path: root/TODO

Here is a list of things we plan to do for the future. Note that we
don't promise to do any of these, nor when we will do them. It's just a
list of what we hope to be able to do one day.

If you want to dig in, this is the stuff where you might make the most
useful contribution. Note that this list is never complete, and may be
partially outdated, so just because you don't see something here doesn't
mean it is not important.

Before you start work on something, you might want to talk to somebody
from the team. This will help us to prevent double work, i.e. several
people working on the same stuff at once without knowing about each
other.

Finally, always make sure to check out our bug tracker and our feature
request tracker for things that need work


#######################################################################
# Docs, Web site
#######################################################################

General
========
* Add more doxygen comments. However, quality is preferable over quantity
* Add port specific user documentation (dreamcast/palm especially). That
  would include things like:
  - How to use ScummVM on system XYZ
  - Which Palm / WinCE devices will run ScummVM, which definitely will not
    run it (or with which limitations)?
* Update/enhance man page
* Write a high level overview of how ScummVM and its engines work?

README / Manual
===============
  [Ender is working on a new multi-format manual/readme]
* Would be nice to have a HTML version of the README on the web page (and I
  don't just mean a big <pre> section; rather I mean "real" HTML with links
  and lists and tables etc.)
* Ideally, maybe we can convert the README to some meta format, and then from 
  that generate the text README, as well as a HTML one (and maybe also PDF?)
  Some candidates:
  - DocBook
  - texinfo
  - nroff/troff + PolyglotMan (http://polyglotman.sourceforge.net/)
  - tbook (http://tbookdtd.sourceforge.net/)
  - xml2doc (http://xml2doc.sourceforge.net/)
  - ...
* Some parts of the README probably could stand a workover. Right now the
  README is trying to be brief (it's "just" a README after all), but it really
  is the closest thing we have to a proper ScummVM manual. So either we just
  decide to turn it into a full blown manual, or maybe make a even shorter
  README, and a MANUAL with full details, examples, screen shots etc.
* Restructure the contents of our README (our manual...) a bit. A rough and
  incomplete draft of how that might look:
  + Introduction
    - What is ScummVM
    - History
    - Contacting the developers
    - Reporting bugs
  + Supported Platforms
  + Supported Games
    - Copy Protection
    - Simon
    - BS notes
    - Using mac data files
  + Getting started
    - How to get ScummVM (binary, source)
    - Compiling (with more detail than now)
    - First steps (basic setup, getting a first game to run)
  + Running ScummVM
    - Command line options
    - Hot Keys
    - Savegames
  + Configuration
    - Using the launcher
    - All config file switches in detail
    - Graphics Filters
    - Music and Sound (mostly like now; maybe under the 'Configuration' section)
  + Glossary? (explaining abbreviations etc.)
  + Credits
  + Index? (would be nice, for example 'fullscreen' would link to the hotkey,
     the config file setting, and the command line option)

Web site
========
* Add the "Manual" / README to the site
* Redo the screenshots. Mostly this means adding more (and maybe removing or
  replacing a few). What I have in mind are that we follow these guidelines
  (which aren't set in stone nor laws, just guidelines :-)
  - For each unique game, provide 2-3 screenshots
  - Have at least one shot for each major variant of a game (with major variant
    I mean visibly distinct versions, like Zak V1 vs. V2 vs. FM-TOWNS; or
    Monkey Island EGA vs VGA vs CD).
  If I am counting right, that should place us at about 2*(18+2+1+1+1)=46
  screenshots, compared to the current 32 (and more if we start adding HE
  games).


#######################################################################
# Common code, infrastructure
#######################################################################

General
=======
* 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?
* 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".
* Default to saving games in $HOME if in savepath is not defined maybe something
  like ~/Library/ScummVM/ for OS X and ~/.scummvm/ for everything else

Build System
============
* Add test(s) for backend usability in the configure script.
* Enhance the Makefile-based build system to support VPATH and stuff, so that
  one can compile scummvm in a directory tree separate from the source tree.
  That would make it possible to build ScummVM with different build options,
  e.g. have one debug build and one optimized build.
  Fingolfin implemented most of this; the only thing missing is that configure
  should detect when it is run in a directory outside the source tree, and in
  that case generate a custom Makefile, with content like this:
	srcdir = /path/to/source/dir
	vpath %.cpp $(srcdir)
	vpath %.h $(srcdir)
	include $(srcdir)/Makefile
* Allow automatic re-runs of configure (this would have to 'save' the values of
  env vars like CXXFLAGS and also command line params)
* Add an install target to the Makefile - Copy binary, install manpage, add
  menu items, install README. See also patch #891909 (Gnome/KDE .desktop file)

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)
* Clean up the "premixer mess": instead of having a custome premixer hook, add
  a "callback channel" or something like this. This removes special cases from
  the code, and it also makes it possible to apply sound rate conversion to
  premixers, which makes it easier to write and maintain a premixer proc.

Config Manager
==============
* 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.

Files
=====
* Add a FilesystemManager or FileManager or so which should unify and/or
  replace the current File/FilesystemNode classes (and maybe SaveFileManager).
  The goal is to make these things as portable as possible while keeping it
  easy to use for the coder. Some new functionality we need:
  - check for existence of file/directory
  - check whether given directory is readable/writeable
  - convert FSNode into a string representation (for prefs file)
  - convert said string representation back to FSNode
  Of course that can be added w/o a FileManager class, too - but it might be
  nice to have all of these integrated.
* Get rid of the hardcoded (sub)directory list in the File class. At the very
  least, that list should be set by the engine (since not all engines need all
  of the subdirs). Better would be to introduce a somewhat higher level API,
  a replacement for File::open() which (optionally) takes a list of subdirs.
  E.g. for Scumm, only certain files are to be expected in the VIDEO subdir).

Game Detector
=============
* Improve the detector for games with all datafiles in subdirs (i.e.
  Broken Sword 1 & 2). This could work by letting the detector proc recurse
  into sub directories...

GUI
===
* Remove hardcoded 320x200 assumptions, use game screen size
* Add ability to scale GUI (ie. to make the GUI less tiny in COMI)
* Remove code duplication between EditTextWidget and ListWidget (i.e. text 
  editing code; maybe we can factor that out into a common base or aggregate
  class... not yet sure).
* Fix EditTextWidget::drawCaret and ListWidget::drawCaret support for alternate
  fonts (the current code overdraws chars partly, and relies on the fact that
  our default built-in font has a seperation pixel column on the *left* side;
  most other bitmap fonts have it on the right, though). To this end, we maybe
  should backup the background before drawing the caret, and restore it when
  erasing the caret.

Launcher
========
* Add more options to global options dialog
* Add more options to game target options dialog 


#######################################################################
# Engines / frontends
#######################################################################

General
=======
* Fix engines so they clean up after themselves, to allow proper re-entry
  to the launcher. See "FIXME: LAUNCHERHACK" in base/main.cpp

SCUMM
=====
* Make it possible to restart games properly
* Add method of setting initial debug channels from command-line
* 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|

* Figure out how to extract resources from Apple II and Commodore 64 versions
* Figure out how to extract resources from Turbografx/PC Engine version of Loom
* Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade EGA: Add inventory support for Macintosh version
* Loom EGA: Add support for music and sound effects in Macintosh version
* Support all Mac games without needing rescumm. These games being: dott,
  samnmax, dig & ft. See above point.
* Add support for sound effects format found in Sega CD version of Monkey
  Island
* Add support for NES version of Maniac Mansion
* Add support for handling Kanji in FM Towns games (foreground is rendered on a
  second plane at 640x480), text uses Shift_JIS encoding
  [implementation now that currently depends on font rom, not needing the rom
   would be preferable]

* Fix C64 costume code
* 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
* COMI: Fix setActorChoreLimbFrame opcode (see bug #754419, "Wally's Fake
  piratehook still on ground after pick up")
* V7-8 games: Implement smooth horizontal scrolling (instead of scrolling in
  increments of 8 pixels). See bug #629417.
* COMI (maybe V7 games, too?): "Fix" CHARSET_1 behaviour when the room scrolls.
  In particular, when text is drawn via CHARSET_1 and then scrolling takes
  place, the text scrolls, too - but it really should stay fixed. There are
  several ways to do this that I can think of. One would be to use an overlay
  screen (i.e. use virtscreen 3, which isn't used at all currently) to draw
  the text; then "compose" that screen over the main screen.
  Or constantly (well, at least whenever the camera moves) redraw the text.
  That would require buffering the text; maybe the blast text code could be
  reused for this...
* Add tool and support for compress *.la* file resources (ex. sounds) to fit
  on small devices 
* Fix codec44 for nut fonts
* iMUSE Digital:
  - Fix music code (done, but not tested yet)
  - Implement pool method data transfer between imuse and sound mixer
  - Add save/load code
  - Add code for MP3 and Ogg Vorbis compressed datafiles
* SMUSH:
  - Add support for compressed gfx frames by zlib
  - Add support for codec 37 opcode 1, for PC version of FT demo
  - Get rid smush mixer add code for imuse to handle smush tracks and cleanup channel code
  - Add code for MP3 encoded sound tracks (distant future)
  - Make code more clear in some places (subtiles code for ex.)
* Humongous Entertainment Games
  - Add proper handling of sound and speech in Humongous games
  - Add support for returning the correct music status for the digital music
    used in 3DO versions of Humongous games.
  - Add sound pitch support and fix missing sound effects for piano mini game
    in fbear
  - Add support kernelSetFunctions/kernelGetFunctions, used for displaying 
    images on birthday cake in fbear and images in painting game of fbpack.
  - Add rename/delete file support, to make file opcodes function correctly
  - Fix akos asserts in puttmoon, caused by butterfly at start, robot near
    garage and rock animations near rocket.
  - Fix freezes when letting butterfly into fireworks factory and playing alien
    tag in puttmoon
  - Fix bugs in actorOps case 218 implementation, actor backgrounds should not
    be reset
  - Fix creature behind garage door disappearing in moondemo
  - Fix remaining masking issues, when cars come out of garages in puttputt and
    when Putt-Putt gets off the chair in Cosmic Dust Diner of puttmoon
  - Fix missing sound effects in puttdemo
  - Fix 'costume x undefined x x' errors in veggie head mini game of fbear
  - Fix tangrams game on fbpack, only centre item can selected at the moment
  - Document and fix AKOS differences in Humongous Entertainment games
  - Support various newer Humongous Entertainment games

Broken Sword 1 & 2
==================
* Currently BS1 & BS2 duplicate some code for MPEG2 playback. It would seem
  logical to share that code (for all the usual good reasons).
  We might even want to add a "video" dir (analog to "sound") for the shared
  code, if it can be rewritten so that it's reusable.
  DO NOT ADD SUCH A DIR without first consulting with Ender and Fingolfin !

Broken Sword 2
==============
* Enforce ScummVM code formatting guidelines. (Mostly done?)
* Encapsulate the code into sensible objects. (Partly done.)
* Enable the CD swapping code. (Partly done.)
* Support cutscenes in some kind of open video format. (Partly done.)
* Fix the credits so they look more like the original. (Did we ever get the
  source code for that?)
* Compressed speech / music clusters. (Some work done, but not in CVS yet.)

SIMON
=====
* Add support for dictionary files in Amiga and Macintosh versons of
  Simon the Sorcerer 2
* Add support for Protracker music format used in Amiga versions
* Add support for drawing main graphics correctly in Amiga versions


#######################################################################
# Backends
#######################################################################

General
=======
* 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 :-).
* Change backends to directly access the config manager
* Add API to query backend for a list of available music engines
  Useful for Options dialog
* Sony PS2 Port
* Update PalmOS port to run on PalmOS based Zodiac handheld 
  [Chrilith is working on this via a Zodiac simulator]
* EPOC32/Symbian port. Might be able to start based on existing P800 port,
  however that code seems to be old and would need extensive work to be
  usable in post-0.6.0 ScummVM. Note: NGage uses Symbian OS, too...
* MS DOS port using Allegro <http://www.talula.demon.co.uk/allegro/> and
  DJGPP <http://www.delorie.com/djgpp/> ?
* Intent <http://withintent.biz/> port (already done by David Given, merge?)
* Digita OS port? (play games on a select few digital cameras...)
  <http://digita.mame.net/reviews.htm>

X11 backend
===========
* Update it to support the latest OSystem changes
* Make it work with multiple bitdepths
* Add frills used by SDL backend like graphic filters usage and CD audio


#######################################################################
# Tools
#######################################################################

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.
* Proper implementation of o6_startObjectQuick decompilation (see comment in
  descumm6.c). May requre rewrite of core program logic