in a world of ignorance, have you even seen any of the new phones out there? namely the iphone.
you can do pretty much everything and anything while talking to someone, it wouldn't be hard(once people can crack it) to talk to someone and play on ScummVM, you wouldn't even need to write any more code for it to work

you're asking the wrong question here - it's not the question "can I do it" - it's the question "should I do it"

and telling anyone they're "obviously living in a world of ignorance" is more flamebait than trying to convince anyone

just my 2 cents, but I'm with fingolfin here

[PsYcO]

your obviously living in a world of ignorance, have you even seen any of the new phones out there? namely the iphone.
you can do pretty much everything and anything while talking to someone, it wouldn't be hard(once people can crack it) to talk to someone and play on ScummVM, you wouldn't even need to write any more code for it to work

you're asking the wrong question here - it's not the question "can I do it" - it's the question "should I do it"

and telling anyone they're "obviously living in a world of ignorance" is more flamebait than trying to convince anyone

just my 2 cents, but I'm with fingolfin here

i dont want it implemented, but it was more on moral grounds

why shouldn't it be done? its not like its child pornography

and on a side note, why is it that when anyone has a feature suggestion it gets knocked back? i think were forgetting that its a community project...

[agentq]

once again, theres not really a 'really really *REALLY* excellent' reason for ScummVM to exist

ScummVM has a purpose - to reimplement adventure games. That is why it exists, because it was created by it's authors to perform that task.

why shouldn't it be done? its not like its child pornography

A project like ScummVM is almost impossibly huge. It has at least as much code in it as any commercial project I've worked on, and some of those have been very large. The project has gained support from many programmers (like me) who could have chosen another open source project to work on, or create something new on their own.

One reason is because ScummVM has a clear focus and purpose on preserving great adventure games. That task in itself is huge and there are so many games that we could all be working until the end of time.

If we started implementing features like jpeg libraries, FAQ readers, it would soon spiral out of control and ScummVM would be a monolithic application which wouldn't fit on any device, with features most people would prefer using their favourite app for anyway. This would mean we would have more code to maintain and bugfix, and would take time away from what we're all here to do, reimplement adventure games.

and on a side note, why is it that when anyone has a feature suggestion it gets knocked back? i think were forgetting that its a community project...

Yeah, it is. So are you offering to do the work? A community project is one that people are free to modify and add to, not one where it's users get to order around the programmers. They're doing it from their own free time, you know.

This particular request has been considered by the team in the past, discussed, and rejected for many reasons.

If you want to implement it, you can, of course. The code is GPL and you can download and play with it to your heart's content, and even release your own version, if you wanted. It just won't appear on the ScummVM site.

[PsYcO]

once again, theres not really a 'really really *REALLY* excellent' reason for ScummVM to exist

ScummVM has a purpose - to reimplement adventure games. That is why it exists, because it was created by it's authors to perform that task.

why shouldn't it be done? its not like its child pornography

A project like ScummVM is almost impossibly huge. It has at least as much code in it as any commercial project I've worked on, and some of those have been very large. The project has gained support from many programmers (like me) who could have chosen another open source project to work on, or create something new on their own.

One reason is because ScummVM has a clear focus and purpose on preserving great adventure games. That task in itself is huge and there are so many games that we could all be working until the end of time.

If we started implementing features like jpeg libraries, FAQ readers, it would soon spiral out of control and ScummVM would be a monolithic application which wouldn't fit on any device, with features most people would prefer using their favourite app for anyway. This would mean we would have more code to maintain and bugfix, and would take time away from what we're all here to do, reimplement adventure games.

and on a side note, why is it that when anyone has a feature suggestion it gets knocked back? i think were forgetting that its a community project...

Yeah, it is. So are you offering to do the work? A community project is one that people are free to modify and add to, not one where it's users get to order around the programmers. They're doing it from their own free time, you know.

This particular request has been considered by the team in the past, discussed, and rejected for many reasons.

If you want to implement it, you can, of course. The code is GPL and you can download and play with it to your heart's content, and even release your own version, if you wanted. It just won't appear on the ScummVM site.

so would the .txt reader, duh.

but surly, once the bugs are fixed there's no more work to be done on it?
it wouldn't loose focus, it wont be a leviathan, currently scummvm is only 3MB if its as big as you say it is, then a few little utility's wont make a huge difference.

of course, however there's a 3 big problems with that
1. if people were to start making 'spin-offs' then scummvm would just be remembered as the source code
2. it would become kinda even more back ally than it is now.
3. i dont have C++ training or whatever scummvm use's, yet.

but fare enough, just nice to have it strait from the horse's mouth

[eriktorbjorn]

What would be awesome would be a DS port of the Universal Hint System reader. Not necessarily as part of ScummVM, but on there somehow.

Unless said animal somehow exists and I've missed it.

According to the UHS web page there doesn't seem to be one. Someone else could have made one, I suppose, but I don't think there's any official (as opposed to reverse-engineered) documentation of the file format.

Since the readers are commercial products, they might not take kindly to that kind of competition anyway, though that's just speculation on my part.

[Tybee]

What would be awesome would be a DS port of the Universal Hint System reader. Not necessarily as part of ScummVM, but on there somehow.

Unless said animal somehow exists and I've missed it.

According to the UHS web page there doesn't seem to be one. Someone else could have made one, I suppose, but I don't think there's any official (as opposed to reverse-engineered) documentation of the file format.

Since the readers are commercial products, they might not take kindly to that kind of competition anyway, though that's just speculation on my part.

Yeah, it occurred to me shortly after posting that that the makers of the UHS probably wouldn't react well to people porting their code to other devices, and rightfully so. It's sad, because I'd actually pay $20 for a DS version. It's probably the best way to get adventure game hints.