WC4 Remastered Update Focuses on Gameflow, Menus and User Interface

The WCRespace team is back with a new update on the WC4 Fan Remake. There's a whole new article by Pedro that goes into great detail about the game's user interface. He says it's not the most glamorous subject, and it might be tedious to design and program, but I love these liminal console screens. They're critical glue that helps sell the total experience. An especially big deal this time around is the adjustment to accommodate 16:9 widescreen settings. It takes some finesse to make them look authentic compared to the original 4:3 shape. The fourth and fifth images below are especially stark - they compare the original loading screen with today's update!

Now brute forcing in new UI wouldn’t be impossible but that removes some of the nostalgia. No problem, we’ll just upscale them like we do the rooms… except we optionally support 16:9 by zooming in on the gameflow rooms, and there is no way we could zoom in on the 4:3 terminal screens.

Fortunately FeklyrTarg came to the rescue and extended out the original images for us giving us 16:9 terminals (sorry fellow 21:9 fans, we’re going for consistency and zooming in on the rooms beyond 16:9 isn’t a good look. We will keep supporting you in gameplay however!).

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Ship map is now the default view when you bring up the pause screen. In the original game you had to press ‘M’ which meant having read the manual – something unfortunately difficult to convince modern gamers to do.

We are also ensuring that all menus and rooms can be navigated with a gamepad (and have added hotspot cycling).

And with that, other than the credits, the gameflow UI is complete, even if unpolished. Unfortunately for my soul there’s still the in-game UI to complete :)

WC4 Fan Remake Developers Get Specific

With the help of EmuMusicFan I believe we now have some minimum specs. He helped test with low GPU memory and movie playback optimizations to get 60fps 1080p h265 running at speed with only 2 cores.

Minimum specs: (No shadows, no post process)
2 Core CPU
2GB GPU (Probably 860M/750Ti)
8GB Memory

Recommended specs:
4 Core CPU
6GB GPU (Something like a 980Ti)
8GB Memory

Ideal specs:
4 Core CPU
8GB GPU (Something like a 1070Ti)
16GB Memory

If these specs seem too high for anyone give a shout out.

I'm trying to add good default keybindings for different flight sticks/ HOTAS setups to the Wing IV Remake Demo.

Would people mind posting the string that appears in USB Game Controllers (*exactly* as it appears) here, including the name of seperate rudder/ throttle if you have them. Finally if you could take a photo of the stick and label the buttons as they show up in the properties (or ideally an online image someone has already done).

Long term we want to have customizable mappings but for now if you want good default mappings for your favourite stick this is the way :)

New Fan Art Highlights Galaxy Hauler

Today we have a new take on Privateer's Galaxy spacecraft, one of the larger vessels WC fans get to pilot. This one was built by Pedro Ambrosi in Blender. A handful of blue tints and highlights have been added, which give it some nice contrast compared to the fairly monochromatic version we see in the game. It also has a bit of a metallic sheen. All of the major elements are well represented, from the top and bottom turrets to the maneuvering thrusters to the inward cant of the upper engine nacelles. The fiery glow of all the engine nozzles is also a nice touch!

This is a Little Pet Project of mine: Galaxy Ship from WC: Privateer.

Hope you like it.

WC4 Fan Remake Overhauls Autopilot Implementation

As the WC4 Fan Remake continues down the path towards being a functional game, there are lots of secondary elements that need careful consideration. Autopilot isn't something Wing Commander fans spend a lot of time thinking about, but it's critical in WC3/4 due to the spaces between nav points. The exterior autopilot camera is also handled differently than other perspective angles, so Pedro had to create a special camera configuration so that these sequences felt right. ODVS put together an awesome video to show all this in action! You can read more about the process at WCRespace here.

There was just one problem: all the action takes place at the second navpoint and we have to get there first! Unfortunately in Wing Commander IV the decision was taken to make space vast. Flying between waypoints manually isn’t the practical option that it was in WC1-2. There was no way around it; we had to implement the autopilot before moving forward.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to everyone out there! It's another challenging holiday season for most folks around the world, but we hope you're making the most of it and staying safe. EmuMusicFan put together this festive Kilrathi for you to enjoy, so we're not without a fun image for the news this year. We'd also like to thank Will for reminding us to put the Christmas lights up a couple weeks back. They really put me in a wintery mood, and if you'd like to share in the Christmas spirit, drop by #Wingnut on Discord to hang out too!

Finally able to use my Christmas present, party like it’s 1995

WC4 Remake Adds New Capship & Other Enhancements

The WC4 Fan Remake team is back with a new report on the steady progress they have been making in recent months. DefianceIndustries has implemented a fantastic update to the Caernaven frigate - just look at that thing! Pedro has also upgraded the game's physics engine, better integrated menu updates and added improved video features. You can read all about these updates and the path towards a playable demo in their new WCRespace article here.

Until now we had been in what I would describe as pre-production. When we wanted to show off a new ship I would make a new entity definition by hand, completely ignoring the ship stats, missile stats, manually setting what classic model to use.

Now I intend to turn that process on its head and start dynamically generating entity definitions based on the data when you load the game. This is an involved process but if goes to plan it should mean that the manual work involved is significantly reduced.

Remastered WC4 Video Reaches New Heights

The WC4 Fan Remake team is back with a new article on what's been happening lately. Specifically, ODVS goes in depth with some of the video magic that he and Pedro have recently introduced. They've managed to overcome some of the obstacles to efficient file sizes by very cleverly leveraging technology. The net effect is that the video clips have the smallest file sizes but best visual quality yet. ODVS tells it much better than I can, so head over to WCRespace and read the latest! You can also watch this new video to compare the original WC4, Owen's HD pack 5.0 and a prototype pass for the remastered game. Blow the video up into a 4K stream to see the full improvement.

So what are the benefits to you, the player? You get the highest quality FMV we can deliver, looking as close to native HD as it possibly can, with file sizes that won’t hog your valuable hard drive or SSD space. Let’s run some numbers on how large these combined video files are:

• WCIV DVD Edition: 6.931GB (360p MPEG-II VOB)
• WCIV HD Pack V5.0: 6.918GB (1080p h.264 VOB)
• WCIV – Remastered: 4.457GB (1080p 60fps h.265 MP4)

Our new FMV takes up ~64% of the storage space of both the original game’s DVD video and the latest version of my HD Video Pack. This is despite running at 60fps for smoother motion (Pedro has added a toggle to make this optional), improving the image fidelity and containing all three supported audio languages – English, German and French. I hope you’ll agree, that’s not a bad use of development time.

Extended Excalibur Enters the Arena

It's been an excellent week for Excalibur models! The Wing Commander community has its own version of the twin movie phenomenon where it seems like fans develop similar items in totally separate bubbles. As is often the case, the result here is that we have double the amazing eye candy to enjoy! In his latest masterpiece, Defiance_Industries designed a slightly beefed up Excalibur based on the Secret Ops version as a bridge to the concept version meant for Wing Commander Arena. There are some very handsome shots of it parked in the Victory's flight deck - plus pics alongside a classic Excalibur and Midway megacarrier. Last, but certainly not least, Defiance has mocked up an entire virtual history of this variant in an ICIS style recap. You can read up on that in a PDF here.

While Pedro is providing quality digital entertainment to the masses, I needed something to keep my skills sharp. So I revisited my WCP-ized version of the Excalibur. I decided to make it a demonstrator, similar to the Super Tomcat or the F-20 Tigershark in the real world. Designs that, for any number of reasons, were never purchased. In this case it's sort of a missing link between the F-103D's you see in Secret Ops, and the unseen Arena variant.

Initially I was going to add these images to the fun little fiction I put together, but I'm not really that crazy. Well, ok maybe I am. So we have the launch tube test from the TCS Mistral Sea circa 2683, an initial flight test image with an Excal D circa 2682, and images taken of F-103 EX #7 in its forever home aboard the TCS Victory museum (along with Tensabarriers of the future (tm)) in 2701. As always enjoy, and C&C welcome.

WC4 Fan Remake Talks Programming & Demo Timing

The WC4 Fan Remake team has a new update that touches on a variety of subjects. To start with, they've announced that the release of their playable demo will likely slide from this summer out to a later date in 2021. There are a few changes coming for it, but overall the main message is that lots of good progress is being made. To drive the point home about how complex this can be, however, the new article also has a detailed discussion about programming math that gives you a glimpse at the effort involved here. They could still use help in the 3D art and programming realms, so contact Pedro and the gang if that sounds like a role for you! Read the entire update at WCRespace here.

In order to minimize the delay one change we’re looking at is replacing the Intrepid model from the demo with the Lexington, which is already complete. The choice to use the Intrepid was always odd anyway as the gameflow in the demo is from the Lexington. This should free up Defiance to focus on other work that needs to be completed.

We have still made progress, and we now know what we need to for the demo – however we want to take extra time to add polish to ensure our first impression is a good one.

One issue is that we still haven’t found extra help in the roles of 3D art or programming. If you have the time and skills to contribute please let us know; it really will speed up development.

New Sights and Sounds Dot WC4 Fan Remake Update

The WC4 Fan Remake team has another significant update to share. This time around, Pedro speaks to a handful of different improvements that will be featured in the playable demo. DefianceIndustries' fantastic Thunderbolt and Arrow models have been incorporated, and the ships have been scaled to an appropriate degree. The first screenshot lower down is also an example of a refreshed flight deck. This one's from Bluepoint Station, but you'll be seeing the Intrepid's bay later on this year. ODVS has made a manufacturing placard as well to round out the graphical improvements, which is a nice touch. New coding has been implemented for the demo, and the team has added a new member, FilmCompos3r, who will be helping improve the music. A sample for that is below too! Check out the new article at WCRespace for a look at the updated ships and the full rundown on this week's updates.

As we hurtle towards the demo release we have a shortage of large features to report on, but we’ve done a bunch of smaller tasks that I’m going to outline here.

More Tests Show Potential of 60 FPS Video

ODVS is back with another exciting video update. With the continued advancement of various AI/neural net tools, Owen has found new potential in high framerate 60 hertz encodes. It's unlikely that the original game can be simply made to play footage like this, but the WC4 Fan Remake certainly could. The team is considering incorporating it as an option for players who want to switch between 30 and 60 frames. When done right, this style of video can look pretty slick, especially when seamlessly embedded with companion 60 FPS gameplay. I know I record all my own home movies in 60p these days too, so I've certainly gotten more used to it lately. Check out these two new impressive samples below to see what's possible. You can also download the latest full releases for WC3, WC4 and Prophecy here.

Hello all, minor update to share - has it really been two months?

DainApp recently reached V1.0 alpha status and entered open source development, so I started tinkering with the new version to see how much more stable it is - and the answer is "much more stable".

So I started playing around with the WCIV video and produced some stable, glitch-free and totally smooth 60fps videos.

I think this is a massive improvement over the previous 60fps experiment (from waaaaaay back in May) - so much so that I think we're going to make them an option in Wing Commander IV Remastered.

Don't worry for those of you who hate the dreaded "Soap Opera Effect" - I had a word with @Pedro and he said we can make 60fps video optional in the game settings. If you don't like it, you can turn it off and every other frame of video will be skipped, dropping playback back to 30fps.

I probably won't be releasing this as stand-alone HD Video Pack for the GOG/Origin releases as I have for previous versions, mainly because I don't think it they'll handle 60fps footage very well. Also, the download size will be enormous if I try to encode using h.264. For the Remastered project, we can look into using a more efficient video codec to keep those file sizes down.

One of the main goals for the remaster project is to make the transition between FMV and gameplay as seamless as possible - and I think this would go a long way to helping with that goal - going from 60+fps in-engine to 30fps in the FMV is ok, but if we can keep everything buttery smooth, I think that would be a better overall experience.

So, here are some samples :^)

Pause for Effect

Now we’re ramping up towards releasing our first playable demo next year, our thoughts are turning towards the more mundane elements of the game. It can’t all be flight engine and sexy HD videos. As such, Pedro tasked me with overhauling the game’s pause menu, in a similar vein to the redesign I already did for the game’s mouse cursors.

I thought it might be helpful for him to have an aesthetically functional prototype to work from, so he can see how I envisage it all laid out and how the UI animations could work.

Make Room for Drastically Better Scenery

As part of the ongoing Wing Commander IV Resmastered project (https://wcrespace.com), I've upscaled and remastered all the game's rooms, environments and sprite animations using ESRgan AI/Deep Learning. These are a few samples, along with comparisons to the original 640x480 room visuals.

You might think that remastering the rooms and sprite animations for Wing Commander IV would be a similar task to remastering the videos – I certainly did before I started – but it’s actually a very different beast.

For a start, all the “shapes” (as the game files call them) are static images. I was expecting that for the room backgrounds, but not for the sprite animations (Eisen and Maniac on the bridge, Vagabond in the bar etc.). Yet when Pedro extracted the files from the original game and sent them my way, there they were – eight thousand, five hundred and thirteen TGA files, comprising the rooms, hangars, computer consoles, buttons, toggles and every individual frame for every character animation.

Upscaling static images using AI is quite different to upscaling video footage. When you have an image sequence in a video file, the AI can analyse groups of frames, identify similarities and changes between them, gather and analyse depth information from parallax motion and interpolate a lot of data to add to the image. With a static frame, you don’t get that.

Learn About Remastering CGI Cutscenes

Defiance Industries is going to create some new CGI sequences for Wing Commander IV Remastered that match the originals as closely as possible in aesthetic and quality.

Defiance is, of course, capable of creating footage with far greater detail and visual fidelity than was possible on an SGI rig in the mid '90s; but if he does, it will somewhat throw shade over the original game's CGI sequences. So Defiance is putting a lot of work into creating sequences that match the aesthetic of a mid-'90s SGI render. I'll then be running them through my AI video remastering process so they don't stick out like a sore thumb in comparison to the original scenes.

This tech demo serves as a comparison for a very quick render against an original shot of the TCS Lexington.

WC4 Fan Remake Launches Full-Featured Website

It's not every day that fans open a new Wing Commander website, so we're very excited today to unveil the new site for the fan remake WC4 Remastered! Pedro and DefianceIndustries have been doing the ground work to get the game's engine and core assets together for a while now, and efforts have recently been kicked into higher gear with the addition of ODVS' talents on video enhancement and 2D art. Now everything they've been working on has been collected in one central hub. The site is nicely appointed with subsections for background info, project status, media and more. They also have an elaborate links page, which is a wonderful throwback to old webpage days. Everything even works well on mobile devices. Visit for yourself at WCRespace.com!

I'm proud and excited to release WCRespace.com to the web! This is the official website for the Wing Commander IV Fan Remake project. Pedro, Defiance and I have been working away on this for a few months and it's finally ready for public release. Check it out for more information on the project, lastest news, media previews and screenshots. We're planning to update the news section periodically with updates on the progess of the project and post new videos and media when they're ready.

WC4 Fan Remake Shows Off Latest Graphical Updates

All has been quiet on the WCIV remake front. That doesn't mean we haven't been hard at work, just that it hasn't been very visual work.

Still with the CIC birthday coming up again we've taken some time out over the last month or so to correct that. Here's a peak at one of the new features, adaptive screen spaced ambient occlusion. Although a very subtle effect it adds a lot of definition to the models.

As most models are static a lot of this could be baked in to the textures, but animated models like the Dragon or joints between turret and capship mesh will benefit from the real time nature of this effect. You may also notice that we have added some film grain so the in-game scenes match the FMV.

Enhanced WC4 Video Released in German & French! Plus English Fix

• Wing Commander 4: Version 4.0.1, English, Pack 1 (4.0 gig zip) (replaced by 4.0.1 on 7/27/20)
• Wing Commander 4: Version 4.0.1, English, Pack 2 (4.1 gig zip) (replaced by 4.0.1 on 7/27/20)
• Wing Commander 4: Version 4.0.1, German, Pack 1 (3.8 gig zip) (replaced by 4.0.1 on 7/27/20)
• Wing Commander 4: Version 4.0.1, German, Pack 2 (4.0 gig zip) (replaced by 4.0.1 on 7/27/20)
• Wing Commander 4: Version 4.0.1, French, Pack 1 (3.8 gig zip) (replaced by 4.0.1 on 7/27/20)
• Wing Commander 4: Version 4.0.1, French, Pack 2 (4.0 gig zip) (replaced by 4.0.1 on 7/27/20)

Just a quick update - there's a minor bug in the WCIV HD Pack V3.0 release that might cause playback and performance issues on some CPUs and chipsets (so if anyone's been having playback issues with it, this might be why).

Trying to cut the long story as short as possible, I forgot that the aspect ratio of the FMV in WCIV is a little all over the place - some sequences are just a little wider than others, leading to very small letterbox bars appearing at the top and bottom. Unfortunately, when I bulk compressed/encoded all the remastered sequences to the final files, the routine I was using detected those black bars and clipped them out of the frame. So while most of the sequences are a standard 1920x1080 resolution, some have weird resolutions like 1920x1076 or 1890x1080. We're frankly stressing the VOB container to be holding an HD image in the first place (since it was the standard used for DVDs back in the day) - and these non-standard aspect ratios can cause issues with some hardware.

This wouldn't be a problem if the game used hardware acceleration for video playback but it actually routes it all through the CPU - hence the problem. You might not experience any issues (I don't on my system, which is why I didn't catch this bug straight away), but I've replaced the V3.0 pack anyway.

Part 1 of both the German and French packs also contain a .BAT file (wc4dvd_DE.bat and wc4dvd_FR.bat, respectively). If you copy these into the same location as your wc4dvd.exe file ("C:/Program Files/GOG Games/Wing Commander IV", for example) and use them to launch the game, they'll activate all the German/French text, interface etc. Thanks to @Pedro for providing the command line extensions that activate the language localisation :)

New Video Sample Experiments with 60 FPS

Earlier this weekend we reported on some collaboration to integrate ODVS' significantly enhanced video with the upgraded WC4 game engine that Pedro and team are working on. This was a test to see how 60 FPS video would work to sync with the high frame rate of the gameplay. I think it looks pretty good. Some people find the hyper real sensation off-putting, but I think it fits better here than in other places. The team says it's unlikely that they'll go with the high motion cutscenes, but it's still pretty cool to see here. And this is one fantastic scene to rewatch!

This came off the back of a conversation with Pedro - he said since I've been remastering some of the WCP CD-ROM videos and upping them from 15fps to 30fps, could I up the WC4 DVD videos to 60fps? So I thought I'd give it a go :)

It's certainly interesting - but it possibly falls prey to the dreaded "Soap Opera Effect". However, in doing this, I figured out a few more improvements to the overall workflow that might make the newer process I came up with for the Vagabond scene less time consuming. It's all an evolving process.

Of course, the thing that would really help is if I could finally build my dream Threadripper video workstation. Anyone feel like starting a Kickstarter? ;p

WC4 Remake Experiments With Enhanced Video

Development on the WC4 Fan Remake has been generally slow of late, but Pedro has a few neat updates to report. He's done some testing with ODVS' fantastic enhanced video with great results. It'll be a perfectly complement to the gameplay updates that have been at the forefront so far. There has also been some discussion on new features like modern gamepad controller support as well as improving some of the development tools as well. There's still quite a bit of work to go, but it's good to hear the team is still on it!

To be honest development paused for a while, but I came back to it last night, did a few fixes; tested it with ODVS' AI upscale. It looks good, don't worry we'll be incorporating the best possible video when the time comes. I did make some progress on a particle editor, but Rear Admiral Tarsus is offering to help out with tools (which I am super grateful for). We have a potential volunteer for 2D work, we'll see how that works out. We're also always discussing how to modernize it for gamepads etc. Rebel Galaxy Outlaw is a good source for inspiration there.

WC4 Remake Experiments With Advanced Upscaling

Here's a potentially promising teaser of what might be possible for the WC4 Fan Remake. Pedro's recently done some experimentation with AI-assisted video enhancement, and the results are surprisingly positive. He reports that the ability to upscale still images is fantastic, so this will help sharpen up the game flow sets at least. There's a lot of work yet to be done to refine the video elements, but this promising technology will likely improve by the time the remake is ready to go. What's already possible seems to border on something from Star Trek, so we can't wait to see how it develops!

For stills it's excellent, we can definitely use this tech to up res the room images. For motion a lot of artifacts creep in. Still by the time WCIV is good to go I bet this technology will be good enough. If they can fix eyes in motion it would be useable; currently it's recognising shapes rather than features. For a face that's a problem It could happilly be used on CG scenes.