It's been in the works for some time now but finally here is the Update 2 release!
New Releases
TIE Fighter v6.0: Totally new version of the TIE Fighter created by DTM.
It comes with a new Dynamic Cockpit, HD textures and a fully detailed Exterior with modelled pilot.
As well as Damaged, First Order and Mining Guild optional skins pack and a Wrecked TIE profile!
Please see the readme file for the full details here: Readme\XWAU Crafts\TIE Fighter Readme.docx
Outland TIE Fighter v1.0: New variation of the TIE Fighter as seen in The Mandalorian, created by DTM.
This TIE looks the same on the outside but has folding S-foil wings and opening landing gear.
It can be selected to replace the standard TIE Fighter by using the options in Babu Frik’s Configurator.
It comes with a new Dynamic Cockpit, HD textures and a fully detailed Exterior with modelled pilot.
As well as Damaged, First Order and Mining Guild optional skins pack and a Wrecked TIE profile!
Please see the readme file for the full details here: Readme\XWAU Crafts\TIE Fighter Outland Readme.docx
TIE Interceptor v6.0: Totally new version of the TIE Interceptor created by DTM.
It comes with a new Dynamic Cockpit, HD textures and a fully detailed Exterior with modelled pilot.
As well as Damaged and Royal Guard optional skins pack and a Wrecked TIE profile!
Please see the readme file for the full details here: Readme\XWAU Crafts\TIE Interceptor Readme.docx
Animations by Blue Max - Now we can have animated textures in the Dynamic Cockpit Opts. This creates more realism and enhances the feel of flying a real fighter! This means things like simulating cockpit video displays, moving images or even laser lock on animations.
Cockpit Damage Animations by Blue Max - Also unlocked is the ability to trigger animations based on Events. This allows us to add Cockpit damage textures and animations as well! If certain parts of your ship are damaged then your cockpit will start showing damaged areas or even electrical sparks inside screens. It’s an amazing improvement.
First to use these features in different levels are the A-wing, B-wing, X-wings from Spyder, Y-wing, Z-95 and the new TIE Fighter and Interceptor. We will be improving on or adding these to more cockpits in other future updates.
Animated Light Maps by Blue Max. Aka Blinky Lights. A new feature that illuminates textures to appear on and off
First to use these features are: Azzameen Family Base, Casino, Imperial Shuttle, and A-Wing cockpits from Blue Max.
DTM has also updated the TIE Fighter, TIE Interceptor and Cargo Facility 1 with its own Animated Light Maps.
Vince T has made animated Billboard textures for Errant Venture variant (Requires Skin and ObjectProfile listings)
Dynamic Cockpit: Throttle Bar by Blue Max. New cockpit indicator bar for the throttle seen in Dynamic Cockpits.
First to use this feature are the B-wing, X-wings from Spyder and the new TIE Fighter and Interceptor.
Also introduced is the ability to read Dynamic Cockpit textures from a DAT file, so you can have many images in one file.
Skins: DTM has created new skins for the Assault Gunboat to use when setup in custom missions.
Black Ops, Crimson Squadron and Winter Squadron. Also “Void” template skins have been made for creators to use.
Also included are Template skins for the X-wing by Spyder, new TIE Fighters and the Imperial Star Destroyer 2 Skins.
For the necessary codes and pictures of the Skins see the XWA FlightModels\Skins\ folder.
Editing Guides: Ace Antilles, DTM and Blue Max have created new Guides explaining some of the new features.
There are guides explaining Animations and Skins and Profiles with tutorials of how to use them
Please see the PDF files in the new Readmesection for the full details here: Readme\Editing\
Updates
Please backup any configurations files or changes that you have custom edited before installing this Update, as this release could reset them to defaults.
This release has many changes to Effects, Flightmodel INI, Dynamic Cockpits and Material files.
Alliance Launcher – The Launcher image has had a little make over.
Animated Light Maps - Aka Blinky Lights. A new feature that illuminates textures to appear on and off
Azzameen Family Base – The outside hangar landing pad cross now lights up in sequence.
Casino – The Dunari’s Casino sign now lights up in sequence.
Cargo Facility 1 – Flashing lights added around the Facility and highlighted hangar entrance arrow.
Assault Gunboat - Changed the Assault Gunboat Reticle to use a new combination style based on feedback.
DTM has created 3 new skins to use when setup in custom missions. Black Ops, Crimson Squadron and Winter Squadron. Also “Void” template skins have been made for creators to use.
Ace created a BlackOps profile for use with the Skin. This hides the flashing light on the top wing for stealth running.
Babu Frik’s Configurator – Updates to the pictures and logo from Ace Antilles. Minor grammar changes.
Bloom Effects: The Menu setting has changed. Medium is now the Default choice, not High.
We feel this is a better overall balanced choice. If you want to keep the previous look then select the High option.
TIE Fighter Window: These options were removed. Alternative ways to use this choice maybe available in the future.
Weapons: The Laser choices descriptions were updated to better explain what the differences are.
Dynamic Cockpits – Textures can now be read from a DAT file, so you can have multiple images in one file.
Converted files to dat: A-wing, B-wing, X-wing, Y-wing, Z95 and all TIE Fighters.
Effects – New folder which stores the Animation and Dynamic Cockpit Dat files in one location.
New resource Dat files for Animations and Cockpit Damage. These will be added to and used with multiple ships.
New DDraw updates from JérémyaFr and Blue Max. Also all the latest VR Beta files have been added.
Hangars – Minor improvements to many Hangar Maps. Fixes Shuttles, take off, layouts, full custom coding options etc.
Asteroid Base – Updated Hangar Map. Illumination removed and Material file added to fix a lighting issue.
Corvette FarStar, Corvette Freedom - Added Transport Shuttles and elevation to the hangars and updated map codes.
Dreadnaught - Updated Hangar Map and map codes.
Frigate Carrier, Frigate Strike - Added Transport Shuttles to the hangars and updated map codes.
Imperial Star Destroyer Hangars - Vince T fixed a bad illumination texture on the far side.
Imperial Research Center has a new Hangar map layout.
Interdictor2 – Swapped the ISD hangar for the VSD version. It’s smaller so makes more sense for now. Updated Map.
Modified Frigate - Updated Hangar Map with all Faction choices.
Platforms – Swapped out the Missile Boat, fixed the landing height of the Gunboat.
Rebel Platform - Updated Hangar Map. Shuttle now launches off the end properly. Added Imperial hangar map.
Pirate Shipyard – Updated Hangar Map codes.
Super Star Destroyer – Updated Hangar Map.
Due to the way the Rescue Shuttle works there are issues with Shuttles in some new custom Hangars. If you get destroyed then you may land in the wrong spot. Right now, there’s no simple fix for this issue. Hit Q if there’s no Shuttle.
FlightModels INI – Ace Antilles has spent many hours updating the INI files for opt models used in Updates 1 and 2.
Added are extra codes or descriptions for what each line does. This can help to understand or modify them for custom use
IMPORTANT! Backup all files before editing these features. A wrong edit can break the ship or crash the game!
The descriptions have ; before them which means the game won’t read them or interfere with its action. Not every line can have a description on it though. I recommend you don’t alter most lines but hopefully it can help custom builders.
Please see the Hooks readme file for the full details on the commands here: Readme\Hooks\Hooks_Readme.txt
Hooks - The latest Hooks by Jérémy Ansel (JérémyaFr) as of the date of this release.
Note: The Hook files are only overwritten if the existing file is older than the new file, otherwise installation is skipped.
ALL Hooks: Now the CFG (config) files are read before the ini files. This is a main change to all the Hooks. Hooks.ini still controls the Hooks if you edit a section and there is no CFG file in the main XWA folder directory.
It was starting to cause issues with custom builders and new releases would often overwrite changes not backed up.
Hook_D3dinfos_Textures.dll. Updated Hook. Now the illumination is not rendered for disabled crafts.
A new idea from the team. When a ship is disabled the bright lights go out! It doesn't change textures, just illumination.
Hook_Joystick_Ff.dll. Updated Joystick hook. You can now select the controllers either by their index (position starting from 0) or by their ID (Product identifier).
Hook_Sfoils.dll. Added a "ParkOrderSFoilsClosed" setting. To close the S-Foils when the craft is parked you need to add this into a craft INI. ParkOrderSFoilsClosed = 1. To disable, set "0". The default value is "0"
We haven’t yet enabled this for every viable ship as there’s some issues with the orders not allowing the Sfoils to open.
Thanks to marcop000, the in-game S-foil messages are now translated into other languages.
The options are: it (Italian), es (Spanish), fr (French), de (German), en (English) To use the Language setting, open Hook_Sfoils.cfg from the main XWA folder. Set Language = to what you want it to be. The default value is en.
Imperial Star Destroyer II v2.4 - Fixes some issues and brings the texture features up to date:
- Fixed an issue that caused some model parts missing, when using the FPS-friendly profile.
- Updated Engine textures, Material files, Hangar Map, INI details and laser colours correction.
- Added animated Billboard textures for Errant Venture variant (Requires Skin and ObjectProfile listings)
Vince T has edited the Imperial Star Destroyer II so that it now uses skins and not FG colours to use when setup in custom missions. The skins are the same as before. Chimaera, Errant Venture, New Republic, Rebel Alliance.
For the necessary codes see the XWA FlightModels\Skins\ImperialStarDestroyer2 folder.
Interdictor – Vince T created an Object Profile which turns the Interdictor into a Vindicator Class ship.
Ace Antilles created a Vindicator StatsProfile for use in custom missions. Increased Shield and Hull Strength.
Swapped the hangar with the one for Victory Star Destroyers, as it is a smaller size.
Palpatine Total Converter – Updates to the description name, pictures, icon and logos from Ace Antilles.
Readme files – Future Readme files will not have the version number (v6 etc) in the title and will be in Word format.
New Editing folder: Guides, Tutorials or other useful documents and PDFs will be added to this section.
New Updates folder: This section is where the Mega Patch Update Readme files will be will be added to.
All the XWA Upgrade Craft readme files with full creator details can be found here: Readme\XWAU Crafts
Shuttle – The landing gear is now separate to the Sfoil wings. So if you fly it you can manually open and close the gear.
New Animated Light Maps added so that the wing lights will blink on and off. Material file added to tweak it’s look with Effects.
Stats Profiles – A new feature, this mode allows you to give a ship different Statistics or performance in a mission without affecting the default ship. For example, you can set up a TIE Fighter to have added Shields or Hyperdrive, or decreased hull strength, speed and handling. This is all controlled from the StatsProfiles section in the Opts INI file.
You can choose from the different Craft profiles that have been made available by the creator in their relevant INI file.
IMPORTANT! Backup all files before editing these features. A wrong edit can break the ship or crash the game!
A Default Stats Profile has been added to many INI files but it is NOT activated. The game defaults are still active.
We recommend you do not change this but to use it as easy reference in creating your own profile.
Please see the Tutorial file in the Readme section for the full details here: Readme\Editing\Skins and Profile Guide.pdf
Super Star Destroyer – New Object Profiles added so you can hide extra Shield Generators if you prefer in missions.
TwoShields = Hides all but the Bridge Shield Generators. FourShields = Hides the 2 side Shield Generators only.
Battle 7: Mission 2 now uses the TwoShields profile so it only has 2 top Shield Generators to destroy not the default 6.
Trash Compactor Cleanup – As we add many new files or correct others it can lead to a lot of obsolete game files.
The installer now goes through and deletes those files that we setup. They will be added to the Backup directory if needed
Bug Fixes
Patch: Knockout – XwingAlliance.exe file has been patched to disable “Knockout”. This prevents the game crashing on some mission when something exploded.
B-Wing Cockpit - Fixed the two text boxes at either side and below the CMD (they were upside down), and improved the readability of the speed indicator. Added Throttle Bar, Lightmaps and damaged cockpit events.
Blank.opt – Material file removes the little white square when used with Hangar Roof Cranes.
Effects – Fixes to ddraw.dll. Corrects an issue with the Hyperspace animation rotating the wrong way.
Also fixed a bug where some laser lights were giving off too much surrounding flashing effects.
Hooks – Hook_Opt_Limit.dl: Fixed as it was causing an issue with the Salvage Yard mission Asteroid opt.
Hook_Mission_Objects.dll: Fixed an issue with Profiles not working correctly in all areas.
Hook_32bpp.dll: Fixed an issue with Skins not working at the right distances and in the Tech Library.
Hook_Weapon_Color.dll: Fixed an issue that was causing AI to fire Ions and Lasers at the same time.
This was causing many mission issues and may have been throwing off balance a lot.
Imperial Destroyer Hangars – ISD and ISD2 Hangar opts have had improved illumination and fixes.
Shiplist – Shiplist file has been patched to fix the Casino briefing icon display.
Skirmish Pics – Small changes to ShipStuffXWAU Dat files to help custom compatibility.
Specdesc – Specdesc file patched because the Assault Gunboat description was too long.
TGSmush – Bug fix for when multiple movies are played, then only the first movie is played.
Fixed a crash on game start when using the no dinput version of the main hook.
Mission changes
1B0m7fw – Battle 0: Mission 7. Sadly had to remove the previous Hangar Bay changes with the Sabra and Andrasta. Due to the odd way the family hangar works these were seen from outside. Replaced the containers as they appear in the cutscene film. Made the Hangar Crane hidden.
1B0m9w – Joining the Rebellion: Mission 2. New Hangar map full of X-wing Green group.
Mission tweaks thanks to @Blazingfirestorm. Stops Olin crashing and region goals starting too early before you arrive.
1B1m2fg – Battle 1: Mission 2. Mission tweaks thanks to Blazingfirestorm. The Star Galleons Viraxo Freight eventually would crash into each other. These have now been split up into 2 separate Flightgroups to give them more space.
1B2m3fg – Battle 2: Mission 3. Mission tweaks thanks to @the_stag . Freighter pattern changed to stop them from crashing into each other. Assault Gunboat wave is renamed as it was the same as the other factions Z95.
Previously fixed were some issues with the messages. Ace Antilles renamed the Z95’s from Raven to Dragon and gave them the Dragon FG skin to use to match. Also used the Hook features to change them into Dual motor versions.
1B4m5b – Battle 4: Mission 5. New Hangar map full of X-wing Blue and A-wing Gold groups.
EXE has been patched to prevent crashes on this mission when something exploded.
1B5m1g - Battle 5: Mission 1. Changed Z95 FG skin to match previous Bandit group. Changed Y-wing names from simply “Pirate” but also gave them the Pirate FG colour. Created a new Hangar map.
1B2m5g – Battle 2: Mission 5. Added a wait order to Liberty at the end of the mission. It was going to Hyperspace and crashing into Fighters attempting to land. Tweaked the voice messages to try and make them appear as they should.
1B6m2fb – Battle 6: Mission 2. Changed the FG to use the Chimaera Skin option.
1B7m1-4 - The Endor missions have been edited to make use of the ISD2 Chimaera skin.
The Shuttle has been added back to the missions so that it acts as the Rescue one properly.
1B7m2 – Battle 7: Mission 2. Using profiles, the SSD now only has 2 top Shield Generators to destroy not 6.
The Millennium Falcons loadout is now back to the original Concussion Missiles and not Torpedoes to compensate.
Also changed the way the Super Star Destroyer reacts after the Shields have been destroyed.
We hope you enjoy this update and look forward to the next!
![lachen :)](./images/smilies/icon_smile.gif)