sci-rave-hires-portrait-encoder

Sierra RIVE Encoder

For fellow Sierra and fans of the original King's Quest Adventure games this utility is the first of its kind (to my knowledge) that allows a person to edit/modify/create brand new RIVE encoded hires talking/animated portraits for the game King's Quest 6.

Demo Time!

https://github.com/deckarep/SCI-Rave-Hires-Portrait-Encoder/assets/200686/e6e95679-27f4-41f9-8ed1-12df32562d0f

Things you can currently do:

• Modify existing character portraits
• Modify existing character color palettes
• Create entirely new characters (based off existing characters)

Things you can't yet do:

• Modify lip-sync data
• Create new mouth/facial movements
• Go beyond 256 colors - a limitation of the original game not this utility.

How it works

A new character .json definition file must be created and you must additionally include the original game BIN file assets in a directory named Originals. These files are needed because the lip-sync data is pulled from these files which will be fully compatible with your new character and the game.

A reference character has been built in the folder: Characters/KingGraham that matches the original dimensions and voice movements. If an original game character had 16 images, your new character must have 16 matching images but the placement and sizing of these images can vary so long as they fit within the primary portrait dimensions of 112 Width x 154 Height. This is currently mandatory because the game expects portraits in this size however the size and placement of the overlay images can be different from the original.

Therefore to create an entirely new character you need to:

• Create a new directory in Characters/<char-name>/
• Create a new .json definition file
• Create a fresh set of .png images of the correct dimensions
• Run the command

Running the command

Currently the tool requires the Go SDK. If there is interest/demand, i'll provide a downloadable tool that requires no developer tools to be installed.

Simply point the utility to the appropriate JSON file in the appropriate directory and be sure that you have placed the same original BIN files in the Originals/ folder. This requires that you have your own copy of Hires version of King's Quest 6 where the original files can be found in a folder called: ACTORS/. Without these original .BIN files this script will error out.

Once everything is setup you can run the command like so:

go run main.go Characters/KingGraham/GRAHAM.json

If the command runs with no errors you should see a file generated in the character folder called: <character-name_GEN.BIN>. Which can be placed in your version of the KQ6 ACTORS/ folder. Be sure to overwrite the existing character or the new file will not be used by the game.

Credits

This utility was only possible by referencing the RAVE file-format documented in the SCUMMVM implementation. Many thanks goes to the original contributors to SCUMMVM and the FreeSCI project who took to the time to reverse engineer Sierra's great gaming legacy.