Mod News Temple+ Engine Enhancement and Bugfix Mod for The Temple of Elemental Evil Released

[Infinitron]

Tags: Temple of Elemental Evil; Temple+; Troika Games

Shortly after the reveal of the "secret" Temple of Elemental Evil world editor last year, longtime TToEE modder Sitra Achara was exiled from the Circle of Eight modding community under mysterious circumstances. He quickly set up shop here on the Codex with a few compatriots, launching a TToEE modding subforum in our Codex Workshop section. I admit that I didn't think that subforum would ever amount to much. Happily, I was very wrong.

Today, after nearly a year of work, Sitra Achara and Pugmeister announce the release of Temple+, a groundbreaking new mod for The Temple of Elemental Evil. Unlike the Circle of Eight mod, Temple+ is a binary-level modification, replacing the game's DLLs to fix bugs and offer enhancements that CO8 never could. Here's the announcement text:

Greetings!

Pugmeister and I are pleased to officially announce project Temple+, an engine enhancement and bugfixes mod for ToEE.

Temple+ enables replacing original ToEE C code with our own brand new 1's and 0's. This has allowed us to do things that have never before been possible with ToEE modding, such as fixing many old and stubborn hardcoded bugs, improving UI behavior, enhancing the core pathfinding algorithm, and much much more. In particular, the entire rendering system has been overhauled for compatibility with modern systems, which also fixes the graphical issues encountered by Win10 users.

We are very excited by the opportunities this opens up for gameplay and modding, and look forward to working with the community to shape the future of ToEE. For us, it is a chance to realize the GotY Edition ToEE never had It is furthermore an open-source project, hosted on GitHub - everyone can contribute, whether it be code or documentation on the on-site Wiki.

The first release of Temple+ (v1.0) is focused on laying the foundations for future expansion, replacing many of the original systems with our own. Building on this base, we have many plans for the future, including a thorough UI overhaul, new Classes, Feats and Spell Effects, smarter AI, and so on. You'll already find a glimpse of that in 1.0, and it's only going to get better! In between major releases, you'll also be able to enjoy automated updates to keep current with minor enhancements and fixes.

Download Temple+ 1.0​

We'd like to thank to our community members for the extensive testing they have given to Temple+. Heinous Hat and gazra in particular, who have gone above and beyond and may well have put in more QA hours than the original ToEE testers!

Temple+ 1.0 out!
Check out the changelog for a list of what you can expect.
If you encounter any issues, please report them here.

Cheers,
Sitra Achara (aka Cattletech) and Pugmeister
​

It's a brand new era for The Temple of Elemental Evil. Read the full announcement post for an illustrated look at Temple+'s major features. Installation instructions and other support information are available here.

 

[ghostdog]

Awesome work, keep it up!

 

[Outlander]

 

[Drowed]

Majestic.

 

[a bear named spigot]

that's dope. well done, men.

 

[Zorba the Hutt]

Excellent, congrats.

 

[getter77]

This bodes amazingly well for the future---just marvelous.

 

[felipepepe]

Great work! It's also a much needed punch in the face of Co8. Things like this could have been done ages ago, had those jerks not kept their mouths shut for like 10 years.

 

[Infinitron]

Great work! It's also a much needed punch in the face of Co8. Things like this could have been done ages ago, had those jerks not kept their mouths shut for like 10 years.

Despite what the OP might imply, I don't think there's any actual connection between the leaked WorldEd and Temple+. But maybe Sitra Achara can clarify.

 

[Sitra Achara]

There's indeed no connection, at least not a direct one. I can say that we found the polish patch randomly while discussing Temple+ on Skype, and the rest is history... BTW, Kurrrrwa!

The impetus for Temple+ was actually a failed negotiation to obtain the source code for ToEE. When it seemed like it was going nowhere, I decided to roll up my sleeves and make some sweet love to Ida... should've done it way sooner. Pug joined along, started whirling like a Tasmanian devil through the code, and here we are!

 

[felipepepe]

Mere facts can't silence my butthurt.

 

[mutonizer]

enhancing the core pathfinding algorithm

Whispered "Ohhhh, ToEE!!"
Clicked
Downloaded in half a second
Pressed Window+E and access "Old Game/ToEE/"
Ran TemplePlusSetup.exe
Instance of it doing nothing in task manager and can't kill it.
Restarted entire shit and whispered: "Ah yea, ToEE, should have known...."
Moved on...

 

[Roguey]

The impetus for Temple+ was actually a failed negotiation to obtain the source code for ToEE.

Wolfman Cain refuses to part with his source code without a hefty sum?

 

[Zorba the Hutt]

The impetus for Temple+ was actually a failed negotiation to obtain the source code for ToEE.

Wolfman Cain refuses to part with his source code without a hefty sum?

Know you're trolling, but he posted about it here:

Since i am not really good at good timing i will ask you about something from interview which i think heated up more people than supernova.
Can you comment more on TOEE source code ownership ? I think this news heated up ton of people here.

The Arcanum source code was used to make ToEE, and Troika retained ownership of both code bases. There are some contractual obligations that prevent me from releasing it (since having ToEE source code would allow anyone to compile a ToEE executable that had no DRM, which is a violation of Troika's contract with Atari). However, I am free to use that source code in any other way I please, including using it in full or in part in future games. Plus, that code used an OS abstraction library (meaning calls to any OS function like input, memory, graphics, etc went through the library), making the code fairly easy to port to other platforms.

Isn't ToEE currently sold DRM-free?

Yes, it is. But that company's contract with Atari does not negate Troika's contract with Atari. They can release a DRM-free game, but we cannot release the code.

 

[Sitra Achara]

The impetus for Temple+ was actually a failed negotiation to obtain the source code for ToEE.

Wolfman Cain refuses to part with his source code without a hefty sum?

Nope, Tim is A-OK. There's just not enough money in it to even bother the Hasbro lawyers.

 

[FeelTheRads]

It's pretty stupid considering the game is sold DRM-free, but hey... that's contracts for you.

 

[Sitra Achara]

enhancing the core pathfinding algorithm

Whispered "Ohhhh, ToEE!!"
Clicked
Downloaded in half a second
Pressed Window+E and access "Old Game/ToEE/"
Ran TemplePlusSetup.exe
Instance of it doing nothing in task manager and can't kill it.
Restarted entire shit and whispered: "Ah yea, ToEE, should have known...."
Moved on...

Gah, was that installation manually unpacked or something? Might have locked up when crawling the registry...

 

[mutonizer]

Gah, was that installation manually unpacked or something? Might have locked up when crawling the registry...

No idea, been sitting there for...hmm, since CoE 8.1ish release or something. I'll probably do another complete reinstall later on to try it out on fresh one.

 

[Sitra Achara]

Gah, was that installation manually unpacked or something? Might have locked up when crawling the registry...

No idea, been sitting there for...hmm, since CoE 8.1ish release or something. I'll probably do another complete reinstall later on to try it out on fresh one.

Are you using GoG as the base or the original CDs?

 

[cherry blossom]

There's indeed no connection, at least not a direct one. I can say that we found the polish patch randomly while discussing Temple+ on Skype, and the rest is history... BTW, Kurrrrwa!

The impetus for Temple+ was actually a failed negotiation to obtain the source code for ToEE. When it seemed like it was going nowhere, I decided to roll up my sleeves and make some sweet love to Ida... should've done it way sooner. Pug joined along, started whirling like a Tasmanian devil through the code, and here we are!

Awesome work!

Could you tellwho the participants in the negotiation were and why it failed?

And since you didn't get the source code, I take it that you are reverse-engineering the game, so is this supposed to be low-level hacks at DLL files or is it sort of an engine rewrite altogether? And is this meant to supersede CoE, compliment it or what? If I want to settle with the vanilla content, will Temple+ eventually meet all my needs or would I still benefit from CoE? And what of cut/restored content? Really curious about the future potential and the prospect of developing new modules for the game.

 

[Sitra Achara]

Awesome work!

Could you tellwho the participants in the negotiation were and why it failed?

Not gonna mention names, but you can probably guess. It's irrelevant now anyways. Like I said there's just not enough money in it to bother the lawyers.

And since you didn't get the source code, I take it that you are reverse-engineering the game, so is this supposed to be low-level hacks at DLL files or is it sort of an engine rewrite altogether?

The former. There was actually an attempt by Pug a few years back to do a complete rewrite, but I guess it's just an unrealistic amount of work. The Temple+ approach has the advantage that the base is ready, you're just adding on top, so it can't go vaporware almost by definition. Eventually it might replace almost the entire code.

And is this meant to supersede CoE, compliment it or what? If I want to settle with the vanilla content, will Temple+ eventually meet all my needs or would I still benefit from CoE?

Co8 mod is still very valuable, and while I could replicate its fixes in Temple+, I personally think it would be a huge waste of time when I could be doing new stuff. I heartily recommended playing T+ along with Co8, but to each their own.

And what of cut/restored content? Really curious about the future potential and the prospect of developing new modules for the game.

TBH I think the cut content for ToEE got a lot more attention than it deserved... just a crappy brothel and some "inappropriate" dialog as far as I know. There were also a few "stumps" here and there that were picked up and expanded already by Co8 (mostly by Livonya who did an amazing job IMO).

Developing new modules for ToEE has been possible for a while now, particularly with the official editor out, but the toolset is apparently still a barrier. I do hope that perhaps our engine modification efforts will draw more people to create content for ToEE, there's a limit to how many times you can go on a bugbear killing spree, no matter how diverse the methods at your disposal are... I'm also toying with the idea of adding editing features to the game itself to facilitate content creation, but that might take a while.

 

[Kem0sabe]

Cut content was shit, the only thing I wanted out of the games modding community were bug fixes and especially engine fixes. Which is what we got with this, and tis great.

The ToEE engine has truly horrendous path finding, is prone to crashing and all kinds of issues.

 

[FeelTheRads]

I personally think it would be a huge waste of time when I could be doing new stuff.

Well, sure, but if you're only interested in the fixes it's annoying to have to install that too. Maybe someone can figure out how to add those fixes then if this is open source?

Regardless, thanks for your work!

I have doubts we'll see much new content, though. The pre-rendered graphics are a pretty big barrier too.

 

[Sitra Achara]

I personally think it would be a huge waste of time when I could be doing new stuff.

Well, sure, but if you're only interested in the fixes it's annoying to have to install that too. Maybe someone can figure out how to add those fixes then if this is open source?

Regardless, thanks for your work!

I have doubts we'll see much new content, though. The pre-rendered graphics are a pretty big barrier too.

Isn't that what's Apexeon for?

 

[Hegel]

Prerendered backgrounds shouldn't be an issue as long as you're just modding, just rip them off some other obscure game.

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