lucius Posted December 19, 2022 (edited) 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. Update Version 1.09.4 added several large features: bloom, colormap interpolation, smooth Vue animation, subtitles/closed captions for sounds and voices (beta). Version 1.09 OPL3 and SF2 midi synth support. Version 1.08 added Linux support (self-compile only for now). Version 1.02 has been released that addresses additional quality-of-life issues, and many custom-level issues as well. Version 1.01 has been released which addresses several issues in the initial release. Upcoming Releases Version 1.09.5 will add true color support and texture filtering options. Version 1.09.6 will add dynamic lighting support. Version 1.10 will add support for HD/True-Color assets. 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://theforceengine.github.io/downloads.html https://theforceengine.github.io/Documentation.html https://theforceengine.github.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 Edited August 2, 2023 by lucius 77 Share this post Link to post
ReaperAA Posted December 19, 2022 YES!!! Finally the engine has reached 1.0 status. I had been holding out on buying and playing the game for this moment. 1 Share this post Link to post
Mr Masker Posted December 19, 2022 Dark Forces has been in my Steam Library for AGES, and yet I've never bothered to play it because of its old resolutions and stuff. Seeing this released is great, hopefully I'll get around to finally playing this game. 2 Share this post Link to post
Wyrmwood Posted December 19, 2022 Awesome, in honesty I was 100% happy with your previous version but I'll upgrade now. I presume saves are compatible, but only on the 4th mission so no problem if it's not. Fantastic source port and congrats on full release. 0 Share this post Link to post
lucius Posted December 19, 2022 Saves are still compatible. They are properly versioned so they should stay compatible in future versions unless otherwise announced. 3 Share this post Link to post
RataUnderground Posted December 19, 2022 FINALLY! this is absolutly great! Thank you very much for your effort. And waiting for the Outlaws support. 1 Share this post Link to post
Martin Howe Posted December 19, 2022 (edited) 1 hour ago, lucius said: In early 2023, TFE will gain official cross platform support - Linux ... Great work to get to 1.0; though for me, the above is the best news of all :) I have tried it on WINE but it crashed; I didn't expect it to be perfect when run on WINE, so that's not as bad as it sounds. Have attached the crash dump for what it's worth. This is WINE 7.0 installed as a flatpak on Linux Mint 21. I'll try it in a Windows VM next, then see how it is when I dual-boot into the small Windows installation that I have polluted my computer with :P crashdump.zip EDIT: Works OK in Linux in VMWare Player, albeit a bit slowly, but that's to be expected. On bare metal windows with an average GPU (GT1030) it's a bit slow at 1920x1080 but again, that's to be expected as it's early days yet. The point is it's playable :D Edited December 19, 2022 by Martin Howe 0 Share this post Link to post
kwc Posted December 19, 2022 (edited) Congrats on seeing it through, lucius! This project has been a constant stream of serious achievements and your work has helped breathe new life into a great-but-often-overlooked FPS. Happy Holidays :) 1 Share this post Link to post
Murdoch Posted December 19, 2022 I have no interest in the games but still like to give praise to good work. A most impressive accomplishment. Well done. 0 Share this post Link to post
Kityn Posted December 19, 2022 Awesome! Congratulations! Is there a way to cap FPS (apart from Vsync)? 0 Share this post Link to post
lucius Posted December 19, 2022 (edited) 45 minutes ago, Martin Howe said: Great work to get to 1.0; though for me, the above is the best news of all :) I have tried it on WINE but it crashed; I didn't expect it to be perfect when run on WINE, so that's not as bad as it sounds. Have attached the crash dump for what it's worth. This is WINE 7.0 installed as a flatpak on Linux Mint 21. I'll try it in a Windows VM next, then see how it is when I dual-boot into the small Windows installation that I have polluted my computer with :P crashdump.zip EDIT: Works OK in Linux in VMWare Player, albeit a bit slowly, but that's to be expected. On bare metal windows with an average GPU (GT1030) it's a bit slow at 1920x1080 but again, that's to be expected as it's early days yet. The point is it's playable :D Have you tried the GPU Renderer? Or is that slow as well? (The default is the software renderer) Also, it is a known issue that TFE doesn't work well or at all with WINE. But with upcoming native Linux support, WINE support is not a priority. 1 Share this post Link to post
lucius Posted December 19, 2022 11 minutes ago, Kityn said: Awesome! Congratulations! Is there a way to cap FPS (apart from Vsync)? Currently, VSync is the only way to cap render FPS. It would be a good idea to add a general cap as well though. 2 Share this post Link to post
taufan99 Posted December 19, 2022 Congrats on v1.0 release! Looking forward to Outlaws support on v2.0. 2 Share this post Link to post
HorseJockey Posted December 19, 2022 Congrats on this release, really exited to see your progress on this. Going to give Dark Forces another play through on the new updated engine. 0 Share this post Link to post
Arno Posted December 19, 2022 Congratulations with this big milestone! It's really impressive how well organized and determined you've been running this project so far. The Force Engine has become a source port with the quality of a commercial remaster. 1 Share this post Link to post
Martin Howe Posted December 19, 2022 (edited) 1 hour ago, lucius said: Have you tried the GPU Renderer? Or is that slow as well? That was the GPU; but it was FHD resolution and my GPU isn't going to set the world on fire; plus I appreciate TFE is in early days yet. I quite understand about WINE, just grateful for your hard work and that you'll support Linux eventually. Also looking to play that copy of Outlaws I bought in the late 1990s and still haven't played fully :D 0 Share this post Link to post
Womp the Cat Posted December 19, 2022 This looks awesome! congrats on release. 0 Share this post Link to post
Z0k Posted December 19, 2022 grats on release! i was expecting this version hope it fixes some of the bugs i have with a previous version where menu buttons on que original User Interface Menus have a different position than the displayed of the buttons and also the sourceport menus didnt worked too. going to download to check it out 0 Share this post Link to post
Kroc Posted December 19, 2022 Thank you *so* much. Finally able to comfortably delve into the mods for the game. As a data point, the game is running swimmingly at 1366x768 on a basic i5-7200U @ 2.5GHz / Intel HD 620. Please consider also automatically detecting GoG versions of DF; the install location can be read from the registry based on a unique app-id that GOG uses. 0 Share this post Link to post
lucius Posted December 19, 2022 (edited) 34 minutes ago, Kroc said: Thank you *so* much. Finally able to comfortably delve into the mods for the game. As a data point, the game is running swimmingly at 1366x768 on a basic i5-7200U @ 2.5GHz / Intel HD 620. Please consider also automatically detecting GoG versions of DF; the install location can be read from the registry based on a unique app-id that GOG uses. It should autodetect GOG installs already. It sounds like it failed in your case for some reason. Glad it is running well. Are you using the GPU or software renderer? 0 Share this post Link to post
Kroc Posted December 20, 2022 59 minutes ago, lucius said: It should autodetect GOG installs already. It sounds like it failed in your case for some reason. Glad it is running well. Are you using the GPU or software renderer? GPU. Actually I had neither Steam or GOG version installed (although I thought I did) and the game assumed the Steam paths; however it crashes if you try to launch without any Steam/GOG install -- perhaps a sanity check there :P. I installed the Steam version because, by the default paths, I assumed that was the only version supported. Glad to hear it detects GOG, thanks. 0 Share this post Link to post
Dweller Dark Posted December 20, 2022 Congrats on the release! Another victory for the Rebel Alliance! (TFE works perfect so far) 0 Share this post Link to post
lucius Posted December 20, 2022 (edited) 33 minutes ago, Kroc said: GPU. Actually I had neither Steam or GOG version installed (although I thought I did) and the game assumed the Steam paths; however it crashes if you try to launch without any Steam/GOG install -- perhaps a sanity check there :P. I installed the Steam version because, by the default paths, I assumed that was the only version supported. Glad to hear it detects GOG, thanks. Yeah, I thought I fixed that crash if no proper source data path is set up. So I will need to figure that out. But TFE should support any valid (DOS) Dark Forces install, though it will only auto-detect Steam and GOG for now. 0 Share this post Link to post
lucius Posted December 20, 2022 Thanks, everyone, I'm glad TFE is working well for most people (even though there are some hiccups here and there). :) 4 Share this post Link to post
markanini Posted December 20, 2022 Congratulations on the big 1.0! The VSync feel very snappy to me. 1 Share this post Link to post
david_a Posted December 20, 2022 Very excited that this is a reality! Looking forward to the Mac version since my Windows machine is ancient. I assume there will also be an Apple Silicon native version? 0 Share this post Link to post
Kinsie Posted December 20, 2022 Congratulations on finally slaying your white whale! 2 Share this post Link to post
aRottenKomquat Posted December 20, 2022 Dark Forces is one of my favorite games of all time. Glad to see it's being given this treatment, and I hope it gains a new modding community. 0 Share this post Link to post
LexiMax Posted December 20, 2022 An amazing effort in making one of the harder to appreciate classics (due to there being no viable alternative to the DOS version) accessible to all! Congratulations on the release! 2 Share this post Link to post
