Daggerfall Unity Beta 0.11.0 - Milestone Accomplished

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Interkarma
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Re: Daggerfall Unity Beta 0.11.0 - Milestone Accomplished

Post by Interkarma »

Thanks for sharing KoW and Ralzar. I enjoyed reading your stories very much. :)

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Arl
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Re: Daggerfall Unity Beta 0.11.0 - Milestone Accomplished

Post by Arl »

This thing is a feat to behold, if you have been over the internet for some time you know what a project coming this far entails and how unmeasurable it is.

I want to give my utmost congratulations and admiration to all the contributors, after all this time I have been dwelling the roadmap watching how you monsters greened all those task, covering everytime more ground not only to spawn the incarnation of DF we all wanted for so long, but also to open and facilitate the way for exciting content creation.


(Starts lighting wooden pipe) I still remember the days of the XL forums. We had a relationship of hope/hate with the whole project, not only for the ridiculous low development rate and monthly disappearences of the guy in charge, but also for his unwillingness of sharing the source code of his project (in his absolute right) that will allow for others to help or whatever an open code scheme could have spawned. Some of us were already creating content for a would be remake of Daggerfall, not knowing these creations would not meet a place to be in any time soon. To further damage our spirit, Interkarma decided to left all of his Daggerfall's related hobbies and focus that portion of him elsewhere. Then, not so slowly, some of the forum regulars started to be seen left often and/or when into the dark completely.

But one day, just as Interkarma went away, he came back: "Hey I'm back, and I'm going to start remaking DG in Unity, how do you like that :P". Still on a corner of the XL forum, but with renewed spirit, we saw him sharing his plans and vision for the project, talk about the advantajes of doing it on Unity, and stating the open nature of this endeavor, which we now behold the powerful results of those directions.


I'll never forget the time when we where sharing our art and discussing mod ideas (now under the DFU banner) and Interkarma said: -"I really need to setup a forum for you guys"-, and here we are.


Thank you!
Last edited by Arl on Fri Dec 18, 2020 2:53 am, edited 1 time in total.
My Deviantart page, I have some Daggerfall stuff in there.

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Interkarma
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Re: Daggerfall Unity Beta 0.11.0 - Milestone Accomplished

Post by Interkarma »

Hey Arl! I remember those early days sharing my progress around DFTFU on the XL forums. At the time, I didn't really have plans for a remake and wasn't sure I could make that happen anyway. I already had a failed Daggerfall remake under my belt 5 years before Lucius showed up. I think I'd made up my mind it wasn't really possible - or if it was then I wasn't the right person to do it.

I was legitimately humbled by how quickly Lucius had so much of the basic game up and running. I didn't really consider my previous work was actually one of the reasons he was able to progress so quickly. Not to diminish Lucius or his efforts at all - but almost a decade of my early tools and helping to unpack data formats beforehand was certainly a huge boon to DaggerXL from the start. And I shared everything I did - source code, discoveries, the works. I didn't give myself any credit for how important that was the time, and I'm not sure anyone else realised either. In hindsight, the difference in our individual approaches were already there.

For the next few years, I was happy just to sit back and fade away, looking forward to someday playing DaggerXL. Like many others, I became frustrated with the lack of visible progress and lack of sharing. Other than those first few early DaggerXL demos, the game didn't seem to progress much beyond the state it was in around 2010. And the project was constantly expanding with new games when just remaking one game was already a stupidly herculean task. I didn't see how someone could remake several games at once. The whole thing started feeling rather unreal and not grounded in practicality.

Starting work on DFTFU was really just to give me some experience in Unity grounded in something I was familiar with. The fact my old C# Daggerfall libraries plugged directly into Unity was a sublime twist of fate. I wrote those C# libraries for XNA specifically and I never considered they'd be so completely portable years later. I was shocked when my Daggerfall Connect library worked so well in an engine I'd never heard of at the time I wrote it.

From there things kind of snowballed. I started feeling that immense passion for the game again. And unlike 2003 when I tried and failed to recreate Daggerfall for the first time, there were now these huge social frameworks in the world. The realisation hit me that I didn't have to be some godlike programmer. I just had to be good enough and share everything and people would help. So instead of just making a game, I started building a ladder for myself and others to climb. Where rungs were missing (and there were plenty along the way), we helped each other up past the gaps and filled them in behind us so others could climb more easily and follow, then help us cross more gaps in future. I didn't know the term at the time, but "network effect" describes DFU's development very well. The combination of social media, a freely available game engine, and an open development environment smashed down all the walls I bounced off during my first attempt.

Along the way, I've met some amazing people. I've learned how to accept my own limitations and ask for help. I've learned I don't have to be a godlike developer to be a good one. I've learned that perfect is the enemy of good and it's better just to create and be happy than it is to chase an ideal that might not exist. I will never make a cent from DFU, but I'll take all these lessons into my next game and hopefully find some independence there. And while it won't be exactly the same process, I'm confident that I'll eventually share code for my future games as well for others to reuse, remix, and expand as they will. My model for this is how id released source for Doom and Quake, and Delver released their source after development was complete. Some people pull up the ladder behind them and throw down rocks. Others climb up and throw down more ladders. So long as I have something worthwhile, I'm gonna do the second one.

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Arl
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Re: Daggerfall Unity Beta 0.11.0 - Milestone Accomplished

Post by Arl »

I also remember you once said that we were all playing in this sandbox, the best we can do is share our toys, I think you should be proud of having follow that ideal since it has made this unmeasurable adventure.

I also want to point out that, as I also credit to Lucious in his time, you have given the very scarse DF community a home, which also have spawned a new community, and provided the scalfold for content creation which many of us dreamed to be able to do with Daggerfall. So I thank you again for that, and for your dedication and presence.


I'm looking forward to see you take the step toward your own game!
My Deviantart page, I have some Daggerfall stuff in there.

Braggi
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Re: Daggerfall Unity Beta 0.11.0 - Milestone Accomplished

Post by Braggi »

A few days late but my heartiest congratulations on Beta! Long time coming and sweet is the victory. :)

To each and every person who has added time, sweat, code and creativity to make this project so well crafted and fun: Thank you.

The original game was good. DF Unity is better in so many ways.

This is the Daggerfall I always wanted to play.

Falci
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Re: Daggerfall Unity Beta 0.11.0 - Milestone Accomplished

Post by Falci »

Congratulations on the amazing feat! All of you guys! :D

mcarss
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Re: Daggerfall Unity Beta 0.11.0 - Milestone Accomplished

Post by mcarss »

Absolutely lovely recap, Gavin.

Like you, I discovered Daggerfall back in 1996 and immediately fell in love. I always made a point of revisiting it yearly, installing mods like Andyfall as time went on. Even into the mid/late 2000s, Daggerfall was often in the back of my mind. I've been one of the many forums lurkers, from DaggerXL to here, just keeping tabs on the progress over the years. For a long time, I didn't create an account here. I ended up doing so just to make it easier to keep track.

It's surreal to know that the work is essentially done. I've been patiently waiting for "feature complete" before diving in, and now it's here. Time to download!

Congratulations to you and the entire team at your side. Thank you for your tireless and dedicated work to bring the game back for those original players, and for new generations to appreciate and enjoy.

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Orbarth
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Re: Daggerfall Unity Beta 0.11.0 - Milestone Accomplished

Post by Orbarth »

Congratulations to everyone that was involved in the development of this fantastic DFU, it's amazing to see a milestone being reached.
DFU revived all my interest in Daggerfall that had dwindled since all those years, thank you very much for doing that.

Thank you also for enabling this bigger level of modding, and thanks to all the modders that added so much to the game and improved a lot on what could be improved.

I'm sure maybe one day we'll see the Daggerfall as it was originally meant to be completed as some of those cut features are already more or less available through mods.

Can't wait to see what's next.

Lokkrin Zhataros
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Re: Daggerfall Unity Beta 0.11.0 - Milestone Accomplished

Post by Lokkrin Zhataros »

Sincere Congratulations Interkarma on Beta!!

What a journey it has certainly been for you all. I enjoyed reading all the stories and about the origins of this project and the true passion, vision and determination to make the classic game of Daggerfall into the game it was truly meant to be - along with the additional modern enhancements and continued extensive modding support.

I haven’t been apart of this community much or for very long, nor have I contributed much aside from a few suggestions and discussions. But I want to express my utmost respect, admiration and appreciation for Interkarma and the entire team of developers and modders of the Daggerfall Unity Community.

Thank you all for your hard work and dedication, and providing this project as open source. You are awesome!

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Baler
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Re: Daggerfall Unity Beta 0.11.0 - Milestone Accomplished

Post by Baler »

wow BETA HYPE!

Huge, immense, massive, monolithic THANK YOU to Interkarma and everyone involved in making/fixing/improving DFU.

It was a heck of an alpha period and in many ways has moved into beta very quickly. I really cant thank y'all enough for the hard work.
Thank You!

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