Prelude to Darkness is a pretty damn awesome RPG

[fantadomat]

It is a shame that this game is such a mess,would have loved to give it a go.

 

[JarlFrank]

As you see from the screenshots, PtD is not a pretty game.

Hard disagree, I fucking love the look of the game. Incredibly atmospheric.

 

[fantadomat]

As you see from the screenshots, PtD is not a pretty game.

Hard disagree, I fucking love the look of the game. Incredibly atmospheric.

I wouldn't call it beautiful,but it is decent looking game.

 

[Lord_Potato]

As you see from the screenshots, PtD is not a pretty game.

Hard disagree, I fucking love the look of the game. Incredibly atmospheric.

I wouldn't call it beautiful,but it is decent looking game.

In action it looks worse then on screenshots. The wall textures constantly bug out, especially in caverns and sewers. Animations are weird, especially during walking, when you scroll the screen it becomes way to fast, like the characters were under a haste spell (which I did not have). The painted portraites for your PCs are a nice touch, but there are few of them and most seem quite awful. Black and white sketches for the NPCs portraits are much better, some are even beautiful.

As for the terrain, I'm an IE kind of guy. I much prefer prerendered 2d backgrounds, which reached the pinnacle of beauty in the early years of 2000s. There was really no comparison with early 3d environments.

 

[Lord_Potato]

It is a shame that this game is such a mess,would have loved to give it a go.

You can try. It's not like it's expensive or hard to find And I can attest that while PtD can generate a regular freeze, it does not fry the computer on which it runs.

 

[Flux_Capacitor]

The game is actually pretty darn good. I've been mostly lucky, and have had very few problems. Only done a bunch of stuff in the initial town, though. I would say the biggest issue is simply the UI and interface; its just awkward. Its terribly inconsistent, almost intentionally so.

 

[Jimmious]

Is there a way to "register" the game or do we only play in Trial mode?

*Nevermind found a version that doesn't ask for that

 

[JarlFrank]

Is there a way to "register" the game or do we only play in Trial mode?

There is no trail mode, what do you mean?

 

[Jimmious]

Is there a way to "register" the game or do we only play in Trial mode?

There is no trail mode, what do you mean?

Ah I downloaded some 1.4 version from some abandonware type website and asked for that... Then I found newer versions that had no such thing

 

[Jimmious]

But I have one more question: Is there a way to play in windowed mode or borderless window or at least be able to alt-tab?

 

[PrettyDeadman]

But I have one more question: Is there a way to play in windowed mode or borderless window or at least be able to alt-tab?

Thats a good question. I would like to know that as well.

 

[vazha]

The game is actually pretty darn good..

Talk about damning with a faint praise. If you can tolerate the buggyness, it's one of the best rpg's ever made, period. Especially for us storyfags - the quality of questwriting & design is unparalleled, even AoD, for which PtD allegedly was one of main inspirations, doesnt come close. Inventor Extraordinaire Verugi for President!

 

[ghostdog]

But I have one more question: Is there a way to play in windowed mode or borderless window or at least be able to alt-tab?

You can try DXWND
https://sourceforge.net/projects/dxwnd/

 

[PrettyDeadman]

But I have one more question: Is there a way to play in windowed mode or borderless window or at least be able to alt-tab?

You can try DXWND
https://sourceforge.net/projects/dxwnd/

It kinda works, but it still changes the main screen resolution and you cant switch focus / make the mouse leave the screen at least with the default settings.
If someone will be able to make it work properly - please write here.

By the way, a lot of game resource and some of the game source code it in txt file (in Lisp or some other functional programming language). Maybe thats why the game lags when you start dialogue or advance skills. On the other had - its easy to make custom background with all the skills and attributes so that you can test the game really easy.

 

[Farewell into the night]

Hey, I remember playing this. I still have it somewhere on my HDD. I've never finished it, tho but to my surprise I have this atmospheric music in my head. That's amazing.

 

[PrettyDeadman]

All the quests are in the people.txt and events.txt.
You can see the dialogues, skill checks, rewards and etc.
You can also modify those, or even add new options to solve the quests using skills checks, new rewards, even new quests entirely.
You can see all items and their stats in items.txt.
There is a number of functions, which are defined within txt, and a number of functions, which are defined outside txt files, including functions like zooming the camera or drawing the screen. There is a potential to do some study here.
I would like to increase the zoom level of camera. Not sure if it can be bound on key though...

 

[PrettyDeadman]

Game works pretty well in windowed mode with dxwrapper (even in 1600x1200 resolution with 175% desktop scaling).
The problem is that it freezes/crashes when losing focus, and the mouse also freezes).
On the brighter side using dxwrapper you can chose any resolution you want and finally get that 4k Prelude to Darkness experience. Works best in fullscreen.
Quite possible that it will lead to less crashes too!
Wrong impression. Seems like it crashes in caves too (though I had to work to get a crash). Still, I think dxwrapper is worth investigating.

 

[PrettyDeadman]

Btw, I've made a "mod" which shows you all skillchecks during dialog in a popup window. Is anyone interested?

 

[vazha]

Next task for you: FIND THE SOURCE CODE. NOW.

 

[fantadomat]

You people are annoying. I just give up on the game,then someone writes something interesting about,i install it again......and then crash freezes me pc and i delete it while raging!!!

 

[PrettyDeadman]

You people are annoying. I just give up on the game,then someone writes something interesting about,i install it again......and then crash freezes me pc and i delete it while raging!!!

It doesn't crash that often (at least for me). Anyway, you can try using dxwrapper, maybe it will help you increase stability.
In dxwrapper.ini set the following:
DDrawCompat = 1
DxWnd = 1
EnableDdrawWrapper = 1

Report if it helped you increase stability.

 

[fantadomat]

You people are annoying. I just give up on the game,then someone writes something interesting about,i install it again......and then crash freezes me pc and i delete it while raging!!!

It doesn't crash that often (at least for me). Anyway, you can try using dxwrapper, maybe it will help you increase stability.
In dxwrapper.ini set the following:
DDrawCompat = 1
DxWnd = 1
EnableDdrawWrapper = 1

Report if it helped you increase stability.

LoL no,i won't try that buggy shit again. I am tired of restarting my pc for that shit.

 

[PrettyDeadman]

Hmm, did you know that there are a map editor, a mesh editor and other debug tools available in the game?
Ctrl + m to enter mesh editor, ctrl + p to enemies, ctrl + e to edit terrain, ctrl + r to edit building and etc. In order to close any of the editor you need to press ctrl + x. After editing terrain you need to pain it so that the changes can be seen. Not sure how it works with walls, wasnt able to make one.

 

[vazha]

Deadman That's all gibberish to me, but ARE YOU SAYING THAT YOU MIGHT BE ABLE TO FIX THIS GAME SOMEWHAT FOR THE REST OF US?

 

[Tramboi]

What would be needed would be the sources or a complete reverse-engineering and reimplementation of the engine (which is lots of time and energy).