Iceblade has posted the latest weekly update at the Forgotten World website, and within it he announces another key point of progress for the project:

I present an screenshot of the current incarnation of our Mesh Viewer. As any interested programmers should note, much of the ground work for our primary editor is completed except for the editing of file information. We have made great strides in the best few months in defining many of the remaining unknowns of the map files, so the task of finishing the editor is largely implementation rather than map file decoding.

I may be too bold in so saying, but a functional mesh viewer is an essential step on the road to being able to add new meshes — essentially, new 3D assets (buildings, scenery objects, crates & barrels etc.) — to Ultima 9. I think you Dragons and Dragonettes all know what it means, if the team is ever able to realize that goal.

To that end, the team has needs:

So we still very much need a C++ programmer. Also, we have a need for a texture artist.

As per usual, Ultima fans…if you have talents in either category (or both!), identify yourself in a comment here, or get in touch with the Forgotten World team directly.

Oh, and: do check out the aforementioned weekly screenshot from the project.