Here (https://www.swordofmoonlight.com/Trismeg...stusEx.zip) is a trial/teaser for Trismegistus with Ex

It's not the official Trismegistus I want to go up for outsiders, but please try it / tell me what you think / if it works for you. Hopefully Todd and I will be able to integrate Ex into everything available on this website etc throughout this month, or next 30 days-ish anyway.

This package incorporates everything I think Som can do for Trismegistus at this time. There's just a few more things I wanna work on before an official release, including trying to get rid of the restart soft-requirement. Basically once you unpack the archive and run the game it will ask you to restart. You can either A) restart or B) until you do restart you'll have to edit the Trismegistus.ini file by hand and if you change your settings in game they won't be remembered.

I remember a day when putting anything new on your Windows OS meant you'd have to restart your computer, but now days you can pretty much run Windows for weeks until it finally crashes and you have to restart. So I do wanna get rid of this requirement one way or another. Personally I won't restart my computer for some program.... I'll as soon wait a month until I happen to restart, so...

It's not really a requirement that Ex work that way, but its the only way to make a game work out of a readonly drive, like a CDROM or a network share -- and also the only way to have a non-ascii .ini file name. The main reason I wanna do better somehow is because it doesn't work if the path to the folder has any non-ascii characters in it. The only prob is afaik the only way to make it work is to somehow replace an interface in an other process. I'm guessing it's possible but its a whole other level compared to the trickery Ex has indulged in so far.

I also wanna clean up some rough spots around the edgess that no one will likely ever see. And there is some trouble with shadows not blending correctly into fog, but I'm pretty sure there are no shadows in Trismegistus. The included SomEx.dll should look virtually identical whether your video card is Shader Model 2.0 or 3.0 (I reckon most of us have 4.0 or 5.0 cards these days, I really don't know) and I plan to add 1.0 (if possible) before done here and hopefully spruce up the other possible targets just in case anyone ever sees them.

The only problem I'm aware of is if you stand in a certain spot near the beginning of the game a phantom tower will pop into view in the distance over the wall, but its a really small spot. That tower is really the only thing in the game (first 6 maps or so anyway) that really dictated the draw distance. Normally (when extending the draw distance) it is visible from the starting point basically, I'd thought I'd gotten rid of it, but I'd noticed it still popped up in one specific spot earlier today. If Tom rebuilt the map with optimization disabled it would probably become a non-issue. The tower would still be there, but the problem is really that it pops in/out so. In fact I think if one map tile was just lowered .5m it might not show up either.

Maybe something could be done about the Status/Compass display options because I'm pretty sure Tom is not using them.

I used the debugger to explore many of the maps but not all. I reckon if you get that far into the game a glitch or two more won't deter you. Plus I don't wanna spoil everything for myself

The main improvements are:
-Smooth windows experience
-No sound dropout
-All around solid graphics (wysiwyg)
-Unlimited lamps / more vibrant lighting
-Further draw distance caps off sky (fog is same)
-Fog saturated stuff blends into the sky
-Cleaned up a handful of graphical eyesores
-A slew of little Ex features/bugfixes
-Probably much better performance
-Fonts come with game

Mainly there is a lot of quality stuff the untrained eye will probably totally miss even with a side by side comparison, but your subconscious will thank you I think.

The game can also be easily translated into other languages (\<span> site blocked, contact your administrator/ex/lang/Trismegistus/) and I may look thru the script at some point inserting Unicode in place where it would seem to help (pretty quotes, arrow symbols, etc)

You may need this (https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/deta...laylang=en)

Below is the Ex.ini configuration.

I was just wondering how you guys are able to make new map tiles that mesh with the originals, if you are able...

I know for instance Todd made that patch that fits between the outdoor grass walls, and the ice set in DD that looks very similar but with terraces you can walk on.

So I'm wondering if From' provided a tool for that, or if you just eyeball things, or what??

The first image resolution is the 1024 setting

Second is the 1600 resolution.

Attached Files

Thumbnail(s)
       

As homage to my own work, I'm releasing an album that has orchestral versions from previous Hguols works. ‎  4 tracks from the Epitome album, 4 from Celestial Powers Intervened To True Supremacy and 4 original tracks.

Everyone here will know most of the tracks from Diadem of Maunstraut, Trismegistus or Dark Destiny - I'm not sure if there's another track or not, (Perhaps Zeir Grimholdt) but all these songs are re-recorded with different sonics and instruments. ‎  Affectionately entitled "Maunstraut", while these tracks will be familiar to those of you who've played the games, they do have a little different feel to them being "maxed out" with better equipment and knowledge as a producer.



Hguols - Maunstraut
Track Listing:

To Solace
Epitome of Unprecedented Deaths (Dark Destiny)
Epitome of Threnodies Abided (Hlodyn)
Epitome of Sovereign Toccatas
Epitome of Eternity (Trismegistus)
Destined to Find Sanctuary (The Eternal Story)
I Found the Essence of Darkness (Journey to Despair)
Within the Grip of Insanity (A Cryptic Welcome)
In This Exchange of Demise (Forsaken, Forever)
Hordes of the Undead (Rain)
Hordes of the Undead (Silence)
Zeir Grimholdt

The songs in bold can be heard on Hguols.com. ‎  (If you'd want to hear the difference) ‎ 
Digital release on iTunes, Amazon, etc. December 1st, Limited pressed CD available first quarter 2011.

My offer to everyone here (since I mentioned it in the subject). ‎ 

Anyone who has been on this board before November 16th, 2010 - I'll give you a free digital release of the entire album. ‎  It will come with all 12 tracks, 192kbs MP3s, and a 300dpi JPG of the album cover.

Just respond to this thread clearly stating that you'd like the Maunstraut album. ‎ 
I'll PM you the link to download it.

Everyone, thanks for your dedication, time and contributions to this community!

Thanks!

Tom

I know I've been gone for a long time and I was wondering what I've missed. Also, how has everyone been doing?

Ive recently set up my new pc and it has windows 7 premium, and wont install SoM... When i go to copy files to c:\..\kf
it says access denied. Anyone else got this problem?

I spent much of the morning today trying to figure out why the little triangles you sometimes see around map tiles in som_db.exe were showing up in DarkDestiny with Ex in some modes.

It turns out whether intentional or accidental, under som_db.exe colorkey is disabled for map tile textures, even though the textures themselves are colorkeyed. But in a som_rt.exe game (built game) colorkey is enabled.

Sometimes there are little triangles embedded in map tiles, either intentionally or accidentally. They may work like control points, or just be visual cues. I thought sometimes they were yellow, but they seem to be black... at least in a som_rt.exe game. They may well have a yellow texture under som_db.exe.

Anyway, what this means is when you're working on your project (normally) if you make a map tile and wanted to knockout some texels like the way you can with objects by making them black, that would not work. But after you build your game, the texels will be knocked out. And in fact if they are not there are many map tiles which have those little triangles which if visible in a final game would be bad.

Anyway, what this means is you should be able to use transparent texels just fine with your custom map tiles, even though I'm not sure any that come with Som do so (probably not)

With Ex I'm tempted to just always apply the colorkey even under som_db, but may just add a do_colorkey option so you can get the same effect while working on your project until we can figure out if there is any significance to the way Som handles this. If the little triangles are indeed yellow under som_db.exe then colorkey would probably not apply to them anyway (not being black)

Another thing to keep in mind is the colorkeying under Ex actually looks really great, because it is filtered (smoothed / not jagged) when your texture is done correctly.

Overall percentage completion of assets: 79.4

Updated at 12/06/13
Estimation is based on everything being 95% cert making it into the final cut.

Items 82%

Armour 65%

Helms: 19

Body armour: 12

Arms: 3

Legs: 2 basic pieces so far. Most body armours will make up for basic leg armour.

Shields: 2

Weapons 95%

Total weapons: 34

Consumables 80%

Total health consumables: 13

Sellables 75%

Total sellables : 16

Misc rings and amulets 95%

Rings: 9

Amulets: 2

Enemies 80%

Total enemies: 18

NPCs 65%

Total NPCs: 15

Misc NPCs: Training dummy and barrel.


Soundtrack 95%

Total tracks: 24

2d Images 75%

Menu background complete
Main menu incomplete
Credits complete
No maps complete, none created for any level

Map pieces havent been included, because there are too many to factor into the final %

Some enemies have not been included because of reworking or uncertainty.

---------

[size=14pt]The Rathmor 'bin it!' section[/size]

Culled original items over 3 years development : 100

Culled original enemies over 1.6 years: 10

Culled original NPCs over 1.6 years: 4

Culled individual lengthy SOM projects : 4

Culled BGM : 19

Culled map pieces: over 250

Despair not. ‎  I will be creating 'the culled thread' at some point with images of my culled assets, which I can possibly give anyone who could find a home for them.

Does anyone know how far mhm data will stretch? I've been making the regular grid set from metaseq.

I'd like to make a full room or a full model that doesnt need to be broken down into single map pieces. It'd be far easier for me ‎ 

I could use some help/direction as I?m stuck at the moment. I?m sure some of these are related and will relate to each other.
Here?s the last few things I?ve done;

Obtained the eclipse and guardian swords, talked to the dragon, got the 12 crown something (for teleporting to verdite), & got all 4 elemental weapons. I also have 14 of the 15 magics. Now here?s what I?m stuck on;

Is there anything I have to do directly after obtaining all 4 elemental weapons?

When using the dragon shrine keys I'm sure the symbols have to be lined up in a certain pattern but I haven't found any place that shows the order.

Where do I get the key for the red/gold chests? Like the one on the pirate ship.

How do I unseal the white chests?

How do I get through the passageway that?s blocked by brittle boulders? (right by the dwarf who asks you to get his pickaxe) I?m guessing it?s an item as I?ve tried every single weapon and magic spell.

How do I remove the crystal stuck in the wall in the miner?s guild mine wall? I?m guessing a pickaxe but I don?t have one.

How/where do I use the 12 crown thing?

How do I unseal all the doors in the coliseum hallway?

How do I get the blue crystal that?s sitting on the pile of rocks on the mine cart track in the undersea castle? I can?t interact with it at all.

Where in the heck are all the pedestal crystals at? I see the pedestals everywhere but I?ve only found 1 crystal and that was for the undersea castle.

How do I unseal the door (it?s pretty close to gigi?s house, in the dark, purple cavern)

What is the dark magic (wada? ritual sheet for) It?s still in my inventory after I finished the quest so I?m guessing it?s used for something. ‎ 

What can I do with Mel Morris (the tree monster) that wants to see Gigi?

Any help would be much appreciated.