The Force Engine mod for Star Wars: Dark Forces

The Force Engine Version 1.0:

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 which 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.

The Force Engine was conceived as a complete re-write, rebuilt from the ground up with the following tenets:

• Support all Jedi based games - Dark Forces and Outlaws.
• Source-level accuracy by reverse-engineering the original executables.
• Focus on making sure the core games are completely supported before adding effects on top like dynamic lighting, this means starting with the software renderer just like the originals.
• Open sourcing the project the moment it goes public.
• Cross-platform support..
• Multiplayer Support.

What is the Force Engine?

The Force Engine is a project to reverse engineer and rebuild the Jedi Engine for modern systems and the games that used that engine - Dark Forces and Outlaws. The project includes modern, built-in tools, such as a level editor and aims to make it easy to play Dark Forces and Outlaws on modern systems as well as the many community mods designed to work with the original games.

Playing Dark Forces or Outlaws using the Force Engine adds ease of use and modern features such as higher resolutions and modern control schemes such as mouse-look. Using the built-in tools allows for easier modding with more modern UI, greater flexibility, and the ability to use enhancements made to the Jedi Engine for Outlaws in custom Dark Forces levels - such as slopes, stacked sectors, per-sector color maps and more.

Website

The main website for the project can be found here: Theforceengine.github.io

From there you can check out the GitHub repository, forums, screenshots, and the development blog. There is a test build available, but only for Win64 (Windows 7+), though 32 bit and Linux support are planned for the proper release.

What is the current state of the project?

The project is in a full release state. A newer patch has been released recently, news on this can be found here.

While it shares a legacy with DarkXL, it is a complete rewrite - rebuilt from the ground up with a much greater focus on accuracy. It is much more focused than the XL Engine, focused on being a Jedi Engine replacement/port only - thus full support for Dark Forces and Outlaws. Please check the Roadmap: Theforceengine.github.io for more information on the release timetable and planned feature-set.