Another World V. 1.01 Released.

[DJWillis]

DJWillis, can I just ask (having never played the original) how come you seem unkeen (is that a word?) on making the display brighter? Is it because the original was very dark too, or is it just that it would be quite difficult to do?

It honestly is virtually impossible to play on my FLU as it stands...

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Why would it seem we are not keen to make a change? I personally feel that is a tiny bit unfair as we have been working on just that. It just seems daft to have a thread where every post is ‘It’s too dark!’, once or twice was enough to make the point . The original was quite dark by the way.

I have already been talking to loki666 about adding a gamma control to improve matters and have the code working tied to L and R (though not in AW, that is proving more troublesome).

It is just that it takes a little time and effort to accomplish and both loki666 and myself have other work to be doing. We get the message that brightness may be an issue for some and are trying to address it (I have always found it very playable on my FLU so never realised this was such a problem). The aim of this project was to provide a very playable and authentic version of the original game (so no save states ) and if it is not bright enough to be playable then we have failed in that aim and will address it in due time.

Regards,

John

 

[Blah]

It is even a little dark for my BLU, good enough to play, though. Now if only I didn't die every 30 secs

 

[DaveC]

The thing is that the brightness problem is the fault of NLU/FLU technology. The NLU is dark by nature as there is no light and relies on reflection. The FLU is washed out because frontlighting washes out the contrast. The game was meant to be dark but to be played on CRTs not NLU/FLU LCDs. It looks good on the BLU now, it is just a dark game. There is only so much that that can be done with the other technology so don't be too dissapointed. Good luck with it though.

 

[Blah]

@DaveC, yes, but its not hard at all to code gamma correction into the blitting routines. There should be a brightness menu.

 

[DaveC]

@DaveC, yes, but its not hard at all to code gamma correction into the blitting routines. There should be a brightness menu.

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Yes it can be done. It is harder than you think though. You need to make sure that you ramp the colors correctly. Over do it and color values that were slightly different will become one and you will actually lose colors. For example if you had colors in the scene that were an intensity of 253, 254,255 and you increase brightness by 2 all colors would now be intensity of 255 so you lost 2 colors. Same goes for the low end. The trick is that you have to do it with a curve so that the closer you get to the maximums the less the configuration changes, darker colors would change more than brighter ones up to a point and you would always leave black black. It isn't linear. You would have something in there that limits it so that colors can't become one and are always separated by at least some amount. You can see that to be done right it isn't as simple as you think. I am not saying that it shouldn't be done it is just that it takes some doing.

 

[Gruntfuggly]

Why would it seem we are not keen to make a change? I personally feel that is a tiny bit unfair as we have been working on just that. It just seems daft to have a thread where every post is ‘It’s too dark!’, once or twice was enough to make the point . The original was quite dark by the way.

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John, I tried to word my question in a way that didn't sound like I was ungrateful, but I obviously failed! The only reason I thought you weren't keen was just that on the distant earth website it was sort of implied that people needed to add comments if they wanted it changed...

I'm glad you're working on it and am really looking forwards to playing a version that is easier to see.

Either way, even if you don't fix it, it looks like an excellent port, and one I'll be playing for a while, so thanks!

 

[Nova]

...still too dark

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Ok, I think it is fair to say people feel this is too dark on NLU and FLUs. It is being looked at so are there any other comments or bugs?

GP40,

I am looking into your bugs, not 100% sure there not like that in the origional game.

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Just one more.

i think the sound is clearer in the gbax2004 one than the latest release, dont know about anyone else.


but thanks very much for porting over one of my fave amiga games

 

[loki666]

Just one more.

i think the sound is clearer in the gbax2004 one than the latest release, dont know about anyone else.


but thanks very much for porting over one of my fave amiga games

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oh, really? well, i didnt noticed that.
the changes should only affect sound synchronization with event... (ie: in first release, during intro, when lester enters his code on the keypad, sometimes a "beep" was missing)
does anyone else found the sound clearer in gbax release?

 

[GP40]

I need Help

Walkthrough

Brilliant game. Blinkin' solid, but brilliant

 

[Steve-O]

Thanks

yea it is hard, Especially with the one hit kill

I remember giving up on this game back in the Amiga time.. Think I will get the Amiga back out and play it on that as well

 

[Blah]

@DaveC: Little Programming info tidbit: The intesity bit is ignored in 256 color mode. So if you ever see something looking washed out, but you know it blits in 256 colors, you know where not to look as the problem. h34r:

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Edit: I got 16bit and 256 colors mixed up, it should be:

The intesity bit is ignored in 16bit color mode, etc, etc.

 

[WhiteFalcon]

Would it be possible to either alter the blitting routine generally or make is as an option to draw only to 239 (or 238) lines leaving the topmost unused? That would prevent the BLU+ to show the annoying line at the bottom of the screen which is particularly visible in this great game...

 

[Blah]

Would it be possible to either alter the blitting routine generally or make is as an option to draw only to 239 (or 238) lines leaving the topmost unused? That would prevent the BLU+ to show the annoying line at the bottom of the screen which is particularly visible in this great game...

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You'd have to skip the bottom and top lines, or blit the top line where the bottom goes and vice versa, or find out how to configure it right like Mirko's SDK does.

 

[WhiteFalcon]

Would it be possible to either alter the blitting routine generally or make is as an option to draw only to 239 (or 238) lines leaving the topmost unused? That would prevent the BLU+ to show the annoying line at the bottom of the screen which is particularly visible in this great game...

​

You'd have to skip the bottom and top lines, or blit the top line where the bottom goes and vice versa, or find out how to configure it right like Mirko's SDK does.

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Yes, thats exactly what I am saying, to avoid using the top and bottom lines. And as far as I know, no one has ever surpassed this line bug, not Mirko in his SDK, not even mr. spiv. It is present in every GP32 application, even though it is not noticeable in some due to not using the two "bad" lines.