Return To Chaos

Frequently Asked Questions

This document is far from complete but offers quick answers to the questions I've been asked more than any others.

1. What are the differences between RTC and DM?
2. Why does RTC run so slowly compared to DM?
3. Are there any hotkeys?
4. Can I play RTC in a window?
5. Do you have the DM / CSB source-code...?

1. What are the differences between RTC and DM?

Whilst programing RTC I have not had access to the full source-code for Dungeon Master and so everything has been made up to look and feel like DM; how it actually works is therefore unlikely to be exactly the same. In particular this applies to the ammount of damage each weapon does, the strengths of monsters, movement rates, effectiveness of spells etc.

It was my intention that there should be no substantial differences in main line game-play. However, please don't be surprised if it takes 47 swings of a club to gain a ninja level in DM, but only 46 in RTC...

The major noticable changes from DM are:

Game-play:
- Editing. RTC allows you to create your own dungeons to play. As well as being able to use the dungeon elements from DM and CSB, RTC allows you to import your own graphics and sounds to create new objects.
- Expandability. DM has a restrictive limit on the number of levels and their size as well as the number of different types of monster found on each. The level limits are greatly increased in RTC to allow up to 10,000 levels of 200x200 tiles each and no restrictions at all on monster locations.
- Magic. There is an option (available to the dungeon designer, not the player) to limit which runes are available for spell casting. Runes may be found on scrolls throughout the dungeon and added to the players inventory as they adventure their way through.
- Difficulty. Players can choose to make the dungeons they play harder by setting a difficulty rating when they first enter. The harder the game the more monsters, with higher healths, that they'll encounter.
- Lighting. If you cast too many light spells it will become too bright to see where you are going. This provides a natural use for the darkness spell to bring the lighting conditions back to a normal level.
- Monster AI. In RTC all monsters are independent of each other. Groups of monsters can, and do, split up to hunt the party down and attack from all sides. They can also mix with other monster types on the same tile allowing them to combine forces to move in for the kill!
Cosmetic:
- Shading. RTC runs in 24bpp rather than the 4bpp of DM. As such the shading of objects at a distance is done in full colour rather than using a limited palette so will look different.
- Lighting. Lighting from torches and spells is changes smoothly over time rather than the large steps used in DM. Additionally fireballs light up the surrounding area as they fly by. If you don't like these effects you can turn it off in the config.txt file and play DM as it was meant to be!
- Transparancy. Again as a consequence of running in a high colour mode, some objects have been changed to be semi-transparent. These include the Champions mirrors, poison clouds, spell explosions and some monsters (faders, ghosts, water and fire elementals). As above, this effect can also be turned off.

2. Why does RTC run so slowly compared to DM?

On 200 MHz (or less) PCs the frame rate can sometimes drop to below 20 fps and movement of the mouse pointer can become jerky. This compares to the original DM which ran quite happily on an 8 MHz Atari ST.

The main reason for this is the support in RTC for high resolution and 24bpp graphics. DM used a 320x200x4bpp mode screen whereas RTC runs at 640x400x24bpp a factor of 24 times more information to blit to the screen each frame. Additionally the smooth lighting effect is achieved by alpha-blending a black layer over the fully lit rendered screen slowing it down further. As drawing the graphics takes some 90% of the time per frame this means that RTC, from graphics alone, will run about 30-40 times slower than DM ever did. This is before factoring in additional Windows/DirectX overheads compared to writing directly to screen memory...

3. Are there any hotkeys?

When playing the game I find it easier to use keys to move the party and the mouse to perform all other actions. RTC has a number of otherwise undocumented hotkeys to allow you to use the keyboard more if you so wish.

In the Dungeon:
- Arrow keys and Num Pad 1-6 - Movement
- Tab - Cycle through character backpacks
- Fn1-4 and 1-4 - Toggle between dungeon view and character backpack
- Fn5-8 and 5-8 - Select spell caster
- Insert-Page down - Cast rune 1-6
- Backspace - Delete rune
- Enter - Cast spell
- Esc - Pause
- Ctrl+P - Print screen
- Ctrl+S - Save game
- Ctrl+Q - Quit
Menus:
- Up arrow - Scroll up
- Down arrow - Scroll down
- Page up - Scroll up a page
- Page down - Scroll down a page
- Home - Scroll to start
- End - Scroll to end
- Enter - Select

4. Can I play RTC in a window?

Yes (but this mode is unsupported). Simply add the line

FULLSCREEN	NO

(with a tab between the two words) to a new line in the config.txt file. Please bear in mind that when running like this, the frame rate will be lower than in full screen mode and there may be some glitches in colour. As mentioned above, this is an unsupported mode, untested and (otherwise) undocumented; if you experience any problems with it, please switch back to full screen.

5. Do you have the DM / CSB source-code...?

...usually accompanied by "...and will you please send me a copy too?".

No...and no. As mentioned before, I have written RTC myself entirely from scratch without reference to the source-code. Please don't ask me for a copy as I don't have one!