Wing Commander IV Remastered - Unofficial Fan Mod for WCIV PC

[ChemicalWorld]

I haven't seen a thread about this but just the other day happened to get some Wing Commander nostalgia and popped onto Wing Commander CIC and spotted this beauty! :O

A group of Wing Nuts are busy working on a mod (that requires the original Wing Commander IV files, so no chance of C&D from EA) that ports the games files into a new engine and adds in AI upscaled 1080p FMV sequences!

Nebula! New Ship models! New effects!

Cockpit model added back in!


The team are upscaling all of the ship rooms, inserting the new upscaled FMVs, porting all the in-game missions to the new engine and even adding content to the PC version from the PS1 version of the game (dialogue sequences and even some FMV transitions that weren't in the PC version). The mod is likely to only support GOG / Origin versions of the game due to the mod teams desire for people to show their support of the franchise by picking up the game files from those storefronts. They may add support for the original disc versions but its a price I'm prepared to pay for sure.

They are currently working on a demo this year that doesn't require WCIV files to run - exciting times ahead! (and I believe the team haven't ruled out possibly going back to WCIII as well :O)

Wing Commander IV: The Price of Freedom - Remastered - Wing Commander IV: The Price of Freedom - Remastered

Wing Commander IV: The Price of Freedom - Remastered

wcrespace.com

 

[Phokal]

And now I have to track this. Here's hoping it gets bundled in at some point, via Gog extras or the forum.

 

[ShimmyShakes]

I can't watch the video as I'm at work, but WOW that is awesome!

I spent an entire school holidays eating, breathing, and sleeping WCIII back in the day, but I never played IV. Got it on GOG a while ago, but might be worth waiting for this mod to finally give it a go.

Now if they do tackle WCIII, that'll be ideal. Tried replaying recently, but boy it's rough nowadays. Maybe I just need a mod to make it playable on modern computers, even with the old videos.

 

[ChemicalWorld]

The guy that is doing the AI upscaling of the FMV files has done a similar treatment to the FMV from WC3 and Prophecy




Now if only my damn T.16000M FCS HOTAS would get a delivery date from Amazon UK...

 

[Primus]

Oh wow, they're talking VR support too. Bookmarked!

 

[NuMiQ]

This looks pretty great, I'd love to play these again. So much cheesy goodness.

 

[SiG]

Is it both for WCII and IV or is it only for IV?

I have both games on GOG. It's time to reinstall.

 

[Sinatar]

It's pretty cool, though I'm honestly not a fan of the 60 fps FMV's, they look like The Hobbit when you do that.

Leave em at 24.

 

[JustinH]

Whoa, this is really cool.

I never played through WC3 or 4. Maybe I should change that? I absolutely loved Wing Commanders 1 and 2.

 

[SiG]

It's pretty cool, though I'm honestly not a fan of the 60 fps FMV's, they look like The Hobbit when you do that.

Leave em at 24.

Click to shrink...

The FMVs play back at 30fps. It's like that for the DVD version of WCIV.

Edit: My bad. Seems they really did bump the framerate to 60fps. They should've just kept it at 30 since the interpolated look does make certain scenes look weird.

 

[chrominance]

WC4 is my favourite of the Wing Commander games, with II a close second. It's also the one Wing Commander I haven't replayed in recent years; the first three games are pretty rough on modern PCs (enjoy changing DOSBox speed settings on the fly to have remotely flyable missions in WC1 and 2!) and it hurt to think about WC4 not standing up to the test of time either, though WC3 was at least a much better game to play than the first two.

Whoa, this is really cool.

I never played through WC3 or 4. Maybe I should change that? I absolutely loved Wing Commanders 1 and 2.

Click to shrink...

I think 4 has the best story, and the WC3/4 flight engine is so much better than the WC1/2 engine (actual 3D models! random collisions with ship sprites don't annihilate you immediately!). It's also one of the first FMV games to be shot with actual sets, instead of entirely against green screens, and it really shows. WC3's cutscenes have this claustrophobic framing and static cinematography that constantly reminds you of the green screen. WC4 actually feels like it takes place in the real world.

 

[SeeingeyeDug]

The cast list is insane on this game. Like a legit movie could be released in theaters today with the cast of this game.

Well I guess not John Spencer.

 

[SolidSnakeUS]

Well fuck me sideways. I may have to re-play it with this mod. So fucking good.

 

[SeeingeyeDug]

I only played WCIII and never played the 4th. I didn't realize how many actors who became stars this game had. Walton Goggins, Francois Chau, Mark Dacascos, then you have the originals from WCIII Malcolm McDowell, John Rhys-Davies, Mark Hamill, Biff (Thomas Wilson), Jason Bernard.

I should play this mod.

 

[ascii42]

The cast list is insane on this game. Like a legit movie could be released in theaters today with the cast of this game.

Well I guess not John Spencer.

Click to shrink...

Yeah, somehow the games had a more star studded cast than the actual movie they made.

 

[Ra]

Man that's an awesome amount of work.

My dad would go crazy if Privateer got this treatment. Secret best WC game.

 

[Phoenixazure]

Never played the wing commander games but I always wanted to since I played he likes of Tie Fighter and X Wing as a kid and Star Citizen and Star Wars Squadrons more recently. Are these games approachable these days and HOTAS compatible?

 

[ChemicalWorld]

It's pretty cool, though I'm honestly not a fan of the 60 fps FMV's, they look like The Hobbit when you do that.

Leave em at 24.

Click to shrink...

I think they are going to add an option to allow the user to pick 30 or 60 fps for the FMVs. The reasoning being that they want the fps to remain consistent between gameplay and the FMVs but for those folk that hate the "soap opera" effect, they can then revert to 30 fps.

Options never hurt :)

 

[Salmonax]

I'd be most excited about seeing this glorious fail state in full HD.

 

[ChemicalWorld]

I never understood why more games didn't include various fail states. Makes for interesting play throughs were you just want to know how much you can screw things over :P

 

[Nerun]

Only reminds me of another genre or at least series that is pretty dead ;) I was such a huge Wing Commander fan back in the day, I even bought the books and was stupid enough to back Star Citizen with 150 bucks for the Collector's Edition (I'm sure it arrives....). I still play WC 3 + 4 from time to time (GOG), so might give it another whirl, once that fan mod is ready. Currently playing Everspace 2 (which is nice), but still very different from Wing Commander. It's the same with the whole RTS genre, I really liked so many RTS games, Starcraft, Warcraft, C&C, Dune, Z, KKND, etc. and now the genre is pretty much dead, aside from some minor titles here and there (and I never really liked those, like Grey Goo...) or Remasters (which are better than nothing, I even spend 40 hours with the C&C 1 and RA 1 Remaster).

 

[ChemicalWorld]

Only reminds me of another genre or at least series that is pretty dead ;) I was such a huge Wing Commander fan back in the day, I even bought the books and was stupid enough to back Star Citizen with 150 bucks for the Collector's Edition (I'm sure it arrives....). I still play WC 3 + 4 from time to time (GOG), so might give it another whirl, once that fan mod is ready. Currently playing Everspace 2 (which is nice), but still very different from Wing Commander. It's the same with the whole RTS genre, I really liked so many RTS games, Starcraft, Warcraft, C&C, Dune, Z, KKND, etc. and now the genre is pretty much dead, aside from some minor titles here and there (and I never really liked those, like Grey Goo...) or Remasters (which are better than nothing, I even spend 40 hours with the C&C 1 and RA 1 Remaster).

Click to shrink...

90s were truly a great time to be a gamer, shame that a lot of the genres we took for granted back then are in neglect these days or a shadow of their former glory. The rise of retro shooters and CRPGs though at least takes away some of the sting. And yeah I'm in the same boat for Star Citizen/Squadron 42, backed it for the collector's edition. The pull for a modern day Wing Commander when I'd long given up hope of ever getting one was too strong to resist...

 

[Moff]

this looks incredible, the cutscenes especially, they were amazing back then

 

[ChemicalWorld]

WC4 is my favourite of the Wing Commander games, with II a close second. It's also the one Wing Commander I haven't replayed in recent years; the first three games are pretty rough on modern PCs (enjoy changing DOSBox speed settings on the fly to have remotely flyable missions in WC1 and 2!) and it hurt to think about WC4 not standing up to the test of time either, though WC3 was at least a much better game to play than the first two.



I think 4 has the best story, and the WC3/4 flight engine is so much better than the WC1/2 engine (actual 3D models! random collisions with ship sprites don't annihilate you immediately!). It's also one of the first FMV games to be shot with actual sets, instead of entirely against green screens, and it really shows. WC3's cutscenes have this claustrophobic framing and static cinematography that constantly reminds you of the green screen. WC4 actually feels like it takes place in the real world.

Click to shrink...

They used 28 sets for Wing Commander IV hence the actual movie feel they were able to achieve. But a part of me will always love what they did with WC 3, the restrictions lend it a very specific feel. Also I'm a sucker for the Kilrathi animatronics, they just looked so damn cool!

 

[JMC]

Any news on this? These always seem to die, is WC4 cursed? such a shame!

 

[ChemicalWorld]

Any news on this? These always seem to die, is WC4 cursed? such a shame!

Click to shrink...

Sadly nothing since March...

Last update was a delay to their work on the demo. Hoping they've just gone silent due to working their asses off but who knows?

 

[JMC]

yeah, long history from following such remakes (hello ultima remakes!) has taught me that such projects very rarely finish.