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X-Wing PC remade with the modern Unity 3D Engine

by Mark Tyson on 29 December 2016, 12:01

Tags: Disney

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A Star Wars X-Wing enthusiast has been working on a remake of the 1993 vintage X-Wing PC game for the last two years or so. Earlier this month hobbyist game developer David Esparza Guerrero published a YouTube video showing off his work thus far. The project, dubbed the XWVM community mod, offers massively updated visuals as it replaces the 1993 X-Wing flight engine with the modern Unity 3D engine.

Gaming site Polygon describes the Unity makeover of this PC classic as "breathtaking," and compliments both the visual and auditory improvements on offer in the XWVM community mod. Particularly pleasing are the graphics and lighting nuances provided by the Unity 3D engine.

A GOG thread on the project started in 2014 with a proposal to do this remake, asking if there was "any interest?" It has to be said there are many such proposals about remaking classic games, but many also fizzle out after an initial burst of enthusiasm. After all, sometimes people bite off more than they can chew, or simply can't devote enough development time to follow through.

Pleasingly the XWVM community mod has gone past that initial hurdle of putting plans into action and devoting time and effort to create something workable. However, there might be some significant hurdles ahead legally, predicts PC Gamer. It worries that as the XWVM community mod comes to prominence in the news the development could fall victim to a cease-and-desist type of complaint from the likes of Disney and/or Electronic Arts lawyers. This legal action could feasibly come despite XWVM relying on user possession of the original X-Wing game files to run the mod (such copyrighted files are not packaged).



HEXUS Forums :: 6 Comments

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Been wishing for this for years! Have no doubt the lawyers will be on the case tho :-(

IIRC There's a Freespace 2 Open mod being worked on too…

Edit: There are lots of links to FSO mods on the Youtube video mentioned. Can't believe I've missed these… hope they stay under Disney's radar too ;-)
Actually doesn't look that great to me to be honest.

If will absolutely get stomped on by Disney if they release it as a standalone game, but if it were a “patch” to the old game which was required for use then under that fairly dubious guise Disney might not drop the hammer.

No-one is making anything new with Freespace (other than small modding community), the IP was in the hands of the scumbags who ran Interplay over the past few years and are now selling it but not as a standalone item but as part of a bulk IP sale, who has it now I don't know.

Volition the original Freespace devs are still around as are the guys who made it at the company, check their Youtube page were they play some of their old games, they have said they would love to do another Freespace game but just don't have the IP.
I see its still got the crappy really slow lasers of the original as well!
Back in the day, I love love loved that game.
Kato-2
No-one is making anything new with Freespace (other than small modding community)

Yes, that's who I meant, the guys that hang out at Hardlight.net There are several FS Open Source mods in progress (or finished) including Babylon 5 and Battlestar Galactica.

The Star Wars one is trying hard to keep its head under the parapet so to speak, calling itself Fate of the Galaxy and not using any copyrighted material if at all possible (eg models, John Williams music, the opening crawl etc). Hopefully be appearing during 2017 but with no budget and a tiny team, might just b another failed effort like so many others… :undecided