I finished a first version of Ultimate Underworld Editor - an editor for Ultima Underworld 1 (only, at least for now).
Features :
- Fully editable levels, possibility to create new 9 levels for UW1
- Conversation editor & player
- Importing own textures and graphics for items
- Changing string data - so changing mantras, adding your own scrolls, writings, etc.
- Changing object properties - including changing monster stats

Limitations (because of hard coded stuff in UW)
- Starting location is always the same
- Level 7 has mana drain (destroying any orb within works also)
- Level 9 is shaking all the time and slowly draining health
- Hard coded puzzles - bullfrog puzzle and emerald puzzle (impossible to emulate these)
- Some conversation stuff is missing (starting conversation mid-fight, like in Golem conversations)

Download version 0.2

Be prepared for it to be super buggy.

You will need to unpack the GoG file for this to work (game.gog). Editor needs a link to "LEV.ARK" within Data folder in UW folder.

Here are videos I made to explain more difficult stuff:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u94tdpnkd3g
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fh0s3iswLYA

I'd like to thank the Ultima Adventures creators for figuring out all UW data. Without it, this project would be impossible.

Awesome, sounds fantastic and I'm keen to try it out.

Let me know if you find any bugs.

Could be fun. I used an old editor for Underworld 1 and 2 but never really did too much. I mostly made some cheat gear and a special room in the back of the castle in Underworld 2. I never tried it with 1 as I prefer 2.

I may give it a try later, but so many projects I can't promise anything.

Man I just found out about this and I think it's pretty damn impressive.
Do you have any plans to keep maintaining this?

Who knows, maybe someone will be crazy enough to do an unofficial expansion like System Shock Rewired.

Hey krokots, this is amazing, do you have a website or something where I can track your progress on this project?
Do you plan to release your own custom map made with this editor?

I've been playing around with this a bit, it's really great.

Would it be difficult to add support for UW2?

I am always maintaining this, so if a bug is discovered I will fix this. But I don't plan on expanding this. It already can edit almost everything that can be edited in UW1, and you can create your own "campaign" in this.

Unfortunately UW2 has some additional compression of data, and it would be a pain in the ass for me to write a compression / decompression thingy for it, I already hated doing this for UW1, and in UW2 it is even more complicated.
But I might change my mind if a lot of people would like me to add UW2 to this. It is mostly this compression stuff that prevented me from doing this.

mtk538 at this moment I don't have a site, I plan to create something in this year, because I will be making my own RPG game. I originally created this so I could make my own level set for UW1, but it took so much time for me to do this, that after releasing, I had to take a break. Right now I'm into Doom modding, but I might come back to this after couple of months and maybe, who knows, create whole new UW1 map pack.

Great to hear, I for one would love to see UW2 support :)

But I can totally acknowledge that it takes a lot of effort to reverse engineer game files and, while rewarding, is mostly just for personal satisfaction. I have done it for a few games as well, but not to the extent of creating an awesome editor like you have. Thanks for sharing the effort!

This is incredibly well done. I'd love a UW2 editor in the same vein as this, but looking at this thing makes me cringe at how tedious it must've been for you to produce, so I understand if that never happens. Regardless, thank you for sharing this. :)

I'd rather not look at the conversation editor code again. I should have used a lua interpreter, instead, I wrote my own parser and it is messy. UW2 have a bit more advanced conversations, and they offer a bit more, so more modding capabilities. But unfortunately UW2 have more hard coded stuff, I don't even know if it would be possible to have linear level progression like in UW1, some levels would be treated like being in other worlds, and possibly have side effects (like 9th level of UW1). So probably if one would make own level set for UW, first game is better choice. Unless someone make a source port of it.

Would it be feasible for you to make your editor work for existing UW2 conversations without implementing any more modding capabilities? This way, it would be possible to translate both games into other languages than English :-)

Just wondering ;-)

I think that is already possible using "UW Conv Tools". I might take a look at that, conversations and all "string" data is compressed in the same way in both games. I already have code to read and write strings, so I could make an windows app for this.

Hm, while I would appreciate if you would be willing to undertake the effort (I'd volunteer to test it and also put it to some use ;-)) I have to admit, "UW Conv Tools" is news to me. Also, I seem to be unable to find any tools that go by this or a similar name. You don't happen to have these or a link to the set of tools, so I can have a look at them?

Thanks for bothering to answer. Much appreciated!

John

It got lost in time, but I have it, and all other old UW editors.
I uploaded it here - http://www.mediafire.com/file/sc48ponizsjq83m/cnvtools102.zip/file
It's not easy tool to use, it was meant to be conversation editor for both games. I used it to learn how UW conversation works. You can edit string data in this, so it is possible to create a full translation.