Snapshot version

[Jets Connor]

Hello there.
I'm sorry if this is a silly question, but I haven't been around the exult forums much in some time, and I've never used anything but the Stable releases of Exult.

Anyway, the question: are snapshots supposed to be "playable" but without any guarantee of stability, or are they simply a glimpse at what the developers have got so far in terms of game engine features?

The reason I ask is because I downloaded the most recent snapshot a couple of days ago and loaded exult up. I should probably report here that the exult menu screen only shows the exult logo and the version number... if I move the mouse then some parts of the buttons (Options, etc) appear as the cursor goes over them, although the cursor itself never appears. stderr didn't produce anything that looked relevant. Nor did stdout.

I hit enter and it went into The Black Gate, as you would expect. I started a new character, and the game started, and then I spent some time puzzling over why I was playing the beginning of Ultima VI.

So... yes, my question is: Can The Black Gate's map and storyline be played in this version, to greater or lesser extents? I'm guessing I didn't simply press the wrong button in the menu, since hitting down and enter goes into Serpent Isle.

Thanks.
Jets

[Dominus]

It's supposed to be playable. On what OS are you running Exult (please state which version of Windows )? See http://exult.info/forum/viewtopic.php?p=318782#p318782 for another one with problems...
You can try and download an alternate compilation of SDL.dll from http://www.unet.univie.ac.at/~a9848357/sdl.zip, it's compiled by me, so it is kind of safe
Unzip it and replace the SDL.dll in your Exult folder with this one. Please report back if that works better for you.

I hit enter and it went into The Black Gate, as you would expect. I started a new character, and the game started, and then I spent some time puzzling over why I was playing the beginning of Ultima VI.

So you've not only downloaded the snapshot of Exult but also The Feudal Lands mod, right?

[SepiaAndDust]

Try manually changing your video settings in exult.cfg. Especially, make sure it's not in full-screen mode. Your symptoms are exactly what happens to Exult whenever I try to run full-screen in some unsupported graphics mode.