X-Wing Alliance 2020 Mega Patch available NOW!

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X-Wing Alliance 2020 Mega Patch available NOW!

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Ace Antilles
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Post by Ace Antilles » Fri Nov 27, 2020 2:58 pm

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Welcome Pilots to our brand new release of the X-WING ALLIANCE UPGRADE 2020 Mega Patch!
We've gone over the basic idea on the news page so here we will try and give some more details.
Craft Packs are nothing new to XWAU but they do take a lot of work to make. During 2020 XWAU has released more than just Opts, there's Effects, Cockpits, Rooms etc. So a lot more things to install and understand. This lead to the installation and setup process to be very time consuming, confusing and generally not being a good experience.
So to remedy that we are now finally ready to present you the newest all-in-one XWAU 2020 patch! A massive remake to make the whole experience a lot easier.

The "XWAU 2020 Mega Patch" is a total remake of our old Craft Packs from the ground up. It contains ALL the previous 20 years of releases in one installer.
It's all been bundled into a brand new clever installer from DTM and JeremyaFr. Now there are only a few simple choices it will guide you through that you need to install it and run the game. No more need to download 42 different installers.

Then you get to meet Babu Frik! Babu Frik's Configurator is a new program which is accessed from the Launcher.
It allows you to change the game to your liking. You can choose variation versions of the ships available, configure the graphic effects and toggle the different options for VR or TrackIR and more. It won't be necessary to reinstall XWAU 2020, you just go back and alter the options to whatever you prefer to use.

All the choices from the previous XWAU individual installers and more have been included in Babu Frik to give you tons of options to customize the game however you like.
They are all downloaded already to your game folder and found in one simple place which can be run from the Launcher.
An example of how this works: There are 7 different Corvette models available.
If you want to try the Phoenix option then you select that. If you don't like it then you go back and run Babu Frik's Configurator and swap it. Simple!

babu.PNG

The same applies for the Effects by Blue Max. You can easily go back and forth tweaking and testing the options until you are happy with the looks.

That's not all though! There are also several new ships too that have never been released before now!
An updated Calamari Cruiser Defiance and Stormtrooper Transport, a brand new Modified Strike Cruiser and several options of the amazing new X-wing and Y-wing!
You can see new pictures and videos in the Showcase and more on the new ships in the Forum - HERE

news.png

Another new tool is the Palpatine Total Converter. Use the Converter to save one or two versions of XWAU 2020 modified by you, without the need to install multiple copies of X-Wing Alliance on your Hard Drive. The idea of this is if you want to have the original game but also want a custom version with new spaceships in different slots, custom missions etc, then the Converter will allow you to save multiple installations.
Read the relevant Palpatine Total Converter Readme file for more on this feature.

DTM has made a nice new video which highlights this update well. Watch it on YouTube
https://youtu.be/NtHGgAs33Iw

The XWAU 2020 Mega Patch must be installed over a fresh copy of the game! So make sure you make a backup of your existing game, uninstall it and any other patches you installed before and install X-Wing Alliance. Then run the XWAU 2020 installer and follow the on-screen options.
You will need roughly 7GB of additional free space for installation due to adding so many updates in one pack.
It maybe a little frustrating but with so many changes this is the best way to make sure everything is working correctly and easier to fix if needed too.
If you have made custom edits to any files etc then make sure those are backed up and can be reapplied afterwards.

We've created a new Beginners Guide on the Forum to answer some questions. You can see that - HERE
We will still release updates as new things are finished but in a different way that will be simpler.

The XWAU Team have been working on this for months now so we are excited that you can try it. It's been a lot of work in our free time.
A big thanks go to our new Beta testers whose help has been brilliant with this release.
Thank you to all our loyal fans for your support over the last 20 years! Here's to another 20 ;)


Please run the game from Alliance.exe. Not Steam or other shortcuts.
For some reason the game shortcut isn't being generated as it was in previous tests. You can then make an shortcut on the desktop for it. We're going to get that fixed asap.

This is an example of where I mean
"C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Star Wars X-Wing Alliance\Alliance.exe"

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Changelog: XWAU Craft Pack 1.6 to XWAU 2020 Mega Patch
There have been many changes since the last release. Some major and some subtle. Here are some highlights:

New Releases: Includes all the new and updated craft releases over the last year from the XWAU Team members.
New Dynamic Cockpits, Super Backdrops, Crew Quarters enhancements and amazing Special Effects!

Alliance.exe Launcher: Brand new replacement Launcher from JeremyFr that will launch the game and the menu contains all the links to the various setup areas, from Babu Frik to Joystick controller options. You can load your Pilot and skip the intro.
This great addition gives us lots of custom options for the future as well as other Shipset releases.

Calamari Cruiser: DTM has updated the Calamari Cruiser with new textures and Flightgroup colors!

Crosshair Reticles: The newly released Reticles now have the codes stored in the Ship INI files. You can still edit them as you wish. See the Crosshair Readme file for more details. It’s recommended to backup the INI before making alterations.

Death Star: Blue Max has just made some improvements in this area.
Headlights are now turned on automatically on the Death Star mission. Added a new explosion shader for the DS core.
Added .mat files for the Death Star mission and shaders to improve the way it looks.

Dynamic Cockpits: You now have the ability to turn them on and off easily! Just press D to enable or disable the original HUD

Hangars: DTM has created a brand-new Calamari Cruiser hangar. This is used in the Defiance and Pilot Proving grounds.
Some missions now have Hangar variations, such as droids, ships and Flightgroup colours. For example a Rebel Shuttle.
Vince T has made new Imperial Hangars which are used in various Star Destroyers for custom mission creators.
Pilot Proving Grounds: We’ve added the ability to fly Imperial Fighters so that you can assess your enemies capabilities.
You may also notice something slightly different about the TIE Fighter and Darth Vaders x1 Fighter when you fly them…
Ace Antilles created new Hangar Maps for: Asteroid Base, Pirate ShipYard, Platform 1 and Platform 5. They now have 5 different IFF versions included depending on the station IFF. Rebel, Imperial, Neutral and Pirate.
All the Calamari Cruisers have had some changes or updates to the Hangar Maps.
The ISD and VSD Starships have options to choose either inverted rack launch or normal ground floor choice.

Joystick Configurator: JeremyFr created a new tool for customising the Joystick buttons in the game as well as supporting multiple controllers. You can also save various setups to a text file.

Laser Colours: Based on feedback the Laser colours used in crafts have changed but still keep some uniqueness.
RedPurple Ions have been replaced to avoid confusion. Rebels use Red Lasers, Blue Ions. Imperials use Green Lasers, BluePurple Ions. Pirates / Cargo ships and other Starfighters ships use Yellow Lasers and Blue Ions.

Gun Turrets: DTM has fixed the rotation of the Gunner Turret opts that was giving bad firing angles. It’s now the same as the original.

Mission Updates: Jaeven has spent a long time trying to balance and fix the XWA missions so that they work with the XWAU better. He has fixed many small issues and tried to make sure the missions play well and are still fun.
This is a very tricky process to try and balance properly. It still comes down to skill too. So please consult the Mission Forum Subsection if you have any issues.

Mission Enhancements: Ace Antilles has added extra visual tweaks to the missions where possible.
This includes: New Hangar maps as well as individual custom hangars for selected missions. For example each Endor mission has subtle changes in the Hangar on each of the 3 missions. Another is when you fly a Fighter instead of the Otana there will be visual Hangar changes.
Opt replacements in missions is another. For example Cargo Corvettes and Rogue Squadron X-wings. Flightgroup colours being used to make ships more unique.

Modified Strike Cruiser: DTM has created a new Opt to add to the game, replacing the previous XWAU version.

Skirmish Images: Ace Antilles has gone through the many Skirmish images and updated them with new pictures.

Stormtrooper Transport: ual002 has added more Flightgroup colours to the Transport so now it has 9 different choices. You will see some of them appear in the campaign hangars and missions.

X-Wing: The Default X-Wing is newly created by Spyder. It has a new Dynamic Cockpit and four options to choose from.
You can choose the version you want to use in the options of the Babu Frik Configurator.

Y-Wing: The Default Y-Wing is newly created by Spyder. It has a new Dynamic Cockpit and two options to choose from.
You can still choose to fly Darksaber’s version too. Pick the one you want to use in the Babu Frik Configurator.
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Post by Forceflow » Fri Nov 27, 2020 3:24 pm

Man, this has been a crazy year and it's been a long road to this new patch. I want to thank all in the team who worked really hard to get this all done. This is a huge step for the XWAU since it really reduces the hassle of installing all of the XWAU goodness. Thanks to the new internal tester team without whom we would not have been able to spot all the little issues we missed. Thanks of course to all the modders who managed to crank out some really incredible new crafts this year. Thanks to JeremyaFR, blue_max, DTM and everybody else who managed to let us push the engine even farther and be able to present this new installer and Babu Frik so make things so much easier.
And a special thanks to Ace for working very hard behind the scenes, testing out all the old and new installers, organizing all the new stuff and making sure we finally get to present this new mega patch to all of you.

To all in the team, great work! When I joined the team some 20 odd years ago I would've never thought we'd still be active this long down the road much less would I have imagined what we were able to achieve with this release!

There's still plenty to be done, but boy have we achieved a lot this year!
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Post by Rookie_One1 » Fri Nov 27, 2020 3:25 pm

IT GOT REAL!

On another note, really like what you guys did with Spyder Models, I know that he was looking for a bit more reference material for the A-Wing and B-Wing a few months ago and I did send some for the B-Wing (I managed to find the demo of Rebel Assault 2 at the time on youtube), and I did send him the video which do show some shot of the B-Wing cockpit...so i'm curious if he will do a new B-Wing and A-Wing and what they will look like if he does :)
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Post by eddyfurax » Fri Nov 27, 2020 3:51 pm

:shock: :shock: :shock: I’m gonna have a heart attack!
Thanks to the whole Team you are Aces !! :applaus: :2thumbs:

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Post by haui » Fri Nov 27, 2020 4:17 pm

Hi, Downloaded it, installed it, started the game and EVERYTHING works absolut perfect.
Thank you very much for this outstanding work, now i have to opeb a beer and say cheers to you eespecially to Babu Frick :lachtot:
It's better to burn out than to fade away .

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Post by Rookie_One1 » Fri Nov 27, 2020 4:17 pm

Just did some test, there a vanila XWA bug with the missile boat that still there and that I wonder it if it would be fixable in the future. That bug is that you can only select the warheads of the torpedo launcher, the other always use concussion missiles

Also, the absence of the center-module laser version of the TIE Bomber is disturbing :lachtot:
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Post by Highwing » Fri Nov 27, 2020 4:21 pm

Amazing work, this sounds so good! Thanks to all the team, your 20 years of continuing to make this the best Star Wars game ever is incredibly appreciated!

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Post by AngeI » Fri Nov 27, 2020 4:31 pm

Woohoo! TFTC will be running on this when its released :)

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Post by Rookie_One1 » Fri Nov 27, 2020 4:34 pm

Found a bug!

Toscan fighter warhead launcher is set as unknown instead of torpedo in MXVTED!
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Post by DarHan » Fri Nov 27, 2020 4:45 pm

Oh, today is a good day for liking Star Wars! :D
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Post by DTM » Fri Nov 27, 2020 4:58 pm


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Post by Kampher » Fri Nov 27, 2020 5:16 pm

Congratulations to everyone for this monumental release! Thank you for all of your hard work in making this game such a joy after twenty years. It's truly incredible work.

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Post by brassman2468 » Fri Nov 27, 2020 5:29 pm

<yodavoice> HMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!!!!! </yodavoice>

Absolutely beautiful work guys. I think this calls for a fresh install and a new game playthrough for me.

Looking forward to diving in and discovering everything this new patch has to offer :D

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Post by Driftwood » Fri Nov 27, 2020 7:46 pm

Rookie_One1 wrote:
Fri Nov 27, 2020 4:17 pm
Just did some test, there a vanila XWA bug with the missile boat that still there and that I wonder it if it would be fixable in the future. That bug is that you can only select the warheads of the torpedo launcher, the other always use concussion missiles.
This is a game limitation (for now/ever?), ships with multiple warhead launchers have only ever been able to select one payload type, the other defaults to concussion missiles. This I think was by design, not a bug.

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Post by AngeI » Fri Nov 27, 2020 8:21 pm

Driftwood wrote:
Fri Nov 27, 2020 7:46 pm
Rookie_One1 wrote:
Fri Nov 27, 2020 4:17 pm
Just did some test, there a vanila XWA bug with the missile boat that still there and that I wonder it if it would be fixable in the future. That bug is that you can only select the warheads of the torpedo launcher, the other always use concussion missiles.
This is a game limitation (for now/ever?), ships with multiple warhead launchers have only ever been able to select one payload type, the other defaults to concussion missiles. This I think was by design, not a bug.
Just to add here, a patch offset can force a change to the default concussion missile launcher to use another warhead, we did this in TFTC so it uses Adv Missiles instead of normal ones.

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Post by Rookie_One1 » Fri Nov 27, 2020 10:24 pm

I wonder if we could patch it to force the second set of launcher to always use the same projectiles as the first set of launcher
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Post by Tony Knightcrawler » Fri Nov 27, 2020 10:29 pm

I have to say, I'm very happy about the Peregrine-class Strike Cruiser (I won't keep on calling it Modified Strike Cruiser when all Strike Cruisers are designed to be modified). It turned out super-well, DTM! Really, nobody better to do it than the modeller of the Strike Cruiser. If it ever becomes possible to select your ship/flight group in XWA by using Skirmish Editor functionality in a campaign, a BoP conversion could become possible. Imagine how cool playing the BoP campaigns with online XWAUpgrade could be... And I'm glad one of those "missing ships" got covered. I want to take another crack at the StarViper one day...

I'm very glad about the new installer. But I think if and when you guys update it, you should have image previews for the different options. Right now, you'd have to pull up the XWAU website and try to identify all the variants to know what you are changing. I also wonder, do the mission changes vary based on your options? Like if you pick the smaller SSD, do the changes to your missions also change accordingly?

Spyder's models are works of art, and the Defiance really needed that update. It's super-good to have all the mods available in one place, and be able to alter those mods at-will.

*Edit*

Oh, but the Modified Strike Cruiser should be listed under Rebel Starships, not General Starships.

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Post by Tony Knightcrawler » Fri Nov 27, 2020 11:02 pm

Rookie_One1 wrote:
Fri Nov 27, 2020 10:24 pm
I wonder if we could patch it to force the second set of launcher to always use the same projectiles as the first set of launcher
Isn't it actually better the way it is? Even in TIE Fighter, I think you could change only one set of your missile launchers from what the mission defined.

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Post by Red_Leader » Fri Nov 27, 2020 11:06 pm

This is amazing! Not gonna lie, I had fun just going through the different options to choose from! I love that we can go back and make any changes instead of uninstalling/reinstalling again. Well done everyone.

I do have 2 bugs that I came across. First, none of the briefing audio plays. In-flight, there are no sound effects or pilot dialogue (the messages do show up though). The in-flight music does play however. Second, in Endor mission 3, the S-foils on Wedge's X-wing never opened. I watched him for about 2 minutes and they stayed closed.

Anyone have those issues?
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Post by Ace Antilles » Fri Nov 27, 2020 11:12 pm

Red_Leader wrote:
Fri Nov 27, 2020 11:06 pm
I do have 2 bugs that I came across. First, none of the briefing audio plays. In-flight, there are no sound effects or pilot dialogue (the messages do show up though). The in-flight music does play however. Second, in Endor mission 3, the S-foils on Wedge's X-wing never opened. I watched him for about 2 minutes and they stayed closed.
Anyone have those issues?
Not seen those issues. Which briefings? If it's all of them then it may just need a restart etc.
Tony Knightcrawler wrote:
Fri Nov 27, 2020 10:29 pm
I'm very glad about the new installer. But I think if and when you guys update it, you should have image previews for the different options. Right now, you'd have to pull up the XWAU website and try to identify all the variants to know what you are changing. I also wonder, do the mission changes vary based on your options? Like if you pick the smaller SSD, do the changes to your missions also change accordingly?
Image previews is beyond the installer capability. It's pretty much all text controlled and can be a lot of work at that!
Might consider something to add to the Readme file though.

If you choose different options then some ships don't change. For example no matter which Falcon you have Landos is used on Endor missions.
The missions don't vary at all. It's really hard to support everything so it's all for the common default options.
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Post by Red_Leader » Fri Nov 27, 2020 11:33 pm

Unfortunately its all of them. I did try a restart but that didn't work. The briefings I don't really care for, its just the in-flight audio messages and sound effects I'd like to work. I forgot I had a burned CD with XWA on it, so my stock XWA CD wasn't in the D Drive. I thought that might have been the issue but it still doesn't work. I have Windows 10, and a few years ago I had to burn XWA to a CD, open up the D Drive and run the installer that way. XWA won't run if I try to install it from the original CD.

Do you think that might have something to do with it?
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Post by Ace Antilles » Fri Nov 27, 2020 11:36 pm

Red_Leader wrote:
Fri Nov 27, 2020 11:33 pm
Unfortunately its all of them. I did try a restart but that didn't work. The briefings I don't really care for, its just the in-flight audio messages and sound effects I'd like to work. I forgot I had a burned CD with XWA on it, so my stock XWA CD wasn't in the D Drive. I thought that might have been the issue but it still doesn't work. I have Windows 10, and a few years ago I had to burn XWA to a CD, open up the D Drive and run the installer that way. XWA won't run if I try to install it from the original CD.

Do you think that might have something to do with it?
Make sure all the Wave files are on your HDD. Also check your options.
These days I would recommend getting a digital version cheap for ease.
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Post by Red_Leader » Fri Nov 27, 2020 11:58 pm

Ace Antilles wrote:
Fri Nov 27, 2020 11:36 pm
Red_Leader wrote:
Fri Nov 27, 2020 11:33 pm
Unfortunately its all of them. I did try a restart but that didn't work. The briefings I don't really care for, its just the in-flight audio messages and sound effects I'd like to work. I forgot I had a burned CD with XWA on it, so my stock XWA CD wasn't in the D Drive. I thought that might have been the issue but it still doesn't work. I have Windows 10, and a few years ago I had to burn XWA to a CD, open up the D Drive and run the installer that way. XWA won't run if I try to install it from the original CD.

Do you think that might have something to do with it?
Make sure all the Wave files are on your HDD. Also check your options.
These days I would recommend getting a digital version cheap for ease.
Got it! I went into the Wave folder in the D drive and just copied everything in it over to the Wave folder in the Lucasarts/XWA/Wave directory. Its been a while but its coming back to me. I'll look into getting a digital version for sure.

Edit: Still haven't figured out the bug with Wedge in the third Endor mission. Not sure if it makes a difference, but all the rebel crafts show as green in the HUD, and Wedge shows as blue.
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Post by Ace Antilles » Sat Nov 28, 2020 12:31 am

Red_Leader wrote:
Fri Nov 27, 2020 11:58 pm
Edit: Still haven't figured out the bug with Wedge in the third Endor mission. Not sure if it makes a difference, but all the rebel crafts show as green in the HUD, and Wedge shows as blue.
Just confirmed it's doing that for me too. We will take a look. I'm not sure why it would do that.
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Post by Avarice1987 » Sat Nov 28, 2020 12:49 am

I have just completed the installation, so far everything works. But when I want to fly off, everything in the cockpit turns as if I would turn my head 360 degrees, but it is only like that in the cockpit. Is there anything I have to consider with the joystick configurator?

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