Exult Forum

I apologize for posting a Pentagram question on the Exult boards, but Pentagram doesn't have a forum.

So, is Pentagram more or less finished? Will additional work be done? Should I keep checking back every week or so for updates? It's updated rather infrequently (yes, I know all about developers having lives and it being a project they work on out of the goodness of their own hearts--I'm just grateful people are willing to spend their unpaid time making great software like this). Granted, it's not quite at Nuvie status yet, though.

Basically, if I wanted to play through U8 right now, should I chance using Pentagram or should I just fire up Dosbox?

Pentagram works pretty much fine. I finished U8 more-less a year ago using it and the only major [but not game stopping, to be precise] problem was the fact, that during cutscenes in the docks [for example - beginning of the game] the engine acts like it should remove roofs for 'inside building' view which causes you to see water and subtitles only.

And monster AI kinda sucked, but that might be also the issue of the original one [I played U8 w/o Pentagram]

*never played U8 w/o Pentagram.

Sorry for double posting

Is it worth using Pentagram over just DOSBox?

Depends. If you're not overly concerned about combat or the possibility of a few bugs then Pentagram is probably fine (hehe, i could say the same of the original). Pentagram also contains a few enhancements over the original game, but IMO nothing that'd make you absolutely need to use Pentagram over the orignal.

The biggest differences you're likely to experience is that Pentagram will probably siginifantly 'smoother' to control and uses a dual resolution interface which means less clutter when you have gumps open.

@Author: alagner

Question, what is the trick or code behind removing roof view "inside building" method? How does the engine know that there is a roof on top of your head to remove the roof and how do you remove the roof to view the inside content? Can anyone help me on this?

Please no hijacking threads.
The engine knows which shapes are roof shapes and when the avatar is beneath it, the roof is "removed"

I haven't poked at the source code for years so I don't know how it's specifically implemented either in Exult or Pentagram, but imho what follows is one possible solution:

1) Every item that's over a given Z height, or maybe ever item that's specifically marked so with a flag, is considered "roof". Imagine it as a boolean switch.

2) When your player/party "collides" with any roof item onscreen, then all roof item are made invisibile.

This should be the reason because when in U7 you enter a house, suddenly you can see not just the interior of that house but of every building currently on screen: all roofs are removed.

Removing selectively only the roof of the building you're into would require a somewhat more complex algorithm (for example: when your player collides with a roof item, remove only the roof items that are adjacent to that one, and then the ones that were adjacent to those... and so on recursively.

Thank you so much Andrea B for your awesome response. I like the U7 way better, I LOVE IT WHEN EVERYTHING that have a roof, be it a roof tile or a house with chests for a roof, disappear making you see the interior of the house you entered and the house next to you. I LOVE IT TOO MUCH, I am going to learn how to implement it on my Engine.

If you altered the code to only remove the roof right above you, you could restore the original White Potions from U5 and U6 (X-Ray).