I found out about this only a couple of days ago and it works great. Native widescreen support, windowed mode possible without having to reduce colour depth and some bug fixes. Thought I'd post this here to make others aware of it being as I've not seen it mentioned here on the GOG forums yet and it could fix many of the issues with the original game.

There are two versions that I've tried. The first is the Julius base version which is designed for vanilla compatibility.
https://github.com/bvschaik/julius

The second is a fork of this that adds some additional features, such as roadblocks.
https://github.com/Keriew/julius

The stable version of the base Julius port works, but I think you currently need the latest unstable version in order to get fix for the immigration bug (200-300 population issue). The Keriew fork already has this implemented.

Oh hey, a new source port that isn't dead. Cool.

The last one I experimented with was Caesar IA.

Both the Julius source port and Keriew's gameplay changing version have been updated. Keriew's version has now been renamed Augustus and it has many more optional gameplay tweaks and improvements.

Yes, Julius is designed to work with vanilla game saves, so they should be able to be used interchangeably with the original executable.

Keriew's fork, however, now named Augustus, applies some gameplay changing elements, so whilst it can load vanilla saves, once you start using specific gameplay changing features, like roadblocks, the save is no longer compatible with Julius or the original game.

Yes I have noticed this. Even saves created with Julius are loaded apparently without any problems in the vanilla game. Other interesting feature is you can change the scale of the gui and game via command line even in a non integer scale. Very confortable to expand the info windows in a bunch of non standard resolutions. games like OpenTTD have this scale method but only integer scales and It ends in something too big or too small in resolutions like mine 1366x768.

For now Not very interested in the other fork although Depending how it evolves in the future I can Change my mind. The Changes seem interesting enough to keep an eye on it. It appears to be alive and working, so this engine implementation deserves to be expanded to all the games of the saga in the future. The city building series in an elegant and modern implementation all in one engine. just wishing, of course.

Greetings

Well, the author of Julius has already said that they have no plans for making it work for other games, like Pharoah, Zeus or Emperor, due to how much work it would need as the walker rules are different in the different games and it would all have to be reworked, but maybe in the future some others will fork the port for the other games?

As for Augustus, I prefer it. Roadblocks from the later games to help control walkers, optional changes like the global labour pool, control over how much of a certain type of goods a warehouse and granary can hold, etc. And all being optional is perfect as you can still play it vanilla style if you want.

Yes, the scaling factor is a great feature. Very useful for those with ultra-high-res monitors. There is work taking place on making the scaling possible on-the-fly using the mouse scrollwheel. At the moment it scales everything, the display and the HUD, but hopefully they will fix it so that it is just the display that changes scale and the HUD stays the same (so that the HUD scale is set by the scaling factor in the command line used).

The scaling on the fly could be a great feature and very unique. I do not remember much titles that have that option. And of course in the future it should be different from the world zoom/scaling. for it another zoom would be welcome of course.

A port like this is a lot of work. more than we can imagine so I understand the developer does not have plans to expand the idea to other titles. But being it open and existing already a fork for the same game, well, It could be possible in hands of other or others fanatics. These games were/are very popular and even with its errors and limitations are in any way unsurpassed in the mind of a lot of gamers. They are elegant, fun, classic and a beauty.

Greetings

Why they dont do only one mod ; JULIUS + Augustus ?

It would be very fun if we could conquest others city, play in the futur versions at 2 players ; each player could developp her city, like the "reboot" of settlers 2 ==> Siedler25 by fans

Because Julius is designed for vanilla gameplay, so the only gameplay changes are bugfixes, whilst Augustus implements some gameplay changes for quality of life purposes (such as the presence of roadblocks, global labour force, etc.) which is not the main author's desire.

So Julius is compatible with savegames from the original game and vice versa, but whilst Augustus can load vanilla savegames, once played with its gameplay changes those saves are not backwards compatible with Julius or the original game.

It all comes down to whether you want to play the game with the vanilla gameplay or with some quality of life changes.

I recently tried Julius on Linux, and it works great!

I think this is going to become my default way to play Cæsar Ⅲ with their next release, instead of WINE I have been using until now.

By the way, I think having distinct projects for Julius and Augustus is the smartest way to apply tweaks to the vanilla experience. I am one of these players that would not have tried a new engine if it enforced gameplay changes.