Exult Forum

As the topic says.
Post your petitions for features to add to Exult to improve its fun factor. This list should NOT include bug fixes or fixing things to the way they were in the original U7.

Here's my personal list:

1. Fix paperdolls (note: I will work on most of this myself.)
Paperdolls I will fix or improve (or try to)
*Leather armor
*Hawk (birdie bellies have paler undersides.)
*cleaver
*principle amulets
*magic helm
*hoods and dresses (I cannot guarantee I will get to these, but I will do my best!)
*main gauche (I have tried this before, but so far I cannot make a main-gauche that doesn't look crappy)
*hammer ((I have tried this before, but so far I cannot make a hammer that doesn't look crappy)
*Firesword (I missed a sprite pixel when I did it the first time)
*greaves (I didn't do a good job the first time)
*Candle (it appears in the Avatar's hand when held, but there is no paperdoll for it... I don't think I can do this one, though.)
*knife
*Throwing axe (BG throwing axe is not double-bitted)
*Magic axe (BG throwing axe is not double-bitted)
*Leather helm (SI and BG leather helms look different)
*Ethereal Ring (I can fix both quickly, I think, using pre-existing SI paperdolls.)
*Gold ring (this one will be easy.)
*Wedding ring (not sure how to fix this one, but I'll think of something.)

I'll also see about working on the collars, as to be honest, they don't look incredibly great. I am not sure I can make them any better, though.

Any other paperdolls that need work?

Um... Okay, where are the new paperdolls located...? (the dress, hawk, etc.)?

in the source at /data/bg
in the snapsots in /data/exult_bg.flx

Oh and you don't actually need to petition that stuff. Just giving us better versions will make us implement them (normally).

Though better may be subjective.
Why are all these "features to add to Exult" just paperdolls? The topic is misleading. Or are we supposed to add other types of things to it besides paperdolls?

btw, we do have a feature request tracker that makes much more sense for other feature requests other than all these paperdoll requests.
http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?atid=35 ... up_id=2335

That's just #1. #2 was adding extra frames to some items, such as cloaks of different colors, and the vertical baskets&packpacks from SI (Hey, I love redecorating)

That and it's open to anyone else who wants to make suggestions...

Isn't there a hammer graphic for the paperdoll in SI already?

That doesn't work!

If I put splitshp

and then enter the Exult_bgflx, it doesn't work! Where are the paperdolls?! They don't exist anywhere, certainly not in the files you mentioned!

Yeah, but it looks nothing like the BG hammer.

Dominus: Any other branches of exult boards I should know about (other than the bug tracker, which I am already aware of)

It also doesn't work if I just go

C:\windows\TEMP\splitshp, either, because it will execute the file, but then go back to C:\windows (I obviously don't rememeber how to do this, and the help doc for splitshp is NOT very helpfull, I have mulled over it about 10 times)

Okay, something's wrong here. It's not working on ANYTHING. If I go

C\windows\TEMP\splitshp 62.shp or exult_bg.flx, it says it can't open those files. What's going on?

Damn, it's been so long since I've done any of this.

You are very confused.
From the splitshp.txt:

Shape files are used for storage of all visible elements (from UI buttons to terrain features) of the games Exult supports. Shapes contain one or more frames. splitshp can be used to combine frames into one file, or split a Shape file into its component frames.

exult_bg.flx is obviously a flx file, meaning a flex file which is a container for shape files. Use expack to get the contents.
Then rename the files expack producesfrom *.u7o to *.shp.
Way easier would be to rename exult_bg.flx to exult_bg.vga and copy it to your static dir and look at it when you open up Exult Studio.

Ah, thanks. I forgot all about the .u70 to .shp thing. BTW, I'm about to make another mundane topic (no, I mean really mundane), though it luckily won't require any programming or instructing me anything.

Yes, I was quite confused. As I'm sure you can remember, computers aren't exactly my thing (actually, I'm not good with machines in general) Once I get confused, it's just a downward spiral from there >_<. Anyway, thanks for your patients. BTW, the only reason that I posted so many times in a short duration was that after I made each post, I realized I left out some important info.

Uh... Okay, how do you make expack work? I can't get it to run typing its file path in the DOS prompt....

I really think you are better off renaming exult_bg.flx to exult_bg.vga, copy that file to your bg static dir and then start Exult Studio. exult_bg.vga will then be in the vga files list and you can browse the shapes and frames. and via right-click on a shape/frame you can then export it to a png.
Only thing not working (I think) is editing exult_bg.vga further (adding frames/shapes).

Okay, I have some questions.

1. How come the black on the spiked shield I made long ago appears transparent in-game? It's the exact same black that is found on all the other items and paperdolls in the game...

2. How come when I select a palette color from the png files, the exult palette registers it as a slightly different color? Either exporting files to PNG corrupts its color, or the Exult palette is very buggy....

Depends on which 'black' you're using. If I recall, Ultima7 uses color #255 as the transparent color.

It's all 000 000, I think.

WHat about my other question? Do PNGs corrupt the color?

Also, I noticed in the preferences that you can set image edit filetype to SHP instead of PNG. Will this extract a file as SHP instead, and if so, will it cure the corrupted color problem, or is this a bug within Exult Studio itself?

"Do PNGs corrupt the color?"

They shouldn't. But I've only used the Gimp to edit them, and it's been a while. I'll try to test it again when I'm home from work.

Well, I use Photoshop Elements.....

Well then it would depends on exactly how Exult Studio is creating the PNG. By default you will have problems in programs like Photoshop with the default ultima 7 palette. Multiple palette entries are the exact same colour, and this causes problems.

WJP created a special 'fixed' palette to get around the issues, but I have no idea if the Exult studio uses this palette, or if it just uses the palette from the U7 data files.

-Colourless Dragon

The only thing I can tell you is that when Exult exports a PNG, it makes the transparent color #0 instead of 255, and then turns it back to 255 when it reads it back in. This seems to work okay for the Gimp.

I wonder why the U7 palette contains multiple entries with the same color? And why should an image-editing program care?

Why multiple entries with the same color? I suppose you don't know much about working with 8-bit graphics.

It is common to divide the color palette into sub-palettes, so when you want to do a special effect in one single sprite, you only modify the sub-palette the sprite is using.

Damn... Well, I don't have Gimp. So what am I supposed to do? How do I fix this issue? Why make a photoshop plugin for SHP files if the palette doesn't work on it in the first place?

SO let me get this straight one more time...

If I set something in an SHP or PNG to 000/000 in Photoshop, it will, for some reason, be set to 255 in-game? If so, how do I get around this?

If that is true, then I would like help in extracting shp files from BG.flx. How do I do that?

Not exactly. If you use color #0 from the palette, that should be the transparent color. But there should be a black color somewhere farther down in the palette, which would be the solid black.

Erm... which palette? Photoshop or ES?

BTW... Is it possible to extract images as Shp form rather than PNG form in ES? Because I tried that once already, and I got a "Photoshop could not open file because an end-of-file was encountered."

Photoshop.

err maybe I should have made this a bit clearer in my last thread cause exult needs....


NORMALIZATION
NORMALIZATION
NORMALIZATION
NORMALIZATION
NORMALIZATION
NORMALIZATION
NORMALIZATION
NORMALIZATION
NORMALIZATION
NORMALIZATION


... there, that felt better.

About the paperdolls, I hope there is a weapon need to be fixed: the Death Scythe. Hope it can become a cool one:)
Still thank to Exult team, and Oblivious.

I am not reading this forum looks boring

I don't remember seeing this guy before. I think he is a troll. Read his other post, at "New intro for u7". Don't feed the trolls.

Well, this has nothing to do with graphics, but a couple things I always wanted to see, to the point of hackmoving the graphics to do it:

(with spoilers)

1. Fix the Cleanup Lock Lake (get paper signed for Miranda quest) so that it can be finished and not repeated.
2. Actually clean up the lake, so it appears the Avatar did something constructive - maybe a little over time, or just plain get all that garbage out of there! The shrine of, uh... Love shouldn't be a big dirty mess. (Well, I remember that Cove had the Candle of Love in U4, but maybe that isn't the shrine of love... oy.)
3. The Avatar should have a house in Britannia to keep his loot - complete with Orb of the Moons return to it, as well as various nick nacks - maybe Frigidazzi would stop by once in a while or something.
4. Why can't I get a part in that play? I tried every line, bought a costume, studied. If not, maybe an actual play every night - like Yew Court scene - give avatar sheet with his lines - then he plays in play and has to remember lines by picking from list - he either gets cheered or heckled by his party.
5. Some quest to help out Kemivor and Phlan (the beggars in paws.) Not give em legs back, but they are a miserable lot...
6. Add a intro that allows the Avatar to pick a class, like U4-U6, and uh.. U9. Make spell book be limited to the type of spells of his class, as well as limits on St, Dex, and In - I think they did this in UW1 & UW2.
7. It always gave me the creeps when you killed a named NPC and their body just sat around - think Crayg the thief in Empath Abbey, or the tattoo artist in Monitor - at least change them to bones after a couple game days
8. Some way to save Johnson in that Goblin Camp - so he returns to town and has some dialogue. The coward who was caught.
9. Get rid of the guys in the burnt out house in SI
10. I always hated the dead children in U7 - too much for me. Wish those graphics were changed
11. More dialog options for wearing the Ankh - like wearing the fellowship medallion in U7
12. A number on the Health Screen for Current Armor Class - every other game has one - why do all the guessing? And maybe one for damage output .
13. Does Owen really have to die? That poor slob. He was a freaking drunk when he designed the ships that killed the poor sailors - he changed his ways - is his death really justice? Not like he shot em all down...
14. Toughen up the areas around Yew and the Great Forest, as well as the area of Spinebreaker - Vasculio could be tougher. Dragons should be tougher as well.
15. Calysta, the woman in Fawn you get arrested (man am I rotten with names tonight) aludes to rewards for a breakout - I hackmoved the door off expecting to be smothered in kisses, but no soap - she didn't want to go anywhere. Needs to be addressed.
16. A quest to get rid of Serpent Venom in BG, or a way of bringing the communities of the Gargoyles and Inhabitants.

Well, I guess thats enough - yes, I know most of them are impossible or too time consuming, but someone asked...

> 4. Why can't I get a part in that play? I tried every line, bought a costume,
> studied. If not, maybe an actual play every night - like Yew Court scene -
> give avatar sheet with his lines - then he plays in play and has to remember
> lines by picking from list - he either gets cheered or heckled by his party.

I think that the play was intended to be a joke, a reference to instances where a celebrity (using another name) enters a 'lookalike contest' for themself and ends up coming in well back in the rankings.

> 9. Get rid of the guys in the burnt out house in SI

If you mean the ghosts in the wrecked manor N of Sleeping Bull, then yes, this would be a worthwhile change, either by removing them or altering them to not be the Chaos Hierophant. As it stands now, talking to them is both extremely confusing and spoilerish if you haven't played the game before.

Neutronium Dragon

Yeah, I meant the burnt out house north of sleeping bull and west of the mint. I remember the first time I went there they talked to me like I knew them and I think it hung the game/or can hang the game.

On the same subject - they should get rid of the scroll in hidden cave Shamino points out when you first start SI - first, it should be in Ophidian so how can you read it, second, it kind of tells all, doesn't it?

And when talking about acting I meant Fawn Court scene - but there is a court in Yew...

Well, Patrick, FYI:

The scroll found in the cave Shamino points out was written by Erstam the mad mage for Drogeni. And yes, it's a clue. I have not played SI in a while, but I can even guess it is actually the book that comes with the game (the one titled "Beyond the Serpent Pillars"). Remember that in all Ultimas you receive the included playbooks and map at some point in the game.

Are there any other colors I should know about that get reset to something different using photoshop?

Oh, and one more question.

"But there should be a black color somewhere farther down in the palette, which would be the solid black."

Could you elaborate? Because 000.000 is as far to the bottom left as the color palette goes in Photoshop. Are you saying that if I set the color to 100 that it would be set to 000.000 when run in Exult?

Okay, I just tried editing a shape (in the Gimp), so forget what I said before. You should use color #0 for black. In the Gimp, the palette looks the same as in ExultStudio, except the very last color (#255, red), is removed. ExultStudio imports an exports shapes so that they can be edited in the Gimp, since it's a free program that runs on all our platforms. I'm not sure if this is appropriate for Photoshop, because I don't own a copy.

If another programmer wants to work on this, I'd be happy to help.

Also, I haven't tried Gimp 2.0 yet to see if we're still compatible.

Our plug-in for the windows port of The Gimp is not (yet?) compatible. Meaning it doesn't compile

I wonder if you can use the "Edit" choice in ES to bring up the Gimp in Windows.

I know I've tested it and it didn't work before. Maybe if you associate pngs with gimp, but I still don't think it works.

*sigh*...

BTW, I doubt this is of any comfort to anyone, but I'm not quite as stupid/ignorant as I sound.

1. machines aren't my forte, especially computer programming
and

2. I have high-functioning autism, and often have trouble understanding instructions, especially when they are not extremely specific.

Even worse, when I get confused, I tend to get agitated, which in and of itself makes me even more confused >_<

If somebody could just take my request and fix the black in the SHPs that I have made that is for whatever reason transparent, I would appreciate it, as it would save us all a ton of work. Keep in mind that in order to do this, you will have to edit the SHP pixel by pixel (which really isn't hard at all)

Oblivious:
My usual assumption is that anyone making progress with our sometimes semi-working software is pretty bright. If you can get us one or more of the files you created (however you did in the past), I'll see what I can do, and maybe also try to figure out what happened with the palette.

Also, are you in Portland (guessing from your email)? It'd be funny if you were around the corner or down the street. I'm in SW, and my daughter goes to Lincoln HS.

Nah, I live in SE Portland. Alright, I'll see what I can do.

In person tech-support!

No, probably not. Many people using the internet don't want personal contact. In this case, I'm not exactly the youngest guy around, and for all we know, Oblivious could still be a teenager. I was wondering if there could be something coincidental, like if Oblivious was someone I already knew (since Portland's not that huge a city).

(A few weeks ago, a co-worker saw me reading this forum, mentioned that he was thinking of trying Exult, and asked me what I thought of it:-))

I successfuly compiled our shp-plug-in for the Gimp 2.0.x tonight. If someone needs it I'll gladly mail it.

I wouldn't mind meeting some of the developers here ... but they may mind meeting me

- Wizardry Dragon