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u/schlangz

r/ReverseEngineering r/unrealtournament r/retrogamedev r/spacesimgames r/linux_gaming r/dosgaming r/WingCommanderUniverse
Image 1 — Four quadrants from the cancelled Privateer 3 in OpenPrivateer
Image 2 — Four quadrants from the cancelled Privateer 3 in OpenPrivateer
Image 3 — Four quadrants from the cancelled Privateer 3 in OpenPrivateer
Image 4 — Four quadrants from the cancelled Privateer 3 in OpenPrivateer
▲ 9 r/WingCommanderUniverse

Four quadrants from the cancelled Privateer 3 in OpenPrivateer

I've been experimenting with OpenPrivateer's modding capabilities and recreated four quadrants from the original Privateer 3: Retribution design documents, including their star systems, positions, and jump connections.

The original design documents are available on WCNews:
https://www.wcnews.com/wcpedia/Privateer_3:_Retribution

I wanted to see what these never-realized quadrants would actually look like in the classic Privateer engine.

This is just a personal experiment, and I don't plan to release the mod, but wouldn't it be awesome if someone actually brought Privateer 3 to life?

u/schlangz — 4 days ago
▲ 61 r/WingCommanderUniverse+1 crossposts

OpenPrivateer modding update: what's here and what's coming next

We've been putting a lot of work into OpenPrivateer's modding support recently, and it has grown quite a bit.

OpenPrivateer is our open-source reconstruction and SDL3 port of Wing Commander: Privateer and Righteous Fire.

Multiplayer foundations are already in place, with both PvP and PvE supported.

Classic mode aims to preserve the original experience, while all modding features live in Enhanced and Modern:

Universe

  • Add new star systems
  • Add new sectors and quadrants
  • Add new nav points and jump connections
  • Add new bases
  • Connect new systems to Gemini or to each other
  • Hide/filter systems and sectors from the navigation map
  • The Wing Commander Universe sector map is built in, with more of it becoming visitable as development continues

Weapons

  • Modify all stock guns
  • Add completely new guns
  • Custom projectile art, MFD/dealer art and sounds
  • Modify missiles, torpedoes and launchers
  • Add charge weapons
  • Add hitscan/beam weapons
  • Change damage, energy use, refire rates, range, velocity, wear and other stats

Ships and equipment

  • Modify shields, engines and armour
  • Modify ECM and repair droids
  • Modify the Righteous Fire ship upgrades
  • Change equipment prices and repair costs
  • Change which equipment is available for each ship
  • Restrict equipment by base, system, quadrant or faction

Missions

  • Add new patrol missions
  • Scout missions
  • Defend missions
  • Attack missions
  • Bounty missions
  • Cargo missions
  • Custom clients, text, enemies, destinations, cargo and payment rules
  • Missions can take place in completely new systems and use modded bases

New Game

  • Choose a different starting base
  • Change starting credits, reputation, kills and guild memberships
  • Change unlocked maps
  • Set default pilot name/callsign
  • Define the complete starting ship and equipment loadout
  • Starting at a newly added mod base is supported

If you need help with modding or want some JSON examples to get started, consult the manual on https://openprivateer.org and feel free to join us on Discord https://discord.gg/5H3vW2STqW or over at r/WingCommanderUniverse.

A built-in mod manager for easy installation and management of mods is also planned for the launcher.

We've also tried to keep this tied closely to how Privateer actually works. Where the original formats can represent something, OpenPrivateer still uses them. A mod-generated mission, for example, becomes a normal Privateer mission internally. OpenPrivateer-specific save data is only needed when the original format simply can't represent something, such as a mission taking place in a completely new system.

And yes, ships are next.

The plan is:

  1. New NPC ships
  2. New player-flyable ships

Player ships are the bigger job because they bring cockpits, hardpoints, equipment, damage states, dealers and savegame handling with them. The goal is proper new ships, not just replacing or reskinning one of the existing ship IDs.

As always, OpenPrivateer requires the original Privateer game data. We don't distribute Origin's assets.

u/schlangz — 8 days ago
▲ 27 r/dosgaming

OpenPrivateer Public Alpha is now available (September Update)

After all the fun of reverse engineering, development and testing, the first public Alpha release of OpenPrivateer is finally available.

OpenPrivateer is a modern reimplementation of Wing Commander: Privateer, built around the original game data with a strong focus on authentic behavior, portability, preservation and modding.

The goal is to faithfully reproduce the original Privateer experience first, while keeping enhancements and new features clearly separated.

Final Mission

What's already in the Alpha:

  • Privateer and Righteous Fire support
  • Supports the original PRIV.EXE command-line switches:
    • -K (skips the intro)
    • -Bxx (overrides the base/planet you start on)
    • -Dxxxxx (overrides the amount of credits you start with)
  • Original bases, trading, ship dealer and mission systems
  • Main story plot and generated random missions
  • Spaceflight and combat
  • Original cutscenes, dialogue and music
  • Original DOS savegame loading and writing
  • Classic, Enhanced and Modern experience modes
  • Multiple ships and hired wingmen
  • Navigation map and extended Wing Commander universe support
  • Content overrides and translation support
  • OPL2, SoundFont, MIDI Mapper and CD music (WAV/FLAC/MP3 support)
  • Optional xBRZ scaling, CRT filtering and color grading
  • Windows, Linux and macOS support
  • Dedicated client/server multiplayer with PvP and PvE
  • Keyboard, mouse, joystick and HOTAS support
  • Auto Updater

Please keep in mind that all non-vanilla features are locked out of the Classic experience mode, you will only be able to see or access them in the Enhanced or Modern mode. To change experience mode for now, you have to open the debug menu using the tilde ~ key (left of your 1 key) because there currently is no other UI for these settings. The Alpha release relies on the debug menu but the Beta release will add a proper UI for all these options:

https://preview.redd.it/vwm01qjbkpsh1.png?width=1154&format=png&auto=webp&s=298569f19320c64632cc6e66bf8e682ccebc5bb8

The new UI screens are currently using their default theme, which is why they are looking pretty unsexy at the moment. This will be changed in one of the next releases.

You can access the multiple ships / hire wingmen screen using the S key on the launch pad:

Multiple ships and hired wingmen

You can access the new game control screen using the K key in the ALT+O options menu:

https://preview.redd.it/co4cvtd8lpsh1.png?width=1138&format=png&auto=webp&s=8ede235727d945c366395d265b020607538be667

Game Controls

The auto updater will check once per day if there is a new version available and will show a message on the title screen. The area is clickable in that case:

Auto Updater

This is an Alpha, so bugs, glitches and unfinished features are expected. That's also why I'm releasing it now: actual players are going to uncover things that development and automated testing won't.

Discord and downloads for Windows (x86_64), Linux (x86_64 + arm64) and macOS (arm64):
https://discord.gg/5H3vW2STqW
https://openprivateer.org/#downloads

Multiplayer is already mostly functional, although mission progression is not implemented there yet. Instructions how to run client and server can be found on the https://openprivateer.org/#multiplayer website.

Every time you start OpenPrivateer, it will create its directory structure and place readme.txt files in each folder. I recommend that you take a look at the readme.txt file that gets created in the same directory as the OpenPrivateer executable, it will explain where you have to put your MS-DOS savegames and other files.

Full instructions copied from the website:

  1. Download and extract OpenPrivateer.
  2. Copy the required original Privateer game files into the OpenPrivateer folder: (the GOG version ships the TRE files in a GAME.GOG archive, extract them with 7-Zip)
    • PRIV.TRE / INITCFG.PAK for Privateer
    • RF.TRE / INITRF.PAK for Righteous Fire Expansion
  3. Start OpenPrivateer.
  4. The required folders and README files are created automatically when OpenPrivateer starts.
  5. Consult the README.TXT file that now exists in the same folder as the executable.
  6. Start a New Game or copy an existing save into the savegame folder.

Feedback, bug reports and testing are very welcome. If you need any help or you are stuck, let me know here or in the Discord server. Have fun my friends!

Disclaimer:

OpenPrivateer does not contain any copyrighted Origin/EA game assets. You need your own copy of Wing Commander: Privateer and provide the original game data files.

Anthropic Claude was used during the reconstruction.

reddit.com
u/schlangz — 15 days ago
▲ 16 r/WingCommanderUniverse

OpenPrivateer Public Alpha is now available (September Update)

After all the fun of reverse engineering, development and testing, the first public Alpha release of OpenPrivateer is finally available.

OpenPrivateer is a modern reimplementation of Wing Commander: Privateer, built around the original game data with a strong focus on authentic behavior, portability, preservation and modding.

The goal is to faithfully reproduce the original Privateer experience first, while keeping enhancements and new features clearly separated.

Final Mission

What's already in the Alpha:

  • Privateer and Righteous Fire support
  • Supports the original PRIV.EXE command-line switches:
    • -K (skips the intro)
    • -Bxx (overrides the base/planet you start on)
    • -Dxxxxx (overrides the amount of credits you start with)
  • Original bases, trading, ship dealer and mission systems
  • Main story plot and generated random missions
  • Spaceflight and combat
  • Original cutscenes, dialogue and music
  • Original DOS savegame loading and writing
  • Classic, Enhanced and Modern experience modes
  • Multiple ships and hired wingmen
  • Navigation map and extended Wing Commander universe support
  • Content overrides and translation support
  • OPL2, SoundFont, MIDI Mapper and CD music (WAV/FLAC/MP3 support)
  • Optional xBRZ scaling, CRT filtering and color grading
  • Windows, Linux and macOS support
  • Dedicated client/server multiplayer with PvP and PvE
  • Keyboard, mouse, joystick and HOTAS support
  • Auto Updater

Please keep in mind that all non-vanilla features are locked out of the Classic experience mode, you will only be able to see or access them in the Enhanced or Modern mode. To change experience mode for now, you have to open the debug menu using the tilde ~ key (left of your 1 key) because there currently is no other UI for these settings. The Alpha release relies on the debug menu but the Beta release will add a proper UI for all these options:

https://preview.redd.it/vwm01qjbkpsh1.png?width=1154&format=png&auto=webp&s=298569f19320c64632cc6e66bf8e682ccebc5bb8

The new UI screens are currently using their default theme, which is why they are looking pretty unsexy at the moment. This will be changed in one of the next releases.

You can access the multiple ships / hire wingmen screen using the S key on the launch pad:

Multiple ships and hired wingmen

You can access the new game control screen using the K key in the ALT+O options menu:

https://preview.redd.it/co4cvtd8lpsh1.png?width=1138&format=png&auto=webp&s=8ede235727d945c366395d265b020607538be667

Game Controls

The auto updater will check once per day if there is a new version available and will show a message on the title screen. The area is clickable in that case:

Auto Updater

This is an Alpha, so bugs, glitches and unfinished features are expected. That's also why I'm releasing it now: actual players are going to uncover things that development and automated testing won't.

Discord and downloads for Windows (x86_64), Linux (x86_64 + arm64) and macOS (arm64):
https://discord.gg/5H3vW2STqW
https://openprivateer.org/#downloads

Multiplayer is already mostly functional, although mission progression is not implemented there yet. Instructions how to run client and server can be found on the https://openprivateer.org/#multiplayer website.

Every time you start OpenPrivateer, it will create its directory structure and place readme.txt files in each folder. I recommend that you take a look at the readme.txt file that gets created in the same directory as the OpenPrivateer executable, it will explain where you have to put your MS-DOS savegames and other files.

Full instructions copied from the website with the new Launcher:

Launcher

  1. Download and extract OpenPrivateer.
  2. Start openprivateer.exe on Windows, or the corresponding executable on Linux or macOS.
  3. The launcher opens. Select Privateer or Righteous Fire at the top
  4. Open Game Data and provide the original game files:
    • Privateer: PRIV.TRE and INITCFG.PAK
    • Righteous Fire: RF.TRE and INITRF.PAK
  5. Use Import to Data Folder... to copy files from another folder, or Add Folder... to use files where they already are.
  6. The required folders and README files are created automatically when OpenPrivateer starts.
  7. Consult the manual or the README.TXT file that now exists in the same folder as the executable.
  8. Start a New Game or copy an existing save into the savegame folder.

Screenshot how a typical Windows installation looks like:

Windows Installation

Feedback, bug reports and testing are very welcome. If you need any help or you are stuck, let me know here or in the Discord server. Have fun my friends!

Disclaimer:

OpenPrivateer does not contain any copyrighted Origin/EA game assets. You need your own copy of Wing Commander: Privateer and provide the original game data files.

Anthropic Claude was used during the reconstruction.

EDIT: Added Launcher

reddit.com
u/schlangz — 15 days ago
▲ 10 r/WingCommanderUniverse

Wing Commander Privateer - undocumented command line switches

Hello my friends, while working on my Privateer project I discovered these undocumented command line switches for PRIV.EXE:

Example to skip intro and start in Oxford with 100000 credits:

PRIV 1.3 -K -B39 -D100000

For Righteous Fire you have to add the letter "r" somewhere, e.g. at the end:

PRIV 1.3 -K -B39 -D100000 r

Description:

1.3 first, exactly as written: without it the game ignores all of these switches.

-K skips the intro.

-B39 starts you at Oxford (base 39).

-D100000 sets your credits to 100,000.

No space after the letter: -B39, not -B 39.

When they apply: -B and -D only take effect after you pick "New Game" or "Load" in the main menu, and they override the save's base and credits.

List of all bases/planets, time to visit the Derelict Base (59) again:

┌─────┬────────────────────┬──────────────────────────┐
│ -B  │        Base        │           Type           │
├─────┼────────────────────┼──────────────────────────┤
│ 0   │ Achilles           │ Mining                   │
├─────┼────────────────────┼──────────────────────────┤
│ 1   │ Anapolis           │ Refinery                 │
├─────┼────────────────────┼──────────────────────────┤
│ 2   │ Basque             │ Mining                   │
├─────┼────────────────────┼──────────────────────────┤
│ 3   │ Basra              │ Refinery                 │
├─────┼────────────────────┼──────────────────────────┤
│ 4   │ Beaconsfield       │ Refinery                 │
├─────┼────────────────────┼──────────────────────────┤
│ 5   │ Bodensee           │ Agricultural             │
├─────┼────────────────────┼──────────────────────────┤
│ 6   │ Burton             │ Agricultural             │
├─────┼────────────────────┼──────────────────────────┤
│ 7   │ Charon             │ Mining                   │
├─────┼────────────────────┼──────────────────────────┤
│ 8   │ Drake              │ Pirate                   │
├─────┼────────────────────┼──────────────────────────┤
│ 9   │ Edinburgh          │ Refinery                 │
├─────┼────────────────────┼──────────────────────────┤
│ 10  │ Edom               │ Agricultural             │
├─────┼────────────────────┼──────────────────────────┤
│ 11  │ Elysia             │ Agricultural             │
├─────┼────────────────────┼──────────────────────────┤
│ 12  │ Erewhon            │ Pleasure                 │
├─────┼────────────────────┼──────────────────────────┤
│ 13  │ Glasgow            │ Refinery                 │
├─────┼────────────────────┼──────────────────────────┤
│ 14  │ Gracchus           │ Refinery                 │
├─────┼────────────────────┼──────────────────────────┤
│ 15  │ Hector             │ Mining                   │
├─────┼────────────────────┼──────────────────────────┤
│ 16  │ Heimdel            │ Agricultural             │
├─────┼────────────────────┼──────────────────────────┤
│ 17  │ Helen              │ Agricultural             │
├─────┼────────────────────┼──────────────────────────┤
│ 18  │ Jolson             │ Pleasure                 │
├─────┼────────────────────┼──────────────────────────┤
│ 19  │ Joplin             │ Refinery                 │
├─────┼────────────────────┼──────────────────────────┤
│ 20  │ Kronecker          │ Mining                   │
├─────┼────────────────────┼──────────────────────────┤
│ 21  │ Lisacc             │ Mining                   │
├─────┼────────────────────┼──────────────────────────┤
│ 22  │ Liverpool          │ Refinery                 │
├─────┼────────────────────┼──────────────────────────┤
│ 23  │ Macabee            │ Mining                   │
├─────┼────────────────────┼──────────────────────────┤
│ 24  │ Magdaline          │ Pleasure                 │
├─────┼────────────────────┼──────────────────────────┤
│ 25  │ Matahari           │ Pleasure                 │
├─────┼────────────────────┼──────────────────────────┤
│ 26  │ Meadow             │ Refinery                 │
├─────┼────────────────────┼──────────────────────────┤
│ 27  │ Megiddo            │ Pirate                   │
├─────┼────────────────────┼──────────────────────────┤
│ 28  │ Mjolnar            │ Agricultural             │
├─────┼────────────────────┼──────────────────────────┤
│ 29  │ Munchen            │ Refinery                 │
├─────┼────────────────────┼──────────────────────────┤
│ 30  │ N1912-1            │ Pleasure                 │
├─────┼────────────────────┼──────────────────────────┤
│ 31  │ New Constantinople │ Special                  │
├─────┼────────────────────┼──────────────────────────┤
│ 32  │ New Detroit        │ Special                  │
├─────┼────────────────────┼──────────────────────────┤
│ 33  │ New Iberia         │ Agricultural             │
├─────┼────────────────────┼──────────────────────────┤
│ 34  │ New Reno           │ Pleasure                 │
├─────┼────────────────────┼──────────────────────────┤
│ 35  │ Nitir              │ Agricultural             │
├─────┼────────────────────┼──────────────────────────┤
│ 36  │ Oakham             │ Pirate                   │
├─────┼────────────────────┼──────────────────────────┤
│ 37  │ Olympus            │ Pleasure                 │
├─────┼────────────────────┼──────────────────────────┤
│ 38  │ Oresville          │ Agricultural             │
├─────┼────────────────────┼──────────────────────────┤
│ 39  │ Oxford             │ Special                  │
├─────┼────────────────────┼──────────────────────────┤
│ 40  │ Palan              │ Agricultural             │
├─────┼────────────────────┼──────────────────────────┤
│ 41  │ Perry Naval Base   │ Special                  │
├─────┼────────────────────┼──────────────────────────┤
│ 42  │ Remus              │ Refinery                 │
├─────┼────────────────────┼──────────────────────────┤
│ 43  │ Rilke              │ Refinery                 │
├─────┼────────────────────┼──────────────────────────┤
│ 44  │ Rodin              │ Agricultural             │
├─────┼────────────────────┼──────────────────────────┤
│ 45  │ Romulus            │ Mining                   │
├─────┼────────────────────┼──────────────────────────┤
│ 46  │ Rygannon           │ Mining                   │
├─────┼────────────────────┼──────────────────────────┤
│ 47  │ Saratov            │ Mining                   │
├─────┼────────────────────┼──────────────────────────┤
│ 48  │ Siva               │ Agricultural             │
├─────┼────────────────────┼──────────────────────────┤
│ 49  │ Smallville         │ Pirate                   │
├─────┼────────────────────┼──────────────────────────┤
│ 50  │ Speke              │ Pleasure                 │
├─────┼────────────────────┼──────────────────────────┤
│ 51  │ Surtur             │ Agricultural             │
├─────┼────────────────────┼──────────────────────────┤
│ 52  │ Thisbury           │ Refinery                 │
├─────┼────────────────────┼──────────────────────────┤
│ 53  │ Trinsic            │ Agricultural             │
├─────┼────────────────────┼──────────────────────────┤
│ 54  │ Tuck's             │ Pirate                   │
├─────┼────────────────────┼──────────────────────────┤
│ 55  │ Valkyrie           │ Mining                   │
├─────┼────────────────────┼──────────────────────────┤
│ 56  │ Victoria           │ Agricultural             │
├─────┼────────────────────┼──────────────────────────┤
│ 57  │ Vishnu             │ Mining                   │
├─────┼────────────────────┼──────────────────────────┤
│ 58  │ Wickerton          │ Refinery                 │
├─────┼────────────────────┼──────────────────────────┤
│ 59  │ Derelict Base      │ Special (Privateer only) │
├─────┼────────────────────┼──────────────────────────┤
│ 60  │ Gaea               │ Agricultural (RF only)   │
└─────┴────────────────────┴──────────────────────────┘
reddit.com
u/schlangz — 18 days ago
▲ 16 r/WingCommanderUniverse

Wing Commander 1 Reloaded - Discord and Playable Alpha

Our friend cryptomax just released the playable alpha for his Wing Commander 1 remake based on the assets from Howard Day. Spoiler Alert: it looks fantastic!

You can talk to him in his Discord server (Invite here) where you can also get the download link.

https://preview.redd.it/y7gw7s8i8orh1.png?width=1270&format=png&auto=webp&s=50a60b99b24a73a39b376e1f2e9ecdb7d97e3bb4

https://preview.redd.it/nb7r1xn59orh1.png?width=1275&format=png&auto=webp&s=0d3b9f2457dcb679fd299033ac8e449bf3a279f0

https://preview.redd.it/sxs2609a9orh1.png?width=1276&format=png&auto=webp&s=6c6bfed45c6be30d2e02518aa9531653962f6ada

reddit.com
u/schlangz — 20 days ago
▲ 10 r/WingCommanderUniverse

OpenPrivateer: Multiplayer support sneak-peak

Multiplayer features implemented:

  • Shared Universe: Multiple players across shared, persistent star systems
  • Flight: Server-authoritative movement, autopilot and hyperspace jumps
  • Combat: PvP/PvE with guns, missiles, turrets, ramming, damage and destruction
  • NPCs: Server-controlled AI with persistent WAND encounters
  • Bases: Landing, private base sessions, refueling and relaunching
  • Networking: Dedicated server, prediction/interpolation and direct-IP connections
reddit.com
u/schlangz — 24 days ago
▲ 5 r/WingCommanderUniverse

Wing Commander Reloaded - Campaign Builder

This is a video about the campaign builder for Wing Commander Reloaded, a WC1 remake in Unity based on the artwork of Howard Day (https://x.com/howieeday).

I heard a playable Alpha will be released soon and I will ask him to make another youtube video of the actual gameplay.

2026 is such a great year for Wing Commander fans.

youtube.com
u/schlangz — 1 month ago
▲ 163 r/WingCommanderUniverse+2 crossposts

OpenPrivateer - August 2026 Development Update

Hello my friends, it's me again. Now that I have collected enough feedback from the earlier posts, it's time for a proper development update.

I'm also switching to monthly updates from now on.

OpenPrivateer, my reimplementation of Wing Commander: Privateer and Righteous Fire, is still very much under development, but a surprisingly large part of Privateer's game flow is now functional using the real original game data and assets.

Screenshots are taken in 1152x864 window size and xBRZ 2x pixel scaler.

What's working today

Startup and original presentation

The game loads the real PRIV.TRE and RF.TRE data, including the Privateer/Righteous Fire mode-selection splash, the real voiced intro cutscene and the title screen.

Bases and world navigation

All 10 launch pads and every interior/base scene are accessible, with real per-base music, animated sprites and tiles, and NPC visibility.

Mission Computer - Quine 4000

The Mission Computer has a working savegame browser, the original keypad artwork and functional MISSIONS, FIN and MAN tabs driven by actual save data.

Enhanced and Modern modes add the ability to reject an already accepted mission using the REJCT button (that's part of the original game assets which never made it into the final game).

Ship Dealer

Repair & Upgrade supports actual buying, selling and repairing, including a hardpoint picker and ownership state loaded from the savegame.

Commodity Exchange

Commodity trading works, including buying and selling with prices and stock rolled for each visit.

Software Booth

The Software Booth includes the real quadrant maps and scanner catalog. For the open universe, I may add something there to show the current sector's maps, not only Gemini sector.

Mission Boards

The Merchants' Guild, Mercenaries' Guild and First Sector Mission Machine generate real mission offers directly from the original assets.

Oxford Research Computers

The original Oxford Library Steltek artifact-analysis cutscene sequence is working.

Space Flight

You can launch into space with all four ships and fly using the cockpit HUD. The original takeoff, landing and hyperspace-jump cutscenes are working as well. Autopilot and hyperspace-jump still use a dummy flyby.

The Navigation Map has been reconstructed with jump points, the quadrant star maps and mission objectives.

I've also extended it with a Sector Overview, allowing the original 320x200 Privateer map interface to browse the wider fictional Wing Commander universe beyond Gemini.

The map now supports quadrant, sector and multi-sector navigation while remaining compatible with the original DOS-resolution interface.

Self-destruct works, at the moment it's the only way to die.

Audio

There are currently three MIDI backends (OPL2, SF2 Soundfont and OS pass-through) plus a "CD-audio" option (supporting WAV/FLAC/MP3, if you have a better name for it let me know), with the original per-scene and combat music.

Rendering

OpenPrivateer supports Render Scale, Texture Filtering and a real GPU implementation of xBRZ pixel scaling. I've also ported DOSBox Staging's full Color Grading pass (including phosphor profiles, color temperature and tone curves).

Modding and translation

There's already a content-override system for mods (quadrants, sectors, systems, ships, and a couple more) and a full UI translation framework.

The English translation catalogue is generated automatically and languages can be switched in-game. New languages can be added at any point, but at the moment you are limited to the original fonts which only support English A-Z characters (no accents etc.).

Platforms

Windows, Linux and macOS builds are produced automatically by CI on every push.

What's still missing

No space combat. There are currently no friendly or hostile ships populating space, weapons cannot be fired, and there is no functioning combat/damage system yet.

That also means the underlying systems still need to be connected: live shield drain and regeneration, missiles and launchers, ammunition, projectile spawning and homing, targeting and lock-on, tractor beams, AI ship spawning and disposition, and explosion/particle effects.

There are also no external/chase cameras yet. Flight is currently cockpit-only, however the cockpit sprites can be hidden.

Original savegames can be loaded, but OpenPrivateer does not write them yet. Classic mode is supposed to create savegames that can be loaded in the original DOS-game.

Non-plot mission objectives aren't tracked during flight yet. The original mission-script system has been reverse engineered and documented, but the remaining objective behavior still needs to be connected to the new implementation.

The in-flight communication/dialogue UI is also missing. The NPC portrait compositor itself already works, but currently only through a debug preview (CTRL-click).

What comes next?

Combat. A considerable amount of the original combat architecture has already been reverse engineered, including shields, energy systems, weapon mounts and parts of targeting and damage handling. The next major development phase is turning that knowledge into the actual playable combat loop.

HD and widescreen support will come later and gradually evolve alongside the main development, while the original 320x200 experience remains the priority for now (I want the DOS-compatible interface to remain fully functional).

Can I download it?

Not yet. The development repository is still private, and I'd rather make the first public builds reasonably easy to install and test instead of throwing an unexplained nightly ZIP at everyone.

I'm planning to make the first public builds available with the September development update.

You'll need to own a copy of the Wing Commander: Privateer CD-ROM Edition, as OpenPrivateer uses the original game assets and does not distribute them.

I'll also be setting up a Discord server soon, so there'll be a place for development updates, testing, feedback, modding, technical discussions and general chatter.

As always, feedback and ideas are very welcome, especially from people who have played and know Privateer.

Cheers

Edit: New website is online: https://openprivateer.org

u/schlangz — 2 months ago
▲ 8 r/unrealtournament

UT99 and the recorded demo playback vs missing files issue, solved

Hello my friends, I think I figured out a way how you can playback your old UT99 demorec files even if you lost the required .utx or .u files.

I had a good laugh watching some of my 1999 gameplay again, and in case you have a demo file you really want to play, but can't, let me know. I want to test my approach against other files before I actually create a generic script that everybody can just run.

Cheers & Thank you

reddit.com
u/schlangz — 2 months ago
▲ 74 r/WingCommanderUniverse+1 crossposts

OpenPrivateer - Open universe feedback

Hello my friends, as most of you already know I'm currently working on OpenPrivateer (Wing Commander Privateer remake) and I just fed it the entire fan-made Wing Commander Universe map data on top of the Gemini sector data.

Attached are quadrant screenshots from Vega, Enigma and Gemini sectors.

It has been fun to adjust the navigation map screen because the box is tiny and the canon quadrants are pretty crowded:

  • Right-click zooms out from Quadrant to Sector overview
  • Right click zooms out from Sector view to Sectors overview
  • Auto-placement of labels so they don't draw over each other (99% success rate)
  • Shift-click on a system only shows its direct jump lines on the screen
  • Shift-click on a system replaces its system info with jump destinations in the MFD
  • Arrow keys serve as a quadrant walker

The modding extension point already allows for blacklisting sectors, quadrants and systems, and you can add your own sectors, quadrants, systems and nav points (bases / planets) incl. the starting point for a new game into the existing quadrants.

  • Do you guys have more/better ideas?
  • Anything else you would want to do/see there?
  • How should we populate the empty systems? (only the jump points are getting auto generated as nav points)

I'm not going to implement another/new map screen until the game has been ported to support HD/widescreen, so for now we have to make it work in the original Privateer map screen (we need to have a working 320x200 map anyway so we can re-compile it for MSDOS).

A few of my ideas already implemented:

Imgur

  • Route planning: Implemented
    • CTRL-click a system to calculate and highlight the shortest jump route. The MFD could show something like "System A → System B: 6 jumps" and optionally list the intermediate systems, resp. adding a note that refuelling is required
  • Visited / unvisited systems
    • Distinguish systems the player has actually visited from systems that are merely known from the map
  • Current-location shortcut: Implemented
    • Press home key to immediately return to the player’s current system/quadrant after browsing somewhere on the other side of the universe
  • Reachability display: Implemented
    • Hold CTRL to grey out everything unreachable based on current fuel/range
  • More map metadata: Implemented
    • Allow optional properties such as faction, description, danger level, known/unknown state, population/type, etc.

Cheers & Thank you

u/schlangz — 2 months ago
▲ 486 r/WingCommanderUniverse+2 crossposts

OpenPrivateer (Wing Commander Privateer remake)

Hello my friends, I am currently working on an OpenPrivateer project. The goal is to port the original MSDOS game to SDL3 so it can be enjoyed on modern computers and devices.

No game assets will be supplied and you need your own copy of the MSDOS CD version to play it (can be bought on GOG).

The first milestone will be recreating the original MSDOS behavior, and after that there will be changes and add-ons (e.g. HD assets, open world, and probably a lot more). Everything sits currently in a private Github repository, but once the project is mature enough it will be open for everybody eventually.

What I'm looking for here are your opinions:

  • what should be changed
  • what should be added
  • what shouldn't be touched

Let me know what you think.

I already added switches for Classic/Enhanced/Modern versions of the game, e.g. "Enhanced" will allow you to open the mission computer (load/save etc.) in any screen of the game.

I'm also going to look for a handful of alpha testers in case somebody wants to participate.

Edit: thanks for the overwhelming feedback.

I tried to consolidate all the comments into this list (unordered).
Please keep in mind that this is not a roadmap, but I will take every request seriously.

  • Modding support and accessible tools for creating missions/campaigns
  • Support for additional ships, systems, sectors and other custom content
  • Modern resolutions, widescreen and ultrawide support
  • Enhanced graphics while retaining the original 2D/sprite aesthetic
  • Larger battles / more ships on screen
  • Improved controller/gamepad support (also mobile/touch-friendly controls)
  • QoL improvements without changing the original gameplay
  • VR support

The "Classic" game mode will stay 1:1 true to the MSDOS release, untouched by any features or changes (and also none the bugs will be fixed there).

u/schlangz — 2 months ago