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Ultima VII, in Automagical 3D
WWWWolf writes "Ultima VII is quite well emulated using Exult. Exult folks have added quite a few handy additions to the game, but nothing they have done quite matches their newest feature: Exult in 3D. There is talk about support for actual 3D models in future. Being an alpha-quality work at the moment, the source is not available, but there's a load of screenshots and a Linux binary to try."
In actuality, they are making the true plans for Ultima 9. Origin had plans for an isometric 3d game for U9 when they thought it would be cool to drop the camera down all the way. The work this guy has done is incredible.
It's not Ultima Online, it's Ultima 7.
Not to mention, Ultima Online came before Everquest, so wouldnt that make EQ a UO clone?
Very nice for a quick hack - this version of the Exult engine basically reads out the bounding boxes of each object, creates a 3D object with those bounds, and then maps the original sprite onto the bounding box as a texture. That's very clever. Of course, actually cleaning this up (look at how flat the people are and how twisted the trees look) will take a ton of work, but now that we've got a taste of a real 3D U7 maybe the project will attract more attention and volunteers.
Ultima VII has nothing to do with a MMORPG. Back before Origin was smacked down into a game factory by EA, they made good games. Ultima VII was one of the best (and the last good one, sadly).
This isn't an online game.
I have found that alot of great classic games were completely ruined by making them 3D. It ruins the playability. Sure it looks cool, but you forget about that after a few minutes and then are annoyed when things are hidden behind walls where your character should be able to see it but you cannot. I'm all for 3D games that make sense (ie FPS), but just making things 3D for the sake of it looking cool is not always so good. I think RTS and RPG's should almost always be top down view with no playability hampering 3D to screw things up.