Ultima 7: Exult Rotate
I covered this fascinating mod for the latest release of Exult 1.4.9 a while ago. The basic premise of it is that it rotates the field of view 45 degrees clockwise about a vertical axis, giving the game a more classically isometric feel (that might also increase its appeal to Ultima Online veterans). It actually makes Ultima 7 look absolutely phenomenal, I think; I vastly prefer the rotated view to the classic view.
Though still very much in a proof-of-concept state, developer cma opted to release both a standalone executable and a patch for Exult 1.4.9-rc1 so that those curious about the potential of the mod can get an early look thereat. The setup, however, is a bit convoluted. You can find instructions at the project’s thread on the Exult forums, or here at the new project entry I’ve set up for it on the Ultima 7 subdomain.
I’d love to see Ultima VII run using Minecraft’s engine. If each pixel and implied third dimension in Ultima VII were translated to textured voxels it would look the same but with optional “camera” positions. Did VII use “chunks” like VI? If so it would be even easier, as once the chunks were modeled and textured the maps would fall into place.
I’ll happily model if someone will stitch it all together.
The best bet would be to use Exult as a starting point. Not sure how tidy its code is, but it might be possible to add a second rendering engine to it for voxels instead of sprites. While walls, floors, doors, tables, etc. wouldn’t be too hard to model, more complex sprites such as people and fauna (especially with animation) would be a pain.
You mean, like that ultima 7 3d mod? I wonder if that went open source…
Exult 3D’s source code is available on the Ultima 7 subdomain.
I gotta say, I find this *really* hard to look at. I’m surprised nobody seems to be as troubled by it as I am. I am disturbed right to my very core.
I couldn’t see myself playing this way, but if other people like it, have at it!
The perspective or the artifacts? The title image appears heavily compressed, but there also appears to be some kind of artifacting. Would be nice to see a high-res PNG of this.
Yeah there is something slightly wrong about the perspective of all the sprites.
And don’t get me wrong, I think it’s a pretty neat idea and quite a cool achievement. I just feel ill if I look at it too long.
I think I over-sharpened the image. I’ll adjust and re-upload when I get a moment.
stop complaining…. it looks way better and if you are getting sick from it you need to go to the hospital since you must have banged your head pretty hard, seriously tho dont go to sleep till you get that checked out
Now, now…