Blinding you with SCIence

TarkinMX · Post by **TarkinMX** » Sat Jun 10, 2017 8:03 pm

Hey Bakhtosh, this is a great find and now I'm gonna have to visit my parents' house to find my CD and attempt to do the same. Shame the link was removed bc of copyright violation which I think is a bit ridiculous since anyone can download the dos .rbt files on the sierrahelp site.

Here's the link for any moderator that's unaware of this, just scroll on down to the KQVII section and you'll see it.

http://www.sierrahelp.com/Patches-Updat ... dates.html

Bakhtosh · Post by **Bakhtosh** » Sat Jun 10, 2017 9:20 pm

I converted the RBT's mainly for myself. But I thought maybe someone else would also like it.
You can download the english version here: moderatorial
And the german version here: moderatorial

...

moderatoria: Copyright violation links were edited out. The user gets a warning for violation the Forum Rule #0

Sorry - I thought it would be ok to just link cutscene files because:
a) the sierra help pages also provides cutscene files for KQ7 ( http://www.sierrahelp.com/Patches-Updat ... dates.html )
b) ScummVM provides cutscene files to be used with ScummVM for the Broken Sword games ( http://scummvm.org/games/#sword1 )

So I'm a bit confused. Why is it ok to link cutscene files for the Broken Sword games while its not ok to do the same for KQ7. Did ScummVM get a permission from Revolution?

Post by **criezy** » Sat Jun 10, 2017 11:25 pm

Bakhtosh wrote:So I'm a bit confused. Why is it ok to link cutscene files for the Broken Sword games while its not ok to do the same for KQ7. Did ScummVM get a permission from Revolution?

Yes, we did (as mentioned in our FAQ, but we should indeed maybe mention that on the downloads page as well).

Generally speaking such content is protected by copyright laws. I don't know the situation for the KQ7 cutscenes, but even if a site got the authorisation to redistribute them from the rights holder, that authorisation may have been given exclusively to that site and that does not necessarily grant others the right to distribute them as well.

MusicallyInspired · Post by **MusicallyInspired** » Sun Jun 11, 2017 12:49 am

Don't compare ScummVM to other sites. ScummVM is not responsible for what other sites do. Here they simply abide by a very strict set of rules so as to keep them in the clear legally.

Post by **sev** » Sun Jun 11, 2017 7:57 am

Bakhtosh wrote: So I'm a bit confused. Why is it ok to link cutscene files for the Broken Sword games while its not ok to do the same for KQ7. Did ScummVM get a permission from Revolution?

Yes, we did receive an explicit permission to distribute the Broken Sword cutscenes.

Eugene

Bakhtosh · Post by **Bakhtosh** » Sun Jun 11, 2017 12:17 pm

criezy wrote:Yes, we did (as mentioned in our FAQ, but we should indeed maybe mention that on the downloads page as well).

That would be helpful. I actually thought about copyright. But then I saw that the KQ7 cutscenes were already available from a reliable website (Sierra help pages are certainly not a warez or abandonnware site). And that the ScummVM site also offers cutscenes for cetain games. In both cases there wasn't any hint about a permission at the download section. So I got the impression that maybe posting cutscenes is a bit like posting screenshots since you can also see every cutscene you like at youtube. I was wrong - I got it. But a hint at the Download page and at your Copyright FAQ (it lists what you can download free of charge but doesn't mention the reasons like freeware or permission from developer) would be nice.

And now I've a question. If I create a patch that patches the original Windows KQ7 cutscenes to the ones I created from the 10 FPS RBT's using xdelta3, so that you cannot get the new version without the original files (even if you extract the patch manually), would it be OK to link this patch?

Post by **sev** » Sun Jun 11, 2017 1:37 pm

Bakhtosh wrote: And now I've a question. If I create a patch that patches the original Windows KQ7 cutscenes to the ones I created from the 10 FPS RBT's using xdelta3, so that you cannot get the new version without the original files (even if you extract the patch manually), would it be OK to link this patch?

Yes, that is how we encourage localizations to be distributed also.

Eugene

Bakhtosh · Post by **Bakhtosh** » Mon Jun 12, 2017 3:34 pm

Ok I created such a patch (Download) to patch the AVI's of the english or german Windows version to an improved version based on the mentioned 10 FPS RBT's.
I also edited my first post about the topic.

MrPunchy · Post by **MrPunchy** » Tue Jun 13, 2017 10:15 pm

Wrong video palette and size in King Quest VII 2.00 (Spanish)

https://mega.nz/#F!uxwEDbgZ!hHnvPxxzCYpSAK8euxkfJA

Edit: Sorry, I had not seen this:

Important: Please report your testing using this form (as mentioned on our SCI testing page) and not by replying in this forum thread as we used to do. Since we are trialling a new way to gather test results, any feedback is welcome (and this can be posted here).

MrPunchy · Post by **MrPunchy** » Wed Jun 14, 2017 1:02 pm

I give up: https://mega.nz/#F!Ch4nBJBL!u66y_ujsgsK6rI39eCXsvQ

Bakhtosh · Post by **Bakhtosh** » Wed Jun 14, 2017 2:46 pm

Looked at your screenshot. You forgot the "-" between "git" and "3457". The number you entered gets accepted if you add it.

Btw. - this looks a lot like bug #9762
Have you tried the work-around mentioned there:

the issue is fixed if you go into a game and change the video option to Full, and then save the game. If you play the intro from the main menu then it'll look as it should.

I looked into the issue a bit more. The Windows versions of KQ7 uses two different types of AVI video codecs.

For example the english Windows versions v1.51 & v1.65 uses AVI's with video codec Microsoft Video 1 (CRAM) 8 Bit color palettized while the english Windows version v2.00 uses AVI's with video codec Cinepak video. That probably caused bug #9762. The bug seems to be fixed (even if the bug isn't tagged as fixed) with the current daily build.

My guess is that based on the english Windows version v2.00 ScummVM is set to play AVI's with video codec Cinepak video for all v2.00 Windows versions. But the spanish Windows version v2.00 uses AVI's with video codec Microsoft Video 1 (CRAM) 8 Bit color palettized. It's just a guess, but I think that is what happens, because if I copy the spanish v2.00 AVI's into my english Windows version v1.65 ScummVM plays them correctly (size and colors).

Edit: I wrote a bug report: #9843

MrPunchy · Post by **MrPunchy** » Thu Jun 15, 2017 2:19 am

Thak you!!!

m_kiewitz · Post by **m_kiewitz** » Thu Jun 22, 2017 1:51 pm

Bakhtosh wrote:And now I've a question. If I create a patch that patches the original Windows KQ7 cutscenes to the ones I created from the 10 FPS RBT's using xdelta3, so that you cannot get the new version without the original files (even if you extract the patch manually), would it be OK to link this patch?

That's exactly how it's done properly without any copyright violations. Yes.

That's also why we blacklisted the Space Quest 4 Floppy/CD "patch", which was basically the whole game with some floppy resources injected into it minus interpreter and audio resources. Which means the "patch" was fully playable on its own.

And that's also why we of course didn't blacklist a properly done patch executable, which actually requires the files of Space Quest 4 CD and floppy and then merges everything together.

The former is literally piracy. The latter is not.

Some people may think that we are doing this to piss other people off. But in reality, we actually do this because we want to avoid any potential legal troubles (and of course we also do not want to support pirates regardless anyway).

Internally our script patcher for SCI looks for signatures (similar to a virus scanner in a way) and then applies new script code, written by us. That way it's safe to distribute and has the added benefit that localized versions will also get patched.

That may also be a benefit in your case. I know that Sierra fully localized King's Quest 7 for a few languages (at least French + German). Your new patch may actually work on those too. I would have to check at home.

Bakhtosh · Post by **Bakhtosh** » Fri Jun 23, 2017 3:09 pm

So far the cutscenes patch only works for the english and german AVI's using the CRAM codec. So it suports only the english Windows versions v1.51, v1.65 (maybe v1.4) and the german Windows version v1.65.

The english Windows version v2.00b has AVI's using the cinepak codec. ScummVM handles these AVI's different. I haven't found a cinepak encoder that doesn't lose the better visuals because of the compression again (even with the best quality setting). Uncompressed AVI's seems work with ScummVM running the english Windows version v2.00b. But I don't know if this will be still the case once bug #9762 is fixed.

I could let the patch support the spanish Windows version (also CRAM videos). But at the moment ScummVM treat the AVI's of the spanish Windows version the wrong way (bug #9843).

So I will wait until these bugs are fixed before I update the patch to support more KQ7 windows versions.

Bakhtosh · Post by **Bakhtosh** » Sun Aug 06, 2017 1:59 pm

@MrPunchy:

The Bugs regarding cutscene video playback issues (wrong palette / wrong position or scaling factor) has been fixed. You should try your spanish v2.00 version again with the latest daily build.

My cutscene patch (less compression artifacts) has been updated and now supports the followign versions: english 1.51, 1.65c, 2.00b (and maybe 1.4), german 1.51, french 1.65c, spanish 2.00

Comparison screenshots: Link, Link
From left to right: new AVI, old AVI, DOS cutscene
Example 1: Frames 264, 265, 266 from Intro, Example 2: Frames 48, 49, 50 from Outro with good ending
Examples scaled up by factor 2 to make the differences more visible.
These are extreme examples since these are parts when the camera moves. The DOS cutscenes have only half framerate (5 FPS to 10 FPS).

Download
(latest ScummVM daily build needed, older builds have problems with certain types of KQ7 AVI's)