Couple of Wip 3d fixes: Lumo and Ruzar - Life Stone

[Vaeltaja]

I've been practicing on 3d fixes these last few months and have few in progress at the moment (Labyrinth of Refrain for example). Here's couple of wip fixes for anyone interested to test them. Both games are made with Unity and I've used DarkStarSwords Unity Template scripts, so biggest thanks goes for him, and then removed broken effects. I haven't finished the games yet so there might be more broken effects.

Thanks (and possible donations) goes to 3D Gods: Bo3bber and DarkStarSwords who keep the 3d gaming alive with their wonderful tools, DHR for Universal Unity Fix and all the talented shaderhackers: masterotaku, DJ-RK, Losti etc. who have helped me understand basics.

LUMO:
Lumo is charming isometric puzzle/adventure/platformer that is homage to olden time. It is easy to learn but gives very nice challenge. I've used GOG version of the game but it should work with Steam version also.

At the moment there are only two convergence settings for low and higher ("u" key), also pressing menu (esc) and map ("m" key) keys sets convergenge to lower so you are able to see menu and map. When you use menu or map, use the same key to exit them, otherwise they can get messed up and change the convergence setting other way around (if that happens you can fix it by pushing the keys in different order or just restart the game). Sometimes fix gets broken but get fixed when you walk your character to different room (sometimes you have to get between two rooms couple of times), other method is to use Alt+Enter to go to windowed mode and back but I don't recommend that since it very often freezes the game. You can also try to turn 3d on and off (Alt+t)

To activate the fix unzip it to the folder with game's exe file, set "-window-mode exclusive" to game's shortcut: right click on shortcut and write command without quotes to target field after the game's launch parameter (you may need to make a new shortcut for the exe file). You may also need to check "Run as administrator" and "Disable full-screen optimization". I've also noticed Lumo is kind of cranky with Win10 (at least with the fix) and may freeze, so at the moment I'm testing it in Win8 compatibility mode.

https://mega.nz/file/C9UCSQBb#GOUcrJLwj ... 6wFNgwlfGE

RUZAR - LIFE STONE:
Very enjoyable first person dungeon crawler similar to Legend of Grimrock but with shop and side quests. Unzip fix to the folder where game's exe file is located and set "-window-mode exclusive" command to game's shortcut: right click on shortcut and write command without quotes to target field after the game's launch parameter (you may need to make a new shortcut for the exe file). You may also need to check "Run as administrator" and "Disable full-screen optimization". You can change the convergence settings to your own liking using nvidia hotkeys (Alt+F5/F6), I haven' t implemented different settings yet so the fix uses the same setting that I use. This fix can also get broken from time to time but same methods as with Lumo work here, only difference is that Alt+Enter doesn't crash the game, at least I haven't encountered that yet.

https://mega.nz/file/LtVGnSpQ#G6FFro4PR ... XYdQt4MGCA

[skyrimer]

Thanks for those fixes, I'm really interested in Ruzar, never heard about it before but I love this kind of RPGs, wishlisted both.

[Vaeltaja]

I've been enjoying Ruzar quite a lot. It's not as challenging as Grimrock, at least in the first half of the game, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. I'm also making a fix for Labyrinth of Refrain which is also a first person dungeon crawler but with turn-based combat and complex and deep character customization system. It has many dungeons with different themes and quirky japanese story telling and it gets very addictive once you learn the mechanics.

I'm also planning to buy Dungeon of Dragon Knight at some point, it's more like Ruzar and Grimrock:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/8236 ... on_Knight/

And I think Legends of Amberlands was quite charming in 3d. It reminded me of older dungeon crawlers like first Lands of Lore:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/8738 ... ten_Crown/

If you get Ruzar at some point and try the fix, please give me feedback especially if you find broken shaders etc.

[skyrimer]

I'm always amazed by the great games you can find on Steam that I've never heard of, wishlisted both and please share the Dungeon of Dragon Knight and Legend of Amberlands fixes if possible, and thanks again for those two fixes, I'll grab Ruzar on a sale since I currently have my hands full, and I'll report about the fix and see how it goes. Also Labyrinth of Refrain looks really cool, reminds me a bit of Etrian Odyssey, again never heard of it, wishlisted too

[Vaeltaja]

It's good to hear that at least someone is interested in same kind of games. Somedays I've spent hours just roaming through Steam's store using different search tags to find interesting games that never get mentioned in gaming sites. Sometimes it's a drag but in the end it usually rewards.

If I remember correctly Legends of Amberland worked without specific fix but I had to install Helifax's OpenGL-3D Vision wrapper and make some ini tweaking. I try to backtrack what I did with it someday so I can write a tweak guide for setting it up. I played that game through just in few days because it was so good and enjoyable, even though it's quite big adventure. I have also two Elminage games (also japanese hardcore 1st person dungeon crawlers) waiting, Infinite Adventures (western 1st person dungeon crawler inspired by japanese crawlers) and Dungeon Kingdom: Signs of the Moon (also very Lands of Lore -like 1st person dungeon crawler) which is still early access but seems very promising. Those two last mentioned are giving me hard time when trying to fix since DarkStarSwords' Unity templates doesn't yet work with them well, but that might change in the future.

Oh, almost forgot that I also got Bard's Tale Trilogy remaster working in 3D with DHR's Universal Unity fix but I have to push the HUD to depth someday. Now I'm starting to understand that how shaderhackers usually have many projects in works at the same time and some projects are on hold for a longer time while others get fixed faster.

Few years ago I started to lose interest in gaming and then I realized that I had only played wrong kind of games. I used to love games like
Dungeon Master and Lands of Lore back in the 90's and Nes and Snes era console and arcade games. Legend of Grimrock and few other games made me realize that there's actually a vast selection great games hidden in GOG and Steam waiting for me to find them. I very rarely play bid budget games these days since I find them lacking a soul. Occasionally there's some interesting AAA games but they are getting quite rare.

But nevertheless it gives me motivation to learn fixing games when I see that there's someone else that might enjoy these kind of games.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/6078 ... dventures/

https://store.steampowered.com/app/3290 ... _the_Moon/

https://store.steampowered.com/app/6187 ... _the_Gods/

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2919 ... ge_Gothic/

[skyrimer]

Wow, so if I'm counting correctly, that's four fixes together with the 3 bard tale games, it makes 7 games fixed/tweaked to work in 3d in less than two days, that's some kind of record around here lol, huge thanks from a fan of dungeon crawlers. I'm an old school gamer so yeah, I begun playing games like eye of the beholder, ishar and lands of lore, and back then it was like the most incredible graphics on earth lol- Same with Lumo, it reminds me a little of old spectrum games like Head over Heels or Batman, so it's fantastic to see those games coming back and even more with a 3d fix. Lately I've been playing Operencia which has great fix from Losti, also tried Vaporum, I think it's unity ( https://www.vaporum-game.com/2017/12/18 ... ite-unity/ ) but the universal fix didn't give good results so I didn't get to play it.

I'm wishlisting all those games, again some of those games look fantastic and went completely under the radar for me, so thanks for sharing and again thanks for all those fixes, that's a lot of 3d goodness right there. I hope some of our shaderhackers can upload those fixes to helixmod blog at some point.

[Losti]

When ever you need some Help you can ask me Vaeltaja, I will try supporting your way ! MUCH appreciate!

[Vaeltaja]

When ever you need some Help you can ask me Vaeltaja, I will try supporting your way ! MUCH appreciate!

Thanks Losti, MUCH appreciated also!

@Skyrimer: I've had Vaporum on my wishlist for some time, so I'll check it out someday when it comes to discount. I noticed that I have Heroes of Monkey Tavern in my Steam library so I have to check that also when I have the time. I remember that I also made some sort of fix for StarCrawlers which I liked - I think it reminded me of Captive that I used to play with Atari ST - so I check that too at some point, maybe it could be released also.

These fixes I released are kind of basic and I've been making them during past few months. I've been just building up courage to release them. I have to someday learn to fix shadows and stuff but at the moment my time is split between my personal life, game designing (I've been drawing textures a lot over a week and there's other stuff like writing, designing maps, characters etc.) and game fixing, so it may take time but until then I'll keep releasing these simpler fixes for games I'm interested. That reminds me that I'll next check out these two titles that might look cool in 3d:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/4440 ... ht_Riders/

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1239690/Retrowave/

And yeah, the game I'm making with my friend is.. Surprise, surprise! A dungeon crawler, heavily inspired by Lands of Lore (which really is one of my all time favorites) but with turn-based combat system. Who knows when it will be ready, so I don't talk about it much yet, but it's starting to shape up nicely. Story and structure are almost finished and at the moment I'm focused mostly on drawing textures and designing the look of each dungeon. Yes, it will have multiple dungeons with different looks. But that's all I can tell for now.

Edit: Forgot to say that Operencia looks fantastic with Losti's fix and seems interesting game. I think I played it to that early water dungeon but then some other game caught my attention, I guess. So it's been in my library for a while waiting but it's always good to have at least one unfinished dungeon crawler in the library just in case. That reminds me that one long time project for me has been Dungeon Master mod for Legend of Grimrock. I had forgotten how difficult it is (used to play that also with Atari ST) and there's also Chaos Strikes Back mod which is even harder.

[skyrimer]

Well I hope that you game is 3d ready, best luck with that . And yeah, Operencia is great, i tend to get stuck with it's puzzles here and there, so I leave it and come back after a while, and that game is really big for an indie game, really recommended.

[Vaeltaja]

@Skyrimer I just bought Vaporum from GOG sale, so I'll check it out someday and try to make a fix for it if possible. I also bought Frayed Knights from Steam which is a dungeon crawler with heavy emphasis on comedy, but is made to look and play like games like Wizardry 8, so it looks promising.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/3141 ... SmakhDaon/

[Feisty_Fernando]

Lately I've been playing Operencia which has great fix from Losti, also tried Vaporum, I think it's unity ( https://www.vaporum-game.com/2017/12/18 ... ite-unity/ ) but the universal fix didn't give good results so I didn't get to play it.

I've tried the 5.6 unity fix, while the game does engage 3D, in-game lighting creates a white flickering screen unless I face specific walls where I just see a normal double image. Wish I could get this one working since LOG I and II were graphical masterpieces.