path: root/TODO

General
=======
* Add plugin system (both dynamic & static plugin support)
  [if you want to work on it, ask Fingolfin about this, he already has done
  some planning. Also make sure that your system support 'static' plugins, too]
* Revise the way "quit" is handled. Maybe add a global variable "g_quit" which
  we set when the application should be quit (e.g. when an EVENT_QUIT is
  received). This is useful if multiple levels of event loops have to be ended
* Fix the Map<> template, make it more robust; maybe use a red-black tree?
* Add iterators to List<> template and make use of them
* Allow for return-to-launcher instead of a normal "quit" ?
* Improve the argv (command line args) parser
* Extend the Plugin API to provide for "game detection": instead of the
  GameSettings::detectname "hack" to detect files, provide a callback
  in each Plugin which given a FSList returns a list of candidate targets.
  This way, a plugin can implement tests more elaborate than filename
  checking, e.g. it could actually peek into the files.
* Make some generic "EventLoop" API/class which all backends and the GUI
  use. Initially this would just call the backend poll_event() etc. methods.
  But eventually the EventLoop object(s) could be made by the backend.
  This may allow for more efficient CPU usage etc.
  The current event handling model essentially is polling: the engines run
  some kind of main loop, which, besides many other things, also polls and
  dispatches events. The idea is to turn this around: the event loop
  frequently gives the engine time to do these "other things".
* Remove various parts from GameSettings struct: "id", "version", "detectname".
  Those are only needed internally by the plugins, and hence shouldn't be
  exported. On the long run, "midi" and "features" might be removed, too.

GUI
===
* Implement "tabs" for multi-pane prefs dialog
  -> could also be used by the Scumm help dialog in scumm/help.cpp
* LAUNCHER: fix global options dialog to be properly persistent
* LAUNCHER: add more options to global options dialog
* LAUNCHER: add more options to game target options dialog 
* Global & game target options dialogs probably could share some "panes"
  -> write code allowing this
  -> also, 'in game' option dialogs (for volume/scaler/etc. settings)
     could potentially reuse these, too

Audio
=====
* Get the high quality resample code to work
   [Fingolfin has started work on this]
* Add a command line/config file option for the output sample rate (to allow
  for output sample rates other than 22050 Hz, e.g. 44100). Code should do
  sanity checking (e.g. restrict to rates between 8000 - 65535 Hz)

Config
======
* Preserve comments in config file somehow
* Add a 'notification' system. E.g. the SoundMixer could request to be notified
  whenever the value of the "volume" config option changes. In other words,
  instead of a "pull" approach (where each subsystem has to check whether any
  config option relevant to it has been changed) we use a "push" approach.
  Of course the current approach is "push", too: whenever e.g. the volume
  setting is changed, the code doing so has to updated the SoundMixer etc.
  That's cumbersome, and error prone. Would be much nicer if updating the
  volume config value automatically notifies the SoundMixer, iMuse etc.
* Change backends to directly access the config manager
* During the config rewrite, some command line switches were disabled.
  Gotta decide what to do about each of them: reimplement, remove, replace?
  In particular: -w and -l (those were kind of oddball switches, IMHO);
  also -z should be split into two seperate functions (see TODO comment in 
  GameDetector::list_games())
* Reconsider and reevaluate our command line options. I propose some changes:
 - add long alternatives for (almost?) all options. There should be some generic way
   to specify this, in order to avoid code duplication and to simplify the code
 - some more obscure options which currently have a single-letter options assigned
   really don't need it. E.g. the "-t<NUM>" option probably is rarely used, and anybody
   who needs it should still be happy with "--tempo=NUM"
   This will make room in the ranks of single-letter options for other more useful options
   (for example, "-t" could stand for "List (T)argets")
 - -y, -t, -c, -j all are candidates for this, IMHO: their settings are rather obscure,
   and anybody who needs them always should put them into the config file anyway



SCUMM
=====
* Fix C64 costume code
* Make it possible to restart games properly
* Add support for handling Kanji in FM Towns games (foreground is rendered on a
  second plane at 640x480), text uses Shift_JIS encoding
* Figure out how to extract resources from Apple II and Commodore 64 versions
* Document and fix AKOS differences in Humongous Entertainment games
* Support various newer Humongous Entertainment games
* Implement file related opcode stubs needed for Humongous games
* Add support for graphics codecs used in 3DO versions of Humongous games
* Proper handling of .tlk files for Humongous games
* Merge iMUSE and iMUSE Digital
* Implement the needed INSANE bits for Full Throttle action sequences
* iMUSE Digital enhancements/fixes for Full Throttle and COMI
* Try to remove all use of MAD/Ogg code from scumm/sound.cpp:
  Ideally, only code in sound/ should access these libs. This will
  become important for loadable module support
* Add support for TFMX music format in Amiga version of Monkey Island 1
  Check http://darkstar.tabu.uni-bonn.de/~neo/audio.html for music format details
* Add support for sound effects format found in Sega CD version of Monkey Island
* Rename scummvm.cpp to scumm.cpp for consistency. [Fingolfin is working on
  this, please don't do anything about this before talking to him].
  1) Try to get scummvm.cpp fixed for ViewCVS [in progress!]
  2a) If 1) succeeded, file SF.net CVS file rename request
  2b) If 2) failed, do brute force file rename (cp && cvs add && cvs rm)
  3) Adjust Makefile and project files to use the new name
* Possible implement a new resource manager, which then also could be shared
  by ScummEX. [Jamieson has some ideas about this and might work on it|
* Make opening of resource files not depend on target names for the games with
  resource files like targetname.xxx.  This is needed for bundled mac games.
* Support all Mac games without needing rescumm. These games being: dott,
  samnmax, dig & ft. See above point.

Broken Sword 2
==============
* Replace all uses of std C file I/O (fopen, fread, fwrite, fclose) by
  the File class (excluding that in SWORD2_DEBUG). This is probably mostly
  done. I only find a few such calls in resMan::CacheNewCluster(), and that
  one needs to be rewritten anyway.
* Enforce ScummVM code formatting guidelines.
* Encapsulate the code into sensible objects.
* Enable the CD swapping code.
* Support cutscenes in some kind of open video format.

SIMON
=====
* Add support for Protracker music format used in Amiga versions
* Add support for decoding main graphics correctly in Amiga versions

Descumm
=======
* Turn it into a library, to be used by a command line frontend (like now),
  ScummVM debugger, and ScummEX. Basically, the API could consist of a single
  function, which takes a pointer to a memory buffer, its length, the Scumm
  version and optionally a game id. Also, it would get a pointer to a print
  function (in the case of the CLI tool, print to stdout; for ScummVM, print
  to our GUI console; for ScummEX, append to some window/widget)
* Rewrite code to use 2 passes; first pass builds an intermediate graph, the
  second pass then tries to detect loops, break/continue statements etc.

Backends
========
* Several of the backend factory functions take config parameters. It should
  be possible to get rid of those once the config system rewrite (see above)
  has been done. In that case, the backends simply can query the config
  manager for these parameters (or any others they might like :-).
* Add API to query backend for a list of available music engines
  Useful for Options dialog
* Add API to query backend for a list of available scalers/screenmodes
  (that is, a list of user presentable names, and corresponding PROP_SET_GFX_MODE
  values). This is useful for the options dialog
* Add PROP_GET_GFX_MODE (mirroring PROP_SET_GFX_MODE)
* Consider replacing the PROP_TOGGLE_* properties with GET/SET ones -> 
  this allows more control over these properties (like, it allows the GUI to
  display checkboxes for these in the options dialog)

SDL backend
===========
* Fix the "auto dirty rect" computing code - in particular, use a proper checksum
  algorithm, this should solve many of the problems with some luck
* OpenGL code: either fix it (see open bug tracker items and various hacks in the code),
  or remove it. Does anybody really need this???