Re: [Audyssey] Games like Chrono cross
Hi Ian, Nope, I haven't played it, was just curious because I spent many happy hours as a kid bashing away at Snes titles and only marginally less hours bashing away at Snes9x a couple of years ago. Sounds like you're well on the way toward an awesome hack there man! Excited to take it for a spin whenever you've got something playable. Cheers for the info Scott On 5/27/14, Ian Reed supp...@blindaudiogames.com wrote: Hi Scott, I modded Snes9X myself and my changes are small. My modded version takes interesting information that is given to the PPU and serves it up to another app via TCP. The whole point is to get this information into my other app where I can turn it into new accessibility features on a per game basis. The information consists of things like the tile maps for each of the BGs, their offsets, and the sprites and their positions. This is the information the PPU has, so it's what the game gave it and essentially what Snes9X is currently displaying to the player. But it is information at a higher level of abstraction than taking screen shots of the final rendered product and trying to get useful information out of those. So for example, I've ripped some of the tiles out of Chrono Trigger and identified all the letter and number tiles. This means that I get a sort of simple but very accurate OCR on any screens that use the one character per tile format. I can even label icons like a sword icon that means attack power or a shield icon that means defense, etc. So when looking at the character stats screen I can have all the stats read via text to speech. When I'm done I expect to be able to tell where the menu pointer sprite is and determine which chunk of text or icon it's pointing at. That way I can do text to speech for the currently selected menu item, useful in the party menu and in combat menus. I'm currently working on dialog text, meaning the text format that is used whenever NPCs talk in the game. It is not a one character per tile text like is used in menus but instead it is custom drawn. Fortunately there is still a predictable way to get it and turn it into text to speech. When I finish with that I'll go on to sprites and hopefully get menus much more accessible. After that I plan on doing some simple sound indicators so you can at least tell when your character is moving, in which direction, and when he is stopped at a wall. Then position announcements for other NPCs / sprites currently on the screen. And very last, if I can get someone sighted to play through the game and identify the ripped tiles for floors, walls, treasure chests, etc, then I could provide a tile by tile exploration of what is currently on screen, like the camera in BK3 or the grid in Tactical Battle. There are a few other ideas that could follow as well. Like I said, there's still a lot to be done. Getting all this information out of the emulator is the most difficult part because the code is very low level and the results are images, which I can't see well enough. I've been using a text representation of pixel images and gotten sighted assistance when that's not enough. But I think I'm about half way through all the low level code, which is good. Even with all these features it will still be more difficult than playing with sight, but that is mostly due to the difficulty of representing a mainstream game in audio than the lack of interesting information. Have you played Chrono Trigger? Can you play it at all now? Ian Reed Try my free games at http://BlindAudioGames.com On 5/26/2014 6:47 PM, Scott Chesworth wrote: Hiya Ian, Interesting project! What can you do with that modded version of Snes9X? Have there been other accessibility tweaks made that I've managed to miss finding out about? Scott --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. 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/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. 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/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] Games like Chrono cross
I loved Chrono Trigger. I have many fond memories of playing it when I was younger. In April I started on a project to add accessibility features to it using a modded version of Snes9X. I've made some good progress but there's still a lot of work to be done. And even with accessibility features it will always feel a bit clunky because it was designed as a game for the sighted. But I'm excited to play it again some day. Ian Reed Try my free games at http://BlindAudioGames.com On 5/24/2014 11:49 PM, Devin Prater wrote: Hi all. I've been entranced by the chrono series from the moment I heard the music and read the storyline. I really hope that programmers of audiogames will become good enough to write a game with a storyline and battle system as in depth as the chrono series. Sent from my iPod 5 keychat/google talk: r.d.t.pra...@gmail.com primary email: d.pra...@me.com facebook/iMessage: devinpra...@live.com --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. 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/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. 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/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] Games like Chrono cross
I've always wanted to be able to play that game. Keep up the great work as always sir! On 26/05/2014, Ian Reed supp...@blindaudiogames.com wrote: I loved Chrono Trigger. I have many fond memories of playing it when I was younger. In April I started on a project to add accessibility features to it using a modded version of Snes9X. I've made some good progress but there's still a lot of work to be done. And even with accessibility features it will always feel a bit clunky because it was designed as a game for the sighted. But I'm excited to play it again some day. Ian Reed Try my free games at http://BlindAudioGames.com On 5/24/2014 11:49 PM, Devin Prater wrote: Hi all. I've been entranced by the chrono series from the moment I heard the music and read the storyline. I really hope that programmers of audiogames will become good enough to write a game with a storyline and battle system as in depth as the chrono series. Sent from my iPod 5 keychat/google talk: r.d.t.pra...@gmail.com primary email: d.pra...@me.com facebook/iMessage: devinpra...@live.com --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. 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/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. 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/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. 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/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] Games like Chrono cross
Hiya Ian, Interesting project! What can you do with that modded version of Snes9X? Have there been other accessibility tweaks made that I've managed to miss finding out about? Scott On 5/26/14, Ian Reed supp...@blindaudiogames.com wrote: I loved Chrono Trigger. I have many fond memories of playing it when I was younger. In April I started on a project to add accessibility features to it using a modded version of Snes9X. I've made some good progress but there's still a lot of work to be done. And even with accessibility features it will always feel a bit clunky because it was designed as a game for the sighted. But I'm excited to play it again some day. Ian Reed Try my free games at http://BlindAudioGames.com On 5/24/2014 11:49 PM, Devin Prater wrote: Hi all. I've been entranced by the chrono series from the moment I heard the music and read the storyline. I really hope that programmers of audiogames will become good enough to write a game with a storyline and battle system as in depth as the chrono series. Sent from my iPod 5 keychat/google talk: r.d.t.pra...@gmail.com primary email: d.pra...@me.com facebook/iMessage: devinpra...@live.com --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. 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/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. 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/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. 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/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
Re: [Audyssey] Games like Chrono cross
Hi Scott, I modded Snes9X myself and my changes are small. My modded version takes interesting information that is given to the PPU and serves it up to another app via TCP. The whole point is to get this information into my other app where I can turn it into new accessibility features on a per game basis. The information consists of things like the tile maps for each of the BGs, their offsets, and the sprites and their positions. This is the information the PPU has, so it's what the game gave it and essentially what Snes9X is currently displaying to the player. But it is information at a higher level of abstraction than taking screen shots of the final rendered product and trying to get useful information out of those. So for example, I've ripped some of the tiles out of Chrono Trigger and identified all the letter and number tiles. This means that I get a sort of simple but very accurate OCR on any screens that use the one character per tile format. I can even label icons like a sword icon that means attack power or a shield icon that means defense, etc. So when looking at the character stats screen I can have all the stats read via text to speech. When I'm done I expect to be able to tell where the menu pointer sprite is and determine which chunk of text or icon it's pointing at. That way I can do text to speech for the currently selected menu item, useful in the party menu and in combat menus. I'm currently working on dialog text, meaning the text format that is used whenever NPCs talk in the game. It is not a one character per tile text like is used in menus but instead it is custom drawn. Fortunately there is still a predictable way to get it and turn it into text to speech. When I finish with that I'll go on to sprites and hopefully get menus much more accessible. After that I plan on doing some simple sound indicators so you can at least tell when your character is moving, in which direction, and when he is stopped at a wall. Then position announcements for other NPCs / sprites currently on the screen. And very last, if I can get someone sighted to play through the game and identify the ripped tiles for floors, walls, treasure chests, etc, then I could provide a tile by tile exploration of what is currently on screen, like the camera in BK3 or the grid in Tactical Battle. There are a few other ideas that could follow as well. Like I said, there's still a lot to be done. Getting all this information out of the emulator is the most difficult part because the code is very low level and the results are images, which I can't see well enough. I've been using a text representation of pixel images and gotten sighted assistance when that's not enough. But I think I'm about half way through all the low level code, which is good. Even with all these features it will still be more difficult than playing with sight, but that is mostly due to the difficulty of representing a mainstream game in audio than the lack of interesting information. Have you played Chrono Trigger? Can you play it at all now? Ian Reed Try my free games at http://BlindAudioGames.com On 5/26/2014 6:47 PM, Scott Chesworth wrote: Hiya Ian, Interesting project! What can you do with that modded version of Snes9X? Have there been other accessibility tweaks made that I've managed to miss finding out about? Scott --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. 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/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
[Audyssey] Games like Chrono cross
Hi all. I've been entranced by the chrono series from the moment I heard the music and read the storyline. I really hope that programmers of audiogames will become good enough to write a game with a storyline and battle system as in depth as the chrono series. Sent from my iPod 5 keychat/google talk: r.d.t.pra...@gmail.com primary email: d.pra...@me.com facebook/iMessage: devinpra...@live.com --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. 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/gamers@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
