Castle Britannia
Produced by: Firstknight
Website: Beautiful Britannia @ Forgotten World
Latest Release:
* Beautiful Britannia 2011 R3 (286.2 MiB, 479 hits)
Mini Mods:
* BB Mini Mod #1 (130.5 KiB, 115 hits)
Previous Releases:
* Freedom Mod (3.1 MiB, 939 hits)
* 2009 Beautiful Britannia Demo (6.7 MiB, 958 hits)
* 2010 Beautiful Britannia Demo (170.5 MiB, 641 hits)
* Beautiful Britannia 2011 R1 (172.3 MiB, 747 hits)
* Beautiful Britannia 2011 R1 Hotfix (381.4 KiB, 182 hits)
* U9BB.EXE (200.2 KiB, 641 hits)
* Beautiful Britannia 2011 R2 (259.6 MiB, 426 hits)
Beautiful Britannia started as a ‘Freedom Mod‘ for Ascension, assembled by Michael Menapace in response to the linear feel to the plot of this last Ultima title. The mod didn’t do much to alter the order of events in the game, or to change at all the inconsistencies encountered in Ultima 9‘s plot. What it does do, however, is alter some aspects of the structure of Britannia, eliminating obstacles that previously prevented you from roaming the land of Britannia freely.
Eventually, the project grew into what became known as Forgotten World, and a team joined FIrstkniGHT. FIrstkniGHT himself left the team for a while, though the project moved on; it gained a website and grew more ambitious, evolving into an attempt to decode the Ascension game files with an eye toward building a world and game editor, in order to provide players with a better experience.
Firstknight (slight spelling change) then rejoined the team, and the project split into two separate projects as a result: Beautiful Britannia (a more “lush” version of the original Ultima 9) and its “Unlimited” spinoff (a more lush Ultima 9 with a few additions and revisions), and Forgotten World proper (the in-engine remake, which will feature many corrections and updates). Firstknight subsequently departed the team again, and then returned a short while later; in the interim, Beautiful Britannia became this standalone project.
Greetings to all, who are interested in “Beautiful Britannia”.
Sorry, but I haven’t got the time to create a homepage so far, so I want to provide some quick infos on the actual project state here:
Currently (after being offline for about 6 months) I continue working on basic tasks, like categorizing items and upgrading the creation tools.
When this is done, the next step will be adding bigger objects (mainly rocks and trees) onto britannia overworld (means pure hexcoding)
Both of these tasks will take approximately until Summer 2011.
After that I will have something new to show (which is not really the case atm), so this will be a good time for providing a homepage then.
Also a new demo is planned in Late 2011 (I hope that I get the .NET Launcher done until then).
Further I’m sorry to say that there will be no way to remove the fogging on overworld maps in Windows 7, but it makes not much sense anyway, simply because MiddleClip values higher 6000 gets unstable.
Long time goals for “Beautiful Britannia”:
o Providing many more details for Britannia overworld
o Making several unsued maps (overworlds and dungeons) playable
o Shorten the linear parts and add nonlinear ones insteadt
That’s all so far, greetings again
Firstknight
I’ve updated the Progress Report for BB, please read more here:
http://www.ultimaaiera.com/blog/beautiful-britannia-progress-report/
I’ll be sure to check it out! Thanks!
A warm welcome to everyone, who is interested in this project. I am very happy to say that I found a new way back to my old home on http://www.forgottenworld.de . My humble self and Iceblade have joined forces again to explore the possibilities of enhancing Ultima IX, while keeping our own projects in mind.
Within the next year we both will focus on common things (decoding stuff, game fixes) to provide a solid base for our greater enhancements. So, even if there will not be so much “visible” progress within a certain amount of time, please be patient, the speed will increase drastically, when we will have both the knowledge and the tools available.
I further recommend, that you check out the project sections for the BEAUTIFUL BRITANNIA series and FORGOTTEN WORLD regularly, simply because new developments can easily influence the overall project goals. For now, the first major goal for me is not only to help both projects to improve, but also to finish the first release of BEAUTIFUL BRITANNIA within the next 5 years.
Not to forget, I cannot thank WTFDragon enough for supporting our projects for all those years. For his Aiera site here, I will leave the project sections separated (because they have quite different goals), but I will provide any common content under the FORGOTTEN WORLD section (texture packages for example), only full demos and releases of BEAUTIFUL BRITANNIA and its sequels will be provided under their own section then. I hope, that this solution is not too confusing, but regarding to the replies on Aiera there is a different fanbase for both projects, and this choice will provide simply the right downloads for the right people then.
Finally, I will promise to everyone reading this, that I will FINISH the whole BEAUTIFUL BRITANNIA series (consisting of 3 Parts) as well as supporting Iceblade as much as possible to reach his goals with FORGOTTEN WORLD. All I want to request from the readers here is to be VERY, VERY PATIENT, the results will be worth the wait.
I tried the demo and i liked the work, more wildlife and plants, that turn the brittanea world more realistic.
Yeah, that’s exactly what is planned by me.
I have to mention that I’m currently working on a methodics to convert the latest content into the original map using VB6 scripts, so that the Demo 2011 will be a fully playable version of UIX then (the actual version is not bug-free).
But it’s too early to say, how much can be converted and therefore, how the Demo 2011 (planned for late 2011) will exactly look like.
But yes, a new demo is planned for every year until the first release (currently scheduled for 2015). Please look onto the Forgotten World Homepage from time to time, where also the Beautiful Britannia related content is presented.
In general, 3 full releases are planned within the next 10-15 years (Yes, my plannings go very far into the future, but I also reached all of my most important goals in the past).
Greetings and thanks for yout interest
Firstknight
I have to correct myself, because of just one outstanding weekend, where I could combine my actual work with the existing map successfully, there will be a Beautiful Britannia Demo 2010, to be released right here within December.
It really is ‘Beautiful’ Britannia
@Zeus the Bear
I’m very happy, that you like my work!
And with the next demo (planned for late 2011) I’ll try to make Britannia even more Beautiful.
Really cool. Congrats!
I’ve added a new section to the Beautiful Britannia screens page, showing the development history from 2005 up to the current release 2011 R1.
This gallery shows the significantly improved quality of the latest release 2011 R1 in comparison to prior releases as well as some unreleased builds and (not to forget) original Ultima IX.
For a quick overview, please take a look at the “Awesome screen” of this week.
Finally, after many many hours of intensive research for more than one year, I can present Beautiful Britannia in a new, completely fogless experience, on any system up to Windows 7!
I found out, how to modify the EXE file to use a particular “blue ambient mode”, which is used for Map.40 (Ambrosia) by default, now for map.9 (Britannia overworld). While Ambrosia now has the standard “black dungeon theme”, Britannia gets maybe the most important improvement possible!
The latest “Awesome screen” really shows the effect, when playing “Beautiful Britannia 2011 R1″ using the following “Super HQ” settings for options.ini:
[Performance]
FarClippingPlaneDistance=14000
MiddleClippingPlaneDistance=10000
Use16BitTextures=1
MaxObjCullSize=4
CullStartDist=3000
UseCompressedTextures=0
HiResSky=1
DeadPoolLifeTime=6000
DeadPoolSize=3200
MaxMeshesPerFrame=1000
MeshCacheDeadTime=1500
MeshCacheMemorySize=256000000
MaxInstancesPerFrame=2000
UseTerrainDetailLevels=0
[Lighting]
LightQuality=3
[Game]
LODScale=8.0
My system (Intel Core i5 3,33 Ghz, ATI Raedon HD 5670, Windows 7 Pro) can render this scenery in 25+ FPS, even with 4xSSAA and 8xAF activated (which both are recommended, if your Hareware supports them)!
The package containing the modified EXE file (named U9BB.EXE) is available for download here on the Beautiful Britannia project site on Ultima:Aiera.
Simply unzip the package into your Ultima IX install directory so that U9BB.EXE is located within the same directory as U9.EXE then. After that start U9BB.EXE…
…and believe!
The new EXE works with any savegame of every version of Ultima IX or Beautiful Britannia.
Regardless of whether you playing Beautiful Britannia or original Ultima IX, get this dowload now, it’s simply MUST HAVE!
Thanks a lot for Beautiful Britannia, it really looks awesome. I restarted the game, because i allways wanted to finish this one. I tried playing with the new exe, looks cool, but brakes some of the triggers in the game (and the support for Glide) and i don’t wanna risk it(Ex. the Shamino dialog in the way to the first shrine doesn’t trigger, the exe can’t read the FarClippingPlaneDistance if u happen to set it from the game and then tryied to changed again in options.ini.
Anyway i just wanted to let u know maybe u can debug it. I have high hopes for retexturing the whole game.
Keep up the good work!
I’m so glad that you like my work!
Interesting anyway, i’ve tested the Shamino trigger nearby the first shrine using U9BB.EXE, and it worked just as expected.
You played using an existing savegame, do you ?
Now, it’s not because of using U9BB.EXE you get those troubles, but more because of those options.ini settings (which only make sense when using with U9BB.EXE). Sorry, but it looks like that for using U9BB.EXE which those “extended” options.ini settings it’s necessary to start a new game then.
I’ve played a new game with u9bb.exe, not a savegame, and had that truoble with Shamino trigger. I then “reverted” to before leaving earth and played ok with the u9.exe. I think that the fact that u9.exe reads correctly options.ini and u9bb.exe not is a sign something is not working ok there. Work arround for trying new options.ini with u9bb.exe without starting a new game is loading them with u9.exe, save game and then restore it with u9bb.exe.
I will try to play again from the earth with u9bb.exe to test the trigger again, could be that playing with both u9.exe and u9bb.exe and restoring u9.exe games with u9bb.exe brake it, but if this is the case u should mention it.
Anyway with u9.exe i had the bug with the flying rune at the 1st shrine, with u9bb.exe i did not:-)).
KLAMATH: this was (just checking) with a fully-patched (v1.19f) version of U9?
If you feel comfy, what are your system & OS details? Those may also be relevant.
I played with 1.19g (1.18->1.19f->1.19f fix->1.19g), with economy/monster patch (without dialog patch).
I have core i7 950 6Gb Ram, GTX 580 Win Xp 32 (for old games, i also have an Win7 partition, but i’ve used Xp for Ultima 9).
I wonder if maybe there is a conflict between the Economy/Monster patch and something the Forgotten World/Beautiful Britannia team have done?
@Klamath
Maybe you could test U9BB.EXE first with orginial UIX files only, and to the second with “Beautiful Britannia 2011 R1″ installed (both without monster/economy patch).
In general, the engine IS VERY BUGGY PER DEFAULT, so every change we make could create a new problem. Nevertheless, this is no reason for us not to try it, as you can see. And all good readers here can help us for sure with testing our releases and posting their comments.
Sorry for posting here, but it is impossible to download “Beautiful Britannia Demo 2011 R1″ from http://www.forgottenworld.de site because it points to http://www.ultimaaiera.com/?dl_id=578 (“Beautiful Britannia Demo 2010″)
Well, that’s an error on their part, I suppose; I’ll have to check it out.
Not that it really matters; I host all their downloads, so you’ve come to the right place to get the correct version!
2 WtF Dragon
I just did not find any contacts on forgotten.de site, so I posted here. If you have one, please let them know about wrong link and then remove my posts from this topic.
They check in here from time to time; they’ll see your report soon. I’ll leave your posts up until I see one of them acknowledge.
Thanks for the info, i’ve updated the site, the download links now all refer to http://www.ultimaaiera.com/ultima9/beautiful-britannia/, this is the better solution anyway.
Firstknight – You are alive
, but in download section of http://www.forgottenworld.de site there is an inaccuracy in the description of the 1.19f patch. It says “Patch 1.19f … Requires patch 1.19f”
Again – sorry for posting here
Your help is very welcome, 3MMM.
I’ve corrected the line, it now says “Requires patch 1.18f”
Further i’ve updated the “Team & Contact” site, where everyone now can find my contact address for direct inquiries.
Hello guys,
I wanted to say thank you so much for the much needed patches and graphic updates. I was recently thinking about playing Ultima IX, and I thought maybe there are some mods out there, walla! I found you guys. So far, so sweet! I’ve played up till a little past Paws in respect to the linear questline, but I have a few comments:
1). Is it me or do the birds chirp do damn much? When I first traveled to Lord British’s castle it seemed like the birds were consistantly chirping, as if the sound effect was on a loop. Not the kind of loop when you open a book and there is a brief repeat of what ever music/sound effect was playing.
2). I’ve noticed that there are pink edges to some objects, the music sheets (Iolo’s house and Britain’s Mayor’s house), and trees with snow (snow wolf den near the Paws/Britain brigand camp)
3). Lighting: Are there suppose to be shadows? I walked in to the ray of light in the Britain town church, and didn’t have a shadow, nor did the Avatar brighten up.
I am not sure if the lot of you already know about these issues or questions, but hope to hear from you, and keep up the AWESOME work! The teams are really upgrading a diamond in the rough game from the best game series ever.
V/R
Regulus
Thanks for your detailed comments, Regulus!
At least I can tell you, that the pink edges you noticed are something we want to remove with “Beautiful Britannia”, if possible.
Regulus: I can’t speak to the sound effects and Firstknight has addressed the pink fringing, but as to the third question you post (lighting) I can comment some. Basically, it comes down to an engine limitation; light sources are supported, but advanced shadow-casting off of objects that enter the path of light isn’t.
Keep in mind that the 3D engine of Ultima 9 is at least a dozen years old, older if you factor in development time. It’s a pretty good-looking engine even so, but it was released at a time where 3D engine technology was still coming into its own. Concepts we take for granted now — dynamic shadows, shaders, and suchlike — simply didn’t exist in some of the early 3D engines.
Take the various Quake/id Tech engines, for example. Dynamic shadows weren’t introduced until id Tech 3, the Quake III Arena engine. That game came out in late 1999, and was (in its day) probably the most advanced 3D game engine out there. A lot of other 3D games that came out in that same year were still using technology at the id Tech 2 level…which I don’t believe supported shadow-casting either.
hi,
thanks for the BB-mod! i tried U9BB.EXE but i always get a clipping of 8000/4000! i guess that is the default setting. i can not change it within the options.ini
i set it to 14000/10000 and started U9BB.EXE but i was again 8000/4000!
what is the clue?
if i use the U9.exe is 14000/10000 but still misty
thanks
Maybe you use an existing savegame, U9BB.EXE needs a new game when using custom settings…
… but I as far as I know this is the same with U9.EXE v1.19.
Firstknight
hi, yes i had to start a new game
i saved it after a few hours. so i load it again and i had again the default values! 
i guess i do not have to play with the settings within the game, haven’t i?
greetz
Now, I’ve tested something different:
First I set up the clipping in options.ini to 14000/10000
After that I loaded a late savegame, where ship travel was already available.
Quite after loading the clipping was 8000/4000, but then I used the quick ship travel feature with Raven once, and the clipping changes to 14000/10000!
Quite interesting behaviour!
Important information:
Because of some serious troubles I had lately to find enough time for BB (and this will not change so soon), I have to delay the next release of “Beautiful Britannía” for about 3 to 6 month!
And why not simply releasing the current content then ?
Because about 40% of the terrain textures still unfinished, which ends in a mix of old and new terrain textures atm.
As soon as I’m able to made some noteworthy progress with this next release, I will tell it both here and on our Website.
So. thanks for your patience, and please don’t forget to look onto http://www.forgottenworld.de from time to time, Iceblade makes some good progress with creating Tools for “Forgotten World” lately.
Firstknight
Thanks for the update, Firstknight! I got your email as well, and I’ll put up some official news about all this later today.
Sorry to hear that life is being…well…life, but I’ll always look forward to news of the project regardless of how many months delay it experiences.
i just tried to play with bb exe, more beutiful britanea 2011, more economic-monster-dialog patch, more patch 1.19g , and i didnt saw any trouble
the shamino statue event near britain trigered well. i have the screeshoot to prove it.
That’s good to hear, Trafalgar, thanks for this info.
Now, after the release of Beautiful Britannia I think it’s time to spend some words onto the next steps planned.
Currently I lent a helping hand to the FW team, to release the fog, which covers the mysteries of the dialog system.
After that I want to optimize the building Process of BB, so that further builds can be created faster then.
This next build of BB will Be started in 2012 and take 12 to 18 months to be finished, and therefore will be released in handy modules.
The first of these modules can Be expected to be released in Mid 2012, and is very likely to be an overhauled and expanded dungeon map, using content of those “unused Maps” for expanding this dungeon
Some existing Maps have quite interesting content hidden within them, but will not fit into my concept for BB.
So I got the idea to provide this content within Mini-Mods.
This is an experiment of some sort, and I’m already curious about, whether this catches some interest or not.
So, feel free to send every comments you have in mind.
Mini Mod 01: “Back to Earth – Cheat Map”
Content:
========
While doing some trigger-related research I had to find out, that there was quite some content within the earth map hidden by the developers. So I’ve created a copy of the earth map, where all this content is visible and useable now, and integrated the map into the main game after that.
Now this special map can be acccessed by entering “Castle Prison” after speaking with Lord British at the Beginning of the game. The Back Teleporter now leads to this Earth Map, from there you can return to the front of LB Castle or try out one of the following:
o Teleporters to positions all over Britannia (Best to use with my “Freedom Mod” preinstalled, so that you can walk back to Britain then)
o Teleporters, which changes the complete armor set you wear
o Collect all the Armor and Weapons, which had become visible now
o Bake your own Bread within Avatar’s House
Quick Install instructions:
===========================
Just as for “Beautiful Britannia” I use a simple batch file as Installer, so it will be working on any system,
starting from Windows 98 up to Windows 7, and on x32 and x64 systems.
* Unzip the Release into your Ultima IX install directory (where u9.exe is located, otherwise the Installer will not work)
* Now you have a new directory within your Ultima IX install directory, named BB, with a Subdir named BBMini01, further the Installer called BBMini01.cmd
* To the next please run BBMini01.cmd
* At the first start the Installer creates a Backup of the original files in the BACKUP Subdir of the BBMini01 directory.
* Enter 1 for installing the BBMini01 (Enter 2 for restoring the previous installation)
* The Mod works not only with new games but also with every existing savegame!
Beautiful Britannia 2011 R3 – Release!
Features:
=========
* More than 150 new designed Textures (Terrain, Foliage, LB Castle, Walls), most of them in higher resolutions than the original ones.
* More than 15.000 objects added (Flowers, Grass and other plants, Butterflies, most of them around yew) to the original release from 1999.
* Contains the latest version of U9BB.EXE (supports more than one fogless overworlds, those overworlds will be implemented in future releases)
NOTES:
From now on U9BB.exe can be created by using U9PatcherEXE.exe (separate installer), please look into U9BB-readme.txt for details.
Terrain textures are not completely finished yet, please excuse the disburbing effects because of missing transistions.
Quick Install instructions:
===========================
* Unzip the Release into your Ultima IX install directory (where u9.exe is located, otherwise the Installer will not work)
* Now you have a new directory within your Ultima IX install directory, named BB, with a Subdir named BB2011R3, further the Installer called BB2011R3.cmd
* To the next please run BB2011R3.cmd
* At the first start the Installer creates a Backup of the original files in the BACKUP Subdir of the BB2011R3 directory.
* Enter 1 for installing the BB2011R3 (Enter 2 for restoring the previous installation)
* Now please start a new the game using U9BB.EXE (fogless overworld) or standard U9.EXE (overworld with distance fogging).
* BB2011R3 will further work every early savegames from the earth map or stonegate.
Nice Work, Thank you for such a great update.
keep it up
greetings Jarro
Thanks a lot! I got high spec pc few days ago and one of the first games I tried to install was Ultima IX, of course. And what a surprise to find you when searching for updates! Congratulations!
hi!
I just tried BB on my win7x64 i7/560ti pc, and the resulting U9BB just crashes… I can play the original 1.19F U9.exe just fine… is there any workaround?
thanks!!!
Maybe you can send me “your” U9BB.exe onto my email contact (look at the FW Site for it).