AGS: Time Gentlemen, Please visual differences with standalone version in early game

[antoniou79]

Tested in Windows local build from latest master: ScummVM 2.4.0git (Sep 12 2021)

I spotted some visual differences between the ScummVM engine and the game running standalone, in the early game stages.
This is with the GOG version, which as far as I can tell is the same as the Steam version, since it is detected as "(Steam)" when adding the game.

1. Directly after launching the game, the title appears word by word. On the standalone, there is a small screen shake with the first words appearing, ie. "Time" and "Gentlemen". ScummVM version lacks the screen shaking.
2. At the start of the intro cutscene, on the ScummVM version Ben's name is missing when he is introduced. Dan's name is not missing. Standalone version shows both. (Oddly ScummVM screenshot does not capture the slight background color change that occurs when the names should appear -- the color change *does* happen though in ScummVM).
3. (skipping the intro cutscene and directly starting the game, since the intro cutscene currently leads to an assertion fault reported in another ticket) the first game screen has rain pouring in the standalone. Rain is missing from ScummVM version.

[eriktorbjorn]

I assume at least some of the differences come from that AGSNickenstienGFX plugin that's just stubbed out. (That plugin was always what prevented me from running the game with the open source version of AGS, but I have absolutely no idea what it does. I've never even found any documentation for it.

All I know is that there is a Nickenstien who has posted to the old AGS forums [1], and that he's credited there as doing "visual effects wizardry" on Time Gentlemen, Please.

[1] ​https://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/forums/index.php?action=profile;u=5258

[antoniou79]

Wrt to the glitched Ben label during the intro, our recent daily developer builds (2.7.0git) are a bit different that the attached screenshot above.
It now seems that the "Ben" name is displayed under the rectangular shape; it should be the other way around, so maybe some overlay priority issue(?).

I'll attach a screenshot of how it shows now in ScummVM.

[tag2015]

As of today, the situation is the same (not surprisingly)

From what I understand "Nickenstien" is actually Nick Cowen ​https://www.mobygames.com/person/148848/nick-cowen/

If anybody wants to contact him...