Docs/FAQ updated - need help

Post by **Dominus** » Thu Apr 30, 2009 6:21 pm

Hi all,
I've updated the documentation and FAQ a bit in the last couple of days. This is all still regarding Exult version 1.2, I have not yet done anything regarding the countless changes that got added to CVS/SVN since ... wow... five years ago...
Escpecially the audio code and how the mods/patches are integrated into Exult needs work ASAP

I know... been lazy...
Anyway I'm asking for help especially in regard to the FAQ section http://exult.info/faq.php#Bugs,%20known ... 20features
I've been so detached from what actually got fixed and changed in Exult that there might be a lot of nowadays no longer real issues stated

So if anyone finds the time and wants to browse through the documentation and FAQ and finds stuff that is really different, please either write here or write me an email.
AND if you have suggestions on how to write things in a different way, especially to make things easier to grasp, please write as well.

Again, please don't bother with the audio stuff and exult.cfg things, these I will take on anyway

Thanks!!!

Post by **marzo** » Thu Apr 30, 2009 8:33 pm

I will go over it tomorrow and be sure to note any things that have changed since then.

Wizardry Dragon · Post by **Wizardry Dragon** » Fri May 01, 2009 12:19 am

Regarding mods: mods are accessed by clicking a "Show Mods" icon under the main screen, and then selecting the mod that you want to play.

I'm actually unsure how it displays "new" games though.

The configuration file for a mod can be named anything that ends in .cfg, and it is placed in the /mods/ directory. This is a change from past behaviour where changes were put in a /patch/ directory, which only allowed for one "mod".

TFL's tfl.cfg can serve as an example of a mod configuration file:

ULTIMA VII
THE FEUDAL LANDS

1.4.01cvs

__MODS__/tfl/savegames

As you can see, its basically an XML file.

The properties, in case this is not apparent:
display_string - the title of the mod to display in the mods selection screen
required_version - the version token from Exult to look for to run the mod. If you attempt to run the mod on a version with a different string, it should give you a warning.
savegame_path - the path which to save the player's savegames to. The __MODS__ token is a shorthand for the /mods/ directory.

I also proposed __EXULT__ for exult's path, for people who want to for example have /exult/tflsaves/ /exult/u7saves/ or something like that, but I'm unsure if that got implemented.

That's all the properties for a mod in the config file to my knowledge, but Marzo can correct me if I am wrong.

Regarding mod savegames: savegames from the mods of a game will be incompatible with savegames from the original game, and vice versa, in much the same way that exult saves are incompatible with the original Ultima VII's saves, and vice versa.

Wizardry Dragon · Post by **Wizardry Dragon** » Fri May 01, 2009 12:24 am

A couple other points:

- Speaking as someone using the mentioned Nvidia chipset from the FAQ - the "smooth scaling" feature results very quickly in graphical corruption, but the graphics work fine otherwise.

- I believe Marzo did a lot of work from ammo.dat and the weapons file to find out what the data means, though I'm unsure whether they were implemented or not. On either note, I do know Marzo has done a lot of work in figuring out the data for things in ES, though. Theres a ton of stuff in the data tabs now that wasnt there when I started doing TFL.

Post by **marzo** » Fri May 01, 2009 3:32 pm

Still going through the FAQ, but some notes about what Wizardry said:

I'm actually unsure how it displays "new" games though.

New games are displayed like BG and SI are on the main menu. They can also have their own mods.

Games and mods can also be started directly from the command-line/shortcuts (both in Exult and in ES).

1.4.01cvs

That should probably be changed to 1.4.05cvs for the next alpha.

The __MODS__ token is a shorthand for the /mods/ directory.

Correct. There is also "__MOD_PATH__", which evaluates to the mod's dir.

I also proposed __EXULT__ for exult's path, [...]but I'm unsure if that got implemented.

It didn't, no.

That's all the properties for a mod in the config file to my knowledge, but Marzo can correct me if I am wrong.

Here is the full list:

Code: Select all

    mod_info/mod_title         Internal name of the mod, can be used in the command-line
                               to specify the mod in question (--mod ). This sets
                               the value of "__MOD_PATH__". Defaults to the mod's cfg file
                               name sans extension.
    mod_info/display_string    What is displayed in the 'show mods' menu.
    mod_info/required_version  Minimum Exult version for the mod.
    mod_info/codepage          Codepage that ES uses for the mod. Defaults to CP-437 (DOS).
    mod_info/savegame_path     Where the savegames are stored. Defaults to "__MOD_PATH__".
    mod_info/gamedat_path      The gamedat path for the mod. By default, it is equal to
                               "__MOD_PATH__/gamedat"
    mod_info/patch             Where the mod's data is stored. By default, it is equal to
                               "__MOD_PATH__/patch"

I believe Marzo did a lot of work from ammo.dat and the weapons file[...]though I'm unsure whether they were implemented or not.

It is, except for one thing I figured out but haven't implemented yet (some weapons can be used to target tiles) and the things I haven't figured out yet (nontrivial data with no effect I could notice).

Post by **marzo** » Fri May 01, 2009 3:57 pm

This is all in regards to the linked section, and all regarding the snapshot:

Birds and animals open doors and such, like the human and sentient creatures of Britannia do.

There are some intelligence checks in place, so this should be less common; but you may still see a very smart animal opening doors (stats are determined randomly from the values in the ES tab).

Combat works differently.

There were some somewhat recent changes that made it much more similar; it is likely still different, but the attack and damage formulas seem correct.

Negative health and unconsciousness.

Negative health makes you drop unconscious; you will not wake up until health is at least 0. I implemented the whole 'kneel-down and sleep' or 'kneel-down and die' animations for falling unconscious or dying too.

We don't know what all the data in 'weapons.dat' and 'ammo.dat' means, so hit points and damage don't work as well as in the original game.

As noted above, most of the data is decoded and (almost) all of the decoded data has been implemented. Damage and hit points should be a lot closer to the original now.

The speech in the intro is out of sync with the lips animation.

This has been fixed recently, I think.

A suggestion for "4.5. Known Compile Issues": in some versions of Ubuntu (and probably some other distributions), you have to add some X11 libraries or Exult won't link (for example, by adding "AC_PATH_XTRA" to configure.ac); this isn't needed in the latest version of Ubuntu (Jaunty Jackalope), though.

Wizardry Dragon · Post by **Wizardry Dragon** » Sat May 02, 2009 5:41 pm

Man, the names they come up with for Ubuntu installs are _odd_.

Another note: also now decoded in the Exult Studio tabs are a lot more information about the equipment profiles used to arm NPCs, and more information on the Monster tab.

(And as an aside, Marzo, did you get my email?)

Post by **marzo** » Sun May 03, 2009 12:53 am

And as an aside, Marzo, did you get my email?

Just dug it up from my spam folder; reply sent.

Post by **Malignant Manor** » Fri May 15, 2009 10:27 pm

You should probably the solution to this thread.

There is an issue with scaling and being in fullscreen. Exult might not detect the fullscreen (desktop) resolution and results in bad rendering (stuff may be offscreen, mouse artifacts, etc). This can be fixed by adding to the command line before starting Exult (not sure about NIX systems).

to have SDL try to autodetect it:

set SDL_FULLRES=0x0

or set it directly like:

SDL_OPENGLHQ_FULLRES=1280x1024

Post by **Malignant Manor** » Fri May 15, 2009 10:35 pm

You should probably the solution to this thread.

This is a different problem than the rest of my post.

Post by **Dominus** » Sat May 16, 2009 12:08 am

I didn'tforget about the sdl/fullscreen/w9x issue. Can you elaborate what the other part of your post is about?

Post by **Malignant Manor** » Sat May 16, 2009 12:45 am

Can you elaborate what the other part of your post is about?

I just tried to reproduce it and don't have a problem with it. I did at one point in time. I guess just forget it.

Post by **Dominus** » Mon May 18, 2009 8:20 am

I committed some of the Documentation changes. Except for the still missing Mod documentation, the docs are up to date, I think. I still want to tweak stuff, especially in the exult.cfg explanation, I want to colour those sections that you CAN'T change from within Exult. Also I have not proof read it yet, no spell correction and so on. Just wanted to get it out there, so people can look at it and point out blatant mistakes, or in the case of the Audio documentation correct me where I've obviously had no clue what I'm talking about

Best to view is the readme.html in \Exult\docs\, since that is the best rendered one

The doc will only be in SVN and I guess next snapshot, since the website documentation is for 1.2 and SVN for SVN

Again, let me know what you think so far, and thanks for the input you already gave.

Post by **marzo** » Tue May 19, 2009 1:44 pm

In the new docs, sections 2.2 and 2.4: for games, there are two more path settings that the "control freak" can use: and . They are at the same level as and the others, and respectively set the patch dir for the base game and the location of any mods.

Also in 2.2, 2.3, 2.4 and 2.5: somewhere along the line, it is worth mentioning that neither Exult nor Exult Studio "trust" exult.cfg completely; hence, if you have point to your Silver Seed install, Exult/ES will both recognize that it is SI not BG and will open it with --ss (and maybe --si too).

In 2.6: "--game game", "-mod modname": Worth mentioning that both are case-sensitive. Also, the latter option can also be used with "--fov" and "--ss". "--buildmap x" must be used with one of the game and mod options.

Post by **marzo** » Tue May 19, 2009 1:48 pm

and

Dominus: I just saw your email; so you may disregard this first paragraph.

Post by **Dominus** » Tue May 19, 2009 1:52 pm

thanks, I'll go back to writing

Post by **Dominus** » Tue May 19, 2009 2:54 pm

Ok, just updated the SVN with a new version of the documentation that now features Mods & Patch instructions and colored tags for manual settings in exult.cfg. Please let me know what you think of this. Especially I'd like to know how you like the different tags and/or if you think another color is better suited. Willem and me decided on the purple, but that is not written in stone.

The detailed instructions on the mod configs will be added to the Exult Studio docs when I get to it (after the FAQ), since these are not that really necessary for the end user but for the mod developers.

Post by **Malignant Manor** » Wed May 20, 2009 7:24 am

Some changes to Exult could possibly make things simpler (or worse depending on point of view).

Shouldn't the digital music toggle remove the midi options when it is enabled?

Should a check be put in to make ogg or sfx enabling impossible if no sfx package or ogg music is found (leaving a message on screen or perhaps just in stderr?) I know Exult plays midi if digital music is enabled but no oggs are found which can be confusing.

Post by **Dominus** » Wed May 20, 2009 8:33 am

yeah, I mentioned this with the digital music/midi options to the mailing list not too long ago.

I like the check for ogg files, but I wouldn't do it for the sfx, since the default is sfx on and people just have to drop the sb sfx into the data dir to enable the sfx.
Maybe you can add a feature request for the check.

Just now I also updated the FAQ (and the Docs a little) with about 18 changes, including instructions for the Windows 9x fullscreen issue.
I also moved the Win9x issues with the sound into its own section. I don't really know if those are really still an issue, but when Colourless did his massive change to the audio system our force_waveout option vanished, so I'm not sure if those issues have creeped back in. Anyway, with the batch file, this could be solved.

@Peter, when I went over the FAQ I looked at your first post here again and wondered about this:

- Speaking as someone using the mentioned Nvidia chipset from the FAQ - the "smooth scaling" feature results very quickly in graphical corruption, but the graphics work fine otherwise.

Do you mean the Nvidia 40.x drivers we mention at http://exult.info/faq.php#known_issues? Which chipset does have that problem you wrote about?

Post by **Malignant Manor** » Sat May 30, 2009 4:06 am

Are the dual_opl and volume_curve config options used anymore? My somewhat old search index of Exult doesn't seem to have them.

Formation is forced to yes unlike what the documentation says. This should probably be changed in Exult.

Post by **Dominus** » Sat May 30, 2009 5:20 am

Dualopl is no longer used and no longer in the documentation (or did I forget it somewhere in the docs?). Volume curve can still be used if I saw it right in the source.
I also think I wrote the correct setting for formation in the new docs.

I'm about to leave over the weekend, so please take a look at the docs in svn.

Post by **Malignant Manor** » Sat May 30, 2009 5:49 am

I had an issue with my index and updated it. I was able to find volume_curve.

Here's some missing settings that you will probably need to ask someone else for better clarification.

Code: Select all


	
		
			
				# not sure what default is, I think it is the list of what instruments (sound clips) to use
			
			
				65:0	# what port Exult tries to connect with ALSA
			
			
				/dev/sequencer	# I think this is the default (midi sequencer used?)

(I know you already stated this but since it is related and easy to miss in the thread, force_waveout is removed.)

Post by **Malignant Manor** » Sat May 30, 2009 5:53 am

Oops, I didn't realize that the web was outdated. Sorry, just disregard the last two posts.

Post by **Malignant Manor** » Sat May 30, 2009 6:00 am

I mean forget the post except this:

Formation is forced to yes unlike what the documentation says. This should probably be changed in Exult.

Post by **Dominus** » Sat May 30, 2009 6:03 am

current documentation in SVN says formation defaults to yes. As people wanted this more often than the one by DR.Code, it is now the default.
I have yet to speak with the other devs whether we should have the web documentation updated or not. As for now, the web docs are for version 1.2 and SVN is for SVN snapshots. If you download a current snapshot, it will have the new docs

Post by **Malignant Manor** » Sat May 30, 2009 6:10 am

There could have a branching page where people pick SVN Snapshot vs Release.

Formation doesn't just default to yes. It can currently only be yes.

Post by **Malignant Manor** » Sat May 30, 2009 6:28 am

I just remembered that I made a half-assed key list one time. I can try and make sure it is complete, give some explanations, and make it look better if you want.

http://exult.info/forum/viewtopic.php?p=23232#p23232

Post by **Dominus** » Sun May 31, 2009 4:39 pm

There could have a branching page where people pick SVN Snapshot vs Release.

Hmm, not quite sure on that. I'll have to post a question on this on the ML...

Formation doesn't just default to yes. It can currently only be yes.

Oh, now I understand what you mean. That that seems like a bug to me. Could you make a bug report on that?

I just remembered that I made a half-assed key list one time. I can try and make sure it is complete, give some explanations, and make it look better if you want.

Hmm, I'm not that sure what to do with that list. On quick glance this lists all the stuff you can find in the defaultkeys list. I don't see much use in adding that to the documentation as the people who'd actually need that are not that many. Maybe a link to the SVN browser of the defaultkeys list would be more appropriate.

Post by **marzo** » Mon Jun 01, 2009 1:17 am

Suggestion for the FAQ (probably after 1.13, maybe after 1.14 as well):

Will there be a version of Exult for ?

That depends on a great many things. For one, it requires a developer that (1) has the necessary free time, (2) the necessary knowledge about programming for the platform in question, (3) the necessary motivation to do the port and (4) access to the platform in question. Any of the Exult developers may lack one or more of the items above, but it will probably the fourth (and, by consequence, the third) item. This is likely fatal for the port: programming using an emulator (if one is even available) may result in a port that works on the emulator but not on the original (unless the emulator is that good), and programming without any access at all to the platform in question is a pointless and frustrating exercise in futility.

Moreover, some platforms might require U7 and/or SI to come bundled with Exult; that alone would disqualify any official builds for legal reasons.

Post by **Dominus** » Mon Jun 01, 2009 6:16 am

He he, good idea

That is a faq! Thanks

Post by **Dominus** » Wed Jun 03, 2009 7:34 am

Updated the FAQ with that and also corrected in the MIDI Music options FluidSynth and fakemt32.
Also spell checked both the Docs and FAQ, so these should be a bit more correct now

Post by **Dominus** » Thu Jul 16, 2009 10:33 am

So, the 1.4x Documentation and FAQ are now also the ones on the website. I updated the Documentation with an OS X MIDI issue. To the FAQ I re-added two issues that are solved in the snapshots but I thought it might be nice for people to see that it was solved.

Enjoy and please tell me if you want something corrected, changed, clarified...

Post by **Dominus** » Fri Aug 28, 2009 11:02 pm

grrr, I just noticed that the Documentation and FAQ do have their numbering all screwed up. I need to look at this soon. Sorry this was a blatant oversight since the index shows the numbering correctly...

Post by **Dominus** » Sun Sep 13, 2009 1:17 pm

ok, fixed it. This was caused by my change over to Mac and still having a windows makefile around (why that would cause this, I don't know and don't care - it's working now).

Post by **Malignant Manor** » Tue Mar 09, 2010 6:30 am

In the Exult Studio documentation,

2.1. Installation
For Win32 platforms (Win9x,ME,2k,XP)

9.9. Known Bugs with the Win32 port
Exult Studio runs fine on all versions of Win32.

The binary from the downloads page will not work in Windows 95.

2.3. Step-by-step instructions to run Exult Studio
2. X.XX CVS (X.XX

You need to change CVS to SVN.

2.3. Step-by-step instructions to run Exult Studio
4. You need to set up the path for the patch to save any changes to existing games.

This is no longer a requirement.

2.4. What you can do at the moment

The patch dir is expected to be within the main game directory, parallel to the static and gamedat directories.

Not anymore

Post by **Malignant Manor** » Tue Mar 09, 2010 6:46 am

2.5. Settings in exult.cfg.

** command that calls the image editor. Only useful on Unix/Linuxplatforms for now.
gimp-remote -n

The -n parameter seems to open a new instance of GIMP even if one is already open. (at least in Windows). With it not there, it opens the files in the already open instance.

Windows has gimp-win-remote. If the person using it only intends to use it with Exult, I suggest them placing it, gimp-win-remote.exe, in the same directory as Exult and Exult Studio. They could also list the path to it like 'C:/sample_folder/gimp-win-remote'

The user will likely need to edit the registry in order to get it to work as per the instructions in their readme.

Post by **Dominus** » Tue Mar 09, 2010 8:20 am

Thanks, I appreciate the comments. Just be aware that I'm still not going to touch ES documentation for a while. It's the big scary dicumentation and the longer I don't touch it the scarier it gets

Post by **Malignant Manor** » Tue Mar 09, 2010 7:05 pm

I not sure when I'll have time to go through more of it.

Post by **Malignant Manor** » Sun Apr 18, 2010 7:07 am

Two new audio related config options were added.

config/audio/sample_rate
config/audio/stereo

Windows CE defaults to:
sample_rate = 11025
stereo = false

every other OS defaults to:
sample_rate = 22050
stereo = true

Post by **Dominus** » Sun Apr 18, 2010 8:28 am

Thanks for the heads up. I'll add it today or tomorrow

Edit: took me ten days longer to do it, but added it just now.