This is a surprise for me, I didn't think this was a common issue among SCI games, and that GK2 was more of an exception than a rule. GK1 and GK2 are the only SCI games I have though, but unless my memory is very faulty, GK1 do allow for voices and text at the same time.
So how widespread is this issue? Do Space Quest 4-6 and Kings Quest 4-6 on GOG.com have support for both voice and text at the same time?
Freddo wrote:
So how widespread is this issue? Do Space Quest 4-6 and Kings Quest 4-6 on GOG.com have support for both voice and text at the same time?
I know for sure that KQ5 & 6 CD version suffer from this. QFG4 does not. There are probably more early sierra cd games like this.
Also Freddy Pharkas and Police Quest 4 suffer from this.
I think also the later SCI game KQ7 suffered from this, but I'm not sure. For some strange reason, LSL7 didn't suffer from this, despite it being a late SCI game. Why the hell haven't they set a uniformity standard for this back in the day? It's nothing that would ever happen to Lucasarts, that's for sure (heck, LEC even released a patch for Grim Fandango just because they forgot to add cutscene subs! I can't imagine that ever happening with Sierra).
An update on this: simultaneous speech and text is supported by the game scripts, it was just never selectable for unknown reasons. To enable simultaneous text and speech:
- open the debug console (by pressing control-d)
- type "vm_vars g 90 3" (without the quotes)
This works for sq4cd and pharkas cd. kq6cd or lb2cd currently crash as texts are not loaded (but that should be easy to fix with a script patch).
I'll see how easy it will be to patch the game GUI (that's script 181 in sq4), or inject the value at the right time depending on the audio options in ScummVM
Another update: The ability to play speech with simultaneous text has been added for SQ4CD. It's not available for the other 3 yet (Pharkas CD, LB2 CD, KQ6 CD). There are no dialog texts included in KQ5 CD, so this feature isn't possible for that game.
Edit: Of course, this has only been added in the SVN version, not the stable one
md5 wrote:Another update: The ability to play speech with simultaneous text has been added for SQ4CD. It's not available for the other 3 yet (Pharkas CD, LB2 CD, KQ6 CD). There are no dialog texts included in KQ5 CD, so this feature isn't possible for that game.
Edit: Of course, this has only been added in the SVN version, not the stable one
Very nice md5. Just tried it out and it works like a charm on SQ4. I think this, at least, will be one enhancement no one will complain about.
I can't seem to find the option to enable to win3.1 cursors in KQ6win though.
md5 wrote:Another update: The ability to play speech with simultaneous text has been added for SQ4CD. It's not available for the other 3 yet (Pharkas CD, LB2 CD, KQ6 CD). There are no dialog texts included in KQ5 CD, so this feature isn't possible for that game.
Edit: Of course, this has only been added in the SVN version, not the stable one
Why not include a transcription of the voice over for kq5?
md5 wrote:Another update: The ability to play speech with simultaneous text has been added for SQ4CD. It's not available for the other 3 yet (Pharkas CD, LB2 CD, KQ6 CD). There are no dialog texts included in KQ5 CD, so this feature isn't possible for that game.
Edit: Of course, this has only been added in the SVN version, not the stable one
Why not include a transcription of the voice over for kq5?
Because this would require exporting of the texts from the floppy version, proper assignment of the texts to the speech, and rewriting the script code that displays the text boxes next to the portraits. All in all, a huge amount of work...
... and that alone could be counted as remaking effort like those remakers guys does.
Oh... I would love to see LB2 talkie supported for this since I'm playing this right now. Hate to see the support goes live when I'm already finished the game.
With subtitles and no disc-swapping, the game will be as good as it can be!
