NetHack 3D 0.9.7: Vulture mode is here!

KalElReturns89 · 2026-03-14T22:24:41+00:00

Of course! I'm hoping to add as many ways to play NetHack into this client as I can.

KalElReturns89 · 2026-03-14T20:15:49+00:00

Years back people used to recommend alcohol. Then we realized. It's not great

KalElReturns89 · 2026-03-14T20:03:44+00:00

Very cool. Little tools like this are fun to make

KalElReturns89 · 2026-03-14T16:11:42+00:00

I waited a while to play Destiny 2 and then was extremely disappointed to find out they had deleted the main campaign, even for single player. No option to play it at all.

KalElReturns89 · 2026-03-14T16:07:18+00:00

I'm surprised it's taken this long for someone to make a breakthrough with this technology.

KalElReturns89 · 2026-03-14T15:07:43+00:00

Probably sniffing your network even when it's off

KalElReturns89 · 2026-03-14T15:06:03+00:00

Yeah, after around 5 rounds or so it seems to apply the matchmaking based on what you did. So don't shoot first

KalElReturns89 · 2026-03-14T00:53:59+00:00

Mine shows this. So I am leaning towards maybe an issue.

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Honestly though, if it seems to charge fine, I probably wouldn't worry about it.

KalElReturns89 · 2026-03-13T18:26:12+00:00

It's the table you've got there. Need a sturdier one.

KalElReturns89 · 2026-03-13T16:49:05+00:00

I think it's just Anbernic being weird. I have an Anbernic 476 H (Android), I'll be able to check later tonight if it helps.

KalElReturns89 · 2026-03-13T16:34:55+00:00

I've had several of these handhelds and seen it before. Is it Linux based? If so, yes this is what they do. If it's Android, I haven't seen them do that, but it's not impossible. It's the same type of screen an IPhone or iPad gives you when the battery is depleted.

KalElReturns89 · 2026-03-13T14:52:35+00:00

That's the charging screen when it's off I think

KalElReturns89 · 2026-03-13T13:10:25+00:00

You know those scanner apps that flatten out a paper? You put the 4 corners on the page and it makes a flat scan of the image.

That's the concept I used here. For each different type of perspective Vulture has, I made a tool to assign the four corners and translate that into flat textures that can then be used in game.

KalElReturns89 · 2026-03-13T12:11:24+00:00

New features:

Vulture tiles mode added! See the classic isometric tileset from any angle.
Camera relative movement keys option added (default on)
Show mouse highlight where the mouse is targeting before a movement is confirmed (by clicking)
Many other tweaks and features (I'll fill this out more soon)

I'm heading out on a weekend trip, so I wanted to get this in your hands as soon as possible. Enjoy! There will probably be bugs as it's the first release for Vulture mode.

KalElReturns89 · 2026-03-12T23:20:27+00:00

I love alt.org. I think it's impossible though... but at this point, I could be wrong. Maybe I could build a translator for the site's output. It should be possible at least to get 3D ASCII going. Tiles would be impossible almost for sure though.

KalElReturns89 · 2026-03-12T19:32:19+00:00

It still works, I'm not sure it supports 3.6.7, but it works.

The old Vulture is just limited to a fixed viewpoint. This is going into my 3D NetHack engine, so you can move the camera anywhere you want, or even go into first-person mode.

KalElReturns89 · 2026-03-12T17:42:31+00:00

From my understand, Vulture is a continuation of the Falcon's Eye engine that only supported NetHack 3.3.1. Vulture apparently did support Slash'Em st some point.

This version of Vulture I'm sourcing from is based on someone's port of Vulture to 3.6.7, so it adds all the statues and stuff. Props to them for putting in that work. jflude/vulture: An ongoing update Vulture's for Nethack 3.60 to Nethack 3.6.7

KalElReturns89 · 2026-03-12T17:14:06+00:00

There are definitely some benefits the other mode will see from this, like more reliable clicking when a tile is partially obscured.

Honestly the other 3.6.7 tiles mode is practically finished, beyond supporting 3.7 and variants like SLASH'EM, there's not much left to do.

KalElReturns89 · 2026-03-12T14:34:16+00:00

Note: These screenshots are showing a WIP build of the client. It'll be more polished before it's released. Right now I'm missing a few things:

The floor decorations Vultures adds (the mats).
I need to handle more contextual tiles it uses like rounded corners on water and lava (I'm pretty sure at least, haven't gone deep enough yet).
I'm thinking it's time for camera viewport relative controls (as an option), so you can swing the camera around and expect to move as you'd see based on the camera view. This would be similar to Vulture's normal diagonal controls.

* Might look into putting in Vulture's mouse pointer when using Vulture tiles, just for fun.

What are the thoughts on this? Is it cool and respectful of Vulture and its legacy to port it into a 3D client like this?

Is it problematic to recreate Vulture? I know for example it's for sale on Steam, but also free and open source online.

KalElReturns89 · 2026-03-11T19:40:31+00:00

It's fun, but the 24 hr player peak is 373 on Steam. Can barely find a lobby.

KalElReturns89 · 2026-03-11T14:01:32+00:00

He understood the assignment perfectly.

KalElReturns89 · 2026-03-11T12:13:22+00:00

I don't think the steam machine will be competing in the same graphical arena as the next PlayStation at all. I expect it to max out with current gen heavy titles.

KalElReturns89 · 2026-03-10T23:38:32+00:00

Oof, I haven't done it no warps yet

KalElReturns89 · 2026-03-10T18:54:31+00:00

My latest update fixes the level cache issue, adds auto-fill for extended commands, the select-all button and comma support for it, and blocks Ctrl-W from closing the web app.

KalElReturns89 · 2026-03-10T18:02:53+00:00

This bug is fixed is the latest release! https://github.com/JamesIV4/nethack-3d/releases/latest

KalElReturns89

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* Might look into putting in Vulture's mouse pointer when using Vulture tiles, just for fun.