[Feature request] Some suggestions for VorpalFix

[ViperAcidZX]

I want to thank you for making this plugin, it address many of the problems I had with the 2011 remaster of Alice like the missing Cheshire Cat hints and Vorpal Blade sounds, making it convenient to launch the game, and adding some much-needed quality-of-life improvements to this game. I was wondering if I can some some suggestions your way for consideration with VorpalFix?

• Automatic DPI scaling fix: The game (and its original 2000 version) lacks DPI scaling to scale based on resolution if the OS is set to scale programs, text, etc. to 200%, which is something I depend on since I have a 4K display and text would be incredibly small to see otherwise for general use. Examples (best viewed on separate tabs):

No DPI scaling fix

DPI scaling fixed

• Mouse cursor scaling fix: The mouse cursor in the game does not scale with the game's displayed resolution and it becomes very small on very high resolutions, especially in 4K. Example:

640x480

1920x1080

• HUD positioning fix: The HUD scaling fix is a great improvement for this version of American McGee's Alice, but the way they are positioned on the screen is too close to the sides of the screen in my opinion. While it's fine for 4:3 aspect-ratios, the way the HUD is positioned the same way as the original 2000 release (which also had the same issues when forcing custom resolutions) in 16:9 or 16:10 aspect-ratios where they can be too far apart in view. The Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions of the 2011 remaster repositioned the HUD elements in a way so it can easily seen comfortably in widescreen, but the PC version of the game lacks these HUD adjustments. Examples:

original 2000 version

2011 remaster on PC

2011 remaster on Xbox 360/PlayStation 3 (via someone's YouTube footage)

• Gamma/Brightness fix via shaders: The game handles brightness and gamma correction by messing around with your operating system's color calibration, a practice that was common in older PC games (American McGee's Alice included) and pretty inconvenient if it mess up a previous working gamma and brightness calibration on the system itself. Is it possible to make it so that it these settings are handled by the game's shaders similarly to how the dhewm3 source port and Silent Hill 2: Enhanced Edition project fix the gamma and brightness settings?

• Restore controller button prompts: Is it possible to restore the controller prompts the console versions of the Alice remaster had in the menus? The Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions had menu prompts that would display based on their respective platforms but they're completely missing on PC despite supporting XInput controllers.

2011 remaster's main menu on Xbox 360

• Alt+F4 fix: The game does not let you use the Alt+F4 key to close the game if you need to close it for an emergency. This was also an inconvenience for the original 2000 version.

• cg_shadows "3" for Cheshire fix: When enabling real-time shadows cg_shadows "3" it causes Cheshire Cat to go semi-transparent instead of rendering his shadows (and possibly other errors relating to cg_shadows "3"). Examples:

_cgshadows "1"

_cgshadows "3"

To be fair, this issue isn't exclusive to the 2011 remaster as it happens in the original 2000 version as well, and the console version of the 2011 remasters uses cg_shadows "1" anyways.

• Error with Menu Scaling Fix and the developer console enabled: A small issue I ran into with the Menu Scaling enabled and the developer console restored, the menu pillarboxes obscures the console while in the game menus instead of gameplay as shown here:

• Pause game/mute audio when out-of-focus: The game continues to run when out of focus, but oddly enough the game's music stops while all other sounds play in the background. Is it possible to add options to have the game either pause completely when out of focus, have the music not be muted or mute the rest off the sounds when the game is in the background?

• Remove cutscene letterboxing: Is it possible to add an option to disable the cutscene letterboxes that happens during in-engine cutscenes? The Alice HD mod by OmriKoresh includes something that gets rid of the cutscene letterboxing but the game always puts in letterboxes and I was wondering something similar can be implemented in VorpalFix?

Default

Alice HD mod

Thank you once again for this amazing fix! This plugin pretty much makes the 2011 version the definitive version of American McGee's Alice.

[Wemino]

Is it just me or does EnableControllerIcons = 0 not working as intended? I have it set to 0 yet the controller icons appear in menus when I have a controller plugged in.

Nice catch, fixed.

BTW if anyone is planning to play the game from start to finish I made this special build: winmm.zip

There is one function I didn't fix because it's a huge one and I don't know if the game is using it at all, I couldn't find a place or event where it was triggered from trying multiple saves.

When using this build, if this specific function is called, the game should display a message box and then crash afterward. If this occurs, I would like to know what is shown in the message box and when it happened during gameplay.

It's possible that this function is just unused so nothing might happen, but I am definitely curious about it.

[CRASHARKI]

Fixed vertical alignment for two-line messages in dialog box to match console versions

Are one-line messages supposed to be like console versions too? (They are completely centered vertically on consoles but they're not with the current VorpalFix version) (Ignore the youtube timeline)

[Wemino]

Fixed vertical alignment for two-line messages in dialog box to match console versions

Are one-line messages supposed to be like console versions too? (They are completely centered vertically on consoles but they're not with the current VorpalFix version) (Ignore the youtube timeline)

The one-line message look fine as it is imo, this is how most games are doing it.

[ViperAcidZX]

I was wondering, since the D-pad isn't used at all during gameplay, could it be possible to add the ability to hotkey any of the weapons to the D-pad?

I don't know if this is possible, but it would be great to be able to make language specific mods, like a pk3 that loads after the loc\base[language].pk3, so that the other languages can have HD mods and stuff like that too. Maybe something like the mods being placed on the loc folder and starting with the specific language name, like "base[language]_[mod name].pk3". It would be so good, but maybe it's too much to ask.

I'm curious about this too since the original 2000 release did have a Japanese version (where it was called Alice in Nightmare over there) and it even had a complete Japanese dub. I also stumbled across a gameplay video of a Korean version on the Xbox 360 version.

[Wemino]

I was wondering, since the D-pad isn't used at all during gameplay, could it be possible to add the ability to hotkey any of the weapons to the D-pad?

I'll think about it if I ever try to add SDL support.