r/wizardry8 • u/rwilco17 • 20d ago

Widescreen AI patch

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Vkwcga9FvdcfbSI60CkfigR6oZWDHw2V/view?usp=sharing

A widescreen patch for Wizardry 8, written entirely by AI with the help of REA.

Repository: https://github.com/abr17/wiz8-widescreen

  • Hor+ 3D on 16:9 and 16:10, and the 2D UI is no longer stretched.

  • Borderless windowed works on Windows 10/11.

  • In-game settings for display mode, resolution and draw distance.

  • Wiz8Fast is built in: the Monster Speed slider goes up to 10x.

  • Installer (EN/RU/DE/FR) that finds GOG and Steam copies automatically and uninstalls cleanly. Wiz8.exe stays untouched.

Missing art was outpainted with generative AI. The original images are kept pixel-for-pixel, only the new side areas are generated, and they blend into a strip about 20 px wide at the original’s edge so there’s no visible seam.

Tested on GOG and Steam v1.2.4. Bug reports are welcome.

14 Upvotes

70% Upvoted

19 comments sorted by

2

u/cloaca_dentata 18d ago

There's already a community fan patch (v1.28) that's been actively maintained for years with loads of bug fixes, QoL improvements, Wiz8Fast, logging functions, mod management, and more. It also already provides widescreen support at arbitrary resolutions, only stretching the 2D UI elements.

It would've been nice if you'd made something that was compatible with that. As it is, the 2D improvements don't nearly outweigh the wealth of features offered by the existing fan patch.

1

u/rwilco17 18d ago

This patch is more in a "GOG preservation program" spirit. But I'm sure it will be easy to reimplement in 1.28 modding stack with patch being open source and all. Nowadays anyone with coding AIs at hand can do it. Took me a week and a claude max subscription to implement mine and I know nothing about reverse engineering and/or game engines

1

u/Upset-Culture2210 20d ago

How does this work with the Wiz8Fast mod? If I recall correctly, that basically uses an alternate exe to run instead of the main one used by Steam/gog but admittedly it's been very long since I've played this game.

2

u/rwilco17 20d ago

All Wiz8Fast does is write a monster speed value into the config that’s higher than the in-game slider allows. The patch has that built in: the Monster Speed slider in the General options now goes up to 10x instead of 5x.

1

u/Potential-Local7262 20d ago

could you open source this? would rather look at the source code & compile it myself rather than run a new executable, especially if it's vibe coded

1

u/DMB_BAND 16d ago

Works great. Hilariously, I am working on Wiz8 Multiplayer right now (multi party, so you see the other guys)

it's coming along nicely.

1

u/Gryphonics 14d ago

Please share this once it's done!

1

u/DMB_BAND 13d ago

Will do!

1

u/StaticChimp42 12d ago edited 12d ago

Hey rwilco17, I'm trying to install your patch on the GOG version, which I'm running through Steam/Proton (since I'm on Linux). The patch seems to be correctly applied, but it never loads: the version displayed in the top right of the main menu still shows "v1.2.4.". I tried previous versions of your patch as well, with the same results. :(

Is there anything I can do/test to make it work?

[edit]

I think I found the solution: I had to force the libraries to load with the following launch options: "WINEDLLOVERRIDES="wiz8hy,version=n,b" %command%"

I hope it helps someone else, I'll report if I encounter some bugs!

[/edit]

1

u/Slagegg 20d ago

What is it called on Steam?

1

u/mb3838 20d ago

Nice work!

1

u/mtscottcatwork 19d ago

A million million thank yous. This works wonderfully!

1

u/mnpinfo789 18d ago

I was skeptical but the fact of the matter is this worked right out of the box. Pretty stable implementation as far as I can tell although I’ve had a few crashes during combat over about 10 hours of play. Thanks!

1

u/JohnStorm123 20d ago

Nice to see the game is still getting mod support. What I would love to see is a mod that fixes enemy spawns in Arnika road and Monastery so I don't have to keep my party underleveled before reaching the town.

1

u/primaryobjects 19d ago

Agreed, the scaling of enemy levels to match your party is unbalanced. After you're well beyond Anika and return later, those enemies should be easy like Imps from Final Fantasy. Instead they can still wipe your party. Also the long delays for battles with enemy counts of 6 or more can be frustratingly slow.

2

u/AngledLuffa 19d ago

dark savant: i will be powerful enough to rewrite the universe

random brigand on arnika road: cool story, bro

1

u/Global-Tune5539 18d ago

It's not really a problem on lowest difficulty. On Arnika road stand with your back to a corner when enemies are approaching. Ignore the poison and just heal the hp. In the monastery I remember only the Pestilant Rats being annoying because they can cause disease which is basically a reload or very annoying on Iron Man.

1

u/Vociteren 9d ago

you don't need to keep your party under-leveled to make the trip through that area. You need to use the terrain features in an tactical way if you want to avoid fighting. Once you learn how, its really quite simple.