********Update********
The most recent progress update can be found on page 3 of this thread - http://www.gamesas.com/bgsforums/index.php?showtopic=1008178&st=40&start=54.
Please read that post for the most updated progress information, screenshots and gameplay footage. Read below to find out what this project is all about.
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DaggerXL is a modern Daggerfall Engine Recreation for current Operating Systems and hardware. It will ultimately fully emulate the game of Daggerfall and then optionally enhance it by refining existing features and adding new gameplay elements that were originally intended. The game will make use of hardware acceleration providing higher resolutions, color depth, greatly improved visibility, better texture filtering, enhanced performance and more.

DaggerXL is/will be just an engine, you need the original game data to play. I will not distribute any Daggerfall assets or knowingly provide information on obtaining free copies of the game. This is a legal project, I do not intent to step on Bethesda's toes or violate their copyrights. Daggerfall was one of the most ambitious RPGs ever made but was marred by limited technology, bugs and limited time. Many features were cut that I intend to optionally restore. You'll be able to play classic Daggerfall if you think it was perfect as is or enjoy new features such as sailing your boat, proper morphing spells, properly saving items you place in your house furniture and more.

Now I'm sure you're thinking now, oh yeah right - how many of these have been tried and abandoned before getting anywhere... But I'm working toward a demo that you will be able to play soon featuring the first dungeon, Privateer's Hold, will full collision, monster combat, working doors and switches, UI and more. I'm not there yet but I do have a custom engine running Privateer's Hold with simple (though still buggy) collision, textures, flats, camera light (which needs to be tweaked). All the geometry is there and I can actually wander around the dungeon in first person.

You can view progress so far and in the future on my wordpress blog, which is where demos and builds will go in the future:
http://daggerxl.wordpress.com/

Here's a video of DaggerXL in action so far (note collision still has issues and I have to "cheat" to float up because the throne doesn't work yet):

http://daggerxl.wordpress.com/2009/06/28/simple-collision-proper-uvs-and-flats/

Next up is improved/proper collision detection, working doors and switches, and UI. After that enemies, random loot and light sources will be implemented. Once that is complete I'll get combat, equipment and a pre-generated character and release the demo. I'll talk more about what comes after the demo once it is out.

Here's some screenshots as well:

Edit: image tags don't seem to work, so I'm changing them to links.
http://daggerxl.wordpress.com/files/2009/06/dxl_phold1.jpg
http://daggerxl.wordpress.com/files/2009/06/dxl_phold2.jpg
http://daggerxl.wordpress.com/files/2009/06/dxl_phold3.jpg
http://daggerxl.wordpress.com/files/2009/06/dxl_phold4.jpg
http://daggerxl.wordpress.com/files/2009/06/dxl_phold5.jpg
http://daggerxl.wordpress.com/files/2009/06/dxl_phold6.jpg
http://daggerxl.wordpress.com/files/2009/06/dxl_phold7.jpg
http://daggerxl.wordpress.com/files/2009/06/dxl_phold8.jpg
http://daggerxl.wordpress.com/files/2009/06/dxl_phold9.jpg
http://daggerxl.files.wordpress.com/2009/06/dxl_privhold3.jpg?w=509&h=382

Very cool! B) I wish you the best of luck on this project! ^_^

It looks rather interesting, and promising.

Thanks for the comments.

A DF remake project that announces itself after it has something working? Insanity! I like it, looks promising ^_^

I can't help but notice you seem to have the X and Z planes reversed.. when you exit the first room in that cave you should go to the right to the steps, at the top of the steps you should go left to the hall, same for the entire video. Looks nice though!

I ever so hope you'd be Linux and open-source friendly with it as well..

Good eye! You are absolutely correct but fortunately it will be fairly easy to fix. I was happy when I finally got the various coordinates systems, scales and rotations to work properly that I decided to leave it for the time being. It will be fixed before the demo of course.

There will be a Linux port down the road but this is initially a windows application. Mainly because I prefer DirectX over OpenGL - but a proper OpenGL port will come later.

Engine building. Ambitious to say the least. Still, you've shown some definite progress so far, so I'll give good odds on your success.

Cool. Did you get an okay from Bethesda yet? I know you still need the original game for this but it's better to be safe than sorry...

I tried in the past... To be honest they simply didn't take me seriously at all and simply sent me an obviously canned response telling me that they would not remake or release Daggerfall. However once I have something that they will take seriously then I will talk to them obviously. Fortunately my project is as legal as various asset viewers that they seem to be o.k. with.

However my ultimate goal is to try to convince them to release the data to the public but not the executable or libraries, relying on DaggerXL to run the game, which would allow them to bypass any licensing issues that prevent them from releasing Daggerfall. I have no idea if they can ever be convinced but I'm going to try. Ultimately my goal is to preserve Daggerfall as well as making it more accessible to newer gamers and machines. This includes fixing (or not implementing) bugs, GPU acceleration, better collision detection, and so on.

Lucius, this is incredible work so far. I wish you all the best with this ambitious project and can't wait to see more.

Same here.

Looks cool. I wish you the best of luck .

Good work!

Shouldn't be an issue, they are well aware of http://www.gamesas.com/bgsforums/index.php?showtopic=1002700 and let that continue.

I forgot, that's true.

Ah, I love the smell of vaporware in the morning.

Just kidding. Here's hoping you pull it off. Maybe it could even allow for extra content, allowing for implementation of things Bethesda Softworks was unable to do the first time around.

Precisely what he says! /jazzed/

Great work. Is there a way to render those textures more pixelized? I'm not joking. I like to remember Daggerfall the way it was, only with an higher resolution. The lights also worked in a different way in Daggerfall with a flickering effect that was visible as halo of lights. There has to be a pixel shader that reproduces the effect.

Book marked and subscribed. I cannot wait for more!

I personally prefer the filtering because it makes the image look clearer - especially in the distance. However there will be a texture filtering slider that will allow you to adjust the level of filtering - from point sampling (pixelated) to trilinear and then various levels of anisotropic filtering. As for the lights, there are none yet except from the player - I'll get the flickering lighting in when I implement the individual light sources.

Thanks for all the kind words everyone, if you have any other questions or comments I'd like to hear them.

:clap:
:rock:
:celebration:

I think my face is permanently paralyzed into a celebratory grin.

I remain a little skeptical due to the way projects like this have gone in the past, but I also saw your DarkXL engine and the positive reactions to it, so I guess I'm skeptically optimistic.

Do you plan on adding support for things like new textures and possibly 3d models?

I'm planning on adding extensive modding support down the road, which will include 32 bit texture support, 3d model support, custom exterior/interior/dungeon blocks and so on. Also I'm not surprised that some people are at least a little skeptical - as long as you're willing to give the project a chance (not be overly negative or dismissive, which no one has been so far thankfully) then that's all I can ask for.

Holy crap, thats you?, wow. Just wow. I can't wait to see what hapens with this, I wasn't sure if you were like DaggerfallGL and not just a kindof fake, now I know who you are and am way more excited!