Does SCUMM v8 support MIDI ?

[seubz]

Hello everybody,
I don't really know where to post this, and I don't have access to IRC right now, so I thought - hey, why not post that into the Junkyard ?

The title of this post says it all, but a few explanations might be useful. I'm doing a SCUMM assembler right now, planning to create a game with it if/when I have time. I was focusing on SCUMM v5 so far, because it was the version of my beloved game: Fate of Atlantis. I am almost done with all the resource blocks, and I'm currently fighting with the COST format, I can decode them from resource files, but recreating them is another task - it will be hard to create an easy-to-use editor to be able to generate those blocks. That's why I thought I could switch to version 8 which has a better costume format: AKOS (which I think was introduced in version 7, or was it 6?).

The point is that if I make a game with this assembler, I would definitely go for MIDI music, it's just a matter of taste, it feels... more old school or something. And now is my question: even though SCUMM v8 games don't have MIDI music (in fact I'm not even sure about that), do you think they SUPPORT it. More important: does ScummVM support MIDI music for v8 ? If a MIDI block is encountered in a resource file, would ScummVM go all crazy ?

SCUMM v8 also uses LUA for scripts, and that would be another reason for me to focus on this version... I'm also struggling with a script compiler... too many opcodes and subopcodes

That's it, thanks in advance for your answers.

[Kirben]

No, SCUMM v8 is expect to use digital music under ScummVM, and you would need to adjust the ScummVM source code to allow use SCUMM v8 engine with MIDI based music.

The Grime engine uses LUA for scripts, not the SCUMM v8 engine. So check out the residual project, if you want to use LUA scripting.

I would recommend looking at the later SCUMM engine used by games from Humongous Entertainment. As they are more advanced. in many ways. And all sound is simply samples (So could just record MIDI you plan to use).

[seubz]

Thanks Kirben, I thought COMI used LUA...

Could you tell me more about the "more advanced" features of HE games ? Is the resource format completely different from earlier SCUMM versions ? The easy thing for me is that I have a few SCUMM games, but no HE game, so it's hard for me to understand the format without an existing resource file. Also, if there is no specification somewhere on the format, it could be even harder. But if it's pretty much like earlier SCUMM versions, then I would go for it.

Thank you !

[joostp]

The easy thing for me is that I have a few SCUMM games, but no HE game, so it's hard for me to understand the format without an existing resource file.

As far as I know the vast majority of HE games have playable demos which you could look at.

[seubz]

Thank you joostp, I'll have a look at those. Another question I have is about iMuse. It would seem logical that's it's more convenient to use it with MIDI music, but I actually have absolutely no idea how it's handled using "digital music" -I don't even know if it's used in v7/8. Is there any documentation online about it, appart from ScummVM's source code ? Or if any of you could give me some information about how it's used in games like The Dig or COMI, it would be great.

Thank you guys for your help and advice !

[clone2727]

(I don't even know if it's used in v7/8)

Yes, it is. It's used with GrimE as well.

[seubz]

Thank you clone, that gives me the possibility to use latest SCUMM versions for my project. I have a new question though: I just started a v8 resource decompiler, to understand the differences from earlier versions. In my project I would love to be able to use palette cycling, and I see that v8 has palette cycle blocks, but in CoMI, these are empty. So my question is: would ScummVM support it ? Would it be able to do palette cycling if it encountered CYCL blocks in a v8 res file ?

Thank you !