Just a quick note to announce a new project that I've started called Nuvie.
Nuvie aims to be a game engine for Ultima 6, Martian Dreams and Savage Empire. At the moment Nuvie can render the Ultima 6 map with animations and objects.
I've been developing Nuvie under Mac OS X but it should compile under any platform supported by SDL.
/me thinks this should go in the links page if it is not there already
Artaxerxes
ps: all the best for your project! I loved those 3 games you are working on. To be honest, I've always wanted to know all the conversation options you could have with the folks. Maybe your project will fulfill this desire!
This project will get a link and announcement from my site.
Good luck and best wishes with it!
Dino the Dark Dragon
Webmaster [URL=http://www.shiftedphase.com/~dino/ultima/]Dino's Ultima Page[/URL]
Lead Dialogue writer [url=http://www.exodusmachine.net/~ultima8]U8E[/url] and [url=http://www.e-prizm.com/blackthorn]Adventures of Blackthorn[/url]
>>>>>Now all we need is someone to write new engines for Ultimas 1, 2, 3 and 5!
I think if someone can get the source code of Ultimatrix, it wouldn't be hard to make such a thing, considering the map viewer is already there...
Dino the Dark Dragon
Webmaster [URL=http://www.shiftedphase.com/~dino/ultima/]Dino's Ultima Page[/URL]
Lead Dialogue writer [url=http://www.exodusmachine.net/~ultima8]U8E[/url] and [url=http://www.e-prizm.com/blackthorn]Adventures of Blackthorn[/url]
This is amazing. I've always wanted a new engine for U6 to play on (possibly) any platforms I use, like Exult. I hope you stay as true to the original as possible (havn't checked out the link yet). Good luck with it!
While I think it is important to stay as true to the original as possible, it would probably be a good thing if you tried to make some improvements to the interface. I remember U6 as having the worst UI of all the Ultimas. It was an early attempt to make a mouse-driven game out of a historically keyboard-driven series, and it was not altogether successful. It ended up requiring an uncomfortable mix of keyboard and mouse commands which led me to finally stop playing it (that, and I had to leave my Mac and play it on a PS/2).
Anyone remember how frustrating navigating through the character inventories and trading items around could be?
Except for the interface then.
I actually want a full screen mode like Exult, instead of just the small corner window. That was the most annoying thing for me in the original. The inventory didn't bother me but I don't remember moving items between characters.
I've also now compiled Nuvie, in Slackware Linux, after a few changes. It works as advertised (see screenshot at above mentioned website), and I can use the arrow keys to scroll the map. So far so good. It only needs a few changes to compile and run (like hardcoded paths).
Excellent!! I was thinking an exult-like Ultima 6 engine would be very cool.
Re: the interface, My thinking is that it would be better to totally re-work it so that it works more like Ultima 7's. Instead of permanently wasting huge chunks of the screen, use gumps for backpacks etc. the same way that Ultima 7 does.. During the majority of the time in-game where I'm not in a conversation or inventory management etc I prefer to have only the game world visible as U7 does it...
While I admire your dedication, I think, in this instance, a complete recreation would not be a good thing. Many people feel that the user interface of U6 prevented the game from being truly enjoyable (it made me stop playing it, something I have done with no other Ultima, not even VIII). That being the case, why would someone want to recreate an unpleasant experience? I, for one, would still not want to play it.
If it is possible to improve the UI and allow for the original UI to be kept in as an option, great. Otherwise, I say improve as much as possible. Making it play more like VII may not be feasible, but something certainly could be done.
With the great graphics scalers we have, it certainly seems possible to make the game play full screen.
Don't you love how this guy tells us he's creating a new engine for U6, in his own time, and free of charge, and we're dictating to him what he should do and how to do it?
Seriously. Just finish it any way you can. if you want to improve on the original, then go for it!
> Don't you love how this guy tells us he's creating a new engine for U6, in > his own time, and free of charge, and we're dictating to him what he
> should do and how to do it?
Dictations blends seamlessly into suggestion, but I think that suggestions is what we are giving here. In the end you can yell "BLUE! BLUE! BLUE!" but the painter will use RED anyway, if he feels that it's better, no?
There are at least three of them mentioned. Some have been abandoned, and they might have slightly different goals, but I think you could do worse than checking them out. Who knows, maybe you could get some of their creators to team up with you, even
Bravo, This wll be excellent - especially if you have something like Exult studio. We could create our own Worlds of Ultima games...
In fact on these forums ages ago I saw:
"Two others which I seem to recall reading were considered were an Arthurian crossover, and an ancient Greek visit. Apparently elements of the latter idea wound up being used for Pagan."
Currently there's really many posts on the forum as it is to really justify there *needing* to be a brand new forum just for nuvie. We considered doing this for pentagram but decided we wouldn't bother until pentagram related posts started being a significant presence on the exult one. *grin*
A similar thing happened with the irc channel too, there's a #pentagram, but still quite a bit of the conversation relating to it is still on #exult, simply because everyone is there anyway.
So currently, it's really more of a 'remake the engine' forum rather then exult specific, but I don't think anyone's going to complain *too* loudly about it's 'purity of purpose' being diminished simply for the convenience of not having to check three forums a day. *grin*
Darke
(And besides, if conversation for nuvie isn't enough to support a *single* thread, why do you think there'll be enough to support an entire forum? *grin*)
Wow! Ultima 6 was really popular!
I'm also making an Ultima 6 game called Ultima 6 Online (U6O)
You can check out some screenshots on this page: http://www.geocities.com/galleondragon
I added a new screenshot today.
Why re-create an exact copy of the original. I have XP and the original works fine on my PC. Nice that Nuvie will be multiplatform
Could you make it an open engine where people can create their own stories and share them? That would be awesome!
Honestly I'd rather play the "exact" copy Nuvie aims to be than a recreation based on something like Dungeon Siege (or whatever that is called) or Neverwinter Nights.
True I'm very in favor of an improved interface, larger screen, scaling/filtering and such things (like exult did for U7) but not in a whole new look. The charm is to use the original art and music files.
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I like to be able to do both, actually. That's why I'm currently keeping tabs on numerous Ultima recreations and adaptations. When I want the original U7, I have exult; when I want the U7 with a more visceral experience, there are at least two other U7 adaptations coming out on other engines. I look forward to playing them all, though most aren't likely to be that good, or even get finished.
But I am glad that Nuvie is going to be more like Exult. I would really like to play U6 as it originally was before going with a moern version. But yes, please update that damn interface! Ugh.
I'm also a bit puzzled why an exact copy is needed. As someone else mentioned it plays under XP and any speed issues - can't they be solved with a CPU slowdown program? As for multi-platform - I haven't checked but I would guess wine or even dosemu would work for this game?
I agree that using the original graphics as much as possible would be a great thing though.. so instead of drawing new tiles or something like that I guess one could use the original and enhance the look by the use of scalers (like exult does). Another improvement that wouldn't alter the original look *too* much would be to redesign the interface to have the actual game-area take up more of the screenspace..
One wouldn't really need to redesign the interface to allow the game area to take more space; just allow for higher resolutions, and the game area will be the part that expands to fill the bigger screen.
I like that idea of allowing higher resolutions and making game area take up all the extra space.. but I'm not sure if that'll work when you increase veritcal resolution. What do you put "underneath" the user interface components on the right?
What about if you made it so that the user interface components worked as in the original, but were only visible "on-demand" so to speak, and not visibile the rest of the time?
I just tried it. Savage Empire works alright, but I notice that the gfx and sfx slow down choppily if I move the mouse alot - a limitation of the emulator, I am sure.
