Pool of Radiance: Ruins of Myth Drannor returns, rebuilt without source code

SNEG has released a restored version of Pool of Radiance: Ruins of Myth Drannor, Stormfront Studios' 2001 Dungeons & Dragons RPG, on Steam and GOG. It supports widescreen up to 4K, controllers and Steam Deck, and adds a reworked camera, a faster interface, bug fixes and an optional Legacy mode, according to 80 Level.

The team had no original source code, development tools or documentation. SNEG co-founder Artem Shchuiko said the only material was the retail editions released around the world and whatever was on those discs. After what he called a substantial reverse-engineering effort, the studio stayed on the original engine and made its changes inside the legacy build, partly for speed and partly to keep the look and feel.

For the new UI, SNEG tried several modern frameworks and settled on Dear ImGui because it allowed the fastest iteration on this game. Shchuiko said the hardest part was an internal API that exposes data the new UI needs, much of it buried deep in the original code. Sharper output comes from AMD FSR 1.0, used without modifying the original assets. The studio also uses its own in-house libraries to support a wide range of hardware without raising resource use.

The main UI addition is an action bar, which required new icons for every spell and action. SNEG drew them at 2x the original resolution to keep the dated look. The main font was reconstructed as a TTF with missing glyphs added. Shchuiko said the action bar works with both mouse and controller and helped fix pacing issues. The whole project was tested on Steam Deck first, though he said the experience is not flawless.

Shchuiko corrected one point in the interviewer's question: the re-release does not include upscaled background or terrain assets, which the studio is exploring for later. He also described a rule of no changes to core game systems unless something is clearly a bug. That left out letting players choose feats, adding the missing mage class, and reducing the pre-made characters' extra points. Legacy mode preserves the original mouse input and interface.