I love the idea of hobbyist software, but would love to have truly professional power in it. Does Povray have the same capabilities as Photoshop?
Well, as others pointed out, Photoshop isn't quite the same thing. What you're looking for is a comparison to other big commercial rendering tools.
What I can say is that PoV-Ray is definitely just as good as any pro renderer. I think the only bad thing about it is that the scene description language is their own doing, definitely not compatible with anything else - you need a modeller (or converter) that specifically supports PoV-Ray. There's no modeller with the package either, so you need to stick with something that you know and has exporter or direct support for PoV-Ray. That said, the language is extremely versatile too, you can do very impressive things if you tweak the code before feeding it to PoV-Ray. And with complex enough scenes, the output is definitely comparable to commercial pro renderers - just take a look at the hall of fame pictures linked in the article.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure the SecuROM/SafeDisc methods do *not* produce valid Redbook CDROM standard CD's.
(A small nitpick: "Red Book" is audio CD standard. But I know what you meant anyway - Yellow Book, ISO 9660, and other confusing things =)
Well, I do get weird results from isovfy from some SecuROM-protected CD-ROMs (isovfy isn't very well documented, I have no idea what the hell all these numbers mean, but lack of "No errors found" is more than a bit damning)...
nighthowl:~$ isovfy/dev/cdrom
Root at extent 13, 2048 bytes
[0 0]
No errors found
(Neverwinter Nights playdisc (CD3), SecuROM)
nighthowl:~$ isovfy/dev/cdrom
Root at extent 15, 2048 bytes
[0 0]
No errors found
(Neverwinter Nights: Hordes of the Underdark, SecuROM)
Here's what I know to be an unprotected disc:
nighthowl:~$ isovfy/dev/cdrom
Root at extent 17, 4096 bytes
[0 0]
[100 180]
No errors found
(Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri: Planetary Pack for Linux)
...so I guess Vivendi is far more evil than Atari =)
So at least the ISOs are all right. Which is logical, because you can copy the errors in ISOs anyway. There's probably errors in the physical layout of the disc, and I don't have tools to check that (except maybe cdrdao, and I don't have the disk space to dump Warcraft to right now).
And yeah, relying on disc errors is stupid anyway, the whole concept that you could rely on an error is flawed =)
I think it's easier than that. I haven't seen the source, but I'm guessing there's some configuration bit somewhere that lets you change the application name easily.
After all, since Netscape has been doing this all the time with Mozilla, I'm guessing they DON'T want to spend time combing through every source file to rebrand the browser, even if it could be done (possibly error-pronely) with sed(1).
Many OSS apps have such functionality anyway - Apache springs into mind, even if they don't have too many code forks. And all autotools-built apps potentially have that functionality (through PACKAGE and VERSION macros, I believe), not sure if people actually use those macros as they should be.
Netscape's headaches with rebranding are probably limited to disabling functionality and adding all the useless stuff.
I'm guessing here, but time between when machine is first brought online and when it's first discovered/probed/found alive by a worm or hax0r scanners - in other words, time before worm infection or other kind of intrusion, because after it dawns to the world that there's an unpatched system right before their noses, there sure isn't much time left before that system is owned.
There's just one thing I've learned about these limited versions. I think it's best summarized by one Finnish proverb: "Poor people can't afford to get cheap things". Do you think it's wiser to spend a small amount of money on the "limited" version, keep limping forward with the limited set of functionality and be never able to buy the full version - or is it wiser to first a little bit more money, and spend it on the full version right away?
Before I got Linux and its wonderful set of high-quality free tools, I was constantly in pain. Why? The stuff I needed was expensive, and demo shit or shareware stuff doesn't do anything well! Limited programs weren't option - It's unwise to buy toys when you need the real tools.
Even the name "Starter Edition" is ridiculous. This thing is supposed to be the low-cost alternative to a real work operating system, meant to be used all the time, just like the real version. Yet, the name implies it's only a "Starter" version. Why should people buy a separate "starter" version, since it implies they need the real version anyway? How long are you going to be "starting" the computer use, anyway? Forever?
What's so obvious? I don't get why people say it's so horrible. I don't think any of the Batman movies were that bad. Then again, I'm not a nitpicking purist, and I know next to nothing about the comics in question. =) Well, I didn't find it a really good movie either, but the point is, it wasn't bad enough to trigger any nausea or annoyance or humor in me, so I suppose it wasn't that bad.
Yup. Eclipse is just about the best IDE I've used, and SWT kills other Java GUI toolkits dead.
And Azureus is quite definitely the best bittorrent client ever devised. =)
Now, if only Eclipse 3 would eventually hit Debian - and getting Azureus on Debian would be pretty cool too (proggies that come with their own swt.jar tend to be severely sluggish to start for some reason...)
Re:original KaZaA had spyware, right?
on
P2P vs. The Clones
·
· Score: 1
Doesn't the original KaZaA client have it's own spyware?
Note that it talks about Kazaa Gold, not Kazaa Lite. As I understood it, the deal was this:
Kazaa was freeware that had spyware in it. Big, nasty stuff that gives you nightmares.
Kazaa Lite was freeware, and didn't have spyware. Kazaa's makers weren't happy.
Kazaa Gold was just like Kazaa Lite (it was based on KLite anyway, I'm not sure if they added anything), except it was actually sold to unsuspecting people who didn't know about Kazaa Lite. Kazaa's makers sure weren't damn happy. Nor were the KLite folks or fans.
When your favorite tool is LISP, every problem looks like a set of parentheses.
But (by expanding the Greenspun Tenth Rule of Programming), when your favorite tool is Not Lisp, every problem looks like an expensive, clumsy reimplementation of half of the features of Common Lisp. =)
CSS is part hardware, part software - the decryption is done on software, but there's also the bit about exchanging keys, which is done at hardware level. Which is why you get I/O errors if you attempt to copy CSS-protected data with bare hands. If the CSS licensing conditions include messing around with reading in the drive firmware, then I suspect it also includes messing around with writing in the burner firmware.
I don't know the details, but I keep hearing that the blank media in stores has the CSS key part pre-recorded with zeroes, so you can't write there. Don't know how they're supposed to do that voodoo in RW disks. I also suspect writing there is pretty much restricted on firmware as well, just in case.
What really gets me is that Opera and Mozilla have a Google search bar built into it, so they should be going there in very high numbers. What if it only registers hits to the main page?
Why the heck should it only register the main page hits? I definitely think they count all queries. IE has Google bar add-on too, probably the most popular custom toolbars for it - in places where I've actually seen IE used, people have had it installed. And it's easy for Google to crunch statistics out of all of their queries anyway!
it's cute you think that was a real post. you're adorable.
Aaaah, I know very well it wasn't a real post. However, as implied in the last paragraph - people ask even stupider questions all the time, they are dead serious to find out answers to them, and people give them serious answers too. To me, it doesn't matter if the stupid question is real or not.
I may find it funny if someone just tells about someone else's stupid question, but if someone asks a stupid question from me, I answer, and there's not much funny about it. It's as simple as that.
Most of the files under/usr are important system files, and should not be deleted.
As a general rule, do not delete anything you're absolutely sure you won't need, much less if you have absolutely no idea what they're for. There are countless tales of people like you who invariably, no matter what operating system they are using, end up suffering after deleting stuff they think they don't need. Those who don't end up regretting it usually only do so by sheer luck - until something finally goes wrong.
As for deleting things from/usr, it is advised not to do that anyway - these are best done through the package manager (use Synaptic if you use GUI, or dpkg or apt if you are familiar with the command line).
As for lack of.exe or any other descriptive file extensions, it is merely only one of the common idioms of the UNIX environment. Please get used to it, it usually doesn't take much getting used to.
Hope this helps.
(And to anyone who found parent post +5, Funny: Get yourself a pet newbie, or try to answer newbie questions on a public forum for a whole. After a while, questions like that miraculously lose all funniness.)
Breakout??? OSX ship with gnuchess and just about the slickest-looking front-end ever devised for it, sure beats xboard. No tile-smashing, card-gambling or dangerous explosive disposal here, no, nope, not in this OS.
And as for games from other providers - there exists a port of Nethack for Mac, what the hell else anyone could ask for...
I had very much trouble getting iTunes-ripped AAC files played on Linux - because the XMMS plugins don't even compile, pre-built binaries aren't available because Dolby is being annoying about licensing, and the FAAD binaries are rather problematic.
Yeah! We need more "useless but cute" apps! You know, the kind of apps that cannot be SIGTERM/HUP/KILLed because they're too cute and blasting them away would be cruel. Um... do we have much of them, besides oneko/okitsune? =)
The only Pointless Waste of Time I get from Linux these days is messing around with xscreensaver settings. *sigh* (there are other pointless wastes of time, like right now, when I was forced to compile AAC support for XMMS myself when Dolby was boneheaded about binaries, but hey, this doesn't count, and is actually ultimately productive. =)
Okay, they are useless, and typical Linux users gag and spontaneously get warts when anyone even mentions them, but many people actually do like them, poor things.
Besides, every once and while, useless distractions are good for everybody. xscreensaver-command -prefs is therapy. =)
I recently tried RealPlayer 10's beta for Linux. It's actually pretty slick (well, it was beta, so it was a bit unstable at times, but hey...) and plays Icecast streams in Ogg Vorbis pretty damn well (and you can get just plain Helix Player for that too, without RealVideo support). It was small, not too slow (Linux versions of RP are never ever slow!) and there's no trace of ads!
Yeah, Windows players are probably hell, but the *NIX players have the history of ruling, at least to small extent =)
But to be perfectly honest, the real reason I switched from RP8 to RP10beta was the support for XVideo extension and actual support for fullscreen playing. Makes watching some videos far less annoying when you don't need to maximize the window and fullscreen mode doesn't eat all processor. And, yuck, RP8 was a Motif app and RP10 uses GTK+2.
Back in the Old Days on bbses, games had turn limits. The bbs would usually have a time limit on how long you could be connected, too. Some bbses also featured a time bank which allowed you to deposit unused connection time for a particular day and withdraw at a later time.
You're talking about Legend of the Red Dragon, right? I remember playing LoRD and have vague recollections of using a game with a time bank, but couldn't connect these games together.
Now, I wish this feature were implemented in Legend of the Green Dragon as well... and that the lotgd,net server hadn't deleted my character due to inactivity.
Speaking of inactivity deletions, that's another thing that bugs me - I'll never be good in Diablo 2 if Battle.net keeps nuking my account while I'm dozing in Linux! Do they think that with a game collection of over 100 titles, and this exciting online game called "wasting time in Slashdot" that can be played with Linux clients, I have time to log on every month? Or even every year? Not likely!
SCO maintains that it has been a paragon of virtue
Welcome Darl, I am Hawkwind, Seer of Souls. I see that which is within thee and drives thee to deeds of good or evil...
For what path dost thou seek enlightenment? Honesty
Thou art a thief and a scoundrel. Thou may not ever become an Avatar!
Hawkwind asks: What other path seeks clarity? Honor
Thou art a cad and a bounder. Thy presence is an affront. Thou art low as a slug!
Hawkwind asks: What other path seeks clarity? Humility
Thou art too proud of thy little deeds. Humility is the root of all Virtue!
Hawkwind asks: What other path seeks clarity? Justice
Thou art cruel and unjust. In time thou will suffer for thy crimes!
A clarification - Apollon is just a KDE front-end for giFT daemon, which itself is a multiprotocol P2P core (and implements a network of its own, called OpenFT). There are many giFT frontends available, my own favorites being giFTcurs (ncurses-based frontend), and giFToxic (GTK+ frontend).
Now I just wish giFT's UI protocol would be propely standardized and that other P2P cores would use it - because mldonkey is my P2P core of choice and the mldonkey's "native" GUIs somewhat stink. mldonkey folks are apparently already implementing giFT frontend support, just hoping it'll be some day considered a non-experimental feature...
...Debian's GIMP has them too again. In main distribution. Let no one say Debian's GIMP lacks GIFs again =)
Re:Ultima VII: The Black Gate has real religion
on
Game with God
·
· Score: 1
Yeah - actually, the whole premise of Ultima IV and forward was about religion - or, rather, virtues and ethics, which I think is what all religions ultimately are about.
Ultima VII was different because it was also about organized religion. Previous Ultimas were mostly about golden rule - you're supposed to be the embodiment of Virtues, to set an example for others to follow. Ultima VII, then, was about organized religion - and why organized religion can easily go wrong and be ultimately harmful to its followers.
And meanwhile back in real world, Ultima VII was supposed to tell a thing or two about new age religions, specifically Scientology.
You mean like western RPGs have been doing since the 80s? RPGs such as Wizardry, Fallout, and even KOTOR have had nonlinear mechanics. Its not a new concept.
Yeah. Those who do not understand Ultima are condemned to reinvent them, badly.
Slashdot Mirror
Well, as others pointed out, Photoshop isn't quite the same thing. What you're looking for is a comparison to other big commercial rendering tools.
What I can say is that PoV-Ray is definitely just as good as any pro renderer. I think the only bad thing about it is that the scene description language is their own doing, definitely not compatible with anything else - you need a modeller (or converter) that specifically supports PoV-Ray. There's no modeller with the package either, so you need to stick with something that you know and has exporter or direct support for PoV-Ray. That said, the language is extremely versatile too, you can do very impressive things if you tweak the code before feeding it to PoV-Ray. And with complex enough scenes, the output is definitely comparable to commercial pro renderers - just take a look at the hall of fame pictures linked in the article.
(A small nitpick: "Red Book" is audio CD standard. But I know what you meant anyway - Yellow Book, ISO 9660, and other confusing things =)
Well, I do get weird results from isovfy from some SecuROM-protected CD-ROMs (isovfy isn't very well documented, I have no idea what the hell all these numbers mean, but lack of "No errors found" is more than a bit damning)...
nighthowl:~$ isovfy /dev/cdrom
Root at extent 15, 2048 bytes
[0 0]
23: 58 5a26 57611 Flags=(4) RRlen=14 [AA]
15: 56 9242 1950 Flags=(4) RRlen=14 [AA]
(Warcraft III disc)
Though apparently not always:
nighthowl:~$ isovfy /dev/cdrom
Root at extent 13, 2048 bytes
[0 0]
No errors found
(Neverwinter Nights playdisc (CD3), SecuROM)
nighthowl:~$ isovfy /dev/cdrom
Root at extent 15, 2048 bytes
[0 0]
No errors found
(Neverwinter Nights: Hordes of the Underdark, SecuROM)
Here's what I know to be an unprotected disc:
nighthowl:~$ isovfy /dev/cdrom
Root at extent 17, 4096 bytes
[0 0]
[100 180]
No errors found
(Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri: Planetary Pack for Linux)
...so I guess Vivendi is far more evil than Atari =)
So at least the ISOs are all right. Which is logical, because you can copy the errors in ISOs anyway. There's probably errors in the physical layout of the disc, and I don't have tools to check that (except maybe cdrdao, and I don't have the disk space to dump Warcraft to right now).
And yeah, relying on disc errors is stupid anyway, the whole concept that you could rely on an error is flawed =)
I think it's easier than that. I haven't seen the source, but I'm guessing there's some configuration bit somewhere that lets you change the application name easily.
After all, since Netscape has been doing this all the time with Mozilla, I'm guessing they DON'T want to spend time combing through every source file to rebrand the browser, even if it could be done (possibly error-pronely) with sed(1).
Many OSS apps have such functionality anyway - Apache springs into mind, even if they don't have too many code forks. And all autotools-built apps potentially have that functionality (through PACKAGE and VERSION macros, I believe), not sure if people actually use those macros as they should be.
Netscape's headaches with rebranding are probably limited to disabling functionality and adding all the useless stuff.
I'm guessing here, but time between when machine is first brought online and when it's first discovered/probed/found alive by a worm or hax0r scanners - in other words, time before worm infection or other kind of intrusion, because after it dawns to the world that there's an unpatched system right before their noses, there sure isn't much time left before that system is owned.
Bah! I think it's a Subtle Tribute(tm) to Dune II.
And the two ninja girls. I mean, all cool games have ninjas. Everybody knows that. =)
Don't have much else to add to your comment. Right on.
There's just one thing I've learned about these limited versions. I think it's best summarized by one Finnish proverb: "Poor people can't afford to get cheap things". Do you think it's wiser to spend a small amount of money on the "limited" version, keep limping forward with the limited set of functionality and be never able to buy the full version - or is it wiser to first a little bit more money, and spend it on the full version right away?
Before I got Linux and its wonderful set of high-quality free tools, I was constantly in pain. Why? The stuff I needed was expensive, and demo shit or shareware stuff doesn't do anything well! Limited programs weren't option - It's unwise to buy toys when you need the real tools.
Even the name "Starter Edition" is ridiculous. This thing is supposed to be the low-cost alternative to a real work operating system, meant to be used all the time, just like the real version. Yet, the name implies it's only a "Starter" version. Why should people buy a separate "starter" version, since it implies they need the real version anyway? How long are you going to be "starting" the computer use, anyway? Forever?
What's so obvious? I don't get why people say it's so horrible. I don't think any of the Batman movies were that bad. Then again, I'm not a nitpicking purist, and I know next to nothing about the comics in question. =) Well, I didn't find it a really good movie either, but the point is, it wasn't bad enough to trigger any nausea or annoyance or humor in me, so I suppose it wasn't that bad.
Yup. Eclipse is just about the best IDE I've used, and SWT kills other Java GUI toolkits dead.
And Azureus is quite definitely the best bittorrent client ever devised. =)
Now, if only Eclipse 3 would eventually hit Debian - and getting Azureus on Debian would be pretty cool too (proggies that come with their own swt.jar tend to be severely sluggish to start for some reason...)
Note that it talks about Kazaa Gold, not Kazaa Lite. As I understood it, the deal was this:
Kazaa was freeware that had spyware in it. Big, nasty stuff that gives you nightmares.
Kazaa Lite was freeware, and didn't have spyware. Kazaa's makers weren't happy.
Kazaa Gold was just like Kazaa Lite (it was based on KLite anyway, I'm not sure if they added anything), except it was actually sold to unsuspecting people who didn't know about Kazaa Lite. Kazaa's makers sure weren't damn happy. Nor were the KLite folks or fans.
But (by expanding the Greenspun Tenth Rule of Programming), when your favorite tool is Not Lisp, every problem looks like an expensive, clumsy reimplementation of half of the features of Common Lisp. =)
CSS is part hardware, part software - the decryption is done on software, but there's also the bit about exchanging keys, which is done at hardware level. Which is why you get I/O errors if you attempt to copy CSS-protected data with bare hands. If the CSS licensing conditions include messing around with reading in the drive firmware, then I suspect it also includes messing around with writing in the burner firmware.
I don't know the details, but I keep hearing that the blank media in stores has the CSS key part pre-recorded with zeroes, so you can't write there. Don't know how they're supposed to do that voodoo in RW disks. I also suspect writing there is pretty much restricted on firmware as well, just in case.
Why the heck should it only register the main page hits? I definitely think they count all queries. IE has Google bar add-on too, probably the most popular custom toolbars for it - in places where I've actually seen IE used, people have had it installed. And it's easy for Google to crunch statistics out of all of their queries anyway!
Aaaah, I know very well it wasn't a real post. However, as implied in the last paragraph - people ask even stupider questions all the time, they are dead serious to find out answers to them, and people give them serious answers too. To me, it doesn't matter if the stupid question is real or not.
I may find it funny if someone just tells about someone else's stupid question, but if someone asks a stupid question from me, I answer, and there's not much funny about it. It's as simple as that.
Is that still cute? =)
Most of the files under /usr are important system files, and should not be deleted.
As a general rule, do not delete anything you're absolutely sure you won't need, much less if you have absolutely no idea what they're for. There are countless tales of people like you who invariably, no matter what operating system they are using, end up suffering after deleting stuff they think they don't need. Those who don't end up regretting it usually only do so by sheer luck - until something finally goes wrong.
As for deleting things from /usr, it is advised not to do that anyway - these are best done through the package manager (use Synaptic if you use GUI, or dpkg or apt if you are familiar with the command line).
As for lack of .exe or any other descriptive file extensions, it is merely only one of the common idioms of the UNIX environment. Please get used to it, it usually doesn't take much getting used to.
Hope this helps.
(And to anyone who found parent post +5, Funny: Get yourself a pet newbie, or try to answer newbie questions on a public forum for a whole. After a while, questions like that miraculously lose all funniness.)
Breakout??? OSX ship with gnuchess and just about the slickest-looking front-end ever devised for it, sure beats xboard. No tile-smashing, card-gambling or dangerous explosive disposal here, no, nope, not in this OS.
And as for games from other providers - there exists a port of Nethack for Mac, what the hell else anyone could ask for...
I had very much trouble getting iTunes-ripped AAC files played on Linux - because the XMMS plugins don't even compile, pre-built binaries aren't available because Dolby is being annoying about licensing, and the FAAD binaries are rather problematic.
Then, RealPlayer 10 beta. Wham! Works right away!
Dolby-blessed AAC binaries for Linux = GOOD.
Yeah! We need more "useless but cute" apps! You know, the kind of apps that cannot be SIGTERM/HUP/KILLed because they're too cute and blasting them away would be cruel. Um... do we have much of them, besides oneko/okitsune? =)
The only Pointless Waste of Time I get from Linux these days is messing around with xscreensaver settings. *sigh* (there are other pointless wastes of time, like right now, when I was forced to compile AAC support for XMMS myself when Dolby was boneheaded about binaries, but hey, this doesn't count, and is actually ultimately productive. =)
Okay, they are useless, and typical Linux users gag and spontaneously get warts when anyone even mentions them, but many people actually do like them, poor things.
Besides, every once and while, useless distractions are good for everybody. xscreensaver-command -prefs is therapy. =)
I recently tried RealPlayer 10's beta for Linux. It's actually pretty slick (well, it was beta, so it was a bit unstable at times, but hey...) and plays Icecast streams in Ogg Vorbis pretty damn well (and you can get just plain Helix Player for that too, without RealVideo support). It was small, not too slow (Linux versions of RP are never ever slow!) and there's no trace of ads!
Yeah, Windows players are probably hell, but the *NIX players have the history of ruling, at least to small extent =)
But to be perfectly honest, the real reason I switched from RP8 to RP10beta was the support for XVideo extension and actual support for fullscreen playing. Makes watching some videos far less annoying when you don't need to maximize the window and fullscreen mode doesn't eat all processor. And, yuck, RP8 was a Motif app and RP10 uses GTK+2.
You're talking about Legend of the Red Dragon, right? I remember playing LoRD and have vague recollections of using a game with a time bank, but couldn't connect these games together.
Now, I wish this feature were implemented in Legend of the Green Dragon as well... and that the lotgd,net server hadn't deleted my character due to inactivity.
Speaking of inactivity deletions, that's another thing that bugs me - I'll never be good in Diablo 2 if Battle.net keeps nuking my account while I'm dozing in Linux! Do they think that with a game collection of over 100 titles, and this exciting online game called "wasting time in Slashdot" that can be played with Linux clients, I have time to log on every month? Or even every year? Not likely!
Welcome Darl, I am Hawkwind, Seer of Souls. I see that which is within thee and drives thee to deeds of good or evil...
Hawkwind asks: What other path seeks clarity?For what path dost thou seek enlightenment?
Honesty
Thou art a thief and a scoundrel. Thou may not ever become an Avatar!
Hawkwind asks: What other path seeks clarity?
Honor
Thou art a cad and a bounder. Thy presence is an affront. Thou art low as a slug!
Hawkwind asks: What other path seeks clarity?
Humility
Thou art too proud of thy little deeds. Humility is the root of all Virtue!
Justice
Thou art cruel and unjust. In time thou will suffer for thy crimes!
Etc, etc... you get the idea.
A clarification - Apollon is just a KDE front-end for giFT daemon, which itself is a multiprotocol P2P core (and implements a network of its own, called OpenFT). There are many giFT frontends available, my own favorites being giFTcurs (ncurses-based frontend), and giFToxic (GTK+ frontend).
Now I just wish giFT's UI protocol would be propely standardized and that other P2P cores would use it - because mldonkey is my P2P core of choice and the mldonkey's "native" GUIs somewhat stink. mldonkey folks are apparently already implementing giFT frontend support, just hoping it'll be some day considered a non-experimental feature...
Not only gd has got GIFs...
$ apt-cache show gimp | grep Provides
/usr/lib/gimp/2.0/plug-ins/gif
/usr/lib/gimp/2.0/plug-ins/gifload
Provides: gimp2.0, gimp-nonfree
$ dpkg -L gimp | grep gif
...Debian's GIMP has them too again. In main distribution. Let no one say Debian's GIMP lacks GIFs again =)
Yeah - actually, the whole premise of Ultima IV and forward was about religion - or, rather, virtues and ethics, which I think is what all religions ultimately are about.
Ultima VII was different because it was also about organized religion. Previous Ultimas were mostly about golden rule - you're supposed to be the embodiment of Virtues, to set an example for others to follow. Ultima VII, then, was about organized religion - and why organized religion can easily go wrong and be ultimately harmful to its followers.
And meanwhile back in real world, Ultima VII was supposed to tell a thing or two about new age religions, specifically Scientology.
Yeah. Those who do not understand Ultima are condemned to reinvent them, badly.