Dark Forces Remaster Unofficial Specs

The Star Wars: Dark Forces Remaster was released by Nightdive Studios in February 2024.

It uses the base game files of Dark Forces but adds high resolution, true colour assets.

GOBS

The GOB container format is still used to contain maps and assets that are used by the game engine.

The Dark Forces Remaster uses the same four GOBs as the original game (DARK.GOB, SPRITES.GOB, TEXTURES.GOB, SOUNDS.GOB) and these are unchanged.

Three new GOBs have been added.

• ENHANCED.GOB - this contains all the new (high resolution) textures and sprites
• EXTRAS.GOB - this contains the bonus Avenger level for the Vault
• OVERRIDE.GOB - this contains alternatives for the ashtray and medkit sprites

Custom user-made GOBs can be loaded using the -u command line switch, in the same way as in original Dark Forces.

Use of original system files

The DF Remaster uses the following system files that normally reside in DARK.GOB

• JEDI.LVL - Number, names and ordering of levels
• BRIEFING.LST - List of briefings and which backgrounds to use for each (eg. Jan, Jabba, Mon Mothma)
• CUTSCENE.LST - List of cutscenes. When Enhanced Cutscenes are on, the game will load the OGV movie of the same name in place of the original LFD cutscene.

New File Formats

RAW	High resolution textures, corresponding to BMs
FXX	High resolution single-frame sprites, corresponding to FMEs
WXX	High resolution multi-frame sprites, corresponded to WAXs

LFD

All of the original game's LFDs are found, unchanged, in the LFD directory.

The enhanced subdirectory contains the high resolution images, in PNG format, that replace the original PDA and briefings.

See Enhanced PDA Specs.

DARKEX.KPF

DarkEx.KPF is a ZIP file containing various files used by the game's menu interface. There are several subdirectories.

cutscene_scripts	Text file scripts which appear to control the music in enhanced cutscenes (DCSS files)
fonts	Fonts, which appear to be in a standard .TTF format
gfx	Graphics for the game's menu interface (mostly in PNG format)
localization	Text files containing UI text and subtitles in different languages
midi	?
progs	This appears to contain shader scripts
tactile	This appears to contain files that control force-feedback (vibration) on controllers; the format is unknown

There are also several .CFG text files which appear to contain the default control bindings.

LOCALIZED directory

This contains versions of SOUNDS.GOB providing speech for different languages (French, German, Italian, Spanish).

MOVIES directory

This contains the game's enhanced cutscenes. The cutscenes are in .OGV format with subtitles in text files with the .SRT extension.