EXILE unofficial patch and graphics overhaul

[silentwolf91]

This is a fully patched version of EXILE with fixed graphics and OTVDM in mind.

 

Links:

2.0 PC Style

https://www30.zippyshare.com/v/JiPgqP0Z/file.html

(I'm in the process of adding EXILE 3's terrain.)
2.0 MACOS Style:

https://www13.zippyshare.com/v/DGMmN8zH/file.html

First attempt at emulating the look of the MACOS version.

Made by decreasing brightness by 70 and increasing contrast by 20.

The EXEs included are hex edited.

 

The pre-2.0 version will be worked on after I'm finished making the base version.

I'm in the process of doing similar work for EXILE2.

 

Screenshots:

2.0 PC Style

New https://ibb.co/rtGWvfp

Original https://ibb.co/s3hvVcJ

https://ibb.co/93Kb8tJ

https://ibb.co/pPkKdGr

https://ibb.co/9G8Ch7V

2.0 MACOS Style

https://ibb.co/Xk0y7Z7

https://ibb.co/FmPQmsQ

https://ibb.co/Mn2Gk1f

https://ibb.co/1nGrV6X

 

OTVDM:
https://github.com/otya128/winevdm
If under modern windows download OTVDM and put it somewhere permanent

then within the OTVDM folder run install or install (no console).

Then run EXILE.EXE and enjoy.

 

Changes:

Added PC Status Icons

Thrown Missile Skill works as intended

Fixed various problems with the original bitmaps

Removed registry related text

BUTTONS.BMP redesign

Applied a Win9x style to every button in-game

Applied a Win9x style to every window in-game

Applied a Win9x style layout to STARTMSC.BMP

(The "Win9x" style merely makes EXILE's design cohere more

to the way it's window and UI will look using OTVDM.)

Used a different font with anti-aliasing on STARTMSC.BMP

Optimized every bitmap

 

Changelog:

1.1

Made the "FOW" tile seamlessly into the background.

Added BOE's sprites

(Replacing with EXILE 3's sprites later. They just look slightly better to my eyes.)

1.2

Removed redundant elements

Reverted to EXILE 1's sprites until the rework.

 

Credits:

Jeff Vogel, Spiderweb Software, the BOE website and it's contributors, and full-time-snacking.

 

Edited April 2, 2022 by silentwolf91

[Slawbug]

This is interesting!

 

Am I right in seeing that the main edits are to things like window borders, and not to character or terrain graphics?

[silentwolf91]

I did change the terrain graphics quite a bit. I got rid of a lot of the extra "clutter" in the textures, but yeah I changed mostly the UI elements so that it felt more cohesive to the Win9x kind of environment it was meant for.

Edited March 7, 2022 by silentwolf91

[Slawbug]

On 2/22/2022 at 10:21 AM, silentwolf91 said:

I did change the terrain graphics quite a bit. I got rid of a lot of the extra "clutter" in the textures, but yeah I changed mostly the UI elements so that it felt more cohesive to the Win95/3.x kind of environment it was meant for.

 

It actually wasn't meant for Win95 at all -- the Exile games were all developed for Mac.  Windows ports came later.  (And frankly they had a somewhat unique UI for any system, at the time, though the 3.0 versions removed some of these elements.)

[silentwolf91]

Oh I know. What I meant by "meant for" is what this port was meant for in the sense that most people who played this port back in the day played it under Win95/98. So what I did was I made all the buttons have a Win9x feel to them like how the actual OS would display them. (If they weren't just parts of a bitmap of course)

Edited March 3, 2022 by silentwolf91

[silentwolf91]

This mod has changed goals. It no longer has simplified graphics akin to the NES. It now focuses purely on providing a fully patched and optimized version of EXILE with a Win9x style interface.

 

Maybe later on I'll add a version with those NES style graphics I made again but not anytime soon.

Edited February 26, 2022 by silentwolf91

[silentwolf91]

If anyone can provide further insights into hex edits of the EXE, please do!

Also if anyone can help me in emulating the look of the MACOS version of the graphics, that would be extremely helpful.

(and better yet get me ripped art assets from the mac versions if that is at all possible)

 

I'm thinking of providing four versions of this.
One with fixed and tweaked post-2.0 graphics

One with fixed and tweaked pre-2.0 graphics

and two with MACOS style graphics before and after version 2.0

Edited February 26, 2022 by silentwolf91

[Samael101]

Is this still available? I'm getting a 403 error from the links.

[silentwolf91]

Yeah it's still available. I haven't had time to work on it in a little while but I'm releasing a new build of it sometime.
Zippyshare seems to not work for some people though, you might have to try a vpn like the one in the Opera browser as it's free and you only need to trick Zippyshare into thinking you are somewhere else.

[such]

Zippyshare closed down recently, so all these links are now dead.

 

Is there any chance for a re-upload? Would be a shame to let all this work just disappear...

[Samael101]

Its been a bit and I've been revisiting Exile lately and I'm wondering if this was saved anywhere or if any further work got done on it? I'm curious as to what some of the changes were though functioning throwing weapons would be nice.