The Force Engine 0.9 - iMuse & Sound  Released

After months of effort Lucius has released The Force Engine 0.9. You can download it Here !

The emphasis is on the full reverse-engineering of the iMuse (Interactive Music Streaming Engine) system.

Take a look at the playthrough below: all the audio is now generated through The Force Engine. 

Remember that the iMuse is the audio system crated by Michael Land for the game Monkey Island 2: Le Chuck's Revenge  It was used in many LucasArts games including Dark Forces. 

One of the key features of this system is the ability to switch tracks depending on what is happening in the game. For example, if there is combat or exploration the music transition from one track to another.

Take a look at the video below that gives a nice example of iMuse audio transitions in Monkey Island 2 ! 

Please read the Blog post that details all the changes and drop by TFE discord Here

Patch Details

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). 16-channels is the default but if you disable the option, it reverts back to 8-channels like DOS.
* 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.

Future Plans for 1.0

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 do one or more 0.9x release 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 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.

Happy May the 4th Everyone!

We are excited to announce the release of the Dark Forces Community Patch with over 100 changes. We've been working on it for almost year and this is the first patch released since the game came out in 1995 ! 

The goal of this patch is to make Dark Forces accessible to new players in 2022. 

• Many aspects that were confusing or obtuse were rewritten.
• New objectives were added to direct players to their goals
• Switches now receive audio, visual and textual feedback
• Hidden passages are better highlighted with texturing, lighting and powerup changes
• UI feedback is improved (Ex: Code Keys now explicitly direct you to the PDA inventory)
• Puzzle guidance is improved with dynamic signs that display your progress.

Installation

The easiest way to install it is through the Dark Forces Launcher  For advanced users you can also manually download it Here 

For support - please visit our Discord and go to the #support channel.

WDFUSE 2.61 Released

An update to the Dark Forces WDFUSE Editor is now available for map developers. It includes multiple improvements and bug-fixes over 2.60. You can download it Here

Some of the feature highlights are a toggleable ability to see all Wall Lengths

And you can now change a wall lengths right from the wall editor. Simply change the value and it will automatically change a height of your choice! 

This will also update the adjoined wall if it exists.

There is now a simple way to access all the Resources in the editor from the Menu

The Resource editor has been enhanced with search filters, automatic texture width mapping, and auto-assignment based on Texture Types (Ex: A Sky sector ceiling would automatically display Sky Textures.)

The Sound editor has been fixed after 25 years, you can now easily convert VOC audio to WAVs !

Additionally, you can now test your level by skipping all Cutscenes and briefings as well as automatically saving your project prior to GOBbing.

Now you have an option to save all your changes without having to press the Commit button. This saves a lot of time!

The INF editor now supports stops without hard-coded duration and start commands. Additionally there is no a Search and Replace buttons along with Sector look-up.

There are many more features listed below. If you get stuck or find a bug post it in the #level-editor channel in our Discord

Dark Forces Launcher

The Custom Mission Launcher is ready for release! This tool combines multiple features useful to the Dark Forces Community and will make it a million times easier to play custom missions! 

Features

• Run Dark Forces base game as well as custom community-made missions
• Automatically update new missions as they are added to DF-21
• Support for the Modern Mouselook mod (available Here )
• Support for modern storefronts such as Steam, GOG, Origin as well as User-specified Custom Folder
• Support for multiple resolutions and aspect ratios (Useful for streaming)
• Video Walkthrough guides for the base game and custom missions
• Ability to restore DosBox settings (All storefronts) and game installs (Steam only).

The launcher is developed and hosted by DF-21.net and you can download it Here

Installation

You can read the instructions on our Steam Guide or you can watch the instructional video below. Thank you to PrincessRuri for providing the audio!

But suffice to say you download the zip, extract it, then Right Click on it and choose Run With PowerShell . 

And if you get prompted about the Execution Policy simply choose [Y]es

Usage

The Main Menu appears like this, you can easily press a letter on your keyboard to choose various options.

But suffice to say, what you really want is to play custom missions so press letter C !

Here you can switch pages with N or P or simply type a number to start playing a mission! 

To start, we support 50 missions you can find in the Modern Mission Archive . New missions will automatically download for you to enjoy as they become available. 

Go ahead - give Dark Tide 1 a shot! 

Bugs

This is the initial release so you are bound to have issues! Please post any problems in the #support channel of our Discord

Enjoy Everyone! 

Karjala

The Force Engine (BETA)

After years in the making Lucius has released a beta build of the The Force Engine . This is a full reverse-engineer of the Dark Forces JEDI engine in C++.

The core game loop is now complete and all the AI, Rendering, Physics, Scripting is implemented. Here is how it looks like from the Main Menu. 

Here is a video showing off The Force Engine Engine and UI capabilities. 

You can also load custom mods that we host here at DF-21 ---> Mods

Here is how they look like in The Force Engine! 

You can now render in the classic 200 pixel resolution all the way to 4k! Here is a comparison.

200px (Original resolution)

1440px (2k) Resolution.

It really is night and day comparison. Give them a try. 

You can even see down the entire GROMAS hallway. No more pixelated silliness! 

Give the Beta a try and report all bugs here --> Force Engine Bug Forum

Keep up with TFE's progress by reading the blog at the Force Engine Dev Blog .

Cheers,

Karjala

WDFUSE 2.6 Announcement  (BETA)

Greetings Everyone!

It's been a long time coming, but today, we are excited to finally announce the upcoming release of WDFUSE 2.6 , the updated Dark Forces mission editor. You can get the 3D Preview component Here !

This is something that we've been working on this summer and hoping it would spur folks to make some new maps! =)

Background

Dark Forces Utilities and Editor (DFUSE) is a mission editor created by Yves Borckmans , a programmer from Belgium in 1995. Here is the story of how he created the Windows version of DFUSE in 1996.

"Around 1995, when the Dark Forces DEMO came out, I started working on DFUSE (the DOS version, in C). I didn't release it then because it would have been a bit unethical (you could have made levels for the demo, never buying the game). When the full game came out, I did a few quick changes that were necessary (some formats changed slightly), then released DFUSE 1.0 on ftp.cdrom.com This included the first DF specs if I remember correctly. I made a couple of updates if I remember correctly, but nothing much. Later in that year, I also sent a copy of my C code to Brad Oliver, to help him start on the Mac editor (Dark Forge IIRC). Around 1996, I had to learn Delphi for work, so I decided the best way to learn was to use it to make a Windows version of DFUSE, and in a couple of weekends that became WDFUSE 1.0 I released a couple versions, then started preparing to move from Europe to the US to work at LucasArts. I enrolled the help of David Lovejoy, Alexei Novikov and Jereth Kok to help as I was working 2 jobs (my job + LucasArts) + preparing a transatlantic move lol We called ourselves The Code Alliance and they pretty much took over WDFUSE... many other people helped too! "

The editor was very popular in the editing community, even making it to various magazines such as this blurb from PC Zone magazine from August 1995 (page 118).

After Yves left to work for Lucasarts in mid 1996 to work on Jedi Knight, the Dark Alliance continued making updates to WDFUSE until they switched over to editors for Outlaws and Jedi Knight in 1997. And for almost 25 years the code was sitting on their hard drives. When DF-21.net staff started looking for WDFUSE source code earlier this year, the first person we reached out was Yves and unfortunately he lost it in a hard drive crash. The same story was for everyone else we reached out to until eventually, we got a hold of Alexei Novikov who kindly provided us with the source code which can now be found on our GitHub . 

The Code

The code itself, is written in Delphi, an Object Pascal for Application Development. It consists of about 100 .PAS Pascal (Source Code) files and the corresponding .DFM Form ( GUI ) files. 

The code, unfortunately, was in an unfinished state as development moved to Outlaws and Jedi knight. Worse, it was no longer compatible with modern systems. After a quarter of a century, basic object definitions have changed (Ex: A CHAR in modern Delphi is 2 bytes while it was 1 byte in the 90s). Throughout this summer we got the code to compile successfully on modern systems and patched every issues we discovered. 

Not content with doing the bare minimum we've modernized the editor and added many new features. So what does the editor look like now?

Preview

With that out of the way, here is what the new version looks like !

New Features

There are many bug fixes and new features that we've made to WDFUSE. Chief among them is 3D Preview provided for us by The MAZZTer , here is how it works in action!

Additionally, we've modernized the Editor to allow you to pan the map with the mouse and even zoom with the mousewheel.

We've added full support for modern storefronts and DosBox. You can now launch the game instantly with your Steam or GOG install!

We've also made it possible to copy and paste level elements between different instances of WDFUSE.

This means that your friend can COPY their sectors, send you the text representation of them, and you can then PASTE them into your own map! 

We've updated the container management system for LFDs and GOBs to easily drag and drop items of various types. 

We now allow you to easily see Palette previews for textures and updated the size limits to 1000% of normal texture sizes. 

Download

The WDFUSE 2.6 editor can be downloaded here --> Download

The 3D Preview component can be downloaded here --> Download

Remember, this is a BETA and is bound to have bugs. Please report any issues on our Discord in the #level-editor channel .

When reporting issues please do the following..

1. Describe the issue in as much detail as possible. 
2. If you can take a screenshot of a video of the problem
3. Send us your logs (F5) - they should be in the log folder where WDFUSE is installed.

Changelist

Projects

• Creating a New project will no longer automatically wipe your current working project.
• Opening an existing project will no longer automatically wipe your current working project.
• Added an option to automatically load your previously worked on project when WDFUSE starts.
• Added an option to Save Project As another name.
• Added an option to automatically test your Dark Forces project through DosBox
• Fixed a crash when loading Projects from drives not present on the current computer.
• Ensured that corrupted projects do not cause infinite load loops.
• Increased project path lengths to 255 bytes
• WDFUSE will no longer create dummy projects if you cancel out during the creation screen.

Editor

• Added an ability to pan the map with your Mouse
• Added an ability to zoom with your middle mouse button
• Added Steam Dark Forces support including installations across multiple drives
• Added GOG Dark Forces support.
• WDFUSE will no longer crash when choosing high-precision grid rendering.
• Added an ability to dynamically generate Grid sizes as you zoom.
• Added hotkey hints to most of the commands in the editor menus
• Added an ability to Copy and Paste content between instances of WDFUSE
• Added an ability to Undo and Redo commands.
• Expanded the Edit Menus to include common commands such as Adjoin, Extrude and Clear MultiSelections
• Expanded the Right Click abilities to include more common commands
• Added a new Sector Fill mode to differentiate sectors from Null Space.
• Panning while in Sector Fill modes will no longer re-render the fill values until you are done panning to speed up processing.
• Added easy-to-access Tools and Options buttons to the Main window
• Adjust window sizes to support modern width and heights.
• Added MouseWheel controls to easily switch between Grid while holding the Ctrl key.
• Added MouseWheel controls to easily switch between Layers while holding the Shift key.
• If available, the default layer will now always be 0 instead of the minimum one.
• Added a throttle for Mouse Zooming to prevent multi-grid redrawing.
• Windows now preserve multi-monitor positioning.
• Added X button to close the current window to all popups.
• Fixed level objects not drawing when moving very fast with a mouse.

GOB/LFD Container Managers

• Show the full path of the GOB/LFD during construction
• Allow for full drag and drop of files regardless of chosen folder
• Added an option to exit menus using escape
• Fixed numerous issues with GOB/LFD asset parsing
• Updated filters to include correct assets for each container type (Ex: BMs PLTTs, etc . . .)
• Reworked LFD display to correctly show the asset types and sorted them

Sector/Wall/Vertex/Objects

• Double Clicking will now open the highlighted level component.
• Added a checkbox to many pop-up windows to allow the windows to stay-on-top of the main map editor
• Added a button to the INF editor directly from the sector and wall editors
• Fixed the form not updating properly when highlighting a cell

Assets

• Fixed 3DO profile parsing issues
• Added additional zoom settings for BMs and FMEs and saved the default to the INI file
• Store the Brightness levels in the INI file
• Added Drop-In PAL selection with immediate update of texture assets in the resource picker
• All asset paths have size increased to 255 bytes

Misc

• Fixed and added back the link to the latest Dark Forces Specs File
• Added link to WDFUSE Support Discord
• Added links to DF-21.net
• Added an ability to wipe Editor UNDO cache.
• Added compatibility to Pre 2.5 WDFUSE INI files.
• Added X close window to all windows.
• Added automatic UNDO cache cleanup and added a undo limits to the INI file.
• Added shortcut hints to main menu fields
• Updated memory statistics to handle 64 bit systems
• Changed font to FixedSys to ensure Keys are aligned on all systems
• Muted the Scroll Window Out of Range popups but preserved the limit popups
• INF Font choice will now be preserved between sessions

Logging

• Added WDFUSE Logging to the log folder
• Added detailed INF parsing error logs

Known Issues

• If your map has many INFs it may take a second to UNDO / REDO commands as it recompiles the INF code
• Sector Fill drawing mode is not always accurate at certain scales and may flood the map with the color

This was a long project in the making but it means that we now have more time to work on other items for the Dark Forces Community! Expect more posts soon! 

- Karjala

Happy Star Wars Day Everyone!

We wish you a wonderful happy May the Fourth! What a year, DF-21 is back from obscurity, we've published a brand new Custom Mission and even Dark Troopers have their field day in the canon universe! 

We have a few tidbits to share with you today! 

First of all, here are some amazing unboxing photos from our very own Princessruri of the Dark Forces Limited Edition 

You can take a look at a video of the Unboxing process here

Additionally we have launched our own YouTube channel, we'll start putting more videos there soon -->DF-21 Youtube 

Finally, we would like to announce that we are working on a Fan-made patch. There are many bugs we'd like to fix and features to enhance such as ... 

   1. Making the Force Fields visible in the Detention Center
   2. Fix the Fuel Station switch so it always shows the correct location of the bridge
   3. Add visual/audio cue when Kell Dragons step on pressure-plate disabling the elevator to obtain the Blue key. 
   4. Add visual updates to the Imperial City vault puzzle map (where the doors are opened).

and many more! If you know Dark Forces editing and would like to contribute please join our Discord  to discuss the details.

Thank you All - we'll make Dark Forces even better in the 2020s with your help!

Fish's Among the Shadows II: The Lava Planet is released! 

Today is a monumental day, after thirteen years we are once again adding new custom Dark Forces mission to DF-21.net!

You can download from our new missions site here --> Download Link

Here are some screenshots from the mission, don't fall in the lava! 

Check out this amazing door! 

How to play: To start the mission simply extract the contents to your Dark Forces folder and tell DosBox to run start.bat

Mission Rating: We have a polling bot for this map. Please follow this link in our Discord --> Rating Poll

Bugs: Please post in our Discord's Support channel for any bugs you may encounter. Please write a good description and take a screenshot of the issue. 

What are you waiting for? Go play the mission and discuss it in our Discord !

Happy April Everyone!

Update: Following the stream, Fish has revealed he is releasing a NEW Dark Forces map Among The Shadows II - The Lava Planet this Wednesday April 14th. We'll have the download link for as soon as it is available. This is incredibly exciting as this is the first new map uploaded to DF-21.net since 2008! 

Here are some teaser screenshots!

Original News Story: 

DF-21.net is expanding with two new sites! We now have out own Twitch channel where we will be streaming custom maps and tutorials.

Additionally, we will be hosting Dark Forces videos on our new YouTube channel. Expect to have a good database of walkthroughs!

A few days ago, Fish, the author of Among The Shadows - Fortress Quadrigon, has sat down with DF-21 community and recorded a commentary on his map. It was a blast to hear him talk about the planning that went into making that masterpiece! You can check the video below and download the original map Here .

I hope you enjoy the commentary! It was fun. We will be doing more of them with various authors. 

Greetings everyone, 

Lucius from The Force Engine has another update for us. 

The Good news is that The Jedi Renderer and INF System have been completely reverse-engineered  !

The Bad (not really!) news is that the INF system doesn't play nice with the Floating-Point renderer.


First of all, the Floating-Point render allows us to play in higher resolutions (4k) than the Fixed-Point that is limited to the game's default size 320x200.

Here is how the game looks in when using modern resolutions. Lets look at Talay!

And here is a resolution with a ludicrous ratio of 35:9 from Secret Base. (Yes you may need to scroll to see the whole thing!). 

 
The INF scripting system, unfortunately, was written with the old Fixed-Point renderer in mind and thus misbehaves at higher resolutions
made available by the Floating-Point renderer. So the solution is to split off any level geometry that is Fixed-Point into its own system...
which will take more time to complete.

But don't worry, the new Release Target is set for April 2021, and time seems to move quickly nowadays and we'll be there before you blink!

Here is the full progress update in terms of completed systems. 

• Reverse-engineering the original Renderer: 100%
• Reverse-engineering the INF system: 100%
• Reverse-engineering the collision system: 80%
• Reverse-engineering the player controller / player physics: 50%
• Integrating Jedi Renderer: 100%
• Integrating INF System into TFE: 90%
• Integrating player controller / player physics: not started. 0%
• Refactoring: 10%

Please read all about it here --> TFE Blog

A small UK-based game developer called Shadow Art Games has just released a gameplay video of the Imperial Secret Base on Danuta .

Here you can see the first mission in Dark Forces in full 4K resolution with modern graphics, visual and audio effects and new architectural layout. 

Check out the video below of the team's current progress. 

Interview with the Shadow Art Games team. 

And as a bonus, we were able to (virtually) sit-down with the team's Ryan and Lewis to discuss the project. 

DF-21: What got you started on this project? Just fans of Dark Forces?

Ryan: So to begin with my friend Lewis was working on creating Dark Forces a while back and started talking to me about it, with us both being fans of star wars I decided to ask if he wanted help as I have a background in 3D art. Several months later it became this full-level project that we both love.

Lewis: Yeah big time fan! Dark Forces was pretty much the first game I played as a kid when my Dad brought home a PS1 back around 1997.
Even though I was super young when I first played, it left a lasting impression on me and I fell in love with the Dark ambience and complex levels. And ever since then I kind of had a Dark forces hole which has not been filled by the later games, I WANT BLASTERS ONLY!

I started thinking about doing a Dark Forces remake back in 2017. I have a good knowledge in various coding languages and I wanted to
try my hand at developing. I have played around in unity many years ago but once I tried my hand with the Unreal engine, I was hooked.
So yeah, I wanted a project to develop my skills, especially with AI so I thought I'm gonna do Dark forces lol.

Around this time Jason Lewis's project had not been announced (which is awesome) so it looked like I would of been the first one to develop one. However after a month or so I got caught up in life, and it got shelved. However, during lockdown and the pandemic, I decided to dig it back up and revive it!

DF-21: Is this just a single-map remake right? You don't have plans to do other missions?

Ryan: Currently yes, but we have talked that if people on our YouTube page and Discord all ask for another level then we might look to do another
but at current times we are mainly now focused on starting our own project.
Lewis: I would love to do detention centre, maybe as a bonus some day !

 

Df-21: Hah that's my favorite map :slight_smile: I had to call Lucasarts phone hint line to finish it in the 90s.

Lewis: I was always stuck on the Anoat sewers back in the day, still have nightmares!

DF-21: Did you guys look at the original sector layout and INF scripting through Dark Forces editors such as WDFUSE or Dark Forge? Or did you come up with an entirely new design from scratch?

Ryan: So originally I just was creating the wall panels as that's all I thought I was going to help with at the time. We were originally going to try stick to 1:1 with the original but after seeing JL version with adjustments in certain areas we thought It would be a nice change to just make it our own and add In what we felt worked.
Looking back now I wish I kept a bit more originality to it but could be something to look into if we decide to make one of the other levels.

Lewis: You know, I personally was inspired by the layout of the Jedi Academy mod, which was super impressive. I guess it was a mix between the original, that mod and Jason Lewis's project



DF-21: Were you guys ever part of the Dark Forces modding community, did you play any of the custom maps?

Ryan: Thank you, I myself wasn't but I think my friend might have been and again I didn't but Lewis might have haha.

Lewis: Unfortunately we were not, I think maybe I was a bit young at the time to discover modding for the original Dark forces, but I am a fan of the custom maps and campaigns,
I believe the Dark Tide series I have played a few years back.

DF-21: Are you familiar with The Force Engine?

Ryan: I have heard of it but not actually got around to checking it out.

Lewis: Oh wow, yeah very enjoyable! I am looking forward to trying The Force Engine. Recently did a playthrough with Dark XL.

DF-21: Did you create all the assets yourself or did you take them from other star wars games or websites? The textures, models and sound effects are straight from the Star Wars universe.

Ryan: Rocks were megascan assets as I'm still not fully comfortable with sculpting high detailed rocks, but 95% of the assets I created and some Lewis sourced :slight_smile:


DF-21: Do you have a background in Game Design? Is this project a test of how well you can work on a team for a future commercial venture?

Lewis: Not in a professional sense, but I do believe after many years of making hobby projects that I would say now I am somewhat competent? Haha.

And definitely, the dream would be to make games with great people. It can be stressful but also so rewarding when you see everything come together just like any creative project. If it wasn't for Ryan's art skills, it would be nowhere near where it is today!

DF-21: Thank you and do you have background in game art design? You can do both 3D modeling and animations?

Ryan: I studied game art at university but left the animation side of it to Lewis as he decided to animate the simple doors straight in UE4
which allowed me to just focus on getting the environment and asset done.

DF-21: When do you expect to complete the project and release it to the public ?

Ryan: Tough but simple question, If it was me It would never be complete ( the curse of being an artist) as I nit pick a lot
but I know this project does need to come to an end, I think Lewis just wants to tweak and add a few more little audio sections
but apart from that, it is playable now and near ready whenever Lewis wants to finalize it.

Lewis: The project pretty much started end of May 2020, so as a fan project goes, I would say we have made decent progress and it is only going to get better.
It has been a learning experience and If we ever did later levels I we would approach a few things differently. At the moment it's hard to say, is anything really completed? haha, no but I would like people to play at some point. Definitely needs a few bits of polish here and there, I was also working on a multiplayer mode as well, which works!.
Type of capture the flag type game mode. I.E rebels capture the plans Imperials stop them. I don't want to promise a date, But start of June sounds good for me.



DF-21: Wow, fully playable game with possible multiplayer. That's amazing work ethic.

Ryan: Fully playable level, yeah.

Lewis: You know plans change could come earlier. The level is fully playable such as is shown on the video. I do need a nice HUD to display (I disabled it in the vid as I am not happy with the current look I have) it just needs a few things to make it really stand out.

DF-21: Thank you so much for your time!

Lewis: Thanks for taking interest in the project and giving coverage, also thanks for keeping the Dark Forces community alive in the 21st century :smile:

The work so far looks very impressive. You can visit the team on their YouTube channel, Facebook or their Discord

It is time for our final episode Dark Forces Playthrough Commentary by Princessruri !

In Part IV of the series, Princessruri infiltrates the Imperial City on Coruscant , the Fuel Station Ergo, Darth Vader's ship The Executor and finally Rom Mohc's Dark Trooper command ship The Arc Hammer .

Did you know that...

-  If you kill Boba Fett at the beginning of the Imperial City with mines and mortars through the wall, the mission will end and two Moldy Crows will appear on screen?

- That the bridge arm on Fuel Station you see outside the control room is fake and that the real bridges are invisible on the map until you hit the switch? 

- That the TIE Fighters on the Executor ship are about a third the size they are in the films? And in the game you can control their size as they fly to simulate distance?

- That the ARC hammer conveyor belt gives you a hint of which path to take by a chain pattern on the wall?

Check out the final video below for more details! 

Lucius is back with another update to his illustrious The Force Engine

In the latest update he discusses the work he's been doing on the game's INF scripting system. Through INF scripts the doors open when Kyle presses a switch, elevators go up when he steps on them, and ceilings collapse on his head when he walks somewhere he shouldn't!

This is a particular interesting update for me as the author learned programming through scripts like these in the 90s. 

Here is an example of a move floor Elevator script that halts at various stops. The commands are read top to bottom in a loop.

item: sector            name: complete
  seq
    class: elevator move_floor
    stop: 55 hold
    stop: 56 hold
      page: 1 m01kyl01.voc
      message: 1 rickenbacker master_on
    stop: 56 4
    stop: 56.5 2
      message: 3 parking_space wakeup
    stop: 57 0
      message: 4 text_boy m_trigger
    stop: 57 complete
    speed: 0
  seqend

For example at stop 56 it will play the m01kyl01.voc sound and call rickenbacker trigger which could open a door or... spawn a Dark Trooper!

Did you know there are 11 core elevator types such as move ceiling or scroll wall ? The latter is used to simulate a waterfall on the Robotics Facility Mission on Anteevy

But don't let us bore you with the details, read about it from the source!

The Force Engine - INF System

Once again we are back with one more Dark Forces Playthrough Commentary by Princessruri !

In Part III of his videos, Princessruri delves into the frozen Robotics Facility on Anteevy, the vertical ramparts of Nar Shaddaa, the capital of Nul Hutta, and the labyrinthian passages of The Star Jewel Jabba's pleasure Space Yacht. 

Did you know that...

-  Max the rabbit from Steve Purcell's Sam & Max franchise is hidden in the Robotics Facility? Steve joined Lucasarts in 1988 and worked under Ron Gilbert on Monkey Island. He is a beloved character that is also present in Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire and Star Wars: Jedi Knight !

- That originally you could retrace your steps and return to the Moldy Falcon after picking up the Nava Card on Nar Shaddaa but the elevator was disabled for the final release? Here you can see the locked door that leads to the elevator.

If we teleport behind the door, we can see the elevator just as the Dark Forces developers originally designed it! 

- That Dark Forces supports Non-Euclidean geometry? Here you can see that the hallway at the top seems to occupy the same physical space as the the circular stairwell. Groovy!

Check out the video below for more!

Another weekend and another Dark Forces Playthrough Commentary by Princessruri !

In this Part II video he takes us from the red mines of the Gromas system to the Cal-Seti spaceport of Ramsees-Hed

Did you know that...

- The large central pit in the Gromas Mine pits reflect bullets for the same reason Phase 1 Dark Trooper armor is reflective?

  They are made from the same material - Phrik!

- Enemies cannot traverse catwalks because they do not render correctly when on top of 3D Objects? 

- The first thing you see in Ramsees Hed are the gigantic engines of the ship you are about to enter?

- There is a hidden Ewok in one of the crates in the Ramsees Hed docking bay?

Click on the video below to continue his adventure!

Just in time for the weekend we are releasing Part 1 of our Dark Forces Playthrough by our very-own Princessruri !

With extensive background in Dark Forces map design and a guru of Dark Forces trivia he brings detailed commentary on Dark Forces missions. 

Did you know that...

- The Dark Forces map designers had a background in architecture and designed the maps in AutoCad?

- The Death Star Plans have an animated version not shown on the first map?

- There is a hidden room that hides a miniature Moldy Crow ?

Click on the video below to learn more ! 

Hello Everyone! 

As part of bringing DF-21 even further into the 21st century we are proud to announce today the launch of our official Discord !

This will be the go to place to discuss Dark Forces news, level editing, streaming and showing off your art assets. If you are having issues with your GOBs we have a support channel where you can get help from the community. And we even have a custom discord bot that automatically notifies us when Dark Forces is being played on Twitch! 

As Lucius' The Force Engine becomes more fully-featured we will have tutorial streams to help you create your own maps. And we will host playthroughs of our favorite maps such as Assassination on Nar Shaddaa, Dark Tide IV and Mines.

You may notice that we now have a dedicated "Join Our Discord" button and Daily User Statistics!  

Come join us today! 

Lucius is back with a brand new update and a new experimental build of The Force Engine that allows for in-game voxels! In addition to static decor such as tables and chains, there are now fully rendered health and ammo powerups and even interrogation droid enemies remade in shiny voxel graphics by the talented Paweł Dzierżanowski. Go visit his page for more fantastic art.

Those of you who are eager to finally see what a Build-engine voxel would look like in a Dark Forces setting, please head to The Force Engine - Experimental Builds page for information.

You can download the Experimental build Here

And now for for some preview images to satisfy your curiosity!

Today we have great news on modernizing Dark Forces controls. -=CHE@TER=- has released a new version of DeHacker that automates most of the configuration setup. The new program will have you up and running in two button presses.

Version 1.4 Improvements

• Dual 16 and 32 bit Executable. You can now run the program directly in 32-bit Windows.
• Automatic Setup of Modern Controls
• Auto detection of Steam and GOG Galaxy stores
• Support for Standalone Dark Forces install

You can download DeHacker version 1.4 here Download

And visit his website at DeHacker

Additionally, there is a Steam Guide available at this location Mouselook Guide

Check it out as it will make your playthrough a lot more enjoyable.

Remember Dark XL, that beautiful hope that burned bright and short in the Mid 2000's? Well LuciusXL has returned after a decade with a new project, The Force Engine. Based off the work for DarkXL, but completely rewritten, The Force Engine is a new attempt to reverse engineer Dark Force's Jedi engine. There's even a playable pre-release version! Keep in mind this is pre-alpha, so don't expect it to replace DosBox quite yet.
The Force Engine
Forum
Discord
Download

Also, -=CHE@TER=- has released a new version of his awesome Dark Force DeHacker utility. It's now up to verion 1.3 (I missed uploading 1.2, but its not my fault -=CHE@TER=- is a beast with 3 updates in 2 months!) The updates from version 1.2 are available in version 1.3.

Version 1.2 Improvements
-Auto Aim can now be disabled! Makes mouselook even more modern.
Version 1.3 Improvements
- You can now have enable a cross-hair. Welcome to the late 90's!
- You can even make custom cross-hairs! Pew Pew!
- Mouse Sensitivity can be adjusted on each axis.
- New No CD option. The old one would mess with custom briefings for addon levels.
Download
Website

Version 1.1 of Dark Forces DeHacker Released! This amazing utility by -=CHE@TER=- that enables Mouselook now does EVEN MORE!

New Features (Slightly Anglicized as English isn't -=CHE@TER=-'s first language)

- "IMUSE music MIDI drivers fix" which will patch infinite loop bug in General MIDI and Roland music drivers. (You don't need to disable music to prevent game from hanging)

- "Configuration setup" menu where you can configure game controls and assign (bind) the previously unavailable option [Center View] to all three supported devices (keyboard, mouse and joystick)

- Unassign unused keyboard keys and set it to <None> (press Escape to set)
- Separate options to disable joystick, mouse, and even keyboard (only for assigned keys)

- Added documentation in "DARKINFO.TXT" file with complete list of all reserved keyboard keys, commandline options, and cheat codes.

- Create default configuration by deleting JEDI.CFG before run DeHacker and enter "Configuration setup" menu (dialog will appear to confirm default configuration file creation)

- New installation Batch File to easily make fresh installs from CD.

Improved Features

- "Weapon AutoMount" will now always work in game (original SETUP.EXE can break this option and render it completely unusable)

- You can now assign buttons 3 and 4 when "Standard 4 Button" joystick type selected (this was a SETUP.EXE bug)

- Selected mouse sensitivity will be better preserved. (The Original setup.exe behaves improperly).

- "System Speed" renamed to "Screen Size" to make to more accurately represent options. No longer limited to four options.

Thanks to -=CHE@TER=- and his amazing work. He even let me beta test this one!

Source Website (Russian)

Limited Run Games has announced that Dark Forces and Jedi Knight: Dark Force II are both getting Collector's edition releases on March 20th, 2020.

Just look at the box on this thing!

Dark Forces Collector's Edition

FEATURES

-Star Wars: Dark Forces Classic Edition blister pack

-Rigid box with foil stamping.

-Individually numbered certificate of authenticity.

-Booklet of retrospective essays.

-SteelBook case.

-3 art cards.

-LucasFilm USB drive.

-Reversible 18" x 24" poster.

-Commemorative coin.

-Moldy Crow enamel pin

Dark Forces Jedi Knight II is getting a pretty similar treatment. Mysteries of the Sith is included.

Jedi Knight Collector's Edition

For those unfamiliar with Limited Run Games, they will sell online in 2 batches at 10AM EST and 6PM EST. If there is leftover stock, it may be put on sale again BUT THERE IS NO GUARANTEE. Only 2,000 Copies will be available world wide at $64.99.

Both games are also available in Blister Packs, similar to how Star Wars action figures were in the 90's. These are limited to 3,000 copies at $29.99

@SecbaseUnLTD bringing us his beautiful "HD" Moldy Crow Model. Uploads aren't quite working at the moment, so here's some external links. The zip contains a small level that shows the different sizes of the model and also includes instructions on how to load the model into the game.

Pics (Twitter)
Download (Now Hosted on DF-21!)

Also, JonT forwarded me a shifty Russian link to a Dark Forces DeHAcker. It implements mouselook into the DOS version of the game! It offers some other features that modify how the game works, and even includes the source code. The website linked also features modifications for an eclectic selection of vintage DOS shooters.
Shifty Russian Website
Direct Link (Now Hosted on DF-21!)
I'll see ya on the dark side!

Night Dive Remaster

Nightdive Studio, known for their efforts to remaster classic FPS games has expressed interest in remastering the our beloved Dark Forces. CEO Stephen Kick has tweeted at Disney, hoping to catch attention of Disney. He requests that fans reply to his tweet to show Disney the love for our classic game.

Nightdive Tweet

The Secret Base remake by Jason Lewis has been updated recently with more amazing screenshots. You can practically taste the durasteel. Feast your eyes!

Here be the screenshots.

Some more fun Dark Force / Unreal news! Jason Lewis from Obsidian Entertainment is recreating the first level of Dark Forces, The Secret Base, in Unreal Engine 4. The level is still WIP, and it is unknown if it will be released to the public. It currently has a very Jedi Outcast vibe, and it''s be great to see where he takes it.

Secret Base Unreal

Patrick Haslow (Of Dark Tide Infamy) has been working on implementing Dark Forces for Unreal Engine.

Proof of Concept Video

Forum Thread

Check it Out!

Star Wars Explains is doing a series on the lore of Star Wars: Dark Forces. Check it out!

Playlist

DF-21 has truly entered the 21st century, as we now have a Twitter account.

If that is your kind of thing, follow us @DF21net.

Happy 2017!

DF-21 has a forum once again! Hit the button labeled "Forum" of the left hand side to visit it. Come join introduce / reintroduce yourself to the DF-21 community.

Introduce Yourself

*Bonus Content*

Glixel wrote an article on Dark Forces to coincide with Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.

How a 'Star Wars' Video Game Told the 'Rogue One' Story 20 Years Ago

Hello All! Its jon-t, your negligent webmaster.

I recently discovered a tiny bug in the website that made it impossible for users to create an account. I have fixed it.

If you have tried to make an account, but were not able to log in, please try to make your account again.

To all of those loyal members of the community who have tried to make an account recently but have not been able to, I sincerely apologize for my negligence.

My apologies to everyone for the long time that DF-21.net was down.
I was making significant upgrades to the server (from a core2duo to a 6 core AMDfx cpu clocked to almost 4GHZ!!) and, as usual, it took significantly longer than expected. Sorry about that. But it’s done now.

Time for me to write my philosophy paper…

DF-21 is now back up. Rejoice.

A fun little bit of content for y'all. John Romero (of Doom Fame) recently did a walk-through of his recreated level of E1M8. Lots of great stuff for 2.5d level designers. A shout out to Dark Forces was made with a staircase inspired by Jabba's Ship from Dark Forces. John Romero incorrectly describes this staircase as being an illusion created using teleporters. This is misinformation that goes back to the Usenet days, when many people assumed that Dark Forces was incapable of sector over sector geometry.

https://vimeo.com/theromero/review/156288044/2ad02ce556

There is a dearth of quality Dark Forces custom level video content. Here is an attempt to remedy that.

Check out Max Duckwell's youtube channel. He posts play-throughs of older FPS game, and has put up quite a few custom Dark Forces missions. From Free Kelly to Discovery at Ironfort, sit back, relax, and enjoy some Dark Forces.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL4V3Cs5q0vBvXlcPsLsNJMCMnZt7KxnoQ

DF-21 is now the proud host of Dark Forces history! Cybercraft CDark, has been uploaded for consumption by the general public. Created by Mattias Welander, famous for working on the Dark3D engine, this is an editor he created that features a full 3D preview system.

This is an alpha version of the software, so make backups before you unleash it on any of your projects.

Please take this moment and sing the Swedish national anthem, "Du gamla, Du fria".

I've created a Subreddit that can be used for discussion topics until the forums are up and running.

https://www.reddit.com/r/df21/

Been a while since the last update! Got some more levels uploaded as an apology:

Ruins of Talos Series - A 4 part story driven series with ALOT of custom components. NOTE: The two Reunion levels are completely different and unique.

Energy Mine on Parux - Beautifully constructed level set on the precipice of a canyon. It evokes a feeling similar to the "Surface Tension" section from Half Life.

Dark Prelude - Nice little prequel duo-logy to Dark Forces chronicling how Kyle Katarn saved Jan Ors. First Level is more fun than the second. (If you like this kind of stuff, you should check out the "Birth of a Mercenary" levels for Mysteries of the Sith)

The Rock Episode I - Gandolo IV - This level has great atmosphere. Taking inspiration from the Michael Bay movie of the same name (with less Sean Connery), this a well polished level with great feeling of uneasiness as you work your way through the facility.

Most of the good stuff has been uploaded already, but there's a few more gems down the line.

More Goodness for the unwashed masses:

Jedi Crystal - The Discovery - One of the newer levels created. A nicely made romp some older players may have never played.

Jungles of Caldoun - A nice jungle themed level that centers around deciphering the purpose of a mysterious Imperial Base.

Assassinate Darth Vader - Saddened by the fact that Dark forces didn't feature the promised Star Destroyer that Lucasarts showed off a map of? Here's what you've been waiting for!

Mines - Every seen the movie "The Room"? It's kind of like that.

Only 60 more levels to go folks...

More missions have been uploaded. Here's some fun ones to check out and/or revisit.

The Hoerby Trilogy - A good solid collection of levels leading up too...

Prelude to Harkov's Defection - A Huge and technically brilliant level to explore. Make sure to download the required cutscene!

Lahara Hotel - May sound like a boring level, but this was runner of for the Hall of Fame.

Discovery at Ironfort - Another amazing level for Kevin Buscemi! May our former webmaster be venerated on high!

A special thanks goes out to Graviton, who uploaded some Utilities and Editors. I really need to get a copy of WDFUSE in there (Does Wedit even run on modern windows? I could never get it to work back when it was current!)

Now that the Holidays are behind us, I've found some time to upload some more levels. The highly venerated Dark Tide series has now been uploaded in it's entirety. If you haven't played them yet, repent of your sins and participate in the sacred quadrilogy!

Hey Patrick, I know you've been busy working on Bioshock and stuff, but Dark Tide WAS supposed to have a 5th level...

I couldn't resist making a front-page post with my administrative powers. I'm Taton, and I've been a minor member of the Dark Forces community since the late 90s.

I wanted to share with the community the process involved with updating the Downloads sections. Dark Forces has a fascinating, almost continuous history of hosted custom content for over 20 years. Files were downloaded from Star Wars FTPs, Tola Dalton's Site, and eventually DF-21.net. With the source files for DF-21 being lost and apparently unrecoverable, a significant number of files were no longer available. If it wasn't for members of the community, these files may have been lost. There are still some files that may never be recovered.

With all this in mind, I have begun archiving and documenting the Dark Forces custom level library. I have been testing and organizing the zip files of levels to ensure that DF-21.net is free of corrupted or outdated files. Level descriptions are being formatted, files are being hunted down in dusty forsaken corners of the internet, and a spreadsheet is being filled to create a master database of Dark Forces content. I am working through the levels alphabetically by zip-file name, and uploading them as they are documented. (I am filled with shame that "Boba Fett's Gone Mental" has been uploaded before any of the Dark tide Series)

The level downloads section will steadily be updated overtime, and there's many exciting updates to be made as we enter a new year.

The uploads page is now working!

So, if you've got files for the downloads section that I haven't put up yet (which is most of them), PLEASE, upload them!

After extended downtime, DF-21.net is finally back online, though it bears the scars of the chaos surrounding the downtime. So what happened? Initially it seemed to be a simple matter of the domain registration lapsing, as has happened before when the renewal notice was overlooked. However, the site remained offline even after renewing the registration. As it turns out, the provider formerly hosting DF-21.net not only managed to lose the website data, but they lost Lucius' account information, substantially complicating any efforts to resolve the issue with the hosting provider. Ultimately, they were unresponsive and it became necessary to seek out another web host provider.

Since I already pay for web hosting that I don't really use, I offered to host DF-21.net. Ideally, I'd have uploaded a backup copy of the website, but unfortunately there was no comprehensive backup of DF-21.net available. The site you're viewing right now is a reconstruction built from data salvaged from JKDF2.com and Wayback Machine. Most of the download links were recoverable, but several were not. The forum was also lost, though the Dark Forces subsection of XL Engine.com continues to be available for Dark Forces discussion.

As time permits, I'll do what I can to locate alternate sources for any missing data, though I suspect I'll need help sourcing some of the more elusive files. I also plan to fix or remove the multitude of broken links that have accumulated over the years. And of course, a full backup of the site would be prudent.

EDIT: For anyone with questions or comments about DF-21.net, the Contact page has been updated with my contact info.

Klasodeth

Welcome to the new DF-21.net!

Ok, i know, i know, WHERE IS THE FORUMS BUTTON?

Answer: Its not done yet, so in the meanwhile, just use chat.