Hi Scott,
Please see the email I sent to Willem for some of the details about the
development process.
In addition to that I'd add that a large portion of the code I use can
be re-used across other Super Nintendo games.
For example there is a fair amount of code for ripping tiles and sprites
out of VRam.
The code to rip custom rendered text is largely the same between Chrono
Trigger and Lufia 2, though there are a few tweaks that had to be made.
And the grunt work code for reading identification information from
files and matching identified tiles with those currently on screen would
all be the same across games.
So, a lot of code is reusable.
Regarding the things that change between games:
Each game needs it's tiles and sprites to be identified.
At this point I do not identify most tiles, just the text ones, but the
rest will need to be identified for navigational aids.
Each game also needs it's custom rendered text ripping adjusted.
And needs custom scripting for announcing only relevant information when
in menus.
So, in summary, it is still a lot of work for each game, but I've been
doing my best to generalize where possible so it is mostly about a
sighted person identifying tiles and sprites.
But some amount of custom code will always be needed.
I chose these games for 2 main reasons.
1. I enjoyed them in my youth and they have a lot of nostalgic value.
2. They are RPGs and either turn based or close to it, which gives a
player more time to attain information in audio.
I also looked at Final Fantasy 6 and 4, but am unsure of how they render
dialog text.
Final Fantasy 6 also uses BG Mode 7 when riding a chocobo or the airship
to give you a 3D first person perspective.
BG mode 7 is a form of direct drawing to the screen coupled with some
matrix transformations to get the 3D-ish perspective.
That makes it more difficult, though I think not impossible, to
transform it into navigational audio information.
I expect as the project continues I will work out more bugs and it will
become easier to figure out these other RPGs.
This project is very much new territory and it's uncertain how many
games can be made accessible.
But if one never tries, then it is certain.
Out of curiosity, are you a developer?
~ Ian Reed
Try my free games at http://BlindAudioGames.com
On 10/1/2014 6:25 AM, Scott Chesworth wrote:
Thanks for the demo, seems like it's shaping up to be pretty cool!
I'm curious, what's the development process like at the moment? As in,
how much info do you need to have about each game to start getting
stuff decoded into text? Is there a reason you started with these
games as proof of concept aside from liking them?
Cheers
Scott
On 10/1/14, Willem Venter <dwill...@gmail.com> wrote:
Hi Ian.
Well done on finding a very interesting solution to the problem of
reading text out loud from the snes emulator.
Did you wrap the function that renders the text in the emulator
window? I think the technique can also be used for any other
open-source emulator or game which has a function to "print text on
screen at location x". Something I think you should add is the ability
for excluding certain regions of the screen, or even prioritizing
reading of others based on some trigger (e.g color or wording).
Good luck with the rest of your project. Please keep us updated.
On 10/1/14, Ian Reed <supp...@blindaudiogames.com> wrote:
Hi all,
A while ago I started a project to see if I could make Chrono Trigger,
and possibly other games, accessible when played through the Snes9x
emulator.
I hadn't worked on this project for a while but was looking at starting
it up again and thought I'd make a quick demo to show people how far it
got.
http://blindaudiogames.com/Downloads/ChronoLufiaDemo.mp3
It shows Chrono Trigger and Lufia 2.
I'm calling the project SNAP, short for Super Nintendo Accessibility
Project.
Enjoy!
Ian Reed
Try my free games at http://BlindAudioGames.com
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