The Force Engine Editor
The TFE Editor is design to view and edit Dark Forces assets. Currently it consists of the Asset Browser and Asset Editors. The only Asset editor currently available is the Level Editor.
Initial Setup
To start, make sure the Game settings are accurate. If you can launch Dark Forces in TFE, than you are good to go. To setup your game, select Settings from the main menu, the Game tab on the left (under About), and setup your data path for Dark Forces. Next select EDITOR from the main menu to get started.
You should see a view similar to this image. Notice the menu bar at the top, select the Editor menu. From there select the Editor Config option.
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Click the Browse buttons to setup the Editor Path and Export Path. The Editor stores temporary files and other data in the Editor path. Any asset you export get written into the Export path. Hit Save Config when done.
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Using the Asset Browser
By default, the asset browser is in read-only mode. You can change the Asset Type to look at the various assets in the game. An asset can be selected and you will see a preview and information about the asset on the left. What you see depends on the type of asset. For animated assets, you can scrub through its views and frames, and various other options.
In the Asset Info section, you will notice several buttons:
- Export - exports the selected assets to your Export directory. Shift and Control options can be used to select multiple assets.
- Editor - the asset editor. Only levels have an editor in this release.
In order to create a mod, you will first need to create a project.
Creating a Project
Select the Project menu to create or load a project. Click on New to create a new project. A project is a single mod which will consist of one or more levels, and in the future resource/game based mods will be supported that do not contain levels.
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- Name - name of the project, which should be filename safe.
- Path - browse to the path where you want the project to be written. If Create Directory For Project is selected, then a new directory will be created at that location with the project name. For example, you might have a projects folder at C:/TFE/Projects/ and a new project called MyMod. This will create your mod at C:/TFE/Projects/MyMod/. This is where your autosaves, snapshots, and other project data files will go.
- Project Type - currently only Levels is supported.
- Game - currently only Dark Forces is supported.
- Feature Set - Vanilla to support base Dark Forces/Remaster features only or TFE to support new TFE features.
- Description - when you export your project a text file is generated that is shown in the TFE Mod Browser. This description is added to that file.
- Authors - the list of authors that will work on this mod (you can edit all of this later).
- Credits - any other credits you wish to add.
When you are done, click on Create Project. You will be able to edit all of this in the future with the Edit menu option.
Adding Resources
By default all vanilla resources are available for mods. Sometimes, though, it is useful to add textures, sprites, 3D objects, and other resources from archives (GOB, ZIP) or directories. You can do so using the Resources option under the Projects menu.