Is Exult Studio fully usable now?

[Excessus]

I have been using and following Exult development since years now, and I even tried to use Exult Studio once, only to find it was very basic and really really complex. I wonder if at current stage of development, Exult Studio can be finally used to create new games. I would love to create an Ultimalike game, something new, probably with new graphics if possible. I use OSX... are we in this stage already, or not yet?

[Dominus]

Probably not

If you want to give it a try you need to compile Exult + Exult Studio yourself on OS X, I couldn't find an easy way yet to make a static bundle of Exult Studio for download. There are hard ways I didn't yet try.
Compile instructions are in the Readme.macosx in the source.

[Malignant Manor]

It is possible to create completely new games that don't rely on the original, but there is still quite a bit of hard coded data for what shape, sfx, or music track that is used.

The combat stat gump from SI won't currently display properly and you can't change any of the settings on it. (This is an easy fix to code) You should be able to use both SI and BG style paper dolls. Using SI spots with BG paper dolls will make the SI spot items go into a corner.

The intro and endings are not setup for custom scenes. The usecode uses BG intrinsics.

I haven't really tested sound in custom games. I think sfx should work fine. I'm not sure about midi music. I think oggs are named ???mus.ogg with "?" being a wild card for the number. The combat ogg names might be hard coded.

I actually have a startup template that is basically there to show how to set things up and make sure the game doesn't crash because it can't open a shape. The download links are currently broken, and it will probably take me at least a week to get something released.

Dev Game


Also, there is currently no way to tell Exult Studio to write to the static directory instead of the patch. So you need to keep the data in the patch folder and switch it to the static when you release. (If you want people to be able to patch your games properly.)

EDIT:: I changed Dev Game usecode from SI to BG since my notes say BG and looking at the code seems to confirm it.

[Wizardry Dragon]

A new game is possible however keep in mind the file formats used in ultima are proprietary and the intellectual property of Origin/EA and act accordingly.
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Peter M Dodge
aka Wizardry Dragon
www.thefeudallands.ca

[Malignant Manor]

I just released in this thread