Hi Thomas,
Other than web based, I do not know of a single blind accessible game that puts
text on the screen that gets read automatically by all windows screen readers.
It has never worked that way. That is why we have always used recorded speech
and or sapi5.
BFN
----- Original Message -----
Hi Jim,
Yeah, the basic idea I had for this wrestling game is to create a
text-based game similar to Piledriver or Wrestling League Manager
accept I could add sounds, music, and/or create a better A.I. etc for
the wrestlers. Make the matches more realistic by tailoring the moves
to a wrestlers specific style of wrestling rather than a generic A.I.
for all wrestlers.
Of course, I could make it self-voicing too, add SAPI support, etc,
but I kind of find that unnecessary. The main reason is, and this
could be screen reader specific, but with Window-Eyes assoon as the
text changes on screen it reads everything automatically. That's why I
don't have really a problem with Frotz, Scare, etc for playing text
adventures. It reads everything as soon as the screen changes and I
don't really have to review the screen unless I missed something or
want to check a spelling etc.
Naturally, if this is an issue with screen readers like Jaws not
properly reading the text prompts I could use SAPI etc, but I hate the
idea of having to depend on any Windows specific technology like that.
The more dependencies I add the more code I have to remove and rewrite
for a non-Windows port. That doubles the time and effort involved.
Which brings me to another point you brought up in your message.
The main reason I currently don't have a Linux/Mac OS port of
Mysteries of the Ancients has to do with the API I was using during
beta 14/15. It appears that SFML has a bug in how it handles Windows
display drivers causing the API to blue screen and crash on certain
Windows PCS. So far the problem doesn't apply to Linux or Mac OS based
PCS. Obviously, for a stable comercial project SFML wouldn't work for
a game like MOTA.
There is an alternative API, which I eventually will be using, called
LibSDL. SDL doesn't have any problems with display drivers on Mac,
Linux, or Windows, and has decent keyboard and mouse input. The
joystick input is not quite up to DirectX quality so that's a
disadvantage for software developers. Although, SDL comes with an
audio API SDL Mixer I think I'd rather pair SDL with something like
FMOD or OpenAL which has superior 3d audio support, more DSP effects,
and things like that. Since all of this would take time I decided to
roll back to an older version of the engine, one using DirectX, and
release MOTA as is and wait for the rewrite of the cross-platform
engine. So that's why I have had problems with cross-platform
development.
However, with our wrestling game none of this has to be an issue. I
wasn't really planning on using SDL, DirectX, SFML, etc and simply
rely on simple input/output methods that every operating system uses.
Creating a simple input system such as pressing b for body slam or v
for virticle suplex is easy enough to do without resorting to low
level event driven input such as DirectInput or LibSDL provides. Of
course, if we are thinking something more than a text based game,
something a little more modern with speech, sounds, music, etc then it
would probably be better just to use SDL from the start.
As far as it being mainstream I wasn't saying i wanted to be
mainstream. I was merely pointing out that if I created it as a
text-based game some mainstream gamers might play it. True it isn't as
fantastic as WWE Raw VS Smackdown for the XBox etc but you never know
who might stumble across it and play it. My point simply was that text
games still have followers in some mainstream markets, and by writing
it as text it might apeal to that market.
HTH
Jim
Experience is something you don't get until just after you need it.
j...@kitchensinc.net
http://www.kitchensinc.net
(440) 286-6920
Chardon Ohio USA
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