Posted by karjala on 2022-06-29 20:50:04 EST

DF-21 Staff Interview

We've recorded an interview with the Australian game podcast TwoBit Gamers.

Come have a listen! 

We talk about how we were first introduced to Dark Forces and what led us to the DF-21 community. 

Posted by karjala on 2022-05-17 21:34:42 EST

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.

 

Posted by karjala on 2022-05-03 21:57:20 EST

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.

 

 

Posted by karjala on 2022-04-21 16:47:37 EST

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

 

Posted by karjala on 2022-02-12 19:00:35 EST

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