It's taken so many nights spent slowly debugging the original executable versus my ScummVM implementation, but the final starfield puzzle of Starship Titanic is finally working.
I'm not 100% happy with how the starfield rotates to selected markers when you've locked them in, but frankly, given that I've spent multiple months on disassembling, implementing, and fixing just this one puzzle, I'm just happy at this point that it works at all.
So now with the starfield puzzle finally completable, I was able to initiate the endgame, and see the ending video and credits:
I have to say, there were times when I grew weary of implementing and testing all the matrix code that the puzzle required. But I guess I'm just too stubborn not to see it all the way through.
So what's happening next? Firstly, there are various minor bugs that I was aware of, but hadn't previously gotten around to fixing. I'm currently working into fixing them now For example, I fixed some jerking of text in the end credits, and some black boxes that briefly appeared over the flames in the canal. I've got some outstanding issues with NPC idle animations to look into. The Bellbot also won't currently bugger off if you tell him goodbye :) Once that's done, I'll give it another playthrough just to make sure before it's announced for public testing. So expect it to be soon. For those of you that don't have the game already, the current GOG sale has it discounted. So it's a very opportune time to pick it up.
On a final note, there are couple of things associated with the game that I don't have any immediate plans to spend time on:
* The QSound library the game uses for simulating sounds in a 3D space using standard stereo output. Many know my distaste of working sound code. So I'll leave it as a future exercise for someone else to work on. I've implemented the low level sound calls using mostly the same interface as QSound exposes, so it should prove convenient for anyone who chooses to do so
* The Indeo 4 decoder still doesn't handle cases where transparency information is embedded directly into the video frames, rather than as a separate video track. Since codecs are installed directly into Windows, I'm not even sure which DLL implements the decoder. I'll try and spend a bit of time trying to figure it out, but worst case, it may be something the game just has to live with. The game currently has "best guess" code that estimates what the transparencies should be. It's not perfect, but it's reasonably servicable for now.
* I don't have any near-term plans to do any further work on the German version. I'm simply too burned out over the game, and want to move on from it. I may return to it one day; I'd also welcome anyone else who wants to look into it themselves.
DreamMaster.
I'm not 100% happy with how the starfield rotates to selected markers when you've locked them in, but frankly, given that I've spent multiple months on disassembling, implementing, and fixing just this one puzzle, I'm just happy at this point that it works at all.
So now with the starfield puzzle finally completable, I was able to initiate the endgame, and see the ending video and credits:
So what's happening next? Firstly, there are various minor bugs that I was aware of, but hadn't previously gotten around to fixing. I'm currently working into fixing them now For example, I fixed some jerking of text in the end credits, and some black boxes that briefly appeared over the flames in the canal. I've got some outstanding issues with NPC idle animations to look into. The Bellbot also won't currently bugger off if you tell him goodbye :) Once that's done, I'll give it another playthrough just to make sure before it's announced for public testing. So expect it to be soon. For those of you that don't have the game already, the current GOG sale has it discounted. So it's a very opportune time to pick it up.
On a final note, there are couple of things associated with the game that I don't have any immediate plans to spend time on:
* The QSound library the game uses for simulating sounds in a 3D space using standard stereo output. Many know my distaste of working sound code. So I'll leave it as a future exercise for someone else to work on. I've implemented the low level sound calls using mostly the same interface as QSound exposes, so it should prove convenient for anyone who chooses to do so
* The Indeo 4 decoder still doesn't handle cases where transparency information is embedded directly into the video frames, rather than as a separate video track. Since codecs are installed directly into Windows, I'm not even sure which DLL implements the decoder. I'll try and spend a bit of time trying to figure it out, but worst case, it may be something the game just has to live with. The game currently has "best guess" code that estimates what the transparencies should be. It's not perfect, but it's reasonably servicable for now.
* I don't have any near-term plans to do any further work on the German version. I'm simply too burned out over the game, and want to move on from it. I may return to it one day; I'd also welcome anyone else who wants to look into it themselves.
DreamMaster.
