Exult Forum

With all the pictures, the original "Exult 3D" topic is getting a bit slow to load. Would it be okay to continue the discussion here, and add new images to an additional topic like "Exult 3D screenshots"?

Exult 3D was on the Oct 9 slashdot.

http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?si ... 49&tid=209


Unfortunately it didn't get on the main page, only the game section. And quite a few people thought it's an online game, or think it's UO... o_O"""

So many morons that don't even read.

No news about this on Ultima@RPGDot

UltimaDot hasn't announced much important news for quite some time. I don't know what's wrong with them.

Absolutely incredible work! I just tried the binary, and the result looks amazing (considering it uses the original data!). It doesn't really run smooth on my 500 MHz box (Geforce2), but it still looks great - can't wait till the source has been fixed up and integrated into CVS!

I'm really looking forward to the point when Servus' changes are implemented in current CVS.

Any word from him about this? I'm hoping it >can< be integrated, and that we (or he) can add support for 3D models. 3DSMax should be easy, as there's already code around to do those, and it would also be nice to support a free tool like Blender.

this is some mad happenings

It would really be great if Exult 3D generated models that could be imported into 3d Studio, Maya, etc... that way they could be hand tweaked by artists.

He will use Quake2 models.

I have a few questions about this!

1. Is this a project from the official Exult team or is it someone using the source code? If the latter, is it being picked up by the official team?

2. Briefly, how exactly does it work?

3. Is there a windows binary planned?

Thanks!

One more, very broad question:

What are the biggest features of the project? I mean apart from the 3D thing obviously... will players be able to view the world from first person, will there be lighting and transparencies for example?

For question 1: It is by someone using the source code, and I hope it can be integrated into the official source. But as I haven't seen the 3D changes, I don't know how hard that will be.

I think everyone is hoping for the release which has an 'enable 3d' in the options

Guess lightning would be a nice thing to have, with a moving lightsource with different color for day and night.. And lightsources for the candles, torches, spells, etc ... But I guess that's perhaps a bit too much wishful thinking hehe

I think there are already transparencies. And there wouldn't be much point to the project without nice lighting.
Supposedly the view can be switched to first-person to look around, but normal gameplay is third-person. It doesn't look so hot in first-person mode.

Is that due to draw distance? The screen shots I saw didn't seem to draw much of an area, much like the 2D version.

It looks awful first person because the textures sheer and they are just such low res

How about using a N64 like texture filtering in 1st person? Yes it would like super mario but at least no pixels

@Bomb that invisible guy next to me says you got mental problems (sorry, just read your sig and had to heh)

Roofs are flat:
http://members.cox.net/~sbx/Exult3D-20.jpg

Room height is very small, the ceiling adopts the texture of the roof:
http://members.cox.net/~sbx/Exult3D-SI-08.jpg

Greetings

I've been following this thread for a while, and as much as everyone would love to see this in action its going to need SOOO much work to be even playable. Just look at what it does to the sprites. Everything has a box around it. While it is an awesome hack, it really isn't much more yet. My suggestion would be to have hooks everywhere to let people create their own models and textures for items, people, the walls, the roofs, etc, and simply let each chunk only define what objects exist in a scene, so basically you could just design drop in model packs that would replace the default sprites.

This would likely get you closer to writing your own engine as you could just describe a scene and have the rendering engine draw it out as it sees fit. I know there has to be oh so many other issues, such as collision detection in the 3d world, but given the simple 2d plane nature of the game, everything is going to exist on one level or another without much of a Z-axis to worry about.

I'm sure mountains and properly drawing clouds pose some pretty serious issues here as well.

I tried looking for some code to play around with, but aparantly whoever is coding this doesn't want to reveal the source yet. They should upload it when it progresses a bit because I'm sure that some people would love to tinker with it.

zosX

Anyone knows Ultima iris?

http://ultimairis.sourceforge.net


It´s a 3D client for Ultima Online and does exactly what Zox/Xavius.23 have said.


It looks great (except the creature models which are taken from Third Dawn expansion and look really bad)

> I tried looking for some code to play around with, but aparantly
> whoever is coding this doesn't want to reveal the source yet.

He has to give you the code when you ask for it since Exult is GPL and he distributed binaries already.

I was wondering when someone would mention that, but I expected that it would be Nadir:-)

Zos: I believe the 3D author intends for it to be possible to substitute actual models for the generated ones. As for collision detection, U7 and Exult already do it pretty much in 3D using the bounding boxes. So it won't be perfect (say, for trees), but it should be usable.

I hope nobody will make a big deal out of it. He will release the code soon enough I'm sure.

Well, the only people that could make a big deal out of it would be the people that are contributers to the GPL'ed code. I doubt the small handfull of people that make up that list would mind much considering that this is a work-in-progress. It would be a vastly different situtation if someone copied Exult's code and started distributing binaries without the source under a different name. This is what the GPL is for, it forces the code to always remain open and essentially free, though you could charge for GPL binaries.

While a lot of people seem to prefer BSD style licensing, which allows you to fork the code and develop your own versions without releasing the original code back, the BSD license doesn't offer nearly as many protections to your code as the GPL.

This is totally off topic however, and such a discussion is much better suited for another forum.

You are correct in saying that the code should technically be released as binaries have already been passed around, but why would anyone possibly object in this stage of the game?

zos

DrCode, you make me sound as a Free Software-obsessed Exult GPL advocate, but may I remind you that it was you who put the source under that *viral* license

Actually I believe Sam should branch Exult in CVS and work there, so that everyone can have a look and make it easier when it comes to merging.

Tristan

Hmm... I might be a little more strident about the GPL if his binary was on Windows instead of Linux:-)

How are other people finding the speed quite slow? It may be just me, but I'm finding any OpenGL rendering very sluggish. That is running exult with the 3D binary or with exult cvs.

I meant to say:
How are other people finding the speed?

Sorry about the double post.

It worked great for me. Make sure you have hardware rendering enabled. (and other GL games work)
The OpenGL rendering in CVS is expected to be slow.

How fluid is the movement? In the original U7 and Exults, the Avatar and other characters move in one block increments. Do they still move in this fashion in the 3D builds? Or are they still "jumpy?"

BTW - Regardless how it turns out in comparison to "modern games" from what I've seen you've really performed a miracle here. Just adding 3D to Ultima 7 is just amazing. You guys are gods. GODS!

Whoops someone started talking to me when I was writing that, I meant "Or has the movement made to be more fluid?"

Last I noticed the movement was still jumpy. Sam has said that he will fix that and make the camera slide smoothly as you walk. It is a lot easier to do that here than in 2D Exult.

Sure looks like a lot of fun either way. Maybe I'll finally get around to finishing Serpernt Isle (I've only restarted that game like 12 times over the years because I keep putting the game down and forgetting what I had done and so forth)