Star Wars Dark Forces remaster from Nightdive Studios

[schru]

Is it possible to get Dark Forces II running on an XP vmachine at all? I run the JK.exe in the install folder and the farthest I get is the first cutscene then the game crashes. I've messed with 3d acceleration but the only difference is that I'll get a blackscreen with sound effects. Still no go.

Have you tried DgVoodoo?
Also make sure to install the unofficial patch for both Dark Forces 2 and Mysteries of the Sith.

https://community.pcgamingwiki.com/...ight-df2-mots-pre-patched-unofficial-patches/

Thanks, I think that mostly fixed it. Had to fool around with a few mouse setting but it runs now in beautiful 90s polygonal 3d glory.

You installed the patches or just messed with DgVoodoo?

At first I did the patches but it made the game stutter on XP so I uninstalled those but DgVoodoo fixed my other problems.

Cool.
So all runs smoothly then?

It seems that Dark Forces II had its music tracks distributed between two discs, so that it was necessary to swap them at some point in the game. GOG's solution for playing the music probably doesn't work on newer Windows releases, so a workaround may be needed.

One way may be to use _inmm and create two play-lists, exchanging one for the other at whatever the appropriate point may be.

As for dgVoodoo, it's worth playing around with the resolution scaling and internal resolution set in the 3dfx tab. It doesn't work in every game, but it's much preferable to standard upscaling performed by the graphics card or monitor. There's also the C.R.T. filter and a way to disable 32-bit colour mode and enable dithering in the hidden tabs accessible from the right-click menu.

 

[NecroLord]

It seems that Dark Forces II had its music tracks distributed between two discs, so that it was necessary to swap them at some point in the game. GOG's solution for playing the music probably doesn't work on newer Windows releases, so a workaround may be needed.

That's another patch.
https://community.pcgamingwiki.com/files/file/914-jedi-knight-df2-mots-music-wrapper/

 

[pOcHa]

It also introduced the Krayt Dragon

I think it's a Kell Dragon.
But, yeah, Dark Forces did a lot of things right.

You're right it is a Kell Dragon. Still it's shocking to have all your weapons stripped and having to melee that beast.

Kyle Mothafuckin' Katarn.
Punching Kell Dragons to death and shaving his beard with a lightsaber.

I'm playing DF 1 right now and so far it's as good as I remember. I'm using The Force Engine which makes the game so much easier to play with the standard Doom controls. DF 1's controls were....poor....

I had a blast playing the entire series though.

you can find some mines (or was it grenades?) in the crawl space between two walls where you hide from him

 

[deuxhero]

Is it possible to get Dark Forces II running on an XP vmachine at all? I run the JK.exe in the install folder and the farthest I get is the first cutscene then the game crashes. I've messed with 3d acceleration but the only difference is that I'll get a blackscreen with sound effects. Still no go.

Just use OpenJKDF2 and run it normally.

 

[JamesDixon]

It also introduced the Krayt Dragon

I think it's a Kell Dragon.
But, yeah, Dark Forces did a lot of things right.

You're right it is a Kell Dragon. Still it's shocking to have all your weapons stripped and having to melee that beast.

Kyle Mothafuckin' Katarn.
Punching Kell Dragons to death and shaving his beard with a lightsaber.

I'm playing DF 1 right now and so far it's as good as I remember. I'm using The Force Engine which makes the game so much easier to play with the standard Doom controls. DF 1's controls were....poor....

I had a blast playing the entire series though.

you can find some mines (or was it grenades?) in the crawl space between two walls where you hide from him

There's two kell dragons. The first one you have punch to death in order to open the doors to get to the thermal detonators for the second kell.

 

[NecroLord]

It also introduced the Krayt Dragon

I think it's a Kell Dragon.
But, yeah, Dark Forces did a lot of things right.

You're right it is a Kell Dragon. Still it's shocking to have all your weapons stripped and having to melee that beast.

Kyle Mothafuckin' Katarn.
Punching Kell Dragons to death and shaving his beard with a lightsaber.

I'm playing DF 1 right now and so far it's as good as I remember. I'm using The Force Engine which makes the game so much easier to play with the standard Doom controls. DF 1's controls were....poor....

I had a blast playing the entire series though.

you can find some mines (or was it grenades?) in the crawl space between two walls where you hide from him

There's two kell dragons. The first one you have punch to death in order to open the doors to get to the thermal detonators for the second kell.

On Hard there are 5 Kell Dragons

 

[NecroLord]

you can find some mines (or was it grenades?) in the crawl space between two walls where you hide from him

You have to beat those Grans to get them. They are thermal detonators.

 

[JamesDixon]

It also introduced the Krayt Dragon

I think it's a Kell Dragon.
But, yeah, Dark Forces did a lot of things right.

You're right it is a Kell Dragon. Still it's shocking to have all your weapons stripped and having to melee that beast.

Kyle Mothafuckin' Katarn.
Punching Kell Dragons to death and shaving his beard with a lightsaber.

I'm playing DF 1 right now and so far it's as good as I remember. I'm using The Force Engine which makes the game so much easier to play with the standard Doom controls. DF 1's controls were....poor....

I had a blast playing the entire series though.

you can find some mines (or was it grenades?) in the crawl space between two walls where you hide from him

There's two kell dragons. The first one you have punch to death in order to open the doors to get to the thermal detonators for the second kell.

On Hard there are 5 Kell Dragons

I watched someone play the level and all total I think there's 10 of them.

 

[NecroLord]

It also introduced the Krayt Dragon

I think it's a Kell Dragon.
But, yeah, Dark Forces did a lot of things right.

You're right it is a Kell Dragon. Still it's shocking to have all your weapons stripped and having to melee that beast.

Kyle Mothafuckin' Katarn.
Punching Kell Dragons to death and shaving his beard with a lightsaber.

I'm playing DF 1 right now and so far it's as good as I remember. I'm using The Force Engine which makes the game so much easier to play with the standard Doom controls. DF 1's controls were....poor....

I had a blast playing the entire series though.

you can find some mines (or was it grenades?) in the crawl space between two walls where you hide from him

There's two kell dragons. The first one you have punch to death in order to open the doors to get to the thermal detonators for the second kell.

On Hard there are 5 Kell Dragons

I watched someone play the level and all total I think there's 10 of them.

Right, I forgot that there are more of them even after you get your gear back.
You only have to fight 4 or 5 with your fists.
Now I gotta replay the game.

 

[JamesDixon]

Now I gotta replay the game

I would recommend using TFE and the Community Patch 3. It takes care of a lot of the control issues that default DF has.

 

[NecroLord]

Now I gotta replay the game

I would recommend using TFE and the Community Patch 3. It takes care of a lot of the control issues that default DF has.

Yeah, TFE is good.
What's the Community Patch all about?

 

[JamesDixon]

Now I gotta replay the game

I would recommend using TFE and the Community Patch 3. It takes care of a lot of the control issues that default DF has.

Yeah, TFE is good.
What's the Community Patch all about?

All information is here.

Basically, it's a bunch of fixes and improvements to the game like changing sounds and textures to improved versions.

 

[Infinitron]

Coming February 28th:

 

[NecroLord]

Still looks like shit.
And the cutscenes are absolutely awful looking, whatever the hell they did to them.
But it's a REMASTER, right, guys?
Why are you not excited?...

 

[Wirdschowerdn]

It's funny how the sound fx that are reminiscent of 1970s foley still sounds more permeating than modern Wwise synths.

 

[Tweed]

But I already played Dark Forces recently in The Force Engine. Oh wait, guess they'll have to C&D that.

 

[RobotSquirrel]

It's funny how the sound fx that are reminiscent of 1970s foley still sounds more permeating than modern Wwise synths.

Yes and the Lucasfilm audio kit is CD Quality audio too, so it makes no sense why they went with such low quality audio for this.
The voice acting could have also have been cleaned up, if not replaced with imitation voice actors. So low effort for a game that still works fine on modern systems.

 

[Jaesun]

Those remastered cut scenes are just like WTF. That dancing Vader just keeps cracking me up.

 

[NecroLord]

Now, if you wanna play the original game, you are gonna have to purchase this shit too, just to have access to the original!!!
Fuck this.
I can already see it on GOG...

 

[don_tomaso]

Those remastered cut scenes are just like WTF. That dancing Vader just keeps cracking me up.

That shot looks really ugly when they dare comparing it to the OG just before, it really looks like shit. Also, look at the animation when kyles ship is flying slalom sideways between the rebel ships. Look at the first 5-10 frames of the sequence. Extremely sloppy animation if that is final, even for a previz that would be embarrassing.

 

[TalesfromtheCrypt]

I'm monitoring those Remaster announcements just to know which GOG Installers and Mods to backup next on my HDD. Fucking annoying.

 

[mkultra]

Textures didn't receive any kind of update?

Here's what i did in 20 days for Dark Forces 2. 620 textures (which basically remasters the entire game).

https://imgsli.com/MjE4NjEx/14/15
https://imgsli.com/MjE3ODgx
https://imgsli.com/MjE3ODc2
https://imgsli.com/MjE4NjEx/12/13
https://imgsli.com/MjE4NjEx/18/19
https://imgsli.com/MjE4NjEx/0/1
https://imgsli.com/MjE4NjEx/4/5
https://imgsli.com/MjE4NjEx/16/17
https://imgsli.com/MjE4NjEx/2/3
https://imgsli.com/MjE4NjEx/6/7
https://imgsli.com/MjE4NjEx/10/11
https://imgsli.com/MjE4NjEx/8/9

Download: https://www.nexusmods.com/starwarsjediknightdarkforces2/mods/2/?tab=description

 

[agris]

mkultra that's cool and all, but some of those aren't very faithful to the original style.

if you want some feedback on areas to improve on:

• https://imgsli.com/MjE4NjEx/14/15: the green -> blue change, and the rock walls look very different from original style
• https://imgsli.com/MjE4NjEx/0/1 -> the neon sign on the left edge isn't a neon sign anymore?
• https://imgsli.com/MjE4NjEx/4/5 -> the OG geometry of the mandala, and stippled red/green of the casement texture, are missing
• https://imgsli.com/MjE4NjEx/6/7 -> cobble stones swapped for cement blocks

 

[mkultra]

mkultra that's cool and all, but some of those aren't very faithful to the original style.

if you want some feedback on areas to improve on:

• https://imgsli.com/MjE4NjEx/14/15: the green -> blue change, and the rock walls look very different from original style
• https://imgsli.com/MjE4NjEx/0/1 -> the neon sign on the left edge isn't a neon sign anymore?
• https://imgsli.com/MjE4NjEx/4/5 -> the OG geometry of the mandala, and stippled red/green of the casement texture, are missing
• https://imgsli.com/MjE4NjEx/6/7 -> cobble stones swapped for cement blocks

Thanks! yes i'm aware of these. But the neon sign is absolutely still a neon sign, its animated so depending on the frame you capture it will look different.

The water i think just think looks better in that color, i tried both.. but yes it's not faithful to the original (neither is the cliff texture really, but i'll still prefer if both blends in a bit more nicely). i also added a bit of transparency to the water (not visible in that image though, its outdated), it's also not like how the original is, but an improvement, imo...

Here's a bit of a preview of some of the levels in-game https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rw2LC6PFDmc

 

[agris]

mkultra that's cool and all, but some of those aren't very faithful to the original style.

if you want some feedback on areas to improve on:

• https://imgsli.com/MjE4NjEx/14/15: the green -> blue change, and the rock walls look very different from original style
• https://imgsli.com/MjE4NjEx/0/1 -> the neon sign on the left edge isn't a neon sign anymore?
• https://imgsli.com/MjE4NjEx/4/5 -> the OG geometry of the mandala, and stippled red/green of the casement texture, are missing
• https://imgsli.com/MjE4NjEx/6/7 -> cobble stones swapped for cement blocks

Thanks! yes i'm aware of these. But the neon sign is absolutely still a neon sign, its animated so depending on the frame you capture it will look different.

The water i think just think looks better in that color, i tried both.. but yes it's not faithful to the original (neither is the cliff texture really, but i'll still prefer if both blends in a bit more nicely). i also added a bit of transparency to the water (not visible in that image though, its outdated), it's also not like how the original is, but an improvement, imo...

Here's a bit of a preview of some of the levels in-game https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rw2LC6PFDmc

it does look good, good to know about the neon sign.

did you consider uprezzing the menu background images? also, I think a few decals got missed like this tapestry hanging on the wall