Using Beneath a Steel Sky as the point of reference:
- The ScummVM version used is from the end of 2017
- The sound, especially speech, is way too loud by default
- Due to the age of the version being used a lot of options aren't available which make the game look far better on a 1440p monitor in my case

Is that the quality GoG is going for with their recent "reinforcement" of focusing on classic games?

I think anyone who is invested enough to care about such things is likely going to use the latest ScummVM in its own folder and just get the needed game files from the GOG version.

That said, yes they should update them.

Calling it invested is the wrong word in my case: it's just the default speech sound is way too loud to enjoy out-of-the-box, and the lack of scaling options due to the old version results in a pixelated mess on a 1440p monitor, ergo it's either "Suck it up" with the default or going out of your way to learn about ScummVM on your own.

I agree with the need of new scumvm version in the GOG games but the scaling options in this old version are basically the same as in the new versions. normal, supersai, HQ ddraw or opengl... and maxmum of 3x scaling etc

Press alt+F5 ingame and the scummvm options will be shown. It seems that you are running the game without any change.

You can wish for https://www.gog.com/wishlist/site/update_dosbox_and_scummvm_games_to_latest_versions but see the bluetext comment from June 2012, which was GOG's position back then at any rate. (If memory serves it was TET who posted it, but presumably his account no longer exists.)

That's not entirely true. Normal (my preference) now goes up to 5x, which allows for a fairly sharp image even on a huge resolution. The other ones may not have such high scaling factors since it's essentially a separate filter for each scaling factor, but there are other new options that dictate how the image is scaled up after passing through the filter.

It was probably in the very last versions. I remember forum topics about that regard demanding it. I wonder if this guy has been considering ScummVM garbage in 1080 monitors for years.

My point of view is that he is just overreacting. Because the whinning about the sound too loud just means he has not changed any option under the ScummVM menu. Nothing to do with new or old versions

Also there are other games more needed f a new ScummVM version than This one, for example Zork Inquisitor to make the existing DVD GOG version useful.

Greetings

If you haven't already, go to https://www.scummvm.org/downloads/#release and run Beneath a Steel Sky using the latest version of ScummVM.

That said, I'm sure there's a few games out here still running 0.72-0.73 out there. (Which I'd switch them all to Staging, but that'd probably too ahead for a company that cannot be bothered to upgrade MojoSetup from a decades old version.)

I agree, there is no real reason for GOG to update the installer just to include a newer version of ScummVM when it would mean it would have to go through QA testing all over again. Even more so when there is no real benefit to updating and doubly more so when it is a game given away for free. It is perhaps a bit silly to have a bad volume mix as the default, but again - it's a free game. That is indeed the solution. I don't play any GOG ScummVM game with the stock version, I always add it to my "master" version of ScummVM.

What GOG would ideally like to do, and what they can find time etc to do, are very likely different things.

And as always, it would simply be a matter of priorities, and I imagine updating ScummVM in older games at GOG would be way down the list.

At least with a GOG game, you have the option of updating it yourself. And usually easy enough to get help if you need it, via their forum etc.

Learning about ScummVM is a good investment timewise.

If you use default installations from GOG, Steam, and other places, you will need to tweak something every time you start playing a new game.

If you install your own ScummVM, you can set some things in global settings, and theoretically, have some settings in place for thousands of games to play.

Obviously there are always some game-specific things, but there are default settings for scaling, volume, and lots of other things, so I really can't see any situation where using any default installation is preferable.