Release Pandora-Exult: Ultima Vii Game Engine V1.4 For Pandora


Caine said:
Wooohooo! Good thing I still have my Ultima 7 CDs around. One of the best RPGs ever made.
Is it actualy beginner-friendly if you never played an Ultima game (like me)? ^^""
 
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fusion_power said:
Caine said:
Wooohooo! Good thing I still have my Ultima 7 CDs around. One of the best RPGs ever made.
Is it actualy beginner-friendly if you never played an Ultima game (like me)? ^^""

I think you get dropped in the middle of the Ultima storyline, IIRC.

-God Ginrai
 
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Lafazar said:
How far along is Exult these days? Are there features missing or bugs or is it complete?

Ultima 7 is complete on Exult with Forge of Virtue and I don't recall any bugs when I completed it a couple of years ago. I am not sure about SI or Silver Seed as I never finished them (but maybe I will now on the Pandora :D ). I highly recommend U7 to anyone, even if you haven't played the earlier games, which I didn't when I first played.

For those looking to buy a copy:
Last time I checked, Amazon had several copies of The Complete Ultima VII from a reseller. I think I have a second CD somewhere that I have no problem parting with, PM me if you are interested.

edit:spelling
 
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zapman said:
wonderful!! thx for porting! you really have a hand choosing the right things to pnd-up ;)

To be honest, i haven't played this game before a good friend suggest me few days ago to port it to pandora :D
 
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Plays pretty nice! But as most not 100% fullscreen mousegames on the pandora, the touchscreen goes wonky once i accidentally tap outside of the playing area. It returns close to normal if i tap the up right corner of the playing screen, but selecting tiny keys just gets extremely frustrating that way.
And i don't like the nubs for mouse games, they always overshoot small buttons.

Thanks for the port though!
 
why not using the touchscreen like you do with your pokemon on a NDS :D (it's more accurate)

edit: sorry, was a bit tired :D
 
zx-81 said:
why not using the touchscreen like you do with your pokemon on a NDS :D (it's more accurate)

Err, no offence, but did you read my post? :p

But as most not 100% fullscreen mousegames on the pandora, the touchscreen goes wonky once i accidentally tap outside of the playing area. It returns close to normal if i tap the up right corner of the playing screen, but selecting tiny keys just gets extremely frustrating that way.

It never returns completely to normal, always at least a couple of pixels off unfortunately
Edit: nothing directly linked to this game, i also have it with scummvm for instance
 
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MarkoeZ said:
Err, no offence, but did you read my post? :p

A bit too fast i guess :blush: :blush: :blush: :blush:


EDIT: For those who wondered where to put the Part II (Serpent Isle), you need to create a folder in pandora/appadata/exult :
gamedata/serpentisle/static

And put your files there ...
 
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.. still hoping zx-81 could implement some sort of full screen scaling method first.

could you add a 400x240 pixel resolution please? Using a 2x scaling method that is already available would make the game perfect! Right now using 300x240 is best (with 2x scaling) but still has 200 unused pixel in the horizontal.

using 600x480 without any scaling is too small I guess, one would need a magnifying glass to see anything.
 
zapman said:
.. still hoping zx-81 could implement some sort of full screen scaling method first.

could you add a 400x240 pixel resolution please? Using a 2x scaling method that is already available would make the game perfect! Right now using 300x240 is best (with 2x scaling) but still has 200 unused pixel in the horizontal.

using 600x480 without any scaling is too small I guess, one would need a magnifying glass to see anything.

You can simply edit it in the folder /pandora/appdata/exult --- there is a file called ".exult.cfg" simply change "300" to "240", fullscreen "yes" and filter/scaler "Super2xSaI. This way you got the full 800x480 - yay! ;)

@zx-81: Man, you did a great job and made me sooo happy!!! Thanks for this awesome port!

I have a few questions:

- Is it possible, to make the charakter move diagonal with the D-pad? Because it's possible with the analog-nub (and with the mouse in the PC-version, of course).

- The Exult-team implemented the feature for "Ultima VII: The Black Gate", that clothes, weapons and everything else gets right onto the character (only character-window, of course) like it does in "Ultima VII: Serpent Isle". In this Exult-Version it doesn't. It's not a big problem, but would be nice. :)
SOLVED! You simply have to install "Serpent Isle" once, because exult uses files from it, of course.


For SFX-sound you have to put the "jmsfx.flx" & "jmsisfx.flx" files in any folder and set this path in the "pandora/appdata/exult/.exult.cfg" between <waves>/path/example/jmsfx.flx</waves> (for Ultima Vii: The Black Gate) & <waves>/path/example/jmsisfx.flx</waves> (for Ultima Vii: Serpent Isle) --- there is one specific line for each game in the exult.cfg.

BTW:

Here are nice maps of both episodes, made out of thousands of screenshots - it's preety big in resolution (24.000 x 24.000), but amazing, I think!
http://ian-albert.com/misc/ultima7maps.php
 
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Dragoon said:
zapman said:
.. still hoping zx-81 could implement some sort of full screen scaling method first.

could you add a 400x240 pixel resolution please? Using a 2x scaling method that is already available would make the game perfect! Right now using 300x240 is best (with 2x scaling) but still has 200 unused pixel in the horizontal.

using 600x480 without any scaling is too small I guess, one would need a magnifying glass to see anything.

You can simply edit it in the folder /pandora/appdata/exult --- there is a file called ".exult.cfg" simply change "300" to "240", fullscreen "yes" and filter/scaler "Super2xSaI. This way you got the full 800x480 - yay! ;)

@zx-81: Man, you did a great job and made me sooo happy!!! Thanks for this awesome port!

I have a few questions:

- Is it possible, to make the charakter move diagonal with the D-pad? Because it's possible with the analog-nub (and with the mouse in the PC-version, of course).

- The Exult-team implemented the feature for "Ultima VII: The Black Gate", that clothes, weapons and everything else gets right onto the character (only character-window, of course) like it does in "Ultima VII: Serpent Isle". In this Exult-Version it doesn't. It's not a big problem, but would be nice. :)
SOLVED! You simply have to install "Serpent Isle" once, because exult uses files from it, of course.


For SFX-sound you have to put the "jmsfx.flx" & "jmsisfx.flx" files in any folder and set this path in the "pandora/appdata/exult/.exult.cfg" between <waves>/path/example/jmsfx.flx</waves> (for Ultima Vii: The Black Gate) & <waves>/path/example/jmsisfx.flx</waves> (for Ultima Vii: Serpent Isle) --- there is one specific line for each game in the exult.cfg.

BTW:

Here are nice maps of both episodes, made out of thousands of screenshots - it's preety big in resolution (24.000 x 24.000), but amazing, I think!
http://ian-albert.com/misc/ultima7maps.php

wow, thanks a lot dragoon! very valuable info! i will put a link to this post on the appstore , that everyone can benefit. thx!
 
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Can we please have a port of pentagram as well as I am probably one of the few people who likes ultima 8. I know its not a feature complete program but could be fun to play with.
 
Dragoon said:
zapman said:
.. still hoping zx-81 could implement some sort of full screen scaling method first.

could you add a 400x240 pixel resolution please? Using a 2x scaling method that is already available would make the game perfect! Right now using 300x240 is best (with 2x scaling) but still has 200 unused pixel in the horizontal.

using 600x480 without any scaling is too small I guess, one would need a magnifying glass to see anything.

You can simply edit it in the folder /pandora/appdata/exult --- there is a file called ".exult.cfg" simply change "300" to "240", fullscreen "yes" and filter/scaler "Super2xSaI. This way you got the full 800x480 - yay! ;)

@zx-81: Man, you did a great job and made me sooo happy!!! Thanks for this awesome port!

I have a few questions:

- Is it possible, to make the charakter move diagonal with the D-pad? Because it's possible with the analog-nub (and with the mouse in the PC-version, of course).

- The Exult-team implemented the feature for "Ultima VII: The Black Gate", that clothes, weapons and everything else gets right onto the character (only character-window, of course) like it does in "Ultima VII: Serpent Isle". In this Exult-Version it doesn't. It's not a big problem, but would be nice. :)
SOLVED! You simply have to install "Serpent Isle" once, because exult uses files from it, of course.


For SFX-sound you have to put the "jmsfx.flx" & "jmsisfx.flx" files in any folder and set this path in the "pandora/appdata/exult/.exult.cfg" between <waves>/path/example/jmsfx.flx</waves> (for Ultima Vii: The Black Gate) & <waves>/path/example/jmsisfx.flx</waves> (for Ultima Vii: Serpent Isle) --- there is one specific line for each game in the exult.cfg.

BTW:

Here are nice maps of both episodes, made out of thousands of screenshots - it's preety big in resolution (24.000 x 24.000), but amazing, I think!
http://ian-albert.com/misc/ultima7maps.php

instead of setting "300 pixel" to 250, you have to set it to 400, of course ;)

For me, the only problem that remains is the input method: the analogue nubs are too insensitive and a pain in the ass while the touch input gets an offset that can't be compensated at all... could that be fixed somehow?

thx again!
 
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I've read somewhere that there is a fix for fullscreen Touchscreen accuracy but I don't know where this stands, maybe in the Wiki or so. But AFAIK it is possible to have accurate Touchscreen input even without windowed mode. :) Maybe ED or one of the other Devs knows more.
 
I just wanted to point out one thing from the README regarding playing the game at resolutions other than the original 320x200:

4.1. Resolution
By default Exult runs at 320x200 (which is the resolution the original Ultima VII used). Exult can use different scaling engines to double the size to 640x400 and increase the quality of the graphics.
Using higher resolutions is considered cheating as you can see too much of the surrounding area. Since the game was designed to be played at a specific size, this can actually lead to plot-stopping problems; hence we will not fix any problem caused by your cheating! Don't say we didn't warn you :) Actually being able to play in higher resolutions is one of the big advantages of Exult but as mentioned above it comes with a price.
Within the game you can use the 'Alt +' and 'Alt -' to switch resolution..
 
pder said:
4.1. Resolution
By default Exult runs at 320x200 (which is the resolution the original Ultima VII used). Exult can use different scaling engines to double the size to 640x400 and increase the quality of the graphics.
Using higher resolutions is considered cheating as you can see too much of the surrounding area. Since the game was designed to be played at a specific size, this can actually lead to plot-stopping problems; hence we will not fix any problem caused by your cheating! Don't say we didn't warn you :) Actually being able to play in higher resolutions is one of the big advantages of Exult but as mentioned above it comes with a price.
Within the game you can use the 'Alt +' and 'Alt -' to switch resolution..

Indeed, that could spoil something for you, if you play it through the very first time.
But I didn't have any crashings/issues/plot-stopping in maaaaany hours and maaany play-throughs, ever since "Exult" makes me enjoy the whole thing in high resolutions.

@zapman: If you have set the res "in-game" to 400x300, you have to change the "300" to "240", so when it gets scaled up 2x, it's 800x480 (native Pandora-res.). ;)
 
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Exult runs nicely and even fullscreen on the Pandora. The only thing that keeps me from playing is the common problem with touch screen offsets that manifest as soon as you mix nub input with touch screen input. That means _very_ soon. :/

Hopefully, the fix that ED spoke of (I think it's about some code by DJWillis) will eventually allow a fully working mouse emulation (touch+nubs).

And yes, porting Pentagram (Ultima VIII engine: http://pentagram.sou...ge.net/dev.php) as well would be totally awesome! Recently, the development of Pentagram has picked up again (http://exult.sourceforge.net/forum/read.php?f=1&i=339357&t=339357)
 
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