Tie Fighter Graphics Mod _TOP_
The TIE Fighter Total Conversion (TFTC) project ports the original classic 1994 LucasArts game TIE Fighter, into the 1999 X-Wing Alliance (XWA) engine. Based on the original TFTC from 2005 and built upon the X-Wing Alliance Upgrade (XWAU) project, this is a complete overhaul of the game from graphics to gameplay. All 13 battle campaigns and their training missions have been ported over along with 8 Reimagined battle campaigns, taking advantage of the much better XWA engine and imagining how TIE Fighter could've been had the technology of the time not limited it. But here's a general breakdown of what you can expect from this mod!
Tie Fighter Graphics Mod
It can be hard going back to play a game you loved years ago. Sometimes nostalgia is strong enough to overlook things like ageing graphics, tinny sound and fewer of the features we've become accustomed to with modern games. But sometimes no matter how much you enjoyed a game in the past, it's just too difficult to get back into it again when so many years, or even decades, have gone by.
You begin in a fighter, not even using your engines, just swivelling around to shoot a few cargo containers while following the instructions given to you. After each mission there's a debriefing before you accept your next task. Gradually you take on more complex missions and eventually begin to see a bit of real combat, made all the more harrowing when you realise you're basically flying in the cheapest ship the Empire can produce. No shields, no hyperdrive, just a mass-produced tin can that can only take a tiny bit of damage before it explodes. That's what you fly until you can prove you're worthy of something faster, sturdier and with more power.
The pragmatism (some might call it ruthlessness) of the Empire is pretty apparent, too, as in some missions you're basically thrown into battle like a handful of gravel, just one of lots and lots of expendable fighters the Imperial Navy sends out to overwhelm their enemies by sheer numbers. And there's a really excellent campaign and story to progress through, working your way from a lowly disposable pilot to someone who catches the attention of the Empire's upper echelons. In later story missions, you'll even hunt down and exterminate Imperial traitors, along with various other space criminals. Again, it's a neat way to expand our view of the Empire and the Star Wars universe. In the movies the Imperial pilots are always going up against the Rebel heroes, but TIE Fighter fills in the blanks, showing everything else the Empire has to deal with when they're not chasing down the Millennium Falcon.
The TIE Fighter Total Conversion (TFTC) project is aimed at porting the original classic 1994 LucasArts game TIE Fighter, into the 1999 X-Wing Alliance (XWA) engine. Based on the original TFTC from 2005 and built upon the X-Wing Alliance Upgrade project, this is a complete overhaul of the game from graphics to gameplay. All 13 battle campaigns and their training missions have been ported over along with 8 Reimagined battle campaigns, taking advantage of the much better XWA engine and imagining how TIE Fighter could've been had the technology of the time not limited it. But here's a general breakdown of what you can expect from this mod!
The classic Star Wars: TIE Fighter game is a shiny new fan remake thanks to a mod of the later X-Wing Alliance. Released on PC in 1994 by the old LucasArts team, TIE Fighter put players inside the cockpit of the titular starfighter and several other Imperial war machines as a pilot tasked with helping to stomp out the Rebel Alliance after the events of Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope.
TIE Fighter Total Conversion is a visually stunning and impressive fan remake, sporting graphics on par with modern console released despite using a game from 1999 as its base. The fact that Angel and other talented modders have put such work and care into bringing the classic Star Wars: TIE Fighter to life in this new way is a testament to how fondly the classic LucasArts PC games are remembered, sporting a legacy that has continued well into the modern era of Star Wars gaming.
Star Wars: TIE Fighter is a 1994 Star Wars space flight simulator and space combat video game, a sequel in the Star Wars: X-Wing series. It places the player in the role of an Imperial starfighter pilot during events that occur between The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi.
In-flight gameplay is similar to X-Wing, played primarily in first-person but with the option to switch to third-person. All flight takes place in space; the player does not encounter gravity or atmospheric effects. Mission roles including dogfighting, escorting or disabling other craft, inspecting vehicles, and attacking capital ships and space stations. Initial missions place the player in unshielded TIE fighter variants; as the game progresses, the player gains access to advanced fighters with shields and better armaments.[4]
Laser cannons and ion cannons serve as short range weapons, damaging or disabling targets respectively. Some starfighters carry limited number of missiles or torpedoes for additional range/firepower. As with X-Wing, the player needs to balance power allocation between weapons, engines, and shields (when available); some craft also require the player to further balance power for a beam weapon (a tractor beam which can prevent enemy fighters from maneuvering temporarily, or a jamming beam which can disrupt the defensive fire of enemy capital ships). The player can also change the firing modes of their fighter's weapons (for example, having a pair of laser cannons fire together or alternately). If the ship possesses shields, the player chooses the shield balance between front and rear.
LucasArts offered a pre-release demo on two floppy disks bundled with Computer Gaming World. The single-mission demo, sponsored by Dodge and featuring an ad for the Dodge Neon, advertises a spring 1994 TIE Fighter release. However, TIE Fighter was not released until July later that year: leaked by software pirates early in the month, with the official release on the 20th;[1] 17 months after X-Wing's debut. The Defender of the Empire expansion, which adds three battles, came out soon thereafter. Later that year, LucasArts released a Collector's CD-ROM version of X-Wing using TIE Fighter's updated graphics engine.
In 1995, TIE Fighter also received a Collector's CD-ROM. The CD-ROM version offered optional enhanced SVGA graphics, increasing the game's resolution from 320x200 to 640x480.[3] The cinematic cutscenes were also enhanced, and the game received numerous voiceovers. The CD-ROM includes the previously released Defender of the Empire expansion and an additional Enemies of the Empire expansion. This CD-ROM also added support for gameplay under Mac OS 8 and Mac OS 9.
TIE Fighter is part of the 1998 X-Wing Collector Series, which also includes updated versions of X-Wing and a pared-down version of X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter. This version drops DOS support, installing only under Windows 9x. TIE Fighter and X-Wing use the X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter flight engine, which adds 3D-accelerated graphics and texture mapping. The MIDI-based interactive soundtrack used in previous versions is replaced by looped Red Book audio recordings of John Williams' Star Wars score.[3] This version also requires a joystick; previously, players could use a mouse and keyboard. This version was later bundled with the X-Wing Trilogy, which includes X-Wing and X-Wing Alliance.
Gamebytes Magazine gave the original release its "very highest recommendation", citing numerous improvements over X-Wing. The reviewer called the graphics "astonishing" and noted improved artificial intelligence and in-flight information systems. The review's "single complaint" was the lackluster ending.[2] Edge praised many of the graphic and gameplay enhancements and new features over X-Wing, but described the missions as repetitive and complained the game loses appeal when the player isn't fighting for the underdog Rebellion.[4] GameSpot's review of the Collector's CD-ROM Edition called TIE Fighter "the best space combat game ever made" and praised the updated graphics.[5]
In 1996 Next Generation ranked TIE Fighter and Star Wars: X-Wing collectively as number 23 on their "Top 100 Games of All Time", citing the graphics, sound effects, flight engine, and the sense of accomplishment after finishing a mission.[24]
TIE Fighter is back! A small band of fans has created a mod, which catapults the game from 1994 into our time. More than two years of hard work have paid off: Flying for the glory of the Galactic Empire has never been so beautiful! New graphics, remastered sound and re-imagined mission. In this episode of the Bucketheads-Podcast, Kevin talks to the PROJECT LEAD JASON MILLWARD, alias ANGEL. He gives insight into the making of-process and they celebrate the mod as well as the classic TIE Fighter with lots of sound bites and music from the soundtrack.
There's little doubt that any Star Wars fan would jump at the chance to climb into the cockpit of an X-Wing fighter. In no small way is the idea of piloting the iconic Rebel Alliance spacecraft ingrained into the larger cultural zeitgeist, appearing in various television shows and movies across many decades. Now, thanks to the power of VR and the ingenuity of the modding community, that fiction has become reality in one of the series' more revered games: X-Wing Alliance.
I'm not really modifying the game; we don't have the source code for XWA. Instead, there's this graphics library that is used to translate old DirectX 6 commands into DirectX 11. The source code for the graphics library is public, and that's what I'm modifying. So, I guess, technically speaking, it's not even an XWA mod; it's a DirectX 6-graphics-library mod that just happens to make XWA run in VR.