[luciusDXL]

After 3 years of development, I am ready to announce the Version 1.0 Release of The Force Engine (TFE). The Force Engine is a project with the goal to reverse engineer and rebuild the Jedi Engine for modern systems and the games that used that engine - Dark Forces and Outlaws. For version 1.0, Dark Forces support is complete but Outlaws is not yet playable. Full Outlaws support is planned in the future, for version 2.0.

For Dark Forces, the goal is for TFE to act as a viable replacement for DosBox and the original executable for most players, to be used to not only play the vanilla levels but also the many user mods developed for the original game - and I believe that goal has finally been met with the release of version 1.0. The Force Engine provides modern conveniences and control methods and removes the need to set up DosBox and deal with cycles-based bugs such as getting stuck on ice or having the missiles that the final boss fires move too fast or not move at all. While TFE supports modern GPU and high-resolution software rendering - the original 320x200 fixed-pointe renderer has been preserved - keeping the DOS experience for those who want it.

Like a traditional source port, you need the original game to play. TFE replaces the executable, not the game.


Current Features

• Full Dark Forces support, including mods. Outlaws support is coming in version 2.0.
  
• Mod Loader - simply place your mods in the Mods/ directory as zip files or directories.
  
• High Resolution and Widescreen support - when using 320x200 you get the original software renderer. TFE also includes a floating-point software renderer that supports widescreen, including ultrawide, and much higher resolutions.
  
• GPU Renderer with perspective correct pitch - play at much higher resolutions with improved performance.
  
• Extended Limits - TFE, by default, will support much higher limits than the original game which removes most of the HOM (Hall of Mirrors) issues in advanced mods.
  
• Full input binding, mouse sensitivity adjustment, and controller support. Note, however, that menus currently require the mouse.
  
• Optional Quality of Life improvements, such as full mouselook, aiming reticle, improved Boba Fett AI, autorun, and more.
  
• A new save system that works seamlessly with the existing checkpoint and lives system. You can ignore it entirely, use it just as an exit save so you don't have to play long user levels in one sitting, or full save and load with quicksaves like Doom or Duke Nukem 3D.
  
• Optional and quality-of-life features, even mouselook, can be disabled if you want the original experience. Play in 320x200, turn the mouse mode (Input menu) to Menus only or horizontal, and enable the Classic (software) renderer - and it will look and play just like DOS, but with a higher framerate and without needing to adjust cycles in DosBox.

Links
The website has additional links to the forums, Discord channel, and GitHub repository.

• https://theforceengine.github.io/
  
• https://theforceengi.../ downloads.html
  
• https://theforceengi...umentation.html
  
• https://theforceengi...ub.io/blog.html

System Requirements
In early 2023, TFE will gain official cross platform support - both Linux and Mac. Until then Windows is required.

• Windows 7, 64-bit
  
• GPU with OpenGL 3.3 or better compatibility

Note that there are plans to lower the requirements for using the classic software renderer in the future. However, the minimum requirements for GPU Renderer support are here to stay. For now only OpenGL is supported, which might limit the use of some older Intel-integrated GPUs that would otherwise be capable. There are near-term plans to add DirectX 10/11, Vulkan, and maybe Metal render backends which should enable more GPUs to run the engine efficiently.

Bugs and Issues
Like any project of this nature and any new release - there will still be bugs. Some of these bugs will be DOS bugs that can be reproduced in the original game - these bugs are unlikely to be changed anytime soon. Other bugs will be TFE related. For those, please report them on the forums or GitHub.

Previous Thread
https://forums.duke4...e-force-engine/

[NightFright]

Celebrate the Love! Never thought I would live to see this day. What a Christmas present, man! Congrats! Thanks for putting so much effort and time into this.

From what I could see when briefly testing recent development builds, it's a very sophisticated port with amazing (and easily managable) mod support. This is surely the port this classic game deserves and it has seen more than enough finetuning during the last few years to provide the necessary polishing. Can't wait to try that quicksave function, that's going to be a game changer, literally.

Keeping my fingers crossed for v1.1 which is supposed to add voxel support (and other eyecandy stuff), IIRC.

[luciusDXL]

NightFright, on 19 December 2022 - 10:29 AM, said:

Celebrate the Love! Never thought I would live to see this day. What a Christmas present, man! Congrats! Thanks for putting so much effort and time into this.

From what I could see when briefly testing recent development builds, it's a very sophisticated port with amazing (and easily managable) mod support. This is surely the port this classic game deserves and it has seen more than enough finetuning during the last few years to provide the necessary polishing. Can't wait to try that quicksave function, that's going to be a game changer, literally.

Keeping my fingers crossed for v1.1 which is supposed to add voxel support (and other eyecandy stuff), IIRC.

Thanks. For the near future, here is the roadmap: https://theforceengi...io/Roadmap.html
Other features not on the roadmap, such as true color rendering are planned as well, but it is less clear where they will slot in.

[Dzierzan]

@NightFright
Well, mod support in reality is just map loader . Mind that Dark Forces didn't allow for actual modding the game. You might be seeing clever INF tricks which might look like modding. Regardless, it's really easy to browse for sure.

@luciusDXL
As I wrote it on Discord server:

Quote

Marvelous work! You don't often see such dedication and care for projects. Most importantly, you didn't give up throughout these 3 years and let's even count years spent on DarkXL

Now I am waiting voxel support, HQ sound support (I've got like 85-90% done) and of course Outlaws support.

It was a pleasure to debug the project and find all bugs and crashes!

[luciusDXL]

Thanks, Dzierzan. In terms of mods, it is a bit more than a map loader since people can create cutscene cutscenes, music, sound effects, etc.. But I agree that gameplay and UI mods (beyond graphical changes) can't really exist using TFE or Dark Forces yet, just levels, art, and sounds. Also thanks for all of the debugging, testing, and putting up with crashes and other weird bugs.

Beyond that voxels are in the roadmap and the sound system needs to be upgraded to handle midi synth / sound fonts for cross platform support. So you should see support for voxels and HQ sounds early* 2023.

* By early, I mean the first couple of months, though I'm still working through plans for 2023 development.

[MusicallyInspired]

Congrats in this amazing milestone! I play TFE all the time and can't wait for the new features!

[Malgon]

Awesome work on getting to 1.0 release! Will have to give this a shot over the Christmas break and give it a run through and enjoy all the quality of life additions. Looking forward to the future support for Outlaws at version 2.0 as it's definitely a game more people need to play!

[NightFright]

@Dzierzan:
Your DF voxels are already done and prepared for the upcoming update, right? So once it's out, they can be used right away? (Once we know what definitions have to look like, that is.)

Side note:
Which files are actually needed to run this? Right now I am using my complete DOS installation folder, but I am sure all those ancient exe files (bootmkr.exe, dos4gw.exe, imuse.exe, install.exe, setup.exe) aren't necessary, right? I don't even get why the port is looking for dark.exe when that file isn't even used. Would make much more sense to detect dark.gob IMO. Unless there is a technical reason I don't see right now.

[luciusDXL]

NightFright, on 20 December 2022 - 10:37 PM, said:

@Dzierzan:
Your DF voxels are already done and prepared for the upcoming update, right? So once it's out, they can be used right away? (Once we know what definitions have to look like, that is.)

Side note:
Which files are actually needed to run this? Right now I am using my complete DOS installation folder, but I am sure all those ancient exe files (bootmkr.exe, dos4gw.exe, imuse.exe, install.exe, setup.exe) aren't necessary, right? I don't even get why the port is looking for dark.exe when that file isn't even used. Would make much more sense to detect dark.gob IMO. Unless there is a technical reason I don't see right now.

TFE doesn't actually need or use Dark.exe or any of the other executables, it is just telling you to select it with Browse to guide people to select the correct directory. I can change it to Dark.gob or also take that instead.

As for what files are needed, quite a few actually. Dark Forces isn't as compact as Doom in terms of minimum file count. You need the *.GOB files, *.MSG files, and the entire LFD/ directory. If you want existing DOS saves to be imported, you also need DARKPILO.CFG.

[NightFright]

Changing it to dark.gob would be great since otherwise one might think that exe is actually still a required component (for whatever reason). Thanks for the clearification!

Side note:
Is local.msg really needed? As far as I can see it only contains boot disk/CD drive/memory-related messages, besides the two general ones "Press Any Key to Exit..."/"Press Any Key to Continue..." which can be easily integrated into the port, if they haven't been already. I mean, it's not a big deal, we are talking about a 3KB file here, but well... efficiency, you know.

[NightFright]

BTW, it was pointed out to me that there is a Community Patch for Dark Forces which fixes many small issues and adds nice details throughout the campaign, mostly based on cut content. It's also supposed to make the game more accessible in general by adding clues for puzzles, secrets etc:

https://df-21.net/?post=59

Installation is pretty simple:
- Replace dark.gob and dfbrief.lfd in your DF directory (better make backups of the original files first) OR
- Copy those two files into a subdir in TFE's mod folder (or just the zipfile directly, no subdir), then you should be able to play this as an addon without having to replace any files (not tested yet)

An upcoming new version is still WIP which will use TFE's increased limits and is supposed to expand architecture of the original maps significantly. Looks like that's something I'll try once voxel support is available.

[Dzierzan]

NightFright, on 20 December 2022 - 10:37 PM, said:

@Dzierzan:
Your DF voxels are already done and prepared for the upcoming update, right? So once it's out, they can be used right away? (Once we know what definitions have to look like, that is.)

It's not plug and play right now. luciusDXL has to write support for that. He has done some experiments, but it's far from being finished.

[luciusDXL]

NightFright, on 21 December 2022 - 01:52 AM, said:

Changing it to dark.gob would be great since otherwise one might think that exe is actually still a required component (for whatever reason). Thanks for the clearification!

Side note:
Is local.msg really needed? As far as I can see it only contains boot disk/CD drive/memory-related messages, besides the two general ones "Press Any Key to Exit..."/"Press Any Key to Continue..." which can be easily integrated into the port, if they haven't been already. I mean, it's not a big deal, we are talking about a 3KB file here, but well... efficiency, you know.

TFE currently loads the file as part of the set up since it was in the original code. I can remove the dependency but haven't done so yet.

[luciusDXL]

Dzierzan, on 21 December 2022 - 11:06 AM, said:

It's not plug and play right now. luciusDXL has to write support for that. He has done some experiments, but it's far from being finished.

This is definitely true. While the software voxel renderer is pretty close to complete, it still needs to be refactored to deal with codebase changes since then. And GPU Renderer support still needs to be added, along with a way for people to actually add the voxels (definitions, maphacks, etc.).

[NightFright]

Alright then. Well, being able to play the game in 1080p, with quicksaving and mod support is already more than enough to keep people busy for a while.

Gotta try this Community Patch tomorrow. Especially the next version could be a gamechanger. Quite literally.

[luciusDXL]

There was a discussion earlier about the minimum Dark Forces files needed for TFE. During testing, I decided to use a minimal install just to verify. Obviously, dates will be different and there may be small size variations as well.



For most players, keeping the original game intact is a good idea, you will save very little by doing this. Most of the memory is used by the LFD and GOB files.

[NightFright]

Outstanding. Again, the requirement of local.msg is debatable, but that's something for later.

In the meantime, I have tested and confirmed that the Dark Forces Community Patch can simply be used as a mod. You don't even have to unzip it, just put the zipfile in your mod folder and choose it in the menu. It's actually even so convenient that it smoothly integrates into existing game progress. I had already finished the first two levels without the patch and it would allow me to continue with the third level, anyway.

Have I already mentioned how great the mod system for this port is?

[Phredreeke]

Honestly this mindset annoys me. The game is less than 100 megs. At least with something like World Tour where the full install is something like 1 gb it's somewhat understandable

[NightFright]

I hoped I had clearified it's not about filesize, rather whether the file is actually used/needed by the port at all, which doesn't seem to be the case since it only seems to contain stuff related to DOS memory management. Just like pretty much anybody else I couldn't care less whether there's one more file in my data folder, regardless of its size, but it should be relevant for running the game. At least that's the way I see it.

Anyway, I'll stop mentioning it now.

[luciusDXL]

NightFright, on 22 December 2022 - 01:22 AM, said:

Outstanding. Again, the requirement of local.msg is debatable, but that's something for later.

In the meantime, I have tested and confirmed that the Dark Forces Community Patch can simply be used as a mod. You don't even have to unzip it, just put the zipfile in your mod folder and choose it in the menu. It's actually even so convenient that it smoothly integrates into existing game progress. I had already finished the first two levels without the patch and it would allow me to continue with the third level, anyway.

Have I already mentioned how great the mod system for this port is?

Thanks. I should remove the local.msg requirement at some point, it is just a holdover from the RE process. -

[luciusDXL]

Phredreeke, on 22 December 2022 - 01:33 AM, said:

Honestly this mindset annoys me. The game is less than 100 megs. At least with something like World Tour where the full install is something like 1 gb it's somewhat understandable

For my part, it doesn't matter to me what power users do with their own files - I don't mind providing accurate information for people to do with as they please. My main concern is the average user and that is who my recommendation was for - other people who might read this in the future.

[NightFright]

My playthrough session is coming along. I have reached Robotics now. Good news: Everything looks great, no bugs or issues.

Something I have noticed:
- In Testbase, that strobing light effect on the stairs before you reach the platform with the Dark Trooper part seems to move quite fast.
- Similarly, that unstable forcefield in Detention Center is really only going down for an instant, barely enough to slip through.

In my memory, that light moved way slower and it was a lot easier to pass through that forcefield. It's been a long time since I played this and I can't compare it with the DOS version right now. It's probably nothing.

[luciusDXL]

NightFright, on 22 December 2022 - 12:59 PM, said:

My playthrough session is coming along. I have reached Robotics now. Good news: Everything looks great, no bugs or issues.

Something I have noticed:
- In Testbase, that strobing light effect on the stairs before you reach the platform with the Dark Trooper part seems to move quite fast.
- Similarly, that unstable forcefield in Detention Center is really only going down for an instant, barely enough to slip through.

In my memory, that light moved way slower and it was a lot easier to pass through that forcefield. It's been a long time since I played this and I can't compare it with the DOS version right now. It's probably nothing.

Thanks for the feedback. I'm pretty sure both of those cases are accurate to DosBox.

Anyway, I'm glad your playthrough is going well.

[NightFright]

Just completed my playthrough. For the first time ever, I 100%-ed the campaign and didn't use any cheats. I was always afraid of the last area in the final map, but with the extra lives I had, I could actually just "die through" the boss fight. LOL!

Needless to say, TFE worked like a charm. No issues at all, smooth going from the beginning till the end.

The true test lies ahead. I have downloaded around 70 of the best addons I could find. Stuff I have never even seen before. DF until now just used to be those 14 official maps for me. Time to get my mind blown, I guess.

[luciusDXL]

Version 1.01 Release
This version improves on several deficiencies found in the initial release. This includes improved source data path robustness, crash fixes, deadzone options for controllers, and numerous bug fixes.

TheForceEngine-v1.01.001.zip : theforceengine.github.io/downloads.html

Changes
* Improved robustness against sound system setup errors.
* Added –nosound commandline to disable digital sound (music still plays).
* Draw “no data” message in large red letters so it is obvious.
* Changed the name of the file the the Browse dialog asks you to point to from DARK.EXE to DARK.GOB to reduce confusion.
* Steam path detection is now more robust and should handle libraries on different drives than the base Steam install.
* TFE will now find the game source data if it is in the same directory as TFE.
* TFE now supports putting the game data under the TFE directory, under Games/Dark Forces/* and that case will be autodetected.
* Source data path validation is now more robust.
* Fixed a bug where the ‘settings.ini’ failed to parse, messing up settings.
* Shows a configuation menu on the first run where you can set either Vanilla or Modern defaults.
* Fixed Escape Menu background stretching when using the GPU Renderer with widescreen disabled.
* Fixed divide by zero crashes in the projectile code.
* The GPU Renderer now honors fullbright and opaque/transparent flags for signs and sign textures.
* Fixed a flags issue in the explosion code, where explosions could effect some things they are not supposed to.
* Fixed the thermal detonator damage the player takes, they were taking too much.
* Added a custom deadzone setting and proper deadzone sensitivity scaling.
* Fixed a lighting bug with the muzzle flash being too dark.
* Fixed sprite culling using the GPU renderer close to the camera.

[NightFright]

First update already? That was fast! Thanks for the detection switch to dark.gob, which clearifies that the exe isn't relevant for the port (even though it should be obvious). I was actually already wondering why I took so massive damage from thermal detonators, I didn't remember them being so strong. Three or four hits could finish me off now, and considering how fast these bastards throw them, that won't take long - even more so if you were facing a bunch of them.

What I forgot to mention before: With certain surfaces, I noticed some visual distortions. Best example are conveyor belts, especially those in the last level. When looking down on one, standing close to its edge, you see their edge getting kinda stretched, extended, distorted, dunno how to put it. Not sure if that's an inaccuracy of the software renderer (using FP software, 1080p), perspective correction glitch or whatever. Maybe you aren't supposed to look down that much? Anyway, just a visual thing, nothing that has any impact on gameplay.

Also on my wishlist if possible:
MIDI music resuming where it stopped when hitting Esc during the mission (instead of resetting).

[luciusDXL]

NightFright, on 23 December 2022 - 03:29 PM, said:

First update already? That was fast! Thanks for the detection switch to dark.gob, which clearifies that the exe isn't relevant for the port (even though it should be obvious). I was actually already wondering why I took so massive damage from thermal detonators, I didn't remember them being so strong. Three or four hits could finish me off now, and considering how fast these bastards throw them, that won't take long - even more so if you were facing a bunch of them.

What I forgot to mention before: With certain surfaces, I noticed some visual distortions. Best example are conveyor belts, especially those in the last level. When looking down on one, standing close to its edge, you see their edge getting kinda stretched, extended, distorted, dunno how to put it. Not sure if that's an inaccuracy of the software renderer (using FP software, 1080p), perspective correction glitch or whatever. Maybe you aren't supposed to look down that much? Anyway, just a visual thing, nothing that has any impact on gameplay.

Also on my wishlist if possible:
MIDI music resuming where it stopped when hitting Esc during the mission (instead of resetting).

The floor/ceiling snapping bug you mentioned is a flaw in the original DOS renderer, which is why you see it in TFE when using the software renderer. It is definitely visible when playing in DOS, even at 320x200. That issue does not exist with the GPU Renderer.

[Fantinaikos]

There are just still little things to do before really say "Dark Forces (and Outlaws) for all". I suppose that multilanguage support it's not a problem if we talk about to run the pure vanilla game with all the port feature, but the community patch will overwrite with english the altered briefings and the .msg of every foreign version for sure. Someone ever tried a translation?

The thing that potentially locks most people out is the 64-bit support only.

Mh, I take advantage to point out that the previously mentioned Mines Map Redux Contest is over, they are more new little maps to play in the end.
https://df-21.net/do...ine_contest.zip

[Phredreeke]

Fantinaikos, on 23 December 2022 - 04:21 PM, said:

The thing that potentially locks most people out is the 64-bit support only.

Not really, GZDoom's survey last year found only 1% of users were still on 32-bit.

[luciusDXL]

In order to support a project long-term, some limits have to be imposed or you will find things constantly breaking for various groups because it becomes too difficult to maintain and test all possible permutations. Each of these things, like 32-bit support, lower than OpenGL 3.3 support for the GPU Renderer, XP support, etc. that are cutoff might seem small or easy to support on their own - but they add up. And sometimes where you choose that line to be is transformative, having a massive impact on what you can actually deliver, how quickly, and the quality of the results.

At the end of the day, I chose the minimum requirements carefully - thinking about how many people it is likely to effect, how much development burden it adds or saves, and so. I acknowledge that not everyone will agree with these decisions, but that is true for every project.