Option Question

[Efriim]

The static opening with the shifting overlaying colors, is there a way to make it lengthier?

[Knight Captain]

Do you mean the red in BG and blue in SI when loading a saved game, for example?

[Tribun]

Maybe he means the static before the Guardian appears? It is pretty short, should be longer (and with sound).

Btw., since how screen resolution is handled got changed, any chance of using the original SI loading screen?

[Gotcha!]

To be honest, it's a bit of a pity that the loading screen is that short.
I liked staring at the swirling blue when I was a kid.

The (only?) downside of fast loading times!

[agentorangeguy]

Hahahah yeah, back in the day you had to look at that screen for almost a minute!!

[Efriim]

Yes, that is what I meant. I rather enjoyed staring at it for a minute.

[Dominus]

@eyan: no, it's not configurable

@tribun: what do you mean with screen resolution and original SI loading screen?

[Knight Captain]

Use DOSbox and just before it appears use the lower-cycles keys (Shift-F12 I think) to lower the CPU down. Then you can enjoy that for a minute or more.

Bonus if you have the sounds of a groaning Bigfoot hard disk.

[Gotcha!]

Oh man, bigfoot hard disks. I remember installing those ridiculous looking things at my first job.
You make me feel old.

[Efriim]

Are those the hard drives that actually use a motor belt?

Another question for exult, is there a way to disable the Serpent Isle portraits for The Black Gate in start new game? Also you cant equip cloaks in the Black Gate.

[Knight Captain]

No, but they were huge. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_Bigfoot

The default install does not force using SI portraits in BG. And I don't believe there were cloaks in BG?

[Dominus]

If you see the SI portraits in BG you are using a patch or a mod

[Efriim]

I am using the source built on a ARM based single board computer, and exult runs very well, it seems impossible to get this quality in dosbox. Thanks for the answers though, maybe Ill figure it out. In exult BG it allows you to wear the cloaks which I have nothing against, I only noticed it.

[Dominus]

There are cloaks in BG but indeed you couldn't wear them in the original. We allow them to be worn.

[Efriim]

I have a strange memory of a weapon that doesn't seem to exist in serpent isle.
It was like a Dragon Sword, I sort of remember it at the edge of the mountain past the sleepy marsh, one-handed, it had a red accent, such as a red pommel, or hilt, any idea of what I'm thinking about?
Has anyone else discovered the portal room in the Black Gate?

[Efriim]

There is that dagger that swings like a sword and with a red accent, does it have a name? I must have dreamed it, I don't think I've ever found that dagger in Serpent Isle. There is probably a few people that found the portal room, I found it because I never had the answer's to the question's in the beginning. I had the CD version with part II I don't remember ever having the map. I could answer the questions right in Serpent Isle some of the time because I had the Cluebooks.

[Gotcha!]

That sword certainly exists, in Shamino's Castle.
You'll have to whack open a chest, there's no way to unlock it.

It's in a room with 8 chests: Four are unlocked and empty, four are locked and need to be smashed.

[Gotcha!]

And the dagger you're talking about is a Great Dagger, and only exists in The Black Gate, not Serpent Isle.

[Efriim]

Ahh, so it is there, I can't imagine how I found it the first time. I was beginning to think I dreamed about it, with all the falling asleep in the marsh and reading about glass swords going on back then. Then I began to think that maybe I cheated the great dagger into serpent isle, and it was more powerful.

[Efriim]

I still haven't figured out how to disable the Serpent Isle avatar portraits from Black Gate start new game. It isn't a great problem, I'm trying to set it up for a friend and want to convey as much of the original experience as possible.
I have exult installed on a Raspberry Pi 3 B+, built from source. Is this "exult\data\bg_mr_faces.vga" at all relevant, I guess not since removing it didn't appear to effect anything. Is there a way to invoke the exult binary differently? Is there a way to remove the version number from the corner (1.5.0git)?

[Dominus]

if you have SI portraits in BG you are using a mod or a patch!
We do not add those otherwise. Clear your patch folder http://exult.info/docs.php#patch_install

exult/data/bg_mr_faces.vga is not relevant. If you used "make install" it shouldn't have been copied over. Only the *.flx files (as these bundle the files from the source data folder).

And yes, you can remove the version number in the source but I'd rather you didn't.

And lastly, please do stay on topic. I'd rather have a seperate topic than having all your questions lumped into "Option Questions"

[Efriim]

Of course, I will see to it from now on that my threads have a clearer meaning.

As for the exult/data/blackgate/patch & mods are without directories and clear, I have the Serpent Isle installed in exult/data/serpent/ and there are no Patch or mods directory.

I installed version 1.5.0 snapshot in windows and I get the same deal. I will try installing or copying Ultima7 from the complete CD, and using exult 1.4.9 as I have been using the GOG installer. If it doesn't work I will move on, thank you for your answers.

[Dominus]

That's very odd.

[Dominus]

I'm gonna need the terminal output of Exult. It should not display the SI portraits. In fact it can't unless there is a patch or mod (keyring mod). Exult does not access SI's faces.vga. It only uses the paperdoll data

[Dominus]

huh... the mind is a wonderful thing to waste...
We did indeed add the SI portraits at one point to allow for multi-ethnics Avatars like SI.
And there is no way around that.

And please do not use Exult 1.4.9 - it's way too buggy to be used anymore (and it won't "fix" the SI faces, btw.)

[Efriim]

I can appreciate the idea but it is role-playing after all. The portraits look out of place. I propose that collaborate to create unique ethnic portraits that are more in tune with the original artistry in the Blackgate. What are the dimensions, of the Ultima 7 portraits?

[Gotcha!]

Artists are hard to find. I am sure they'd have preferred to have custom-made portraits that look the part.

[Dominus]

52x41 pixels and we did keep the original white blonds and took the other portraits from SI but made sure they have the same frame art as the BG Avatar.

If you really want to disable it, search for multiracial and you can find a spot in shapeid.cc where you can potentially disable both the faces and Avatar shapes.
Edit: it's not as easy but you could maybe fix it by doing more investigations.

[Efriim]

I made a few laughable attempts in ms paint, it's really hard. The portrait is 51hx41w is the extra line used for the palette?

[Dominus]

it's 52x41 when I extract the portrait and view its dimensions. and yes pixel art is hard. That's why it was easier to use existing art...