Posted January 05, 2012
The purpose of this guide is to convert Eye of the Beholder 3, henceforth
referred to as EOB3, from the AESOP/16 engine that ships with the game to the
newer AESOP/32 engine. Doing so allows EOB3 to utilize 32-bit resources and
brings performance on par with the first two Eye of the Beholder games, fixing
the sound and slowdown issues. The original author of AESOP/16 and AESOP/32,
John Miles, has provided both binaries and source to the public domain and has
stated that this was meant to be an official patch.
This guide assumes that you have a retail installation of EOB3.
The original topic on EOB3 and AESOP/32 is available at VOGONS:
http://vogons.zetafleet.com/viewtopic.php?t=20601
Let's begin.
1. BACKUP COPY
--
Make a backup copy of your original EOB3 installation folder. This will allow
you to rollback to your existing copy if you run into a problem, and it also
serves as a comparison as to how much AESOP/32 improves performance.
2. NECESSARY FILES
--
The topic on VOGONS is not very clear on exactly what files you need or how to
perform the conversion successfully. The only necessary files are as follows:
runtime.zip - AESOP/32 runtime
http://vogons.zetafleet.com/download.php?id=5714
DAESOP_0_85.zip - AESOP decompiler
http://vogons.zetafleet.com/download.php?id=5717
3. AESOP/32 RUNTIME
--
runtime.zip contains the updated 32-bit binaries and quite a few files that
are not necessary. The other overlapping files have been binary compared and
are identical to those that were originally shipped with the game. You only
need to extract the following files into your base EOB3 installation folder:
A32ADLIB.DLL - 32-bit AdLib sound library
A32MT32.DLL - 32-bit MT-32 sound library
A32SBDG.DLL - 32-bit Sound Blaster sound library
A32SPKR.DLL - 32-bit PC Speaker sound library
AESOP.EXE - AESOP/32 stub program
DOS4GW.EXE - WATCOM 32-bit extender
INTERP.EXE - AESOP/32 interpreter
MCGA.DLL - 32-bit MCGA graphics library
4. AESOP DECOMPILER
--
DAESOP_0_85.zip contains the AESOP decompiler that is used to convert AESOP/16
resources to AESOP/32. The resource file EYE.RES has to be converted for the
new engine, and must be obtained from your existing installation. You can
accomplish the following without manually invoking the console or DOSBox:
a. Extract DAESOP_0_85.zip into a new folder and open it.
b. Copy in EYE.RES from your base EOB3 installation folder.
c. Run eobcnv.bat - This will generate eye2.res, the AESOP/32 resource.
d. Copy the resulting eye2.res back into your base EOB3 installation folder.
e. Delete the original EYE.RES and rename the copied eye2.res to EYE.RES.
5. CLEAN UP
--
Remove the extraction folder for DAESOP_0_85.zip.
That’s it, you’re all done!
6. DOSBOX VERSION NOTICE
--
EOB3 works best with DOSBox 0.73, as DOSBox 0.74 causes sound issues. This
problem occurs with both AESOP/16 and AESOP/32 EOB3 configurations.
--shadearg / v1.0 / Jan-05-2012
referred to as EOB3, from the AESOP/16 engine that ships with the game to the
newer AESOP/32 engine. Doing so allows EOB3 to utilize 32-bit resources and
brings performance on par with the first two Eye of the Beholder games, fixing
the sound and slowdown issues. The original author of AESOP/16 and AESOP/32,
John Miles, has provided both binaries and source to the public domain and has
stated that this was meant to be an official patch.
This guide assumes that you have a retail installation of EOB3.
The original topic on EOB3 and AESOP/32 is available at VOGONS:
http://vogons.zetafleet.com/viewtopic.php?t=20601
Let's begin.
1. BACKUP COPY
--
Make a backup copy of your original EOB3 installation folder. This will allow
you to rollback to your existing copy if you run into a problem, and it also
serves as a comparison as to how much AESOP/32 improves performance.
2. NECESSARY FILES
--
The topic on VOGONS is not very clear on exactly what files you need or how to
perform the conversion successfully. The only necessary files are as follows:
runtime.zip - AESOP/32 runtime
http://vogons.zetafleet.com/download.php?id=5714
DAESOP_0_85.zip - AESOP decompiler
http://vogons.zetafleet.com/download.php?id=5717
3. AESOP/32 RUNTIME
--
runtime.zip contains the updated 32-bit binaries and quite a few files that
are not necessary. The other overlapping files have been binary compared and
are identical to those that were originally shipped with the game. You only
need to extract the following files into your base EOB3 installation folder:
A32ADLIB.DLL - 32-bit AdLib sound library
A32MT32.DLL - 32-bit MT-32 sound library
A32SBDG.DLL - 32-bit Sound Blaster sound library
A32SPKR.DLL - 32-bit PC Speaker sound library
AESOP.EXE - AESOP/32 stub program
DOS4GW.EXE - WATCOM 32-bit extender
INTERP.EXE - AESOP/32 interpreter
MCGA.DLL - 32-bit MCGA graphics library
4. AESOP DECOMPILER
--
DAESOP_0_85.zip contains the AESOP decompiler that is used to convert AESOP/16
resources to AESOP/32. The resource file EYE.RES has to be converted for the
new engine, and must be obtained from your existing installation. You can
accomplish the following without manually invoking the console or DOSBox:
a. Extract DAESOP_0_85.zip into a new folder and open it.
b. Copy in EYE.RES from your base EOB3 installation folder.
c. Run eobcnv.bat - This will generate eye2.res, the AESOP/32 resource.
d. Copy the resulting eye2.res back into your base EOB3 installation folder.
e. Delete the original EYE.RES and rename the copied eye2.res to EYE.RES.
5. CLEAN UP
--
Remove the extraction folder for DAESOP_0_85.zip.
That’s it, you’re all done!
6. DOSBOX VERSION NOTICE
--
EOB3 works best with DOSBox 0.73, as DOSBox 0.74 causes sound issues. This
problem occurs with both AESOP/16 and AESOP/32 EOB3 configurations.
--shadearg / v1.0 / Jan-05-2012