DIRECTOR: Opera Fatal gameplay issue update

[mystrw1]

Game-Opera Fatal
ScummVM version-v2.7.0git3423-gacee74-a4b76 (10/14/22, 22:01:27)
Game Engine-Director 4
Language-English
Game version-CD
Laptop OS-Win 10(64 bit)

About 7 months ago, I submitted a ticket on the Director game Opera Fatal that has since been closed. I just wanted to update the gameplay/issues status of the game at this point in time in case it might help continuing engine/game development.

I'll start by repeating some notes from my initial ticket (13203) :
"Opera Fatal is properly detected when the game/files are added to ScummVM. The game runs briefly by showing a few brief credit/opening screens (with sound...). The game then proceeds to a black screen (w/ an active cursor, so the game did not lock-up...) but the opening cut-scene never played. The game halted there and I was able to CTRL-Z to exit the game..."

I recently re-tried running the game with an updated daily build. Opera now plays the full opening cutscene from the paperboy running down the street to the Maestro standing in front of the concert hall.

Congratulations on your development progress ... and thank you again for your efforts...!

There are some minor issues noted during the playing of the opening splash/cut scene:

• The audio (music) starts with the initial "Heureka..." splash screen, then momentarily stops, then re-starts again with "Ruske..." splash screen (not sure if this stop/restart is correct...) The audio (music/voice) continues normal throughout the opening cutscene.
• Toward the beginning of the cutscene, during the close-up of the newspaper, the bottom-right quadrant of the game screen is black, whereas the other 3 quads. display the newspaper properly.
• Toward the end of the cutscene, a black rectangle is seen moving across the game screen from lower left to upper right. I think that black box is supposed to be the paper boy running along the city street (but not absolutely sure...)
• After the cutscene ends, I can move forward toward the concert hall and I can open the door to the hall (although I do not hear the sound of the door opening which I think is supposed to be heard there) When I try to enter the hall, though, all hell breaks loose and the game becomes unplayable. I can exit the game using SCUMM ctrl-z command.

Hope this info. might help continuing development of the engine and game...

[rvanlaar]

Thank you for the update on Opera Fatal.

A quick update from our side.
We're currently working on QTVR support and DEVO Presents: Adventures of the Smart Patrol.

[amaendle]

On Scumm 2.7.0git7246-gec13055d704 (Jan 20 2023 04:07:32) the animation is not played any more, but an error (method called on disposed object) occurs:

User picked target 'operafatal-win-1' (engine ID 'director', game ID 'operafatal')...
   Looking for a plugin supporting this target... Macromedia Director
Running Opera Fatal (Windows/English)
OPERA.EXE: 2b9da5566698a1f4b453e1a27e00ad29, 697739 bytes.
WARNING: SearchSet::add: archive 'C:\Users\andem\Desktop\tempoperafatal\' already present!
Starting v400 Director game
WARNING: Could not find classicmacfonts.dat. Falling back to built-in fonts!
Director pixelformat is: CLUT8
WARNING: Lingo Inited!
-- "Now loading LINGO.INI 21/0/23 1:11 AM"
-- "This computer is running in  8-bit color depth."
WARNING: Window::loadEXEv4(): PJ93 projector flags: 0000000c!
WARNING: RIFX: type: APPL!
WARNING: mmap: version: 0!
WARNING: RIFX: type: MV93!
WARNING: mmap: version: 0!
WARNING: Movie is from later version v404!
Switching to Director v404
Reloading builtins
WARNING: MacFontManager::getFontLanguage: No _fontInfo entry for font 139!
WARNING: MacFontManager::getFontLanguage: No _fontInfo entry for font 139!
WARNING: MacFontManager::getFontAliasForId: No _fontInfo entry for font 139!
WARNING: Cast::loadBitmapData(): Bitmap image 49 not found!
WARNING: Cast::loadBitmapData(): Unable to load id: 49!
WARNING: STUB: Score::loadFrames. frame1Offset: 14 numFrames: 0 version: 4 spriteRecordSize: 14 numChannels: 32 numChannelsDisplayed: 30!
"- "--set the exitlock = 1
-- "
"
"- "play movie "opera\intro\intro"
WARNING: RIFX: type: MV93!
WARNING: mmap: version: 0!
STUB: Unhandled VWtk resource
WARNING: STUB: Score::loadFrames. frame1Offset: 14 numFrames: 0 version: 4 spriteRecordSize: 14 numChannels: 32 numChannelsDisplayed: 30!
Method 'mReadLine' called on disposed object <object: #FileIO 2 0000020b3c39dbb0>!
Debugger started, type 'exit' to return to the game.
Type 'help' to see a little list of commands and variables.
ERROR: Method 'mReadLine' called on disposed object <object: #FileIO 2 0000020b3c39dbb0>!

[rvanlaar]

Thank you for testing the game again.

I looked into it and can confirm the mReadLine problem.
To make a longer story short. It's a bit of a thorny problem.

[rvanlaar]

Recap of the conversation we had over on discord.

Due to how the command play movie ... is handled, the movie is played, but then before the first frame is handled, control is given back to the original movie, resulting in a crash.
The game starts when run with: --start-movie=opera/intro/intro.dxr

Further more there seems to be an error in how shared casts are discoverable.

-- "startMovie HE.DXR"
WARNING: Lingo::resolveCastMember: reference to non-existent cast member: sWalk!

Then in the debugger:

"cast 401"

Cast:
[not found]

Shared cast:
401: type=script, name="sWalk"

[mystrw1]

Latest update on Opera Fatal performance. The intro credit screens and intro. cut scene animation now plays again. The following previously-mentioned minor issues still exist with the game intro. :

• The audio (music) starts with the initial "Heureka..." splash screen, then momentarily stops, then re-starts again with "Ruske..." splash screen (Video walkthrough has music only during "Ruske..." splash)

• Toward the beginning of the cutscene, during the close-up of the newspaper, the bottom-right quadrant of the screen is black, whereas the other 3 quads. display the newspaper properly.

• After the cutscene ends, I can move forward into the concert hall (although I do not hear the sound of the door opening which I think is supposed to be heard there)

Addit. progress has been made on the game since last test though ... I can now enter the Opera House and the game plays normal (in the lobby, at least...). One new issue I note inside the concert hall is that the mouse cursor works correctly in moving the player left/right/forward/back ... but the cursor icon remains a left-pointing arrow even when moving right/forward/back.

A 2nd new issue is that the black inventory bar is present at the very bottom of the game screen but, when I pick up inventory items, they do not display in the inventory bar as they should. Also, the in-game control switch that is supposed to be on the far right side of the inventory bar is not displayed/available....

Congrats again on your continuing Director engine development progress. It remains appreciated...

[mystrw1]

Clarifying/correcting/adding game start/play issues noted during recent re-test:

Game intro. issues :

• The audio (music) starts early (when the initial "Heureka..." splash screen displays. Then, the music restarts when the "Ruske..." splash screen is displayed. The audio (music) should only begin once the "Ruske..." splash screen is displayed.
• The game's animated title screen does not process/transition properly. The title screen displays the out-of-focus/obscured title word ("OPERA") as expected ... but the word does not transition to its fully-focused form over a few seconds as it should. Instead, it seems to pause at its initial out-of-focus form for a few seconds and then "jumps" directly to fully-focused form (as the underline animation begins). Also, the 2nd title word ("FATAL") never displays on the title screen (directly beneath the underlined "Opera") as it should.
• Toward the beginning of the cutscene, during the close-up of the newspaper, the bottom-right quadrant of the screen is black, whereas the other 3 quads. display the newspaper page properly.

Gameplay issues:

• Following entry into the music hall's lobby, the mouse cursor works correctly for advancing player's movement (left/right/forward/backward) ... but the cursor icon remains a left-pointing arrow at all times/screen locations (even when moving the player right, forward or backward).
• The black inventory bar is present at the very bottom of the game screen but, when I pick up inventory items, they do not transfer to/display in the inventory bar as they should. Also, the in-game "control switch" that is supposed to be at the far-right side of the inventory bar is not displayed/ available for control/menu selection use...

[mystrw1]

SCUMMVM daily build version - 2.8.0git7509g6b9b4d7734b (Sep. 7, 2023 99:55:31)

I just tried running Opera Fatal again (Director V404) last might and noted some changes to the gameplay. Just wanted to provide a quick FYI gameplay status update in case it might help overall Director 4 development...

• No changes to note for the game's opening splash screens or cut scene. (Issues noted previously remain)

• Upon entering the music hall now, clicking the mouse button to perform an action, (move around, open door, pick up inventory (or other) item) the action doesn't always occur on the first mouse click (as expected). Oddly, though, the sound FX associated with the action DO occur on the first (and any successive..) mouse clicks as expected. Some kind of newly-introduced timing issue maybe that's causing the need for multiple mouse clicks to perform an action? All actions I tried last night eventually occurred ... but not always on the first mouse click.

• A new, white inventory bar now appears at the bottom of the game screen (as opposed to the black bar that is expected...). When I picked up the red/silver screwdriver and caught the black mouse located in the drawers of the desk inside the box office, the items disappeared from the game screen as expected and I noticed the cursor would change to a hand (manipulate) cursor when i moved it over the certain parts of the white inventory bar where the driver/mouse were stored (even though the bar itself remained all white and I couldn't actually see the items). I did not see the items reappear in the game screen when I tried to click/drag them out of their white bar locations back onto the game screen. This all seems to be progress, I think...?

• An odd note regarding the white inventory bar. I tried to click/drag the bar when it had no inventory items in it yet and it would not move (as expected). But once I added an item to the inventory, I was able to click/drag the white bar all over the gameplay screen for some reason. Very strange. The bar appears to be an overlay that becomes unlocked once populated...?

• Last, I also noted that the hand cursor also appears when the mouse scrrolls to the far right side of the white inventoryu bar. When I click the mouse at this location, the entire game screen goes black ... except for the hand cursor and the game's menu ("switch") icon now appears in the lower right corner of the game screen (as expected). Seeing the switch appear now is new. Immediately after this event, though, the game locks up and crashes out of SCUMM, which is also new.

I'm not smart enough to understand much of how you guys are developing SCUMM to run Director games but it is very interesting monitoring your progress from my "User" point-of-view and watching how your engine improvements for the Total-D game (I assume) are crossing over and improving other Director 4 games (such as Fatal...) as well.

All those working to incorporate the Directir engine into SCUMMVM are doing a great thing Thank you yet again for all your efforts... (And the young guy that wrote the Summer of Code blog for his Director efforts did a great job there as well... Kudos to him.)

[rvanlaar]

An update:

The black quadrant during the intro remains.

After opening the doors and entering the hall of the opera house I get met with:

WARNING: BUILDBOT: Uncaught Lingo error: BUILDBOT: b_getProp: Property he.dxr not found!

[mystrw1]

One othetr issue of note still exists with the opening cutscene :

The game's animated title screen does not process/transition properly. The title screen displays the out-of-focus/obscured title word ("OPERA") as expected ... but the word does not transition to its fully-focused form over a few seconds as it should. Instead, it seems to pause at its initial out-of-focus form for a few seconds and then "jumps" directly to fully-focused form (as the underline animation begins). Also, the 2nd title word ("FATAL") never displays on the title screen (directly beneath the underlined "Opera") as it should.

And then, yes, the gameplay fails upon entering the music hall. I've tried playing the game over the past year using then-current latest daily builds and it's interesting how the gameplay inside the hall has both improved and then regressed at different points in time. (all in the name of Director progress, though...)

Thank you for your continued efforts with the game...