titan-ultima 0.6.2

TITAN – Tool for Interpreting and Transforming Archival Nodes. CLI and library for Ultima file formats (U8: Pagan, U7: Black Gate & Serpent Isle).

titan-ultima

TITAN – Tool for Interpreting and Transforming Archival Nodes.

A Python CLI and library for working with Ultima file formats — currently supporting Ultima 8: Pagan and Ultima 7: The Black Gate / Serpent Isle. TITAN reads, converts, extracts, and reconstructs the games' proprietary archive and data formats — from sprite sheets and sound effects to full isometric world maps.

Run titan --help for a full list of commands, or titan u8 --help / titan u7 --help for game-specific options.

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What TITAN can do

Category	Capability
Archives	Read, list, extract, create, and patch Flex (.flx) archives; auto-detect embedded name tables (SOUND.FLX, MUSIC.FLX) for human-readable filenames and per-record .meta.txt metadata sidecars
Shapes	Decode RLE-compressed sprite frames to PNG; re-import edited PNGs; create new shapes from scratch
Fonts	Interactive wizard (font-create) builds U7 FONTS.VGA-compatible shapes from TrueType fonts — mono, multi-shade, or hollow gradient rendering (stroke outline + vertical colour fill) with 30 gradient presets (with colour swatches), 11 stock presets (BG & SI), 6 bundled TTFs, palette LUT mapping, hex-to-palette colour resolution, ASCII art preview. Scans game directories for font archives, shows live slot tables from actual Flex data, auto-generates Exult Studio preview placeholder for non-standard glyph layouts (Gargish, Runic). Parses exult.cfg to auto-resolve the correct font archive path (including mod patch directories). Non-interactive batch mode via TOML config
Palette	Export the VGA 6-bit palette as a colour swatch
Sound	One-step Sonarc audio export from SOUND.FLX to WAV (u8 sound-export-all); single-file decode (u8 sound-export); speech FLX archives (E44.FLX, E80.FLX, …) extract dialogue transcripts + Sonarc audio; Creative Voice (.voc) decoder for U7 speech (INTROSND.DAT, U7SPEECH.SPC)
Music	One-step XMIDI→MIDI export from Flex archives (u8 music-export, u7 music-export); multi-track XMIDI support (MIDI Format 1)
Maps	U8: Render full isometric or top-down world maps from FIXED.DAT + GLOBs with engine-accurate dependency-graph depth sorting; merge live NPCs and items from save files; filter by all 16 TYPEFLAG bits; chunk coordinate grid overlay. U7: Render parallel-oblique world maps from U7MAP + U7CHUNKS + SHAPES.VGA with IFIX fixed objects and optional IREG dynamic objects; classic/flat/steep projection views; sprite-accurate dependency-DAG depth sorting; RLE terrain promotion with nearby-flat fill; colour-sampled world minimap (map-sample); --full world render; filter by TFA flags; chunk + superchunk grid overlay with coordinate labels; world-tile rectangle highlights with per-rectangle hex colours
Type data	U8: Decode TYPEFLAG.DAT shape physics/flag metadata. U7: Parse TFA.DAT flag array + SHPDIMS.DAT + WGTVOL.DAT
Gumps	Dump GUMPAGE.DAT container UI layout
Credits	Decrypt XOR-encoded ECREDITS.DAT / QUOTES.DAT
Saves	U8: List and extract entries from U8 save archives. U7: Read Exult .sav files (ZIP & FLEX formats), list/extract entries, dump global flags (flaginit), inspect save metadata & party (save-info), dump full NPC stats (save-npcs), dump NPC schedules (save-schedules)

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Installation

pip install titan-ultima

Requires Python 3.9+, NumPy ≥ 1.24, Pillow ≥ 10.0, Typer ≥ 0.15.

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Getting started

Option A — first-time wizard (recommended)

Run the interactive setup wizard once. It auto-detects your Ultima 8 installation, handles Pentagram/ScummVM save paths, writes titan.toml, and optionally extracts the shape and glob archives for you.

titan setup

After setup, U8 map commands need no path arguments at all:

titan u8 map-render -m 5               # renders map_005_iso_classic.png
titan u8 map-render -m 0 --no-roof     # roof tiles removed
titan u8 map-render -m 39 --no-editor --no-ignore   # player-accurate
titan u8 map-render-all --maps 0 5 39 --views iso_classic iso_high

Option B — manual setup (no config file)

# One-time: extract the shape and glob archives
titan flex-extract U8SHAPES.FLX -o shapes/
titan flex-extract GLOB.FLX     -o globs/

# Render an Ultima 8 map
titan u8 map-render \
  --fixed FIXED.DAT --shapes shapes/ --globs globs/ \
  --palette U8PAL.PAL --typeflag TYPEFLAG.DAT \
  --map 5 -o map_005.png

Quick Ultima 7 examples

# Export a U7 shape from SHAPES.VGA
titan u7 shape-export SHAPES.VGA --shape 150 -p PALETTES.FLX -o shape_150/

# Batch-export all faces
titan u7 shape-batch FACES.VGA -p PALETTES.FLX -o faces/

# Export all 12 palettes
titan u7 palette-export PALETTES.FLX -o palettes/

# Extract U7 music to MIDI
titan u7 music-export MT32MUS.DAT -o music/
titan u7 music-export ENDSCORE.XMI -o music/

# Export U7 music rewritten for General MIDI devices (SC-55/SC-88)
# Writes .MID files, strips MT-32 SysEx, and injects GM reset
titan u7 music-export MT32MUS.DAT --target gm -o music_gm/

# Decode the Guardian's intro speech (VOC → WAV)
titan u7 voc-export INTROSND.DAT -o speech/

# Extract all speech samples from U7SPEECH.SPC
titan u7 speech-export U7SPEECH.SPC -o speech_wav/

# Render a U7 map region (superchunk 85 / 0x55 = Britain; hex and decimal both accepted)
titan u7 map-render STATIC/ --sc 0x55 -o britain.png

# Render the entire world map
titan u7 map-render STATIC/ --full -o u7_world.png

# Highlight world-tile rectangles with per-rectangle hex colours
titan u7 map-render STATIC/ --full \
  --highlight-tile-rect "2054,1698,2589,2386,#00BFFF,Moonshade" \
  --highlight-tile-rect "895,1604,1172,1959,#FF6B35,Fawn" \
  --highlight-tile-rect "670,2430,1134,2799,#7CFC00,Monitor" \
  --highlight-width 4 \
  --highlight-fill-alpha 128 \
  --highlight-lift 8 \
  --highlight-labels \
  -o u7_world_marked.png

# Use built-in zone profiles (can be combined with manual highlights)
titan u7 map-render STATIC/ --full \
  --zone-profile si_zones \
  --zone-id 3 --zone-id 13 --zone-id 14 \
  --highlight-tile-rect "2054,1698,2589,2386,#FFFFFF,Check" \
  -o u7_si_zones_subset.png

# Render all zones from a profile
titan u7 map-render STATIC/ --full --zone-profile bg_zones --all-zones -o u7_bg_regions.png

# Remove building-class shapes (roofs, windows, mountain tops)
titan u7 map-render STATIC/ --sc 85 --exclude no_building -o britain_no_roofs.png

# Remove only transparent shapes (narrower filter — mostly interior rooftops)
titan u7 map-render STATIC/ --sc 85 --exclude no_transparent -o britain_open.png

# World minimap (768×768) with superchunk grid
titan u7 map-sample STATIC/ --scale 4 --grid -o minimap.png

# Dump U7 type flag summary
titan u7 typeflag-dump STATIC/

# Export detailed per-shape reference
titan u7 typeflag-dump STATIC/ -f detail -o tfa_reference.txt

# Export as CSV for analysis
titan u7 typeflag-dump STATIC/ -f csv -o tfa_data.csv

# List entries in an Exult savegame
titan u7 save-list exult00bg.sav

# Extract all files from a save
titan u7 save-extract exult00bg.sav -o save_bg/

# Dump global flags from a save (detail format)
titan u7 gflag-dump exult00bg.sav -f detail

# Export global flags as CSV
titan u7 gflag-dump exult00bg.sav -f csv -o bg_gflags.csv

# Show save metadata: identity, party, game clock, state
titan u7 save-info exult00bg.sav

# Dump all NPC stats (use --static for reliable container detection)
titan u7 save-npcs exult00bg.sav --static STATIC/ -f detail

# Dump NPC schedules
titan u7 save-schedules exult00bg.sav -f detail

# Create a font shape interactively
titan u7 font-create

# Create a font shape from a TOML recipe (non-interactive)
titan u7 font-create --config my_font_recipe.toml -o my_font.shp

Other useful commands (no config needed)

# U8 music — one step: MUSIC.FLX → MIDI (68 tracks)
titan u8 music-export MUSIC.FLX -o music_midi/

# U8 sound effects — one step: SOUND.FLX → WAV (133 effects)
titan u8 sound-export-all SOUND.FLX -o sound_wav/

# Extract speech audio (one FLX per NPC — E=English, G=German, etc.)
# record 0 = dialogue transcript (.txt), records 1+ = Sonarc audio (.raw)
titan flex-extract E44.FLX  -o speech_e44/
titan flex-extract E80.FLX  -o speech_e80/
titan u8 sound-batch speech_e44/ -o speech_e44_wav/

# Export all U8 shapes to PNG
titan u8 shape-batch shapes/ -p U8PAL.PAL -o shapes_png/

Run titan <command> --help for per-command options, or see the full CLI reference.

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Configuration (titan.toml)

titan.toml stores default paths so map and other commands work without repeating long paths on every invocation. CLI flags always override config values.

File location

TITAN looks for the config in this order:

1. ./titan.toml — current working directory (recommended)
2. ~/.config/titan/config.toml — Linux / macOS
3. %APPDATA%\titan\config.toml — Windows

Use titan --config /other/path.toml <command> to override.

Format

[game]
base     = "C:/ultima8"   # root of your Ultima 8 install
language = "ENGLISH"      # ENGLISH, FRENCH, GERMAN, etc.
                          # leave "" for flat mode (files directly in base/)

[paths]
# Relative paths are auto-expanded to <base>/<language>/STATIC/<name>
fixed     = "FIXED.DAT"
palette   = "U8PAL.PAL"
typeflag  = "TYPEFLAG.DAT"

# Pre-extracted directories (relative to your working directory)
shapes    = "shapes/"
globs     = "globs/"

# Live objects — relative expands to <base>/<language>/SAVEGAME/<name>
# Absolute paths (e.g. Pentagram/ScummVM) are used unchanged
nonfixed  = "U8SAVE.000"

A fully annotated template is available in titan.toml.example.

Rules:

• language = "" enables flat mode — all files expected directly in base/; useful when you copy game files to your working directory.
• nonfixed with an absolute path (e.g. a Pentagram save) is used as-is.
• shapes and globs are always relative to the working directory, not the game install.

Inspecting the active config

titan config           # show all resolved paths with OK / NOT FOUND status
titan config --edit    # open titan.toml in your system editor

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Library quick start

TITAN is also a Python library. Every CLI command has a corresponding module. U8-specific modules live under titan.u8, U7-specific under titan.u7. Backward-compatible imports (e.g. from titan.shape import U8Shape) still work.

# Flex archives (shared)
from titan.flex import FlexArchive

archive = FlexArchive.from_file("U8SHAPES.FLX")
archive.extract_all("shapes/")

# U8 shapes + palette
from titan.u8.shape import U8Shape
from titan.palette import U8Palette

pal    = U8Palette.from_file("U8PAL.PAL")
shape  = U8Shape.from_file("shapes/0001.shp")
frames = shape.to_pngs(pal)
frames[0].save("frame0.png")

# U7 shapes + palette
from titan.u7.shape import U7Shape
from titan.u7.palette import U7Palette

pal7   = U7Palette.from_file("PALETTES.FLX")
shape7 = U7Shape.from_file("POINTERS.SHP")
frames = shape7.to_pngs(pal7)
frames[0].save("pointer0.png")

# U7 music + speech
from titan.u7.music import extract_music
from titan.u7.sound import VocDecoder

extract_music("MT32MUS.DAT", "music/")           # MIDI tracks
pcm, rate = VocDecoder.decode_file("INTROSND.DAT")  # VOC → raw PCM
VocDecoder.to_wav("INTROSND.DAT", "speech/guardian.wav")

# U8 map rendering
from titan.u8.map import U8MapRenderer

renderer = U8MapRenderer(
    fixed_path    = "FIXED.DAT",
    shapes_dir    = "shapes/",
    globs_dir     = "globs/",
    palette_path  = "U8PAL.PAL",
    typeflag_path = "TYPEFLAG.DAT",
)
img = renderer.render_map(map_num=5, view="iso_classic")
img.save("map_005.png")

# U7 map rendering
from titan.u7.map import U7MapRenderer, U7MapSampler
from titan.u7.palette import U7Palette

pal7     = U7Palette.from_file("STATIC/PALETTES.FLX")
renderer = U7MapRenderer("STATIC/")
img      = renderer.render_superchunk(85, pal7)
img.save("superchunk_85.png")

minimap  = U7MapSampler.sample_map(renderer, pal7, scale=4)
minimap.save("minimap.png")

# U8 save archives
from titan.u8.save import U8SaveArchive

save = U8SaveArchive.from_file("U8SAVE.000")
for name, size in save.list_entries():
    print(f"{name}  {size:,} bytes")

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Supported formats

Shared

Format	Module	Game file(s)
Flex archive	titan.flex	*.FLX
XMIDI music	titan.music	MUSIC.FLX, ENDSCORE.XMI — single- and multi-track

Ultima 8

Format	Module	Game file(s)
Shape sprites	titan.u8.shape	U8SHAPES.FLX → .shp
VGA palette	titan.palette	U8PAL.PAL
Sonarc audio	titan.u8.sound	SOUND.FLX (one-step via u8 sound-export-all); E*.FLX / G*.FLX → speech
World map (static)	titan.u8.map	FIXED.DAT, GLOB.FLX
World map (dynamic)	titan.u8.map	NONFIXED.DAT / U8SAVE.000
Type flags	titan.u8.typeflag	TYPEFLAG.DAT
Gump layout	(cli only)	GUMPAGE.DAT
XOR credits	titan.u8.credits	ECREDITS.DAT, QUOTES.DAT
Colour transforms	titan.u8.xformpal	XFORMPAL.DAT
Save archives	titan.u8.save	U8SAVE.000–.005

Ultima 7

Format	Module	Game file(s)
Shape sprites	titan.u7.shape	SHAPES.VGA, FACES.VGA, GUMPS.VGA, SPRITES.VGA, POINTERS.SHP
Palettes	titan.u7.palette	PALETTES.FLX (12 palettes)
Music (MIDI)	titan.u7.music	ADLIBMUS.DAT, MT32MUS.DAT, INTROADM.DAT, INTRORDM.DAT, ENDSCORE.XMI
Voice / speech	titan.u7.sound	INTROSND.DAT (VOC), U7SPEECH.SPC (Flex of VOC)
World map	titan.u7.map	U7MAP, U7CHUNKS, U7IFIX*, SHAPES.VGA; gamedat/u7ireg* (optional)
Type flags	titan.u7.typeflag	TFA.DAT, SHPDIMS.DAT, WGTVOL.DAT
Save archives	titan.u7.save	Exult .sav (ZIP & FLEX): identity, saveinfo.dat, gamewin.dat, schedule.dat, npc.dat, flaginit

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Game files

TITAN requires the original game files. If you own the games through GOG, the default install locations are:

Platform	Game	Default path
Windows	Ultima 8 (GOG Galaxy)	C:\Program Files (x86)\GOG Galaxy\Games\Ultima 8
Windows	Ultima 8 (GOG Offline)	C:\GOG Games\Ultima 8
Windows	Ultima 7 (GOG)	C:\GOG Games\Ultima VII\ULTIMA7 (BG), C:\GOG Games\Ultima VII\SERPENT (SI)
Linux	GOG	~/GOG Games/Ultima 8, ~/GOG Games/Ultima VII

titan setup auto-detects these paths and others (legacy EA/Origin disc installs, common manual redirects such as C:\ULTIMA8).

Typical GOG directory layout

<install root>\
├── ENGLISH\                ← language folder (FRENCH / GERMAN for other editions)
│   ├── STATIC\             ← core game data
│   │   ├── FIXED.DAT           world map static objects
│   │   ├── GLOB.FLX            reusable object groups  (extract → globs/)
│   │   ├── U8SHAPES.FLX        all sprites             (extract → shapes/)
│   │   ├── U8PAL.PAL           VGA colour palette
│   │   ├── TYPEFLAG.DAT        shape physics / flag metadata
│   │   ├── GUMPAGE.DAT         container gump UI layout
│   │   ├── XFORMPAL.DAT        colour-transform palette
│   │   ├── ECREDITS.DAT        encrypted credits text
│   │   ├── QUOTES.DAT          encrypted quote text
│   │   ├── U8FONTS.FLX         font shapes
│   │   ├── U8GUMPS.FLX         UI gump shapes
│   │   └── EINTRO.SKF / ENDGAME.SKF
│   ├── SOUND\              ← audio
│   │   ├── SOUND.FLX           sound effects  (extract → sound_raw/)
│   │   ├── MUSIC.FLX           music tracks   (extract → music_xmi/)
│   │   └── E*.FLX              language-specific voice/effects
│   └── USECODE\            ← game bytecode
│       └── EUSECODE.FLX
│
└── cloud_saves\            ← all GOG saves live here (not in the language folder)
    └── SAVEGAME\
        ├── SGHEADER.DAT        save slot names
        └── U8SAVE.000–005      save archives

Note: GOG does not write saves into ENGLISH\SAVEGAME\; all save files go to cloud_saves\SAVEGAME\. titan setup configures the nonfixed path accordingly.

Pentagram save locations

Platform	Settings folder	Save file
Windows	%APPDATA%\Pentagram\	%APPDATA%\Pentagram\u8-save\U8SAVE.000
macOS	~/Library/Application Support/Pentagram/	~/Library/Application Support/Pentagram/u8-save/U8SAVE.000

titan setup detects Pentagram saves on both Windows and macOS automatically.

Module → file reference

TITAN module	Files needed	Location
titan.flex	Any .flx archive	STATIC/ or SOUND/
titan.palette	U8PAL.PAL	STATIC/
titan.music	.xmi files (extracted) or MUSIC.FLX directly	STATIC/ or output of flex-extract
titan.u8.shape	.shp files (extracted)	Output of flex-extract U8SHAPES.FLX
titan.u8.sound	SOUND.FLX directly or .raw files (extracted)	STATIC/ or output of flex-extract
titan.u8.map	FIXED.DAT, TYPEFLAG.DAT, extracted shapes/ + globs/; U8SAVE.000 (optional)	STATIC/, SAVEGAME/
titan.u8.typeflag	TYPEFLAG.DAT	STATIC/
titan.u8.credits	ECREDITS.DAT, QUOTES.DAT	STATIC/
titan.u8.save	U8SAVE.000–.005	SAVEGAME/ or cloud_saves/SAVEGAME/
titan.u7.shape	SHAPES.VGA, FACES.VGA, GUMPS.VGA, POINTERS.SHP	STATIC/
titan.u7.palette	PALETTES.FLX	STATIC/
titan.u7.music	ADLIBMUS.DAT, MT32MUS.DAT, ENDSCORE.XMI	STATIC/
titan.u7.sound	INTROSND.DAT, U7SPEECH.SPC	STATIC/
titan.u7.map	U7MAP, U7CHUNKS, U7IFIX*, SHAPES.VGA, TFA.DAT; gamedat/u7ireg* (optional)	STATIC/, gamedat/
titan.u7.typeflag	TFA.DAT, SHPDIMS.DAT, WGTVOL.DAT	STATIC/

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Requirements

• Python 3.9+
• NumPy ≥ 1.24
• Pillow ≥ 10.0
• Typer ≥ 0.15
• tomli ≥ 2.0 (Python < 3.11 only — for titan.toml support)

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Credits

TITAN uses the following excellent open-source tools:

• LeRF (Jiacheng Li, Chang Chen, et al.)
  • Learning Steerable Function for Efficient Image Resampling (CVPR 2023)
  • LeRF: Learning Resampling Function for Adaptive and Efficient Image Interpolation (IEEE T-PAMI 2025)
    Adaptive downscaling and geometric transforms (rotation/skew for birdseye view) are powered by LeRF's official LUTs and NumPy implementation.

Bundled fonts

The font-create wizard ships six TrueType fonts for Ultima script systems. See FONTS_CREDITS.md for full attribution and licensing details. One font (dosVga437-win.ttf by VileR / int10h.org) is distributed under CC BY-SA 4.0; the remaining five are fan recreations released under permissive terms.

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License

MIT

Important note

Ultima (Copyright 1981–1999, Electronic Arts)

To use this fan-made tool you must own a legitimate copy of the original games (Ultima 8, Ultima 7). This project is not affiliated with Electronic Arts. All rights to Ultima remain with Electronic Arts.