Dark Forces Amiga port

[BSzili]

I started working on a native port of Dark Forces based on The Force Engine. There is already a 68k Mac version of DF, but the only video I found of it running on non-FPGA Amiga hardware is this:
[ Show youtube player ]
I'm sure it can be set up to run better, I'm just leaving it here for comparison.
edit: A better video of the Mac version running in ShapeShifter:
[ Show youtube player ]

For the Amiga port I had to strip away most of TFE's new features, but it inherited the input system and some technical changes that make it more friendly to multitasking OSes. Since the DOS Configuration window is gone, it's missing some kind of Preferences editor to customize the controls and change various settings. If you have no idea what to do for the Amiga Tool Jam, here's one for you.

Anyway, here are the Amiga executables:
http://bszili.morphos.me/stuff/TheForceEngine.040
http://bszili.morphos.me/stuff/TheForceEngine.060
http://bszili.morphos.me/stuff/TheForceEngine.info

MIDI instruments:
https://aminet.net/package/game/shoot/ADoom_Ins

Configuration program:
https://github.com/daedalus2097/tfeconfig/releases/

As usual, once I'm done I'll clean up the source code, and make a package for Aminet. That reminds me, I still have to do this for Death Rally, but I digress.

Source code:
https://github.com/BSzili/TheForceEngine/tree/amiga

Below is the draft of the readme file:

Readme and download package on Aminet:
https://aminet.net/package/game/shoot/tfe-darkforces

[Karlos]

It's interesting to compare the Jedi engine with the AB3D2 one. They have quite a lot of features in common, it seems.

[BSzili]

I'm not very familiar with AB3D, does it use a portal engine? If so then it's probably similar. On the PC it often gets compared to Build, it has less features but more flexible if that makes sense.

[paraj]

Just gave it a quick spin on my B1260/050, and the frame rate is great despite using DBLNTSC, like 10-15fps. Quick feedback: Mouse seems extremely sluggish in menus for some reason, and it might be nice to be able to choose screenmode on commandline rather than having to create an icon for tool type.

[Karlos]

Originally Posted by BSzili

I'm not very familiar with AB3D, does it use a portal engine? If so then it's probably similar. On the PC it often gets compared to Build, it has less features but more flexible if that makes sense.

Yes. AB3D doesn't use a BSP tree, it has a set of convex zones, adjacent pairs of which can share an edge, to form a portal. It supports room over room, but it's implemented zonally, that is to say, each zone has a lower and upper room definition.

[BSzili]

Originally Posted by paraj

Just gave it a quick spin on my B1260/050, and the frame rate is great despite using DBLNTSC, like 10-15fps. Quick feedback: Mouse seems extremely sluggish in menus for some reason, and it might be nice to be able to choose screenmode on commandline rather than having to create an icon for tool type.

That sounds about right, I usually get between 10-20 depending on the scene complexity. Traversing the sectors recursively through the portals is a major resource hog, so the opening scene in the elevator with the raising bars is pretty slow

Originally Posted by Karlos

Yes. AB3D doesn't use a BSP tree, it has a set of convex zones, adjacent pairs of which can share an edge, to form a portal. It supports room over room, but it's implemented zonally, that is to say, each zone has a lower and upper room definition.

That sounds similar, but Jedi's sectors can be any shape. It didn't support double adjoins (portals to two sectors) until Outlaws, so 3D bridges were implemented using a special case in its polygon drawing engine.

[Karlos]

Originally Posted by BSzili

That sounds about right, I usually get between 10-20 depending on the scene complexity. Traversing the sectors recursively through the portals is a major resource hog, so the opening scene in the elevator with the raising bars is pretty slow


That sounds similar, but Jedi's sectors can be any shape. It didn't support double adjoins (portals to two sectors) until Outlaws, so 3D bridges were implemented using a special case in its polygon drawing engine.

Concave sectors are maybe reduced into convex subzones. Rooms in AB3D can be any shape but are always divided into smaller convex polygons.

[Estrayk]

Great work BSzili! as always.!
sorry I couldn't help more with the beta versions but I'm on holiday.

[kempy]

Originally Posted by BSzili

There is already a 68k Mac version of DF, but the only video I found of it running on non-FPGA Amiga hardware is this:
[ Show youtube player ]
I'm sure it can be set up to run better, I'm just leaving it here for comparison.

It's something wrong with this video, probably bad gfx driver. I think i have similiar frame rate on Mac DF on 040/AGA (if it's fullscreen). I've finished DF on Mac under emu (Fusion) on a smaller window.

Also i'm going to check your port soon.

[abu_the_monkey]

top stuff

[BSzili]

Originally Posted by Estrayk

Great work BSzili! as always.!
sorry I couldn't help more with the beta versions but I'm on holiday.

No worries, I hope you are having a good time! It's never too late to give feedback as public testing has just started.

Originally Posted by kempy

It's something wrong with this video, probably bad gfx driver. I think i have similiar frame rate on Mac DF on 040/AGA (if it's fullscreen). I've finished DF on Mac under emu (Fusion) on a smaller window.

Also i'm going to check your port soon.

Yeah, I figured there's something off there as it shouldn't be that slow. One day I'll try to set up Shapeshifter or Fusion to have some apples to apples comparison.
Hopefully this version can at least match its speed, as it runs in the original 320x200 resolution.

[gimbal]

Originally Posted by BSzili

I'm not very familiar with AB3D, does it use a portal engine? If so then it's probably similar. On the PC it often gets compared to Build, it has less features but more flexible if that makes sense.

By people who know what they're talking about, quite a few people back in the day thought this was running on the Doom engine

Any case: this is pretty sick. No idea how you keep pulling off what seems to be the impossible.

[Aardvark]

Gameplay footage from TF1260, both 100MHz and 50MHz.
[ Show youtube player ]
Feature wishlist: Inverted Y-axis, and customized keyboard controls, as WASD doesn't work well using left mouse hand.

[ShK]

Good that we will have our own port! Playing a Dark Forces with the PC-Task 4 (640x480, jump to 3:39)

[ Show youtube player ]

[Nobby_UK]

Where are the key bindings saved ?

[Main] The Force Engine
v1.09.200

[Paths] Program Path: "Applications:Star Wars/"
[Paths] Program Data: ""
[Paths] User Documents: ""
[Paths] Source Data: "Applications:Star Wars/"
[Startup] TFE_System::init
[Display] Fullscreen enabled.
[Display] Vertical Sync enabled.
[RenderBackend] Setting video mode 320x200 (8-bpp fullscreen)

[RenderBackend] Opened screen: 0x50001000 UAE: 320x 200 8bit

[Startup] TFE_AudioSystem::init
[Audio] Audio initialized using mode 'UAE :16 bit HIFI Stereo++'.
[Startup] TFE_MidiPlayer::init
[Error : Midi] Cannot load soundfont 'SoundFonts/SYNTHGM.sf2'.
[Error : Midi] Invalid midi type selected: 3
[Game] Dark Forces Version: 1.0 (Build 1)
[Progam Flow] The Force Engine Game Loop Started
[Player] Setting up level 'SECBASE'
[Warning : level_loadGeometry] Could not open 'ZWIMP10L.BM', using 'default.bm' instead.
[Warning : level_loadGeometry] Could not open 'ZWIMP11.BM', using 'default.bm' instead.
[Warning : level_loadINF] Hit the end of INF 'SECBASE' before parsing all items: 58/60
[Audio] Shutdown
[MidiPlayer] Shutdown
[Progam Flow] The Force Engine Game Loop Ended.

[Paulee_Alex_Bow]

Thanks so much for this! I’ll be trying this out on my TF1260

[Aardvark]

Originally Posted by Nobby_UK

Where are the key bindings saved ?

As BSzili's readme states, keyboard mapping is not supported, but you may find some success in hex editing the tfe_input_remapping.bin file

[By7eX]

Just wanted to say it works great! No silly AHI mode fiddling required, it just works out of the box for me W/ TF1260@62MHz. Bought the GOG version, like $4, and copied the files needed from there. I got hopelessly lost in level 3 (the sewers) but that's not your fault. I hope it saved my progress, couldn't find any save game option. I assume it saves between levels.

Really good game, this. Love the "CGI" cutscenes with full speech. Confusing level layouts, but give it some time and you'll be totally immersed.
Also thought I'd mention that the midi_instruments improved the Adoom1 and 2 music A LOT, so there's that aswell.

Thanks BSZili, never thought I'd see this game ported and working flawlessly.

I googled the keys for the pc game, and this is mostly correct for this too, except crouch is CTRL not C;
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfil.../?id=256062464

[Nobby_UK]

Originally Posted by Aardvark

As BSzili's readme states, keyboard mapping is not supported, but you may find some success in hex editing the tfe_input_remapping.bin file

Did not see anything ---

[Aardvark]

Originally Posted by Nobby_UK

Did not see anything ---

You can use keycode values from source for reference, just convert them to hex first https://github.com/luciusDXL/TheForc...ut/inputEnum.h

WASD controls are mapped to these addresses:
1DB=Forward
1EB=Back
1FB=Strafe Left
20B=Strafe Right
28B=Crouch
29B=Jump
2AB=Interact