Benny Posted January 11, 2005 Share Posted January 11, 2005 I've updated ScummVM Q+E. I've made massive changes and in the process have re-written most of it. The most important change of all is that it now works correctly again. Since ScummVM recently changed its command line options Q+E stopped working - this is now fixed. Behold the screenshots: A slight interface cleanup, with the default font changed to Tahoma, since it looks much better with font smoothing on XP. As requested - you can now show and hide different types of games, this is especially useful now with all the new humongous games in ScummVM. You can now automatically get and unpack the daily build AND the latest stable build. The stable build will always be the latest available, since it looks to the Q+E server before downloading. Many, many options. As you can see, you can now change the font and many other eye-candy settings. Of more importance is the fact that you can now set the savegame path and the path to ScummVM.ini to allow for non-default locations. At the bottom you can see the much-requested 'default options' - these take effect when the settings for a particular game haven't been configured. So you can ensure that aspect ratio correction is off by default, if you're completely mad. Q+E now uses a tray icon by default, it makes the other options/tools easier to locate. It can, of course be turned off. Preliminary support for the extra ScummVM tools was in the previous version, this has now been completed. You can now easily compress SCUMM monster.sou files, Simon the Sorcerer 1+2 datafiles and SAGA engine music, to MP3, OGG or FLAC. If I get time I'll add in support for some of the other extra tools. Q+E will also download the MP3, OGG and FLAC compressing tools for you if you dont have them. A game settings editor. Since Q+E now uses its own ini file to store extra information about games, I've added an editor so that you can modify those settings. It's not as complete as I'd like (you cant add custom game targets from it yet), but its still pretty useful. You can now schedule the downloading of ScummVM daily builds (Windows 2000 and XP only). A windows scheduled task is created, and on the scheduled date/time, Q+E silently downloads and unpacks the latest daily build of ScummVM. A tray icon in the system tray shows when this is happening. So there we go. Now onto the pestering. I really really need people to test this new version, it's been massively re-written and so is bound to contain some bugs. Download it here. Try as hard as you can to break it and post back here any bugs you find. Cheers Known bugs: When you change the font, the old font may remain for some controls, this disappears once Q+E is restarted. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joshi Posted January 13, 2005 Share Posted January 13, 2005 Is there any reason why it wouldn't work? It keeps saying it encountered a problem whenever I try to load it and asks if I want to send a report to microsoft (I never do). I downloaded it again and the same thing happened. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Benny Posted January 13, 2005 Author Share Posted January 13, 2005 What OS? What does the error message say when you click details? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Remi Posted January 13, 2005 Share Posted January 13, 2005 This happened to me too. The error reads: Exception EReadError in module ScummVM_Q+E_Pre.exe at 0001F797. Error reading TaskScheduler.MachineName: The network path was not found. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Benny Posted January 13, 2005 Author Share Posted January 13, 2005 How about this one ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joshi Posted January 14, 2005 Share Posted January 14, 2005 Yeah, it seems to work now. Thanks, I was using the raw scummvm up till now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Benny Posted January 14, 2005 Author Share Posted January 14, 2005 Cheers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
masterdebator Posted January 14, 2005 Share Posted January 14, 2005 Maybe more implimentation for files on another computer? There is currently only support for the files if you "map network drive..." or is this something that must be done in ScummVM first? It works great though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThunderPeel2001 Posted January 18, 2005 Share Posted January 18, 2005 WOW! Nice work Benny!! Damn! A few ideas, potential probs and only 1 minor bug! REQ: - Firstly, you can download Stable or Daily Builds, but you can only download Daily Glyphs? Actually, wouldn't it be much more useful for Q&E just to update the Glyphs automatically for the appropriate version when you update? BUG?: - The extra tools opens up in a resizeable window smaller than it needs. Not a problem as such, just a bit ugly. REQ: - In the tools section, could it be possible to include a "recommended" setting for each of four game types. Eg, rather than have people experimenting with different bitrates, just a default setting that won't provide any audible loss? A bit of work, but with a bit of help it could be very handy! REQ: - It would be nice if the Glyphs indicated which games were installed. It'd also be cool to have filters like "Installed", "Full games", "LucasArts" that could be mixed around (like in MAME). Even just some way of viewing only installed games would be nice (like ScummVM does with it's native butt-ugly GUI). REQ: - This would be amazing if you could implement it, but it's probably more hassle than it's worth? But some sort of screenshot preview of the different effects of the graphic filters. You could maybe take them from this file I made ages ago: http://www.fabaudits.co.uk/johnsstuff/scummvm-compare.png REQ: Possible replacement icon That's about it! No major bugs found yet! (Although BASS isn't working anymore, but that appears to be a ScummVM problem) It all seems pretty stable to me! Great stuff! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Benny Posted January 18, 2005 Author Share Posted January 18, 2005 Cheers for that, you've brought up some interesting points The daily/stable glyphs thing I think I'll leave for now. It sounds a bit much like option overload, the more options I add, the less simple it becomes for a newbie. The automatic glyphs update thing is a good idea though, I'll try and do that. Resizable window - well spotted. I'm not sure about recommended settings, because I'm not really sure what the recomended settings would be. The defaults are the 'recommended' settings as far as I know and should be fine I cant really make the glyphs indicate what games are installed, perhaps I could add another glyph to indicate that though. I can easily add other filters, I just kept them to a minimum for simplicitys sake. I'll add those. I've thought about things like screenshot previews before and yes it could easily be done but I cant make it work in terms of the overall design. Q+E uses one compact form, with everything slotted closely together and visable on the one form. I cant really see a good place to put a preview bit without completely changing the design. I'm always open to ideas though. Cheers for all that, thank you for testing, I'll see what I can do about adding some of those things The problem with Q+E now is that the more things I add, the less 'quick and easy' it becomes, it's becoming more of a 'ScummVM powertool' than a quick and easy one. It's becoming harder and harder to keep things simple while adding extra features. I could, for example add some really detailed filters for sorting games and searching for games etc, but the program would then look so complicated that it would put off the casual user and if I hid features like that away on a sub-menu they wouldnt be of much use. It's a catch 22 :~ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
masterdebator Posted January 21, 2005 Share Posted January 21, 2005 yes, and you should probably keep the size down below 2.5 mb for dialers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Benny Posted January 21, 2005 Author Share Posted January 21, 2005 Its 432k Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alien426 Posted January 21, 2005 Share Posted January 21, 2005 I like it when you can type the first letter of an entry in a dropdown field and it jumps there. Some programs (Firefox) even accept more letters and show the according entry. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThunderPeel2001 Posted January 24, 2005 Share Posted January 24, 2005 Hmmm, I see what you mean BG. I've been thinking about it, trying to find a new balance between Q&E and "Powertool" (because really both are needed!). I think you could probably strip away a lot of the options because they're only really needed by advanced users. So instead of this... It'd be this... (In the 'Settings' menu would be: Preferences... [the ones for Q+E] Default Game Settings Game Manager (Advanced) Edit ScummVM.ini (Advanced) In 'View' would be: Advanced Mode... / Basic Mode... Set Game Filters In 'Update' would be: Update Quick & Easy Update to latest Stable ScummVM Update to latest Daily ScummVM (Maybe something showing which was currently installed? Stable or Daily) Schedule Updates In 'Tools' (which I've just realized I've forgotten on the pic) would be: Compress Audio Files... And finally in 'Help' would be links to, Readme, Websites etc.) Yes, I do have a lot of time on my hands It's probably not very well thought out and it would probably require a lot of work, but it's an idea! So yeah, ignore that all if you want. I'm just bored at the moment Hmmm... Actually, now that I've done all that, I reckon a GUI that's close to MAME32's would be perfect for Q&E (one day). MAME32 has a really nice straight forward GUI with very similar options/requirements to yours. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Benny Posted January 24, 2005 Author Share Posted January 24, 2005 I really like that! With that smaller form the menu bar doesnt look out of place either. I'll definitely have a play around with that design. Nice one Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThunderPeel2001 Posted January 24, 2005 Share Posted January 24, 2005 Coolio! Glad you like it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JBRAA Posted January 26, 2005 Share Posted January 26, 2005 Hey nice documentation with pics and all! Impressive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joshi Posted February 1, 2005 Share Posted February 1, 2005 Originally posted by ThunderPeel2001 It'd be this... Was that just an altered image, or did you create a quick window to show that? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Benny Posted February 2, 2005 Author Share Posted February 2, 2005 Right, I had a go with that design and its fine, but I cant come up with a design for 'advanced mode', that doesnt look rubbish. I've tried redesigns like this before and ended up giving up because it looked shit. If someone can design the layout in both basic and advanced mode I'll change it, but for now I think I'll stick with the original layout In other news, the installer for ScummVM Daily Builds has changed and broke the 'auto-update', but i've sorted this and in the next version they will install silently as before. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joshi Posted February 3, 2005 Share Posted February 3, 2005 Wouldn't it be an idea to have it like Thunderpeel has done and then for advanced mode have it extend out (or just a replacement window) that looks like what we have in the current version? It'd be sort of like the basic and scientific calculator on the computer. I mean, in effect, what would be in the advanced settings anyway? and ofcourse this way you'd still be able to keep the simple 'one window' user interface, which everyone likes as the advanced settings would still be on the same window as the basic ones. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Benny Posted February 3, 2005 Author Share Posted February 3, 2005 I've tried that before. Its not the form layout thats the problem. Its the layout of the controls on it thats tricky, trying to lay them out so they are both intuitive and look good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Benny Posted February 7, 2005 Author Share Posted February 7, 2005 I've now released the new version (see here), many thanks to everyone who helped test it. I had a custom filters thing implemented as tp suggested, but it was a bit wonky so it'll have to wait for the next version. I changed things so that the glyphs are now downloaded and updated along with the daily build and I added a 'hide console window' option. The priority for the next release is a new gui/layout, this would also mean that things like screenshots could be added. I want a new Q+E site at some point too, so if anyone has any ideas or designs please let me know Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThunderPeel2001 Posted February 7, 2005 Share Posted February 7, 2005 Hmm! A GUI that allows screenshots... that could be very very cool! I might take a crack at that! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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