Planescape:Torment - engine - RenPy vs X

[Dmiat]

Hi.

I am rewriting Planescape:Torment. I have a demo, that can be played from

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, online version included.

My point is not to recreate the game as a product, but to extract the source code from unreadable and old format to something that anyone can understand. At least for now.
Just... To be honest, InfinityEngine does not look good in 2025. I want the game to be beautiful, accessible and portable.

I have an "automated" flow 'NearInfinity MassExporter -> InfinityEngine DLG files -> parser to abstract syntax -> serializer to engine syntax', that handles 90% of work. So, it is kinda easy to switch engine, I designed the architecture as flexible as possible.

When I started, I picked RenPy as a target engine, because it is simple, and I had some experience with it.
RenPy handles the runtime well, but I struggle each time I touch it. Translation is already painful, ui is a meme, I wrote custom pre-interpretation syntax checker just to make sure I did no misspelling. But RenPy works. And I see that RenPy is capable of handling the whole game. Just with torments)

On the other hand, something universal like unity/unreal engine is a little too much for a visual novel. Yea, they will work. As RenPy will. I will always prefer user's comfort over developer's, and I do not see enough 'cozy points' in unity/ue.

Godot? I never used it, so I may trade apples for oranges. Seems juicy, but is it?
Modding Divinity:OriginalSin2? Lol.
SugarCube?.. Narrat?..

I think the engine should be something, that:
- can run ok on web, linux, windows, android
- has normal translation support, including conditional translation
- has basic ui toolkit that can be extended without humiliation
- allow logic/view separation
- allow to cover almost all source code with autotest
- flexible as snake

I may ask a holywar question, but what engine why engine XYZ suites well for a complex visual novel like Planescape:Torment? I heard five different options from five different people, but I have no statements to prefer one engine over the other. Or I have too many statements...
And having RenPy now is...ok, but just ok. To make it 'good', I should work on it, and I am lazy.

===

Btw, I want to add lightning to the game. Not dynamic lightning - just a simple torch flickers on a wall and objects.
But all I have is 2d exported maps from original game. I have two options: to draw a lightning map by hand or to recreate a room in some kind of blender, bake it into 'almost the same' 2d textures - and pass these new textures to the game.
First option is hard, second option is harder. I tried neuro to do something, but it always fails in details and sometimes fails in general.

Did one struggled with similar task? Engine is irrelevant here.

 

[osanaiko]

Hey, I guess you have no software development experience. Or are trolling, but that post is pretty high effort, so i guess you are just delusional.

Here's a list of the people who worked on Planescape torment creative tasks and production. no marketing or execs. It's really cool that even as just a single noob dev, you can do as much work as they did. (from the P:T fandom wiki)

- Dan Spitzley
- Yuki Furumi
- Jim Gardner
- Rob Holloway
- Darren Monahan
- Jacob Devore
- Adam Heine
- Nick Kesting
- Scott Warner
- Timothy Donley
- Eric Campanella
- Scott Everts
- Derek Johnson
- Chris Jones
- Brian Menze
- Aaron Meyers
- Dennis Presnell
- Aaron Brown
- Sam Fung
- James Lim
- Gary Platner
- Eddie Rainwater
- Chris Avellone
- Stephen Bokkes
- John Deiley
- Kenneth Lee
- David Maldonado
- Colin McComb
- Jason G. Suinn
- Scott Warner
- Scott Everts
- David Hendee
- Jason G. Suinn
- Reginald J. Arnedo
- Kihan Pak
- Feargus Urquhart
- Guido Henkel
- Kenneth Lee
- Kenneth Lee
- Jeremy S. Barnes
- Greg Baumeister
- Michael Motoda
- Damien Evans
- Darrell Jones
- David L. Simon
- Eric Fong
- Robert Giampa
- Scot Humphreys
- Edward Hyland
- Danny Martinez
- Donnie Cornwell
- Greg Didieu
- Kristopher Giampa
- Matthew Golembiewski
- Savina Greene
- Billy Iturzaeta
- Henry C. Lee
- Rafael López
- Asher Luisi
- John Palmero
- Tony Piccoli
- Lawrence Smith
- Gary Tesdall
- Darrell Jones
- Derek Gibbs
- Jack Parker
- David Parkyn
- Joshua Walters
- Charles Deenen
- Charles Deenen
- Craig Duman
- Charles Deenen
- David Farmer
- Ann Scibelli
- Harry Cohen
- Elisabeth Flaum
- Rebecca L. Hanck
- Shannon Mills
- Al Nelson
- Craig Duman
- Frank Szick
- Gloria Soto
- Charles Deenen
- Mark Morgan
- Richard Band
- Chris Borders
- Stephen Miller
- Frank Szick
- Jamie Thomason
- Chris Borders
- Fred Hatch
- David Hendee
- Barbara Harris
- Charles Adler
- Rodger Bumpass
- Dan Castellaneta
- Keith David
- John de Lancie
- Sheena Easton
- Jennifer Hale
- Tony Jay
- Rob Paulsen
- Mitch Pileggi
- Flo Di Re
- Michael T. Weiss
- Steve Alterman
- Judi Durand
- Greg Finley
- Anneliese Goldman
- Gary Schwartz
- Vernon Scott
- Paul Andris
- Lisa Carlon
- Eric Lewis
- Paul Allen Edelstein
- David Cravens
- Bill Stoudt
- Dan L. Williams

Also I made a comic for you

 

[anne O'nymous]

I am rewriting Planescape:Torment. [...]
When I started, I picked RenPy as a target engine, [...]

You're rewriting a RPG game with real time combat... and chose Ren'Py for this...

I know that I'm a hardcore Ren'Py defender, always ready to explain that this game engine can be marvels, but even me know its limits. And "real time" is obviously its hardest one... Not impossible to achieve it, but it absolutely not worth the efforts.

Did one struggled with similar task? Engine is irrelevant here.

Well, no, no one struggled with similar task, because no one tried to remake, all by himself, a game made in two years by a professional studio.

 

[whowhawhy]

why not contribute to

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instead?

 

[Dmiat]

You're rewriting a RPG game with real time combat... and chose Ren'Py for this...

Yep. That's the whole point:
> My point is not to recreate the game as a product, but to extract the source code from unreadable and old format to something that anyone can understand.
More specifically, I ignore combat system entirely, cause it is trivial and has no impact to the gameplay. I think, PsT is better without combat, as DiscoElysium is, but anyway any realtime elements are secondary. The core is the story.

 

[Dmiat]

Hey, I guess you have no software development experience.

Eleven year of production experience as fullstack dev, now I do stuff engineer tasks in a bank.
But you made a good point: one person cannot create a game as big as game studio can. That is true: but I see no reason why it is too hard for a small gameteam to update already published work of a big studio. Furthermore, I have a proof, that running PsT on a new engine is technically possible.
The issue is how to run it as beautiful as the game deserves.

P.S. Also I do not claim other's work as 'mine' though - GNU/GPL forever)

 

[osanaiko]

Sorry to be so dismissive then... but you gotta understand, your question hit like someone wandered into the hardware store and said"i'm going to build a replica of the eiffel tower in my backyard, should I use a TIG welder or an Oxy-Acetylene kit?"

But anyway, good luck etc etc.

The next question on my mind is whether you are planning to lewd up the P:T game, some how? this sit is, after all, a den of degenerate onanists.

 

[Turning Tricks]

To the OP...

I hope you debug your code better than you do text, because I am still trying to figure out what a "... lightning map ..." would be?