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Test the new ScummVM Q+E


Benny

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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:

 

all.jpg

 

A slight interface cleanup, with the default font changed to Tahoma, since it looks much better with font smoothing on XP.

 

sortgames.jpg

 

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.

 

dailybuild.jpg

 

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.

 

options.jpg

 

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.

 

trayicon.jpg

 

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.

 

tools.jpg

 

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.

 

editgames.jpg

 

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.

 

schedule.jpg

 

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.

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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 :D

 

maxicon.gif

 

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!

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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 :~

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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...

all.jpg

 

It'd be this...

 

possible1.png

 

(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.

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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.

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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.

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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 :)

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