Re: [freesci-develop] State of Glutton on Win32

[James Albert]

So long as I can figure out how to get it to compile in VCC, there will 
be support for VCC in the glutton release.  I'd just like MingW as an 
alternative, since it's conforms to a newer standard and is 
theoretically more in tune with the linux developers.

However, my luck with devcpp was awful.  None of my existing libraries 
seem to be compatible with it, and the error messages I'm getting are 
far from helpful.  Since it compiles without error in MSVC, I can only 
guess that it's a problem with my compiler setup.  I'll keep testing 
things, but somebody who's more familiar with MingW then me will 
probably have to add support for it.

My current progress seems good.  Either one of the recent changes or 
just some different compiler settings, but QFG2 KQ1, and a slew of other 
games are running fine for me in Win32 now.

Of course there's bugs, here they are:

- The hallways in QFG2 have a bug which I'm sure is related to either 
the priority or aux buffer drawing code - about half way down a hallway 
ego hit's an invisible wall - trying to leave the hallway you encounter 
another invisible wall.  Also, this wall corresponds exactly with a line 
drawn on the visual buffer.

- FreeSCI uses interpreter version 1.000.087 for KQ1, which crashes 
freesci or sends it into an error loop.  By removing SCIV and the other 
files that freesci uses to determine the interpreter version, freesci 
uses 0.000.999 for KQ1.  The game will load, but encounters the same 
bugs as in the stable release using this version.

- KQ4 does not load, and always tries to use version 0.000.502

(note:  there's an option listed in the readme files for forcing FreeSCI 
to use a particular interpreter version.  FreeSCI will read the version, 
but doesn't seem to be honoring it in glutton as a few lines later it 
displays what version it is using)

- Colonel's Bequest and Camelot seem to be fine.  I still need to test 
it with Jones in the fast lane though.

- Save game support is busted, but I could never get it working in the 
stable release anyway.  If it's *supposed* to work, then let me know 
because it might be a Win32 specific issue.

- I still have to figure out exactly what compiler settings work best, 
but right now I'm just using the "optimize for speed" setting.  The 
debug binaries don't work because of some heap and pointer related 
errors.  Also, most of the games I tries crash after an extended period 
with an error of something like "object xxx was removed from memory but 
not from the heap".  I'll try to get the exact message, but I couldn't 
reproduce the problem when I tried right now.

Also, thank you all for the new sound driver.  I've used MUNT in the 
past (I have the MT32 ROM's) and while the sound was good, it was choppy 
because of the emulation overhead.
The new PCM output just ROCKS!  I personally like the old school output 
better anyway, and I still hear the various waves - like the genie 
laughing in the QFG2 intro.

If anybody can't get it to compile for Win32 and would like binaries, 
send me an e-mail at address@hidden and I'll mail my latest copy to 
you.

By the way, who added the purify tools for Win32 and does anybody know 
how it works?

- Jim Albert :-)