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Summer of Code/GSoC Ideas 2022 (view source)
Revision as of 20:57, 27 March 2022
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=== Macromedia Director=== | === Macromedia Director=== | ||
Difficulty level: Medium. You'll need a reasonable level of programming experience, and probably some [[Director]] games. | * Technical contacts: [[User:Sev|sev]] | ||
* Difficulty level: Medium. You'll need a reasonable level of programming experience, and probably some [[Director]] games. | |||
* Size: 175 or 350 hours | |||
[[Director/Games|Many 90s-era adventure games]] were developed using the Macromedia (now Adobe) Director tool. It would be nice to be able to play these games in ScummVM! We have a WIP engine in ScummVM tree, but it requires much more work in order to implement all hundreds of Lingo commands. | [[Director/Games|Many 90s-era adventure games]] were developed using the Macromedia (now Adobe) Director tool. It would be nice to be able to play these games in ScummVM! We have a WIP engine in ScummVM tree, but it requires much more work in order to implement all hundreds of Lingo commands. | ||
=== Enhance SAGA engine for supporting Amiga Inherit the Earth === | === Enhance SAGA engine for supporting Amiga Inherit the Earth === | ||
Difficulty level: Medium. | * Technical contacts: [[User:Sev|sev]] | ||
* Difficulty level: Medium. | |||
* Size: 175 hours | |||
We have been supporting the [[Inherit the Earth]] game for a long while. However, Amiga versions are not yet supported by this target. We have the original source codes, and the main difference is the data bundles format. | We have been supporting the [[Inherit the Earth]] game for a long while. However, Amiga versions are not yet supported by this target. We have the original source codes, and the main difference is the data bundles format. | ||
=== The Immortal === | |||
* Technical contacts [[User:dreammaster|dreammaster]] or [[User:Sev|sev]] | |||
* Difficulty level: Hard. Good knowledge of C++ and assembly (x86 or 68K or 6502) is required. | |||
* Size: 350 hours | |||
The immortal was released in 1990 by Electronic Arts. It's a mix of genres involving RPG elements with action and puzzles. | |||
The gameplay is different one variant to the other, and all variants are written in assembly, making it more difficult to support all the variants. | |||
In 2018, a GSoC student picked this task but, due to personal issues, didn't manage to complete the task. The purpose of the task is therefore to implement an engine for a variant of the game, using the original sources and the work of JoeFish as a documentation. | |||
Difficulty: Hard. You'll need good knowledge of C++, as well as knowledge of (reading) assembly. | [https://www.mobygames.com/game/immortal/screenshots Screenshots on Mobygames] | ||
=== Penumbra: Overture (HPL1 engine) === | |||
* Technical contacts [[User:aquadran|aquadran]] or [[User:Sev|sev]] | |||
* Difficulty level: Hard. OpenGL knowledge is required | |||
* Size: 350 hours | |||
Frictional Games has released full sources for their [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frictional_Games#HPL_Engine HPL1 engine] under GPLv3 license ([https://github.com/FrictionalGames/HPL1Engine link]), around 100k lines of code. This is accompanied with around 37k lines of game-specific code for ''[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penumbra:_Overture Penumbra: Overture]'' ([https://github.com/FrictionalGames/PenumbraOverture link]). | |||
(Source for ''Amnesia: The Dark Descent'' and ''Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs'' were also released, but they use the HPL2 engine). | |||
The purpose of this project is to port the HPL1 engine to ScummVM, with the goal of supporting ''Penumbra: Overture''. Also determine what additional steps would be needed to support other HPL1 games (''Penumbra: Black Plague'' and ''Penumbra: Requiem''). | |||
=== YAGA engine === | |||
* Technical contacts: [[User:Sev|sev]] | |||
* Difficulty level: Medium. | |||
* Size: 175 hours | |||
This engine was used for two later [[Humongous Entertainment]] games, [[Pajama Sam: Life is Rough When You Lose Your Stuff]] and [[Putt-Putt: Pep's Birthday Surprise]]. The engine is basically an extension of Python 2.2. There exists an almost complete reimplementation by cyx [https://github.com/cyxx/linyaga on GitHub] (which we have permission to use) that can be used as a base, and we also have the complete source code for the original game. | |||
The task is relatively straightforward, the only difficulty with it is adding Python as an external dependency, but a mentor is there to help. Implementing the missing "Lip Sync" feature will be the main part of this task. | |||
The goal is to bring cyx's code to ScummVM and use the original code as a reference later. | |||
=== Finishing implementation of incomplete engines === | |||
* Technical contacts: [[User:Sev|sev]] | |||
* Difficulty level: Medium or High | |||
* Size: 175 hours or 350 hours | |||
ScummVM currently has a number of engines which are very close to completion. Many of them were parts of previous GSoCs. For them, we need a playthrough and slight bugfixing, or additional portability fixes. | |||
Some of the engines are: | |||
* [[MacVenture]], based on a [http://seancode.com/webventure/ JavaScript reimplementation]. Very close to completion, playthrough is missing and rechecking ties to our Mac GUI emulation. | |||
* [[Avalanche]], some engine parts like Outro are not finished. Complete list is [[Avalanche#TO-DO|here]] | |||
* [[DM]] | |||
=== Bring your own Adventure or RPG Reimplementation (only existing games) === | |||
* Technical contacts: Talk to us on Discord, or send us an email. | |||
* Difficulty: Hard. You'll need good knowledge of C++, as well as knowledge of (reading) assembly. | |||
* Size: 350 hours | |||
Our project consists of re-implementations of classic games, and we have listed | Our project consists of re-implementations of classic games, and we have listed | ||
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=== Add Keymapper to more games === | === Add Keymapper to more games === | ||
Difficulty: Easy | * Technical contacts: sev | ||
* Difficulty: Easy | |||
* Size: 175 or 350 hours, depending on number of games | |||
ScummVM includes a global fully configurable keymapper, but this requires engines to be adapted to use it. The feature documentation: [[Keymapper]], some reference implementations: Wintermute has [https://github.com/scummvm/scummvm/blob/master/engines/wintermute/keymapper_tables.h per-game keymaps]; [https://github.com/scummvm/scummvm/pull/2428 a pull request] with adding keymapper to HDB engine; [https://github.com/scummvm/scummvm/commit/cce713ee4c73504e97eba8b0ca9190e47d279e69 a commit] with adding Keymapper to a simpler engine, Griffon. | ScummVM includes a global fully configurable keymapper, but this requires engines to be adapted to use it. The feature documentation: [[Keymapper]], some reference implementations: Wintermute has [https://github.com/scummvm/scummvm/blob/master/engines/wintermute/keymapper_tables.h per-game keymaps]; [https://github.com/scummvm/scummvm/pull/2428 a pull request] with adding keymapper to HDB engine; [https://github.com/scummvm/scummvm/commit/cce713ee4c73504e97eba8b0ca9190e47d279e69 a commit] with adding Keymapper to a simpler engine, Griffon. | ||
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=== Support Unicode input in GUI === | === Support Unicode input in GUI === | ||
Difficulty: Medium | * Technical contacts: [[User:Sev|sev]] | ||
* Difficulty: Medium | |||
* Size: 175 hours | |||
Last year we enhanced our GUI for supporting Unicode output. Now we need to enhance our input system, so Unicode input is supported as well. This includes RTL support (we have FriBiDi employed for output). | Last year we enhanced our GUI for supporting Unicode output. Now we need to enhance our input system, so Unicode input is supported as well. This includes RTL support (we have FriBiDi employed for output). | ||
=== Networking code for Moonbase Commander=== | |||
* Technical contacts: [[User:Sev|sev]] | |||
* Difficulty level: Medium | |||
* Size: 175 hours | |||
[[Moonbase Commander]] is a SCUMM-based strategy game. The original supported up to 4 network players. We have the source code for the original game, but it is based on top of Microsoft DirectPlay. We need to do a clean reimplementation, not necessarily compatible with the original. There is an [https://github.com/scummvm/scummvm-sites/tree/multiplayer unfinished server code] based written in PHP. The code supports creating game sessions, joining sessions and the gameplay. | |||
The optional task extension is fixing several remaining rendering bugs in the game. | |||
=== Optimize blending code for AGS games === | |||
* Technical contacts: [[User:Criezy|Criezy]] | |||
* Difficulty level: Medium | |||
* Size: 175 hours | |||
One of the main bottleneck in term of performances for AGS games in ScummVM lies in the way sprites are blended together. The AGS engine has 10 different blending modes, and they are currently implemented in a generic way with the colors for both sources being decomposed into their RGBA components before being blended, and then the resulting color being composed back. Those generic decompositions and composition operations are slow and in many cases could be eliminated when implementing specialised versions of the blending functions for a specific pixel format. The task will consist in first changing the blending code so that it can benefit from specialised implementations (for example use template functions or a function pointer). Then specialized optimized implementations of the blending functions can be added for the most commonly used input and output pixel formats combinations. | |||
== Infrastructure Tasks == | == Infrastructure Tasks == | ||
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Finally, there's always plenty of other practical tasks on our wishlist! | Finally, there's always plenty of other practical tasks on our wishlist! | ||
=== | === Automated system for packaging freeware games with ScummVM === | ||
* Technical contacts: [[User:Sev|sev]] or [[User:DJWillis|DJWillis]] | |||
* Size: 350 hours | |||
==== Background ==== | |||
ScummVM | ScummVM is distributed on our website as a standalone app without any games included, which cannot be used until games are added. | ||
Thanks to generous support from game authors, the ScummVM website [http://scummvm.org/games/ offers eleven freeware games for download], but they need to be manually downloaded and added to ScummVM. | |||
==== Proposal ==== | |||
It would be great to develop a game-agnostic, automated system that would let us package a game, e.g. provide screenshots, game descriptions, metadata, and create distributables for different platforms. For example, we could have ''Beneath a Steel Sky'' bundled together with ScummVM, with its own logo, description, with the resulting distributables ready to upload to various platforms (Linux packages, Google Play, Apple App Store, Steam, ForgeTV store, and anything beyond that). | |||
==== User Benefits ==== | |||
Users will be able to download a single distributable for a particular game, such as ''Beneath a Steel Sky'', and run it without any additional configuration. This is especially useful on platforms where apps are typically distributed through an app store (such as iOS). | |||
For [https://www.scummvm.org/games/ freeware games that ScummVM is permitted to distribute], this would allow them to reach a wider audience by being available on more niche platforms. Should new freeware games become available, they would also be able to be distributed with minimal effort. | |||
These automated scripts will also provide a reference for game authors who want to bundle their own games with ScummVM to be sold for their own. | |||
==== Future Ideas ==== | |||
Potentially and in the future this system could also be used for DLC on platforms that support it, like Steam, Android Play Store or Apple App Store. However, DLC support for Android and iOS is out of scope for this project. | |||
=== Support for shaders and arbitrary scalers === | === Support for shaders and arbitrary scalers === | ||
Technical contacts: [[User:Sev|sev]] | * Technical contacts: [[User:Sev|sev]] | ||
* Difficulty: Medium | |||
Difficulty: Medium | * Size: 175 hours | ||
ScummVM uses software scalers for graphics enhancements. In 2012 we were running GSoC for turning them into plugins. [https://github.com/scummvm/scummvm/pull/271 That work] It was recently merged in ScummVM but could require some more love like adding xBRZ scalers. | ScummVM uses software scalers for graphics enhancements. In 2012 we were running GSoC for turning them into plugins. [https://github.com/scummvm/scummvm/pull/271 That work] It was recently merged in ScummVM but could require some more love like adding xBRZ scalers. | ||
Modern systems often have OpenGL with shader support. RetroArch project shaders are standard for them in open source gaming. LordHoto started and rootfather continued work on adding support for those to ScummVM. Their unfinished work could be found here: https://github.com/lotharsm/scummvm/tree/shaderscaler | Modern systems often have OpenGL with shader support. RetroArch project shaders are standard for them in open source gaming. LordHoto started and rootfather continued work on adding support for those to ScummVM. Their unfinished work could be found here: https://github.com/lotharsm/scummvm/tree/shaderscaler . There is also a second branch that adds a hard-coded CRT shader that may be useful as a reference. This can be found here: https://github.com/braindx/scummvm/tree/crt-emulation | ||
We need to add both improvements to our scaler system. Recent PSP2 port already adds some basics for scalers, particularly in GUI, so that could be reused too. | We need to add both improvements to our scaler system. Recent PSP2 port already adds some basics for scalers, particularly in GUI, so that could be reused too. | ||
We need to have it tested on desktops and at least Android, but preferably also Windows and iOS. | We need to have it tested on desktops and at least Android, but preferably also Windows and iOS. | ||
=== System for checking the game files integrity === | |||
* Technical contacts: [[User:Sev|sev]] | |||
* Difficulty: Medium | |||
* Size: 350 hours | |||
ScummVM requires game data files to operate. Very often, especially when copying from the old media, the files could be damaged. Thus, we need a system that could let the end-users compute all the checksums and compare them with the reference. | |||
The solution will consist of two parts: server and additional functionality within ScummVM. In order to avoid any potential problems with the copyrighted material, only checksums could be passed to the server. | |||
The ScummVM part: | |||
Calculates checksums of all files of a given game/title and submits them to the server. After receiving the response from the server, the end-user is presented with the results of the check: if all files are correct or list of files with different checksums. | |||
Optionally, the users could have the possibility to give their consent to submit their checksums as the new game variant. | |||
The server part: | |||
It should keep checksums of all files of all known games in a DB. | |||
It can receive a list of files to check against from ScummVM, perform a match with the DB and provide the result back in machine-readable form. | |||
Additionally, it must support command-line utility for mass-populating the DB, performed by the developers. | |||
Additionally, it must have a web interface that will let the authenticated users (developers) browse through the existing checksums. | |||
Optionally, it could have a way to see and approve the submitted entries. | |||