[jkas789]

MusicallyInspired, on 16 November 2021 - 08:03 PM, said:

Oh he's got a Discord? I gotta get in on that.

Here is the invite link to the discord:

https://discord.gg/WEjU2UDC

[luciusDXL]

The Force Engine website has links to the Discord, forums, and the GitHub repository as well as Downloads and the Roadmap.

Thanks for posting the updates Dzierzan.

[MusicallyInspired]

Yep I got in.

[Jimmy]

This is really excellent. I wish I could play it.

[luciusDXL]

Jimmy, on 17 November 2021 - 10:21 PM, said:

This is really excellent. I wish I could play it.

Why can't you play it Jimmy? Is it system requirements or just the fact that it is Windows only at the moment, or some other reason?

[luciusDXL]

After a long time in development, the Core Game Loop Release, version 0.7 is finally available. All of the weapons, items, and AI have been integrated. Dark Forces can be completed from beginning to end using The Force Engine. TFE continues to support the original, 320x200 fixed-point renderer but now properly supports high-resolution rendering, and widescreen (including Ultrawide). TFE can load mods directly from ZIP files, you can drag and drop them onto the executable. It also has a built-in Mod Loader, accessible from the main menu.

To get mods to show up, simply create a Mods folder in your TFE directory, the Dark Forces game data directory, or under /ProgramData/TheForceEngine. In that mods folder, you can put the zip files, one per mod, or extract them to one sub-directory per mod.

Below is a video that marks the release of version 0.7 - the Core Game Loop release. This video shows part of Detention Center, and then small parts of three user levels from “back in the day.” Note that mod support is currently in “Beta”, not all mods fully work, and some may even crash. However, these issues will be resolved in future versions. There are still bugs and issues, but the Dark Forces can be finished from beginning to end using TFE.



What’s Next
Now that the CGL release is done, it is time to move to the next milestone on the Roadmap - Cutscenes, Mission Briefings, and completing the in-game UI (PDA). That will be version 0.8. The rest of this year is dedicated to finishing versions 0.8, 0.9 (sound and iMuse), and finally version 1.0.

https://theforceengi...io/Roadmap.html

[Martin Howe]

luciusDXL, on 18 November 2021 - 10:31 AM, said:

Why can't you play it Jimmy? Is it system requirements or just the fact that it is Windows only at the moment, or some other reason?

For me, it is; I have no Windows kit at home and no desire to possess any; since this looks to be a great way forward for the games on today's systems, do you have a timeline for Linux support?

[jkas789]

luciusDXL, on 18 November 2021 - 10:31 AM, said:

Is it system requirements or just the fact that it is Windows only at the moment, or some other reason?

Hmmm. I recently completely switched cold turkey to Linux. I wonder if I could be able to run TFE via Proton?

[luciusDXL]

Martin Howe, on 19 November 2021 - 12:14 PM, said:

For me, it is; I have no Windows kit at home and no desire to possess any; since this looks to be a great way forward for the games on today's systems, do you have a timeline for Linux support?

Not until after version 1.0, I'm afraid (just not enough time). So most likely early 2022 (possibly late January).

[luciusDXL]

jkas789, on 19 November 2021 - 01:02 PM, said:

Hmmm. I recently completely switched cold turkey to Linux. I wonder if I could be able to run TFE via Proton?

I honestly have no idea how well it would work. But I am planning for native Mac and Linux support in early 2022.

[luciusDXL]

The Cutscenes and In-Game UI Release build is now available: https://theforceengi.../downloads.html



This video marks the version 0.8 - Cutscenes and In-Game UI Release. The cutscenes are now played, even from mods, with sounds and music. The Mission Briefings are integrated, including the ability to pick the desired difficulty. In game, the PDA (F1) is complete, allowing you to see your inventory, weapons, the map, mission objectives that you have completed and secrets found, and the briefing. Finally, the "Configuration" option in the Escape menu now opens the TFE System UI with full resolution and keybinding menus.

This video shows the initial cutscenes, the mission briefings for a few levels, config options, cutscenes in a mod, and the mission briefing in another mod. Note: iMuse is only partially reverse-engineered, so music in the cutscenes is not 100% accurate - this will be fixed in the 0.9 release coming in the next few weeks.

Next is the sound and iMuse release, version 0.9, at which point Dark Forces support in TFE will be feature complete. However, there are still some bugs and mistakes, which will the focus for version 1.0.

[MusicallyInspired]

Fantastic progress.

[NightFright]

As soon as this hits v1.0, I am going to do a full playthrough again. That plus hopefully finally taking a look at all those great user levels I downloaded but never played.

[Dzierzan]

@NightFright
Not gonna wait for voxels ? You wrote you wanted to play with them and that would be most likely 1.1 version (according to the roadmap).

[NightFright]

Oh. I thought that would already work in v1.0. But well, I have been waiting for so long already, it can take a bit longer. Right now I am actually playing Quake 3 again. There were so many really good maps released for it in the last two decades, hot damn!

[luciusDXL]

Version 1.0 Release Delayed
This is obvious by now, but The Force Engine version 1.0 will not hit this year. There has been a lot of progress towards completing the iMuse reverse-engineering work for version 0.9, but that will spill into early January.


2022 Plans
The iMuse work is roughly 70% complete, which means that version 0.9 is expected to land in the second week of January. At that point, Dark Forces support in TFE will be feature complete and the reverse-engineering process for Dark Forces will be finished. The following few weeks will be dedicated to bug and inaccuracy fixing, with version 1.0 planned for late January or early February.


To read more about 2022 Plans and the 2021 Retrospective, read the post: https://theforceengi...rospective.html

[jkas789]

I waited 10 something years for a new Metroid game. I think I can wait a little more for TFE 1.0, and it's eventual port to linux.

[Micky C]

Is this still going? There was fairly solid, continuous development in the last half of 2021 judging from the GitHub, but no commits for over a month now.

[Dzierzan]

Yeah, it's still alive. Just lucius didn't have a lot of time lately. He is still working on the IMUSE. Suffice to say, the work was delayed, but I suppose it's always expected.

[Phredreeke]

Micky C, on 06 February 2022 - 02:56 AM, said:

Is this still going? There was fairly solid, continuous development in the last half of 2021 judging from the GitHub, but no commits for over a month now.

Ok, I think it's a good idea to explain how lucius works.

Quote

And if you want a more tangible view into the progress, there is github as well. Though that can go quiet when I'm focused on the reverse-engineering because "Dark Forces DOS" is not public (which is just a place for the raw reverse-engineered code to go) but all of its relevant code will be refactored into TFE.

[luciusDXL]

Version 0.9 - iMuse and Sound - has been released.
Version 0.9 has been a long time coming, taking much longer than originally anticipated. Version 0.9 is focused on sound playback and music accuracy, ambient sound support, and a few bug fixes.

Features and changes included in the release:

• Reverse-engineering of Dark Forces complete (with the obvious exception of going over bits of code again for bugs, or if I ever want to port TFE to DOS - and no that is not happening anytime soon if ever).
  
• iMuse system with proper music cues, transitions, and effects. Features like fades and similar effects work the same for both midi and digital audio.
  
• This is where most of the time was spent. iMuse is big and convoluted.
  
• Game music with fight/stalk transitions.
  
• Game and Cutscene sound system that uses iMuse to play digital audio; which includes proper sound priorities and accurate sound falloff and panning.
  
• Level ambient sounds.
  
• Sound UI will volume control for Cutscene Music, Sound, and Game music and sound.
  
• The ability to enable 16-channel digital audio support in iMuse (it was basically already there in the code, I just had to make some tweaks so it could be changed at runtime). 8-channels is the default like DOS but you can enable 16-channel support in the Sounds config.
  
• The ability to disable fight music if desired.
  
• The Mousewheel is now bindable.
  
• The Mousewheel works on mission briefings and some PDA screens (mission briefing and map).
  
• Improved support for System UI scaling for 1440p and 4k.
  
• Many other fixes.

Full blog post: https://theforceengi...undRelease.html
Downloads: https://theforceengi.../downloads.html

Version 1.0 Plans
With version 0.9 finally released, the next major release will be version 1.0 - complete support for Dark Forces in TFE. Unlike the 0.9 release, the plan is to split up the release into several smaller releases. There will be 2 main parts:

• Bug Fixes. I plan on splitting bug fixes by system and doing one or more 0.9x releases for each system. Examples include AI bugs, weapon bugs, collision issues, INF issues, etc.
  
• The GPU renderer - the last major feature for version 1.0. The GPU renderer will support both shearing for looking up and down (which emulates the software renderer) and accurate perspective projection to allow the player to look up and down further without distortion like in modern 3D games. Initially, it will support 8-bit color emulation with optional colormap interpolation to remove banding. Later, after version 1.0 is released, true color rendering, dynamic lights, and other features will be added.

[MusicallyInspired]

Excellent! This works very well!

[NightFright]

Only 0.1 version numbers away from playing this (for me)!

[Dzierzan]

I can't wait to finally play version 1.1 with voxels. I guess I'll have to still wait months before that happens ^^.

I tried this new build, works perfectly. Although I kinda got used to one soundtrack per level, it's still nice to have it as in original game.

[MusicallyInspired]

Dzierzan, on 21 May 2022 - 01:18 AM, said:

I can't wait to finally play version 1.1 with voxels. I guess I'll have to still wait months before that happens ^^.

I tried this new build, works perfectly. Although I kinda got used to one soundtrack per level, it's still nice to have it as in original game.

Well, you can toggle it off and on.

[MetHy]

Checking this out and it looks like great work! Playing in high resolution makes me appreciate things I had not realized before, like how amazing the headlight effect is. Pretty mindblowing for the time, when compared with other things like DOS Powerslave and its "dynamic lighting" system that just affects shade values per sector. I'll also wait for 1.0 to replay the game properly.

Is there a screenshot key by the way?

Attached thumbnail(s)

• 

[jkas789]

I have been checking the recent release as well and it blows my mind. Now to wait for Outlaws to get supported in TFE. 2.0 can't get fast enough. I have been waiting for a proper Outlaws port for years.

Anyways, excellent work Lucius! Thanks for the hard work!

[NightFright]

It's crazy. A bit more than two years ago, I thought this project was as dead as it could be. Yet here we are, approaching the (first) finish line swiftly, at long last. The game absolutely deserves this and it'll be great to have a proper Windows port after all this time. My hope is that all released fan addons will work flawlessly as well, and in a convenient way, so that playability expands beyond the rather limited amount of 14 levels the original game had.

[Phredreeke]

XL engine is still dead though. This is a different project.

[luciusDXL]

0.92 GPU Renderer Beta Release
Version 0.92 has finally been released - its main feature is the GPU Renderer Beta. See https://theforceengi...ersion0_92.html for a full description.

Download - TheForceEngine-v0_92_000: https://theforceengi.../downloads.html