ITZ COMING!!

as I have no idea of large scale patches and mods, here are few noobish questions:
1. will the patch increase the system requirements for Arcanum? if yes, how far?
2. is it a good idea to apply the high-res patch over A:WIP? maybe backup any saves, reinstall, patch 1.074, patch high-res, mod A:WIP, insert saves and pray?

 

2) Most likely, you'll need to wait until I add the high-rez into my hack. Unless Drog modified the amount of effects the high-rez exe will allow, the high-rez patch and A:WIP will be incompatable - as is. The two have and need their own version of an Arcanum.exe.

 

It will, of course. However, the change shouldn't be significant on modern PCs, as long as you don't use extremely high resolutions. And even then I'm not sure. I tested the patch in resolutions up to 2048x1536, as my videocard can't go higher, and it was running okay. Theoretically, there's no limit, the patch can properly scale the game to any resolution.

The high resolution patch should be installed the last. It will patch whatever Arcanum.exe you have (as long as it's based on the English 1.0.7.4 release) to whatever resolution you specify.

I didn't even give my permission and you are already making such statements?

I'll make it clear now, I won't permit anyone to include the patch in their mods, IT'S ALREADY COMPATIBLE WITH EVERYTHING, as it just patches the whatever game version you have, be it the clean 1.0.7.4 install, the UAP or some mod.

 

Did you? If not, the two would be incompatable.

 

The patch doesn't contain an Arcanum.exe, it patches whatever you have. Do you understand?

 

AH!!!.... Now I do. My mistake.

 

I am seriosuly not kidding when I tell you that I woke up a little while ago after having a dream that Drog dropped this like it was hot on us TODAY!!!

So, if it happens just remember I am a prophet of some sort.

If it does not happen... then I am just an idiot who plays way, way too many games!

 

I think it's safe to assume the latter, not the former.

 

Well, yeah... that has already been decided long ago...lol

I was just hoping to be both :/

 

I see I have chosen a miraculously good time to reinstall Arcanum once more after so many years.

Splendid job mr. Black Tooth.
Praised be thee.

And hello to the Terra-Arcanum community of today.

 

The playtesting is taking me more time than I've expected, however I don't think there are any major bugs left. I just want to play through the whole game to be sure.

Have some more screenshots while you're waiting.

1280x1024

1440x900

1920x1200

 

Does the increased sight range have any ill-effects? Like, scripting for seeing enemies or the like?

Do you see any artifacts resulting from the game designers not texturing parts of maps out that far since they didn't think people would see them?

I'm trying to think of a place in the game where an increased map sight range could be construed as an exploit or cheating or something and I can't think of one.

 

No, not really.

Well, for one thing you can scroll pretty far at the original 800x600, especially with PE20. Now you can see more without having to scroll as much. The patch also adjusts scrolling distance according to the resolution, so you can't scroll farther than at 800x600.

 

The increased sight range by NPCs might cause some problems if you try to rob the mages in tarant.

 

Is it possible to create something like a Fog of War?

 

NPCs' sight range is dependent on lighting and PE checks. Resolution has nothing to do with it.

 

The player character's PE influences the distance you can scroll the screen away from your main character, and all evidence points to that NPC sight is bugged so that they are unable (or less likely) to see the PC screwing around with their stuff if they are not on screen. This way it is possible to rob the mages in broad daylight, even with the soundstrom that Unlocking Cantrip causes. It is difficult to pull off, nonetheless.

 

Then perhaps it's just sheer luck?

Let me mention another thing, though. Everything that is 31 tiles away from the PC is inactive, i.e. AI, animation, scripts, etc don't work there. That's why I'm adjusting scrolling distance, so that you won't be able to scroll away farther than at 800x600 and see such areas at higher resolutions. However, they will be inevitable at resolutions like 2600x1900 (since such things will get visible even without scrolling). I may increase the radius later, though, if there is a demand for such extreme resolutions.

You can see this for yourself. If you run the game with '-scrolldist:0' switch you will get infinite scrolling distance and will be able to see inactive objects.

 

Are people going to want to run it any higher than 1920x1200?

I guess any higher than that and you're running it on a larger size high-def television and not a computer monitor anymore.

 

People just do not suprise me anymore...
They will try, but it makes no sense to run any higher really.
Like you said, it would have to be a huge screen and be VERY expensive at that...
Not to mention that overall image quality tends to decrease as screen relastate increases, regardless of DPI.
I was running higher then that on my 46" Samsung, but to be honest, I think my games look better on my 22" PC monitor at 1680 *1080 or even at 1600 *1200.
But, I was just reading of quad-extended graphics arrays that go as high as 3840 *2800
Can you imagine?