Hypothetical Question: Is Modding SotE Possible?

[MARIOGUY789]

DISCLAIMER: I own the GOG version of this game.

I have had this question in my head for the longest time, and I know what you're thinking, "Why would anyone want to mod this game?" This is a valid question, and I realize that Shadows has very limited potential to gain any sort of scene in the modding community, but I'm actually posing this question as a hypothetical one, for the simple reason that I can't seem to find where any of the valuable files for this game are stored.

All of this game's files are stored in a folder labeled "SData", but this only includes the encrypted video files, sound files, and .DLLs. There are no mentions of any map files or assets to be seen. Now, I understand that since Shadows is much older than something like Jedi Outcast or Academy, there was no official support for modding, the Lucasarts team probably felt like there was no need to include modding tools. With this given, someone would have to go through the trouble of making software to mod this game.

If anyone has any comments on this question, I'd love to hear them, especially if anyone has any insight into the core of modding for games without existing tools, or if it's even possible to begin with.

[Chaython]

Yes, anything can be modded.
This game doesn't have an active community though.
Any encryption can be decrypted; any file can be hex modified. The question is if anyone wants to/ is it worth anyone's time? Seems not.
Lots of games also receive an engine port, [someone used a different engine and remade the game (often because the game's source code was available, but some times from scratch)]. Once again a long and tedious project and apparently no one loved this game enough to do so.
SAN [LucasArts Smush animations] As some applications include playback of the SAN codec, some applications must too support exporting as this format [so you may be able to remaster or swap these also].
GOG edition is probably modified to work on modern machines better, where as steam editions don't normally receive proper support; it's known that GOG has an advanced support payment tear with a 50% margin. GOG is responsible for bringing some SW games back, I know for certain Star Wars: Battlefront (2004) was brought back by GOG (re-released on GOG prior to Steam) they also had responsibility for bringing back Battlefront II (2005) Multiplayer as well. **Though I do not see much information about specific modfiications to this title, besides the launcher being slightly different**...
Audio is all standard wave files so you could easily make a remastered audio pack; some main menu elements are standard .bmp
The digital releases have a ripped soundtrack/ which was converted from cd-audio to .ogg.
The DRM and encryption are so terrible in this game though, that GOG Lucas was unable to remove it for their digital re-release. The game still relies on a CD dump, and if you move the game to another folder you need to reinstall it...
GOG [and probably steam as well] use a D3D9 wrapper, so you should be able to inject some shaders using a tool like reshade or sweetfx.

[MARIOGUY789]

@Chaython

Thanks for the excellent insight, I was wondering if anyone was going to reply to this thread at all. Unfortunately for me, I'd have no idea as to how to do anything beyond editing the menu graphics or replacing the sound files. It's well known that SOTE's graphics have not aged well whatsoever, and that the mouse still controls Dash's movement even when you don't want it to. There's plenty here to fix, but it seems no one is willing to do so, which seems fitting, there are far easier Star Wars games to work with, like the Jedi Knight series. It's just kind of disappointing to think we might never see anything cool done with this game, like level editing and such.

Thanks again for the input.

[MaCc]

We just need a team, managing to understand the 3D formats of each pieces in the core engine.
Creating the 3D models are not hard. Implementing them, that is whole new story.
I would love to creat something, but not alone, that kind of deal is reach by people who work with passions and time.
Btw i'm Environment Artist so if you need any plants, rocks, terrain, anything enviro related feel free to come to me.

[WarWolfD]

I'm very surprise all these years this game have no mods....
it be nice if there was a source-port too with mod support.

But I would say, it be nice if there was a mod that add-in back the N64 cut-scenes
and if the audio is the same as the pc cut-scenes, synced them up with the n64 ones

[Alpha-125]

I would totally love mods for this game, especially ones that add more enemies to the game. I always felt that this game didn't have enough enemies on the on foot levels.

To go off on a tangent a bit, imagine modding the battle of hoth to be huge or on foot. Or more levels. Heck even replaying the films. A pipe dream at the moment i know but someday maybe someone will do it.

[Black Hole]

Then you should just play battlefront then...

[pcbl4ckw1ngz]

Mostly no. According to a thread I found on jkhub before that died, textures and geometry data come from the exe/associated dlls. I've messed with the music, removing specific tracks messes the looping up iirc

[MARIOGUY789]

Originally posted by pcbl4ckw1ngz:

Mostly no. According to a thread I found on jkhub before that died, textures and geometry data come from the exe/associated dlls. I've messed with the music, removing specific tracks messes the looping up iirc

Yeah, in the nearly two years since I opened this thread I've poked around in the files and couldn't really find out how to make headway, but that's alright, I just wanted to know why no mods seemed to exist for this game, and this helps clear that up quite nicely. I had a similar run-in with Mega Man Legends's PC port and pretty much the same set of circumstances applies, as well as the fact that that game seems much more difficult to get working 100% correctly on any sort of hardware newer than the days of Windows XP.

A bit of a shame, but ultimately no great loss. At this point I'm not even sure what I envisioned people doing with this game anyway even if the possibilities existed.

Thanks for your post.

[pcbl4ckw1ngz]

Originally posted by MARIOGUY789:

Originally posted by pcbl4ckw1ngz:

Mostly no. According to a thread I found on jkhub before that died, textures and geometry data come from the exe/associated dlls. I've messed with the music, removing specific tracks messes the looping up iirc

Yeah, in the nearly two years since I opened this thread I've poked around in the files and couldn't really find out how to make headway, but that's alright, I just wanted to know why no mods seemed to exist for this game, and this helps clear that up quite nicely. I had a similar run-in with Mega Man Legends's PC port and pretty much the same set of circumstances applies, as well as the fact that that game seems much more difficult to get working 100% correctly on any sort of hardware newer than the days of Windows XP.

A bit of a shame, but ultimately no great loss. At this point I'm not even sure what I envisioned people doing with this game anyway even if the possibilities existed.

Thanks for your post.

No problem. Here's the post in question, from a discontinued attempt at reversing SOTE files over 10 years ago: https://web.archive.org/web/20201225025605/http://www.jkhub.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=2479&sid=068bb48ccd4c9ee549f296505b3d5220

[Jambie Lionheart]

Oh duude, there's so much. Not really sure how much work it would take, but if someone made a new campaign and/or more levels and new maps, I'd absolutely go to town on exploring those.

8 year old me we terrified of those lil tenticle monsters in the sewers, lol. Screw you, I was 8 :P

[Phuderoso]

I wish I could see some real Modding and custom level designs, but hardly this could be done so easy as it was done like Turok, due to the non availability of the source code.

[pcbl4ckw1ngz]

A German patch exists, I think it altered or injected textures using dxwnd? I don't quite get it but here: https://www.compiware-forum.de/downloads/file/963-star-wars-shadows-of-the-empire-german-patch/

[EmotionallyBroken]

All sortware is moddable, it is virtual, anything can be done with it , and it can be set up in any way you can think of.

The question to ask would be "how can different software be modified, and how easy is it to modify, and is anyone going to put in the effort to do it"
:)

[EmotionallyBroken]

Originally posted by CtMurphy:

Oh duude, there's so much. Not really sure how much work it would take, but if someone made a new campaign and/or more levels and new maps, I'd absolutely go to town on exploring those.

8 year old me we terrified of those lil tenticle monsters in the sewers, lol. Screw you, I was 8 :P

Same! lol I got scared and was afraid to play ! So immersive!
People seem to take things less seriously as they get older, except money, and following the messages the media tells us to follow.

[Mogyif]

I just got back into the game and had the same question that this discussion has been talking about. So I decided to see if there was anyone that worked on the game that could help get things such as the source code. It is very far fetched but there is no harm in trying. In my research I found that 2 of the 3 programmers are dead (Eric Johnston) and (Mark Haigh-Huchinson). So that lead me to a dead end. Then I checked out Mark Blattel it. I looked and it does not seem that he is dead. So I just need help searching to see if he has any social media or other forms of contact. To quote star wars you guy are my only hope.