Original code from John Miles/John Ratcliff

AESOP/32 compiler/documentation from John Miles
(aesop32.zip)

AESOP/32 runtime from John Miles (uses MOD32SND - see below)
(runtime.zip)

MOD32SND (sound mixer) from John Ratcliff (used by the AESOP/32 runtime above)
(sound.zip)

Newly done things

AESOP/32 runtime interpreter build from sources (the complete project in the "Open Watcom" enabling to build an AESOP/32 interpreter which works with the "Eye of Beholder 3")
(AESOP_INTERPRETER_BUILD_2a.zip)

... Two open source libraries from John Miles page are needed (AIL and VFX). Go to http://www.thegleam.com/ke5fx/ to download th […]
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...
Two open source libraries from John Miles page are needed (AIL and VFX). Go to http://www.thegleam.com/ke5fx/ to download them.
...
After compiling the project ARUN.EXE is created, rename it to INTERP.EXE - this is the interpreter.
How to use it:
a) Copy EOB 3 files into a directory
b) Convert EYE.RES for the AESOP/32 (using the DAESOP utilitity - see the previous posts and DAESOP README.TXT)
c) Copy files from RUNTIME.ZIP to the same directory (overwrite)
d) Copy the new INTERP.EXE to the same directory (overwrite)
e) Copy MCGA.DLL (from VFX library) and sound DLLs (from AIL library) to the same directory (overwrite)
f) Start DOSBOX
g) Configure the game
h) Run the game

DAESOP 0.85 utility (resource extractor/replacer, bytecode disassembler, informs about resource types and string resource values, converts the
EOB 3 to the AESOP/32 - bitmaps/fonts/patching).
The DAESOP can now convert the "Eye of Beholder 3" to the AESOP/32 engine and the game is fully playable as far as I know (using the binaries provided by John Miles), though it needs more testing to be sure that everything is ok...
(DAESOP_0_85.zip)

List of the "Dungeon Hack" functions not in the AESOP/32 (potentially useful in future when adding support for DH into AESOP/32)
(ADDITIONAL_DH_RUNTIME_FUNCTIONS.TXT)

The original thread will *probably* not be restored. I will try to add some other things from the old thread here in future.
Feel free to ask if the old thread contained something important for you I did not add here. I have backup of most of things from the old thread.

Mirek

what is the point? don't get me wrong but the original author would not release the sources IIRC... unless the archives above contain a better engine?
I actually own EOBIII from when it was released, I could NEVER enjoy it on my 386sx back then...

http://74.125.47.132/search?q=cache:z8aFcGYbK … clnk&cd=2&gl=us

mirekluza DOSBox Moderator no avatar Joined: 2003-08-21 Posts: 1756 Yesterday I received some nice things from John Miles. I di […]
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mirekluza
DOSBox Moderator
no avatar
Joined: 2003-08-21
Posts: 1756
Yesterday I received some nice things from John Miles. I did not check it in detail yet, but it looks like complete sources for AESOP/32 compiler and documentation.
There is no runtime interpreter (too much SSI copyrighted things), though I think that interpreters from EOB 3/Bungeon Hack *may* be usefull (I did not check)...

John Miles explicitly permitted to use it without any restrictions (he owns the copyright). See below.

Just one comment to the quote below: as far as I know 32bit version of AESOP never shipped... Or has anyone seen it? It should be recognizable by using extender (DOS4GW). John Miles made it as patch for EOB 3 (fixing slowdowns) and submitted to SSI. My guess is that it never gort further... If you know anything else I would welcome the information...

Quote:

...
We did try to make the code as reusable as possible, with the
goal of not only shipping multiple games with the same engine,
but making the engine usable by less-technical artists and scripters.
If you reinvent the engine every game, the game
authors never get a chance to master the technology.
...
Here's the 32-bit compiler and manual; looking at arcmsg.h, it
appears we still called it "AESOP/16," because the bytecode
interpreter used 16-bit native words. I don't know if the
version of AESOP you have is the 32-bit DOS4GW-based one or not,
but they were very similar.
...
I own the copyright to the AESOP package itself, and as far as
I'm concerned, it can be considered public-domain. You can do
anything you want with it, forward it to Michael, post it online,
upload it to a warez site, whatever. Happy I did remove the
runtime interpreter code, though, because it would be way too
much work to separate my own code from the parts that are owned
by SSI's corporate heirs.

-- john

Mirek

I finished the entire game with AESOP/32 and published my playthrough on youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=3E2550459C8A4766

With AESOP/16 I had many problems, even in DOSBox.
With AESOP/32 the game feels almost as fast as the first two games in the series and the choppiness/slowdowns/audio issues that the original game have, even with DOSBox, is gone, including the sound-go-quiet-when-moving-cursor-issue. This is a definite must have "patch". 😀

For those who just want to play, only a few files is neccessary;
AESOP.EXE
DOS4GW.EXE
INTERP.EXE
A32ADLIB.DLL
A32MT32.DLL
A32SBDG.DLL
A32SPKR.DLL
MCGA.DLL
(from runtime.zip)

EYE.RES renamed from EYE2.RES (Copy EYE.RES to the extracted DAESOP_0_85.zip and run EYECNV.BAT to get eye2.res, about 6.5mb)

aaahhhh!!! finally a ready-to-use new engine!!!
From what I see there is also no copy protection right? (I actually own 3 versions of EOBIII, do I need to take out a manual? currently I am just using a TRSI patch 😊 ) Gonna test it later!!!

edit: how do I set sound? It uses the same utility as the normal version? will my LAPC-I work? I just take those files, drop them in the normal EOBIII directory (replacing if needed) and all is good to go? Will I finally play and enjoy it after all those years , surpassing the disappointment of getting this original in my 386sx years? 🤣

The version I ended up with had copy protection when I tried it, so I had to use the fix from stanislavs site.
There's only one single check in the entire game though.

To set the sound, type SOUND at the prompt inside the EoB3 folder. I used MT-32 with Timidity++ with Shane's Soundfont and it seems to have LAPC-1 support.

I think moving those files is all you need to do. EYE.BAT is probably not needed.

So, what about Dungeon Hack?

I just tried it, it crashed after hitting 2-3 times the ghosts on the 1st level

edit: yep, always crashing after fighting the ghosts 🙁

I went back and retried and I could defeat plenty of ghosts without issues. I ran the game in DOSBox with 15000 cycles, sound, graphics etc, everything runs perfectly fine.

allright more testing...

1. game does not crash in a XMS-only enviroment. Only himem.sys loaded, sb16 init stuff and ctmouse.
2. with XMS only, then the sound routines have problems: you can only hear one sample at a time, and if a new one starts then the previous gets cut and there is lots of sound "popping" noises... also mouse seems off-center, it appears some pixels lower than it should...

the original actually behaves better and with the same speed on a p200mmx 😖
My test pc is a p200mmx , 64mb ram, a sb16+db50xg + lapc-i sound combo and a riva128 4MB vga... it actually gives me almost zero probs in other software too

this is what I get after hitting the ghosts in the 1st level a couple of times:

I believe this is sound related, replacing dll's from the sound drivers either crash on startup or freeze the computer...

I wish sometime in the future (unlikely though...) some great coder like amiga's CFOU! creates a pc-version of EOB trilogy with the same features as CFOUS's engine (most notably: AUTOMAP)

http://eob.wikispaces.com/EOB2+AGA+GAME

Am I right to presume that EoB3 is a different engine, just with the same visual look as one and two? That would mean that making EoB3 work on Amiga is like coding a new game from scratch (or at least rewriting/porting the code), a project which is unrelated to the AGA project of EoB1 and 2.

EOB1, EOB2 have the same engine , like Lands of Lore that uses a more advanced version of it. EOB3 uses it's own engine.
Now since all 3 games have their data analyzed (eob1+2 from cfous's work) and 3 from the available sources, it could be possible to build more advanced versions, the amiga ones are used as an example of what can be done with the games....
...one can dream 😀

With a lot of testing, I found out that the previous procedure was wrong. Ignore my previous instructions and instead take INTERP.EXE and MCGA.DLL from runtime.zip (look above). I wish mirekluza was here to set things straight. Note that if you follow the instructions in the post from 2009-1-22 @ 08:24 am, you will get issues, such as a dysfunctional mousecursor and popping sound (that is, if you use the precompiled ARUN.EXE from AESOP_INTERPRETER_BUILD_2a.zip and MCGA.DLL from Miles website).

awesome!!!! I will test+report later , mega thanks for the update!!!

edit:

OK I tried it, it does not crash , mouse is OK but there is sound popping... samples do not cut off, but there are "pops" . Those "pops" appear also in the normal version, but are more quiet...

When do these pops happen?
In my game the game pops when MIDI goes on and off, but that's about it.

I also noted that the audio is especially bad in Warriors' Tomb, mostly thanks to the monsters sound there, but gets better later on. Look at my playthrough on youtube (link in my first post here) and see if it sounds similar to what you are experiencing.

the pops I am experiencing happen all the time, when you fight a monster for example and there are several samples playing... your videos definitely sound better

Have you tried to dump the entire runtime.zip and sound.zip in there? just overwriting all the files?