SCI: GK1: Chapter intros slow to continue

[DustyShinigami]

Again, I'm not sure if this is supposed to happen, though I don't recall it ever happening when I've played it under DOSBox and Windows 95 through a virtual PC, but each time the day number and poetry appear at the beginning of each day, they take quite some time to disappear.

ScummVM version - 1.10.0git3185-g519719db49
Language of game - English
Version of game - Talkie, CD-ROM
Platform and Compiler - Win32

[csnover]

Thanks for your report! So, you know that weird “text” slider in the settings menu that you have no idea why it is there or what it does? Well, it is responsible for how long text is shown before advancing automatically. Turn it to the right to make it faster. (You can also click at any time to continue.)

[DustyShinigami]

Ahhh, okay. Good to know. Thanks.

[DustyShinigami]

Okay, after further testing, there is definitely something off about the transition speed of each day number and the poetry. I've set the speed to about 20, which matches the default speed of the DOSBox version from GOG, and the day number/poetry in the DOSBox version disappears within 11 seconds, give or take. In ScummVM, with the speed set to 20, it takes 22 seconds before it disappears.

[csnover]

The duration of the day 1 poetry message is calculated by this formula, which determines the number of ticks (1/60th of a second) to display the message:

ticks = MAX(120, messageLength * 24 / 10 * globalTextSpeed) + 60

globalTextSpeed is 0 (fastest) to 8 (slowest). A subtitle speed setting of 20 in ScummVM corresponds to 8.

The day 1 message is 131 characters long, so 131 * 24 / 10 * 8 + 60 = 2572 (using integer math). Converting to seconds (2572 / 60), this is 42.866s. Running a stopwatch here, ScummVM displays the message for precisely that amount of time before moving on.

Since the formula came directly from the game scripts and the results were verified in the ScummVM debugger, I am pretty confident that ScummVM is working correctly here. Since the wait time is based on wall time, I can only imagine that this is a configuration error or you have different script files than me.

You may verify your in-game text speed setting by opening the debugger (ctrl+shift+D) and entering vv g 94. You may also verify your narrator script matches mine by entering resource_info script 64928:

Resource size: 2052
Resource location: RESOURCE.000
Resource hash (decompressed): 8e7565226cf212168ce69984a9609ef2

I do not have a GOG copy of this game so I cannot check that this specific version contains the same script data.

Please also make sure you followed the GOG-specific installation instructions in ​datafiles.

[DustyShinigami]

I'm a little bit confused with this, I'm afraid. Putting vv g 94 in the console comes up with 'global var 94 == 0000:0004'

Resource size: 2052
Resource location: RESOURCE.000
Resource hash (decompressed): 8e7565226cf212168ce69984a9609ef2 < this matches mine.

I think I'm using the talkie version that came with the Gabriel Knight Mysteries box set.

[DustyShinigami]

Okay, putting the text speed to 210 the text disappears within about the same length of time - 11 seconds.