SCI Resource Viewer

[MusicallyInspired]

A dude on the Janitorial Times posted this beauty.

http://www.geocities.com/sciviewer

It can view the resources of any SCI game from version 0 through 32 (from games like Police Quest 2 through SWAT 1 or King's Quest 4 through King's Quest 7!). It also has sound preview support and uses the MIDI mapper to send the MIDI information so you can use your regular MT-32/SC-55/whatever box and the sound comes out flawlessly! This could revolutionize the way some of us record music from Sierra games since you wouldn't have to worry about firing up the game to find each piece of music. All you'd need to do is open up the game and preview each sound resource file! This would omit problems like missing tunes and speed issues in games where you don't get to hear all of the theme played. It also has looping capability so it can play sound files and loop at their specific programmed loop points.

Also it maps out the sound effects and speech files from the Resource.AUD and Resource.SFX files individually so you don't have to open the huge resource.aud file in an audio editor and search for a certain sound effect or speech line in a haystack. Personally, I think it works better than GAP.

I noticed some cool things in KQ7 while browsing through the picture resources such as uncoloured backgrounds. Strange that they'd scan in sketches right into the game! Anyway, check it out!

[NewRisingSUn]

I wonder if I know the author...

[MusicallyInspired]

BTW, NRS, I tried it with SQ4 CD patched with your updates and it doesn't work. Apparently the picture formats use an older version that tricks the interpreter but crashes for this program or something.

[Ari]

What a wonderful program!! 

[Tom]

WAAAAY COOL -- Thanks!

[Caliburn]

Yaay!  Ever since Carl Muckenhoupt's great SCI Decoder from the DOS days, I've wished for an updated version that could handle more resources, the SCI32 interpreter, etc.  Carl did not have the time to develop it further himself, as I recall.  Finally, such a thing exists!

I wonder if some of this could be incorporated into Brian Provinciano's SCI Studio (both the original version and the never-finished VGA version), which isn't quite as comprehensive in its support, but which allowed for editing of the resources, since it was meant for amateur game makers.

Since music is one of the perks of this new viewer, one small improvement I might suggest for an updated version would be sending SysEx.  Currently, unless I'm missing something, I have to send the SysEx to the MT-32 in advance using another program, which is no big deal, of course, but it would make the viewer even cooler if it could do this itself.

-Luke

[MusicallyInspired]

Nope, you're missing something. You can send sysex with the program. When you go into the sound resource of choice make sure the Track is set on Roland MT-32, and the Patch is set to Roland MT-32 and check the box next to "Upload". Then when you play the sound file it sends the sysex before it plays. You only have to do it once just like in the game so uncheck it for all your other sounds. Another way is to go into the patch resources and select initialize from the dropdown menu and press the upload button. You can also select Reset from the same dropdown menu to reset the MT-32 back to its default settings, I presume.

The feature I'm waiting for is some Adlib emulation preview and extracting ability. Or maybe the ability to export the sound resources as MIDI files.

[Ari]

Yes, that's definitely a problem. The only way I can think of doing this, at the moment, is using another program to record the MIDI data, and that kind of defeats the purpose, although when using the Loop feature, this is probably mandatory anyway.

[MusicallyInspired]

Well it's still easier to record with another program when previewing from this program rather than going through all the trouble to actually fire up the game.

[NewRisingSUn]

If it's just that, I have written myself programs for extracting resources as well as converting them to Standard MIDI files, as Alistair can attest. They are command-line based, however --- no fancy graphical user interface.

[MusicallyInspired]

Send em here!

[parazythum]

I didn't pay attention at first, I thought it was an april fool joke !

No, it really works ! Wow.

[MusicallyInspired]

It seems that the creator is going to add MIDI exporting of sound resources very soon! He also said he was going to see about keeping the MIDI device open while the program is running so that the MT-32 emulator doesn't keep closing causing you to check the "upload" box for the custom timbres every time you preview a song. I don't think there's much of a need for it since the MT-32 emulator isn't perfect yet, but I suppose it's handy for those SCI0 games that you can't listen to in General MIDI.

[Kaminari]

SCUMMRev for Sierra games! I'm shocked. MIDI support is fantastic.

Best April's Fool in years :)

[MusicallyInspired]

Not being one, I agree with you!

[Kaminari]

Codename: Iceman works great (thought I'd mention it since it's not listed in the supported games), however I'm having problems with KQ4 and LSL2. MT-32 sounds weird in both games on my CM-500.

The first one is no surprise I suppose, since AdLib channels are activated but SCI Viewer doesn't allow to toggle them off (checkboxes are greyed out). In Larry, the problem is different. Some instruments sound all wrong (or don't sound at all), unless I manually upload the SysEx provided by Quest Studios with the title song ("For Your Thighs Only"). SCI Viewer doesn't detect any patch in my installed game.

[Ari]

AFAIK, LSL2 doesn't use any custom patches, so it might be that your CM-500 has another sound bank already loaded, which causes the instruments to sound wrong. Or am I not giving you enough credit? 

[Kaminari]

it might be that your CM-500 has another sound bank already loaded

Ah, but that would have been way too easy :)

I have a habit of resetting the synth every time I run a different game or listen to a different soundtrack. I've rechecked many times and LSL2 sounds wrong with the default setup. But if I load the SysEx from Quest Studios beforehand, SCI Viewer plays the tunes as intended. The game does work correctly in DOSBox, so I'm at a loss as to why instruments are wrong with SCI Viewer.

[Tom]

Aren't the patches in the LSL2 patch bank...altered?  I mean, they're the default MT-32 instruments, but the sounds are arranged/accessed in a different order.  The bank is required for proper playback.

[Kaminari]

Most likely. In DOSBox, the game appears to load something to the synth before any music starts. The SysEx should be rather small, since the upload doesn't last more than two seconds.