I wouls probably play it a lot more if they would release a native version for Linux.
Funny enough this game runs much nicer than Daggerfall:Unity does. Of course that is probably my fault as I installed some mods...

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Quoting: Lightkey

Quoting: slaapliedje

Quoting: PatolaScummVM is an incredible engine. I am not usually enthusiastic for old games, but in this case, I have to say, Ultima VIII was an amazing RPG.

Out of all of them you picked that as the amazing one? It was buggy and wasn't anything like any of the others. :P

Quoting: EikeAnybody knows why not V and VII? They only like even numbers? :D

Quoting: Feist

Quoting: EikeAnybody knows why not V and VII? They only like even numbers? :D

Not sure about "V" but in the case of "VII" there is already Exult that runs that game pretty well and improves on the original in many ways.

http://exult.sourceforge.net [External Link]

Well it's the same question about 1-3. Basically 4 had xu4 to a really great level, so ScummVM can just use that engine, but from what I have seen, xu4 hasn't been updated in a LONG time, so I think ScummVM is just pulling it under it's wing, and adding it as an 'also runs...' Now as you mention, VII already has the still developed Exult engine that is very excellent to run it. VI I think also has been stuck in it's development cycle for a long time (Nuvie, though they say they're still developing it as a standalone?). VIII, I wonder if the one that had been working on it (Pagan I think was the engine?) just joined ScummVM for the help?

Edit: Ultima VIII was called Pagan, the engine to remake it was called Pentagram! I still have the map somewhere...
Now if we can get 1-3 and IX...

It's a question about what is the simplest way to implement the (sub-)engines in ScummVM. The three selected titles were chosen because (mostly) dead projects for them already existed (and had a compatible licence!).
Nuvie still had a few edits a couple years ago but the maintainer got sidetracked with other projects, incidentally also with adventure games, which are part of ScummVM but he had not answered to e-mails before the merge and is still unsure about it.
Pentagram has been dead for a long time but it was actually started by former ScummVM developers who had also been working on Exult, so they used what they learned with ScummVM for the project structure, which helped integrating it "back". xu4 was long dead as well like you said, so this is the new home for it.
As for the rest, see Mnoleg's link [External Link] where DreamMaster explains why Exult has been left alone (for now, anyway) and also scroll to the top, where he talks about his very own Ultima engine. While supporting all of them is the goal, Ultima II, III, and V might take many years. I remember following a similar project ~15 years ago for Ultima V called nu5 [External Link] but it never got past the reverse-engineering step.

Ha, I am going to try to ramp up my skills, and since back in the day I did a lot of hacking on Ultima IV, and a bit on V, I was going to try to upgrade IV for the VBXE on the Atari and there is a partial version of V that would be awesome to reverse engineer and complete for the platform.

Of course I will open source all the work.

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Quoting: Lightkey

Quoting: mos

Quoting: Lightkey

but what the practical purpose of absorbing a mature and expansive project like Exult into scummvm would be?

You get lots of free ports to other platforms and all the bells and whistles configuration-wise that it provides by default, other than that, not much. ScummVM is mainly a project to preserve game engines, not for developing them, which is why he refrained from going after Exult while they are still working on it.

Exult has already been ported to the Amiga and Falcon, though I think the Falcon port might be pretty old.

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Quoting: noderunnerI was a bit too young to play all of the Ultima series, but I really enjoyed Ultima Online. I'm excited to try these classics at some point in the near future.

Hey, want to play Ultima Online? I mean if we got a group going on Linux, we'd be the only ones playing. I logged in there a few months ago and it was EMPTY. Monsters everywhere. It wasn't like it used to be where you'd walk near the bank in Britain and the whole game would just crawl.

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Quoting: PatolaScummVM is an incredible engine. I am not usually enthusiastic for old games, but in this case, I have to say, Ultima VIII was an amazing RPG.

Out of all of them you picked that as the amazing one? It was buggy and wasn't anything like any of the others. :P

Quoting: EikeAnybody knows why not V and VII? They only like even numbers? :D

Quoting: Feist

Quoting: EikeAnybody knows why not V and VII? They only like even numbers? :D

Not sure about "V" but in the case of "VII" there is already Exult that runs that game pretty well and improves on the original in many ways.

http://exult.sourceforge.net [External Link]

Well it's the same question about 1-3. Basically 4 had xu4 to a really great level, so ScummVM can just use that engine, but from what I have seen, xu4 hasn't been updated in a LONG time, so I think ScummVM is just pulling it under it's wing, and adding it as an 'also runs...' Now as you mention, VII already has the still developed Exult engine that is very excellent to run it. VI I think also has been stuck in it's development cycle for a long time (Nuvie, though they say they're still developing it as a standalone?). VIII, I wonder if the one that had been working on it (Pagan I think was the engine?) just joined ScummVM for the help?

Edit: Ultima VIII was called Pagan, the engine to remake it was called Pentagram! I still have the map somewhere...
Now if we can get 1-3 and IX...

I've actually been thinking of playing 1-5 on the original system (well okay I got an Apple IIGS to play the original Apple II versions. Finally figured out I need a GS patched version for 3-5 to work with the Mocking Board...)

This is awesome though, HUGE Ultima fan (to the point that I am working toward the goal of fixing the Atari 8bit version so Ultima 3 and 4 display with modern video upgrades correctly!)

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Quoting: BlackBloodRum

Quoting: areamanplaysgame

Quoting: BlackBloodRumWoah guys, stop with all the hate. Seriously.

I dislike how the Linux community is slowly turning into a bunch of people whining... step back, take a deep breath and calm down.

Now, it's not great that this wasn't immediately ported, and let's face it many of you want to play the new update, want simultaneous updates with Windows and of course, to play online with windows friends.

It's perfectly acceptable to want these things, but here's the thing you have to remember:
Porting houses usually don't get access to the update code until after the windows team has finished their part, by this time usually the update is announced and has a deadline.

Sadly this often means if they run into problems making it work, or anything else which may slow it down, the deadline is easily missed, and the Windows version will always be ready first. That's why it's called a port..

So sit back, wait a little while and calm down.

Complaining and insulting the developers won't make the port happen any faster, in fact it may do the opposite, if you're a developer reading someone talking about you, and you read "These guys can eat shit" and "I'm definitely not buying this now!" will this make you want to keep porting for them?

Nope it'll make you angry and have a low opinion of the people you're doing the work for.

Remember, some of the porting houses have developers who read these comments...

The other platforms Aspyr is charged with porting this to, including Nintendo Switch, already received the update. Nintendo Switch doesn't have cross-platform multiplayer with Windows. Linux and Mac do, and they are now broken with no indication of when they will be fixed. In short, the game I've paid for is currently useless for the reason I bought it, and will be for the foreseeable future. Like I said, I don't even care about the new content. My goal was to continue playing the game that was working until they broke it. I don't care if they "want to keep porting for me" at this point, because they clearly don't value my business enough not to deliberately break the product I paid them for.

Edit: You're right, I shouldn't say they can "eat shit," and I apologize to anyone who was offended by that, including anyone from Aspyr who may be hanging out here. But the rest of what I said still stands. We are consumers just like everyone else, and we are not obligated to be grateful for whatever scraps we get because we're on a platform with lower market share. You know why? Because we are paying just as much as Windows users are paying. We are not being given a gift.

I understand your frustration here, and in some aspects you're absolutely correct, you've bought the game just like any other platform user.

But I believe your anger is misguided. They didn't break your game here, so far as I'm aware they didn't release an update, and that in turn has caused multiplayer to cease working between different game versions.

Now let's step back for a moment and see what's actually happened here.

2K are the primary developers of this game, they are the ones who've created the base game, DLC, and any required version/dlc checks for online play.

It seems to be 2K have released the Windows update (of which, Aspyr have no control over or say in) which has in turn caused multiplayer incompatibilities. No doubt, they were fully aware Aspyr were not ready. But they had announced a date, and had a deadline - and PR, managers etc etc said "Release it for Windows anyway, Linux and Mac users can wait".

It's true Aspyr didn't have the update ready in time, but they didn't do this on purpose, there could well be serious bugs that have caused them to not have the update ready in time, and naturally as I previously mentioned porters get the updates effectively last minute in development terms.

For all we know, 2K could have done a last minute bugfix update to the Windows version a few days prior to release, then sent it over to Aspyr who weren't able to ensure that bugfix works on Linux and Mac too, or it broke something on those platforms.

There are so many factors which can slow it down, it's really not funny. Sadly, Aspyr are not the primary developers, as such they have absolutely no say when a Windows update/DLC is dropped which can break compatibilities with other platforms.

Sad but true.

Unless we were find out exactly how and why this delay occurred, we can't really say it is fair to direct anger at them at this time.

And this is why it always hurts when we get developers who directly support us bought out by competition that will force them to drop said support (like inXile). I kind of always thought that Aspyr was a 'me too!' Porting house, as Feral has done far more for Linux with new tools and adopting Vulkan, etc than Aspyr has.
Guess we'll see how this progresses, but I can't imagine that Firaxis broke the multiplayer code so much that the Switch port would be so different than the Linux port.

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Quoting: Mr_Squarepeg

Quoting: slaapliedje

Quoting: nullzero

Quoting: axredneckIs (s)he the same developer who developed DarkXL ?

I was very surprised... yes it is. Same github account and in the blog/news section of the website [External Link] he wrote:

This is my first “real” post on this blog. Several years ago there was a project called the “XL Engine” which evolved from DarkXL with lofty ambitions. I personally hit some difficult times but never properly canceled the project, even if I couldn’t get back to it for a long time and didn’t really want to for a long time after that. Fast forward to today, things are much better now with more free time but time moves on and the XL Engine isn’t really necessary anymore - both Daggerfall and Blood have great projects that fill the niche the XL Engine wanted to fill (or close enough).

But the Jedi Engine never had a proper source release or reverse engineering effort. While many considered DarkXL to be a promising effort, it was incomplete and inaccurate in many ways.

EDIT: Formatting

Interesting. I have a growing need occasionally to dig back into Daggerfall... would love to play it again with some smoothing of the roughness added!

I can highly recommend Daggerfall Unity for this task.

What is the current state of that? I think last I checked it still seemed a bit rough. I will have to check it out again.
I used to have the massive clue book for the game.

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Shit yeah! Finally a proper Rogue and not a 'rogue-like' as is so common these days. Although to be fair, any Rogue game is a game where you die...a lot... isn't so common, and well now we have the 'Dark Souls-like' genre, but you don't actually have to start all over on that, so Rouge is still much harder!

Reminds me, I should fire up Nethack on my Falcon...

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Quoting: Shmerl

Quoting: GuestJust a pity they couldn't go the route of allowing a corporate standard with GNU/Linux desktop in the first place, because that would have solved all the problems.

Normal companies allow it. Those whith thick skulled IT might not, since they don't want to spend money on anything extra. And Linux support costs money too. The funny thing is, that even supporting WSL would cost them resources and time. WSL is pretty pointless in comparison with proper desktop Linux IT support like Google, Mozilla, RedHat and others do it.

Also, since WSL2 moved to Hyper-V, I don't get a point of it anymore. It's not reverse Wine-like idea anymore, it's a VM. So just run Linux in VirtualBox or something if you are in such situation. At least you'll be using an open source virtualization.

The unfortunate truth is, most of the IT people (the ones that have to manage laptops, the active directory, user management, etc) are NOT going to be the people with Linux experience. Anyone with good Linux experience that'd be able to set up the management will be more likely in the position of Linux system administrator (or that new generic thing SRE). Because I mean why waste talents?

And of course 'managed by' generally means you need some sort of 'spy' software to make sure employees are installing wireshark on things (or have a reason to do so) or using approved vpn clients, and definitely have to have an anti-virus... You know, all the things that makes a Windows workstation slower.

But even with those on top, I'd still be more productive using Linux natively :P

View this comment - View article - View full comments

Quoting: nullzero

Quoting: axredneckIs (s)he the same developer who developed DarkXL ?

I was very surprised... yes it is. Same github account and in the blog/news section of the website [External Link] he wrote:

This is my first “real” post on this blog. Several years ago there was a project called the “XL Engine” which evolved from DarkXL with lofty ambitions. I personally hit some difficult times but never properly canceled the project, even if I couldn’t get back to it for a long time and didn’t really want to for a long time after that. Fast forward to today, things are much better now with more free time but time moves on and the XL Engine isn’t really necessary anymore - both Daggerfall and Blood have great projects that fill the niche the XL Engine wanted to fill (or close enough).

But the Jedi Engine never had a proper source release or reverse engineering effort. While many considered DarkXL to be a promising effort, it was incomplete and inaccurate in many ways.

EDIT: Formatting

Interesting. I have a growing need occasionally to dig back into Daggerfall... would love to play it again with some smoothing of the roughness added!

View this comment - View article - View full comments