eriktorbjorn wrote: ↑Mon Jul 24, 2023 6:27 am
If I understand things correctly the "what is" feature is a combination of the SCUMM engine telling the game scripts which verb was most recently clicked, and a game script acting on it.
Thanks for your reply but I am not quite sure we are on the same page..? I thing my subject is a bit misleading...
All post-SoMI SCUMM games automatically update "the sentence" with the name of the object below the mouse cursor while you are moving it. (i.e. I click on "Pick up", then move the mouse over an object (a knife) and the sentence immediately change to "Pick up knife". Clicking executes the action.)
The first generation of SCUMM games (MM/Zak/Indy3) works slightly differently. Moving the cursor does not change the sentence until you *click* on an existing object OR unless you set the verb to "What is". That means that (in a new room) you usually have to start with "What is", scan the whole screen to find the clickable objects and only then you can start to interact with them.
I would like to get rid of "What is" completely and make SCUMMVM handle the situation just like it was a second (or third?) generation SCUMM game - probably like a option.
I hoped to find something like this pseudo-code:
Code: Select all
MouseOver(object) {
if (SCUMMGame._version > 3 || verb=="What is")
UpdateSentenceWith(object);
else
// do nothing
}
(It would be probably a bit more complicated because of the possibility to "see" some things in darkness only with a flashlight.)
It seems to me like a good idea to slightly "update" the interface even if this feature was introduced in later SCUMM games.