Hi Michael, Answers throughout your message:
> *snip* > @Draconis: > I haven't bought Change Reaction 2 or Silver Dollar either for Mac or > Windows, so I can't compare the two versions... > However I tried your games before you introduced your new engine. > I am talking now not of technical features or your internal design of the > engine or the games. > I however remember the time where there still was a long and nice readme file > or some form of a game manual which you could access without running said > game, allthough some ingame help, samples (not for a trial version, but for > learning game play mechanics) or some interactive tutorials are also not a > bad idea. *snip* > Modern video games typically include instructions, tutorials, etc, inside the game itself. Additionally, large numbers of users were confused, as they never looked for the manual that was installed in the Start menu. They just ran the game from the desktop shortcuts, causing them to contact us wondering how to play the games they had purchased. We think including instructions inside the game is a much more intuitive solution. Including the game instructions inside the game also allows us to embed sound effects in the text which helps illustrate game play in a more effective way, which cannot be done in the same way with a text file. We have debated whether or not to offer downloadable manuals from the website for newer titles, so that users who really want them can download them, but we’ve gotten so few requests for text manuals that, so far, we feel our resources are better spent developing new products. It’s probably worth noting that this list’s active members tend to forget that they are not the whole of the blind gaming community. While most of the active members here have been around long enough to check the start menu for game manuals, etc, that is not true for the majority of the customer base. *snip* > Since I haven't seen the full versions of Silver Dollar or Change Reaction 2, > I can only comment on the Windows version of the Draconis Show Case program... > And I am seriously wondering why it is impossible to actually choose which of > your SAPI voices you want to read for you and why it seems that interupting > any speech takes a long time meaning that when any key is pressed or any demo > or level or recording is started the voice still reads the description of > that game or game mode while the recording or game level is already running, > which should not be. > If I want to listen to any description of a game mode, I'll surely listen to > the entire thing. > But when I know what I want to do, I want to skip that, but not that it still > is talking while I have already started something. > @the users who actually have either Silver Dollar or Change Reaction 2 for > Windows: > is it the same with SAPI for you in that you can't choose the SAPI voice from > within the game and takes it over a second to interupt any spoken message > like help or game or mode descriptions before you actually start them? *snip* Whatever voice you have chosen as your system voice for Windows will be used in the game. If you change your system voice, the game will use the new selection. Some third-party voices, as far as we have been able to determine, do not correctly implement the Windows speech API, and it sounds like those are the problems you are running into. I suspect if you changed your system voice to, for example, one of the defaults provided by Microsoft, you would not see the same problems. We haven’t had the time or resources to devote to testing with very many third-party SAPI voices, especially since, so far, Windows sales have not justified that much effort or expense. --- Gamers mailing list __ [email protected] If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to [email protected]. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to [email protected].
