SWORD1: Implement Windows version of the audio engine

[lenny892]

In "Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars", several scenes are experiencing audio issues where ambient sounds do not adjust appropriately. These problems have been observed in both the German full version and the English demo version for Windows. Key scenes affected include the street outside the café, the alley opposite the café, and outside the pub in Ireland. In all instances, ambient sounds that should fade or disappear remain unchanged in volume, disrupting the game's immersive experience. These issues were not present in versions prior to ScummVM 2.8.0.

Steps to Reproduce:

1. Café Scene:
   • Start the game and proceed to the opening scene.
   • Enter the café with George.
2. Alley Scene:
   • From the café, have George walk to the alley across the street.
3. Ireland Pub Scene:
   • Navigate to the scene in front of the pub in Ireland.

Expected Behavior:

• Café and Alley: The street noises should diminish or disappear to allow for location-specific ambient sounds.
• Ireland Pub: The violin music from inside the pub should be very faint when standing outside.

Actual Behavior:

• Café and Alley: The volume of street noises remains loud and unchanged, as if George were still directly in front of the café.
• Ireland Pub: The violin music is almost as loud as if one were inside the pub, despite adjustments to the game's audio settings.

System Information:

• Operating System: Windows 11 Build 22631.3447
• ScummVM Version: 2.8.1 (issue also observed in 2.8.0)
• Game: "Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars", both German full version and English demo version for Windows.

[AndywinXp]

Thanks, I'll be looking at this right now. Please, for the future, refrain to set the priority to high; that should be for the developers to set, otherwise it would make noise with other tickets which are really blockers for any next release.

[AndywinXp]

Okay, I have an answer for this: I went through the code, through the game scripts and so on and... as stupid as it sounds, this is how it should behave! 😁

Recently we went through a phase of rewriting some parts of the Broken Sword 1 engine, in order to make it as accurate as possibly achievable with respect to the original executable; to do this we had access to the original source code of the game, so every change we made was motivated by the original code.

Now, what you are hearing in those situations of the game is surely jarring, but I compared this to the original running in DOSBox and it sounds exactly the same as ScummVM 2.8.1 (and as our current master).

One might think: "but it was working fine before!". Well... not really, let's put it this way: what was happening was that we were not interpreting some of the game scripts "instructions" correctly before, so even if sound effects sounded "better" before, there were a number of several side effects which could break the experience. Now with the new changes we are offering exactly what the original release offered, in every single aspect. Which is also good for any sort of preservation aspect. 😉

Also with the imminent release of the new Reforged edition I personally would refrain from doing ScummVM-only changes to the engine code, as I'm sure that at Revolution they will be doing any improvements better than we could ever imagine.

Also, the reason why you seemingly are not able to adjust the sound effect of the violin, is because that's on the Music channel, and not on the SFX channel. Try adjusting the Music fader instead.

I hope this answers your doubts about this ticket, thanks for your inquiry!

I'll be closing this in the meantime, as this does not constitute any bug per-se. If you feel that there is definitely a bug that is ours and is not on the original, feel free to reopen it.

[lenny892]

Thank you for the detailed explanation regarding the audio behavior in "Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars" as compared to the original DOS version. After your response, I took the initiative to install the original game in DOSBox and can confirm that the audio behaves exactly as you described in ScummVM 2.8.1 and in the original DOS environment.

However, I have also installed and tested the game on Windows 95 and Windows 98 SE systems, using a retro PC setup with a Slot 1 Pentium 2 and a Soundblaster AWE 64 Value. Interestingly, the audio behavior in these Windows versions aligns with how ScummVM functioned prior to version 2.8.0, rather than the DOS version. This discrepancy suggests that the audio behavior might have been different across various platforms for which the game was originally released.

I would like to add that ScummVM has always indicated that it emulates the Windows version of "Broken Sword: The Shadow of the Templars", not the DOS version. Therefore, I believe it would be most accurate for ScummVM to continue to emulate the Windows version faithfully. Those who prefer the DOS experience have the option to use DOSBox.

Considering this, it seems that the game's audio presentation might vary depending on the original system setup, which could be an important aspect for historical accuracy and preservation. I thought this information might be relevant for your ongoing efforts to emulate the game as authentically as possible.

Thank you again for your commitment to maintaining the fidelity of classic games. I appreciate your time and detailed feedback.

[AndywinXp]

Thanks, this is very insightful. As a matter of fact, the fact that we stated that we support the Windows version is kind of incorrect. When we were given the source code by Revolution in the early 2000s, we were given access to whatever was preserved at the time: the source code (which at its core is DOS based) also contains several Windows specific code; the code of the engine is then tied to some OS specific libraries (to put it simply: drivers).

We were given the DOS version of those drivers, so whichever work was always being done, it was derived from the DOS version. As far as we and Revoluton know, the folder for the Windows 95 engine drivers has long been lost.

The DOS version used a library called Miles Sound System for audio, I don't know about the Windows version, but the high level code controlling the level of the various sounds is apparently the same, so I wouldn't know what's happening there...

I'm not saying that a Windows specific reimplementation will never happen (this really sounds interesting), but it would involve reverse engineering efforts on the executable, so a lot of time and will to do the work.

[AndywinXp]

Maybe down the line, it would be nice to have ;)