Newbie Help Compiling/Editing?

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Who'sThere
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Joined: Wed Dec 31, 2008 12:18 am

Newbie Help Compiling/Editing?

Post by Who'sThere »

Hi there, This might be a redundant question depending on the answer, so please forgive my ignorance to the issue.

I would like to compile the ScummVM code for the Dreamcast, so the auto-save feature is disabled in the main binary (1st_read.bin usually).

I know that the auto-save feature in certain game engines like SAGA have been disabled, but I'd like to play through the Lucasart's games without it.

So what kind of setup would be necessary to run the compiler, and is there an alternative to compiling?

For example: Does anyone know how to hex edit the 0.12.0 plain files binary to disable this feature?

Is it a simple variable somewhere in the code that could be changed to a different value, so as I could even change the time between auto-saves?
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md5
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Post by md5 »

Sorry you lost me there... why would you want to recompile ScummVM to disable the auto-save feature?

You can disable it via Options->Misc tab, and set the autosave period to "Never"
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Who'sThere
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Post by Who'sThere »

I didn't know the Dreamcast had that option, or did you only mean for the PC?
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DCDayDreamer
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Post by DCDayDreamer »

md5 wrote:why would you want to recompile ScummVM to disable the auto-save feature?
The Dreamcast port seems to be the only one that has problems with the autosave feature.

With the Dreamcast, the save data is stored on a VMU (Visual Memory Unit) plugged into the console's controller, the VMU has a small speaker built into it that only emits a 'beep' sound. When using ScummVM with the game engines that have the autosave enabled, every five minutes the game will pause, an extended 'beep' is heard from the VMU, and a popup screen will tell you the game is saved - you then need to press 'OK' on that screen to resume play. I do not know about the other console ports, but the autosave disrupts gameplay on the Dreamcast, the beep every five minutes is extremely annoying, and failure to confirm a save for a period of time will result in a crash.
md5 wrote:You can disable it via Options->Misc tab, and set the autosave period to "Never"
Nobody seems to have found a main options menu with the Dreamcast port, if there is one, you'd have to access it via a keyboard or use the virtual keyboard somehow, if someone does find the menu - it'll be a blessing. One more thing is that the port doesn't seem to search for an ini file, which would make life so much easier.

Considering it's over ten years ago that the Dreamcast was launched in Japan, it has very limited resources available compared to todays consoles, and it runs games from optical media, ScummVM runs extremely well on the console (which is testament to the coding behind the software), but the autosave virtually cripples the port.
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Who'sThere
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Post by Who'sThere »

Above I mentioned possibly editing the plain files. I actually meant the engine PLG for each specific engine. That is where the auto-save is disabled on certain engines right? Like the SCUMM.PLG for Lucasart games?

So, here are couple more questions:

1. How do I submit requests to the tracker? I only had a search option.

2. Is there already a way to disable the auto-save feature in the Dreamcast port using the keyboard, or virtual keyboard?

Thought I should add that...
I don't have access to a Linux operating environment.

Is there a way to compile ScummVM in Windows?
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