HYPNO: Slow frame rate, navigation issue and frequent sound pops

[antoniou79]

This from testing today with Steam version, on Windows 10, and ScummVM 2.7.0git from HEAD master, built with enable-release.

My observations in comparison to the game running on DosBox (which the Steam version uses):

1. There are frequent "pops" in the audio, very noticeable during gameplay. Non-gameplay videos seem to not have this issue.
2. The framerate in the gameplay feels significantly slower than when playing in DosBox, which feels faster and smoother.
3. When playing in DosBox, moving the mouse towards the edges of the screen causes a bit of a navigation movement (like the view moves up or down or left or right). In the ScummVM version this does not seem to work.

Edit: The 1st issue with the audio pops does not seem to occur in current 2.6.0 stable daily, or it's very unnoticeable.

[neuromancer]

Thanks for the report!

1. There are frequent "pops" in the audio, very noticeable during gameplay. Non-gameplay videos seem to not have this issue.

This is a regression in 2.7git, which should be fixed here: ​https://github.com/scummvm/scummvm/commit/a31e1b63156141d2574fc29dbc1b92fc000dc1fd

2. The framerate in the gameplay feels significantly slower than when playing in DosBox, which feels faster and smoother.

This is an interesting issue. I don't have access to the original hardware which was supposed to run this game so I don't know how it played originally. The dosbox version is emulated, and depends on the your CPU speed (number of cycles, which I believe are not fixed). Some levels later in the game (e.g. the one with the motorcycle) seems to be much more difficult than expected, because the speed of the missiles (​https://www.mobygames.com/game/wetlands/hints/hintId,915/). I can still tweak it to make it a little faster, but it will need some experimentation.

3. When playing in DosBox, moving the mouse towards the edges of the screen causes a bit of a navigation movement (like the view moves up or down or left or right). In the ScummVM version this does not seem to work.

I was able to move this left or right moving the pointer near the edge, however it is not as smooth as expected. I think the code expects input events so moving a little the mouse should trigger the screen movement.

Edit: The 1st issue with the audio pops does not seem to occur in current 2.6.0 stable daily, or it's very unnoticeable.

It is nice to know that the stable daily is a little more stable than 2.7. :)

[antoniou79]

About the navigation issue; I've also noticed that this does work somewhat if you move the mouse to the edge of the screen -- it seems that it triggers just for a short movement when the mouse crosses a threshold to the right or left, but I have to retrigger it to make it move further.
For some reason this works like this in the full screen mode. In windowed mode, it's either harder to trigger, or does not work at all.

[neuromancer]

I recently adjusted the time delay between frames using the frame limiter API and it works better. Please re-test if possible.

[neuromancer]

I recently fixed a frame rate issue with the enemies, that were not updated correctly. Otherwise, can we close this issue?

[antoniou79]

Testing today with master HEAD (2.10.0git) I think the framerate is ok / great now. I think it feels even more responsive than DOSBox.

The navigation issue persists, though. It feels significantly different when playing eg. the Steam version (that uses DOSBox). Testing today, in first level (shooting at spaceships, damp difficulty), simply moving the mouse towards left or right edge has noticeable impact in my ship's movement/viewport with DOSBox. Note: In this level, moving the mouse up and down does not seem to affect movement by much (or at all?).

On ScummVM, even in fullscreen ScummVM mode, the movement is barely noticeable and I'm still not sure how it's triggered (does the mouse have to go back and forth repetitively towards an edge? is there a hot zone that needs to be "crossed" for this to work?). As a result of this, I keep getting enemy spaceships hidden behind one of the viewport window "bars" quite often, without a way to maneuver to get a clear shot.

Of course there's the possibility I'm doing something wrong with the controls, or maybe the DOSBox (Steam version) setup uses some configuration that significantly enhances mouse sensitivity.

If you think that this is not actually an issue, the ticket can be closed.

I have an extra question though. When launching the game as is from Steam, I get a different logo video for Hypnotix, than when I launch the game from ScummVM (using the folders from the ISO image that Steam installation has, as specified by our wiki). Is this known? Do you know why it uses a different video there?

[neuromancer]

Thanks a lot for the additional testing, it is very valuable feedback. I have to come back to the original implementation to improve the movement detection, since it was done quickly so let's keep this open.

I will also investigate the different logo playing, as I think they are hardcoded.

[antoniou79]

Replying to neuromancer:

I will also investigate the different logo playing, as I think they are hardcoded.

It seems that current GOG and Steam version of Wetlands use the "c_misc\HYP_LOGO.SMK" instead of the "c_misc\HYPNOTIX.SMK" that ScummVM loads as part of the launch time logos sequence.

So, a potential fix would be to change this line:
​https://github.com/scummvm/scummvm/blob/71ee1ececee87a371bf47b1083d3dcc55da5c019/engines/hypno/wet/wet.cpp#L463

from

logos->intros.push_back("c_misc/hypnotix.smk");

to

logos->intros.push_back("c_misc/hyp_logo.smk");

I am unsure if the full game uses the "c_misc\HYPNOTIX.SMK" video at all. It would be weird to include it in the CD but never make use of it, but not unprecedented I suppose.

Maybe there are other full versions of the game that use "hypnotix.smk" and don't have the "hyp_logo.smk"?

The "hypnotix.smk" video does appear and is used in some of the demos available from the ScummVM website for Wetlands (namely demo3, demo5 (under "movies" folder) and non-interactive demo1 and non-interactive demo2 (under "demo" folder)). I could not find "hyp_logo.smk" in any of the demos available on the ScummVM site, so it seems it's only available in full versions of the game.