Ultima V is a RPG released in 1988, and Ultima VI in 1990. Both games are extremely dated today, but an enormous effort was made by many people to bring back these classic games to modern times on a new engine and with improved gameplay mechanics. This led to two total conversions for Dungeon Siege, which are Ultima V: Lazarus and Ultima 6 Project. In this guide I describe how to install them and get ready to play.

Why would you bother though? Perphaps you enjoy Dungeon Siege and are not particularly interested in modifications. First of all, I'd like to mention that these two projects are extremely well made. They don't feel like modifications at all, but rather are so polished they give impression of actual full games releases! Second, Ultimas are legendary games. All modern RPGs basically come from ideas either introduced or fleshed out in Ultima series. It is fascinating to see how it was back then, but with many modern conveniences. Finally, they are a kind of RPG that are rare to find nowadays and worth the time as the world depicted is absorbing and completely open, you are free to go anywhere, including buying a ship and sailing to other islands.

1. First and foremost, just install Dungeon Siege on Steam.

2. Download Ultima V: Lazarus
Link: https://www.gamepressure.com/download.asp?ID=29020

3. Unpack the file and click on the .exe to begin installation.

4. When presented window "Select Destination Location" do not install it to the game's folder. Choose any convenient place. Choose to create a desktop shortcut and finish installation.

5. Right click on the desktop shortcut, go to "Properties" and change "Target:" as follows:
"[YOUR STEAM LOCATION]\Steam\steamapps\common\Dungeon Siege 1\DungeonSiege.exe" map_paths=!"[INSTALLED ULTIMA V LOCATION]\Lazarus\resources" res_paths="[INSTALLED ULTIMA V LOCATION]\Lazarus\resources"

Note: Be sure to include quotation marks as above!

For example, mine looks this way:
"D:\software\Steam\steamapps\common\Dungeon Siege 1\DungeonSiege.exe" map_paths=!"D:\software\Lazarus\resources" res_paths="D:\software\Lazarus\resources"

6. Run the shortcut, go to "Options" and change resolution to 1024x768x32.

That's it, now you can play Ultima V on Dungeon Siege engine!

1. Install Dungeon Siege on Steam. You can install Ultima VI when you have Ultima V installed.

2. Download Ultima VI Project
Link: http://u6project.com/downloads/u6_project_1_1.zip

3. Unpack the file and run setup.exe to begin installation.

4. When presented window "Select Destination Location" do not install it to the game's folder. Choose any convenient place. Choose to create a desktop shortcut and finish installation.

5. Download patches
Link: http://u6project.com/downloads/u6p_additional_patches.zip

6. Unpack patches and copy all files from the unpacked folder into ...\U6 Project\resources

7. It should be done automatically, but make sure the "Target:" in "Properties" of the shortcut made on desktop is as follows:
"[YOUR STEAM LOCATION]\Steam\steamapps\common\Dungeon Siege 1\DungeonSiege.exe" map_paths=!"[INSTALLED ULTIMA VI LOCATION]\U6 Project\resources" res_paths="D:\software\U6 Project\resources" user_path="[INSTALLED ULTIMA V LOCATION]\U6 Project"

Note 1: Be sure to include quotation marks as above!
Note 2: Unlike in Ultima V where there are map_paths and res_paths both linking to \resources folder, here there is same res_paths, but also different user_path that does not link to resources!

Mine is this way:
"D:\software\Steam\steamapps\common\Dungeon Siege 1\DungeonSiege.exe" map_paths=!"D:\software\U6 Project\resources" res_paths="D:\software\U6 Project\resources" user_path="D:\software\U6 Project"

8. Run the shortcut, go to "Options" and change resolution to 1024x768x32.

All done, now you can play!

Make sure to run Ultima V/VI at least once first before making below edits!

In both U5 and U6 you can change resolution to unsupported one or play in a window. Please note this will display an error when running the game, but it can be ignored. Additionally, main menu will always remain in low resolution.

To change resolution, edit shortcuts and add the following to "Target:" after space:
width=1920 height=1080 bpp=32

You may choose different width and height of course, as long as they are 1024x768 or higher.

To force the game to run in a window add:
fullscreen=false

Here are some links that you may find interesting:

http://www.u5lazarus.com/
http://u6project.com/
https://ultima.fandom.com/wiki/Main_Page