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We've got a couple different types of items to share from Wing Leader this weekend. First up, Howard Day has finished the Lumbari transport, which is an awesome derivative of his recent Dorkir model. He's also in the process of implementing advanced lighting effects within the various fighter cockpits. This is a really nice finishing touch!

Okay, got the Wing Leader Hornet cockpit lit properly with all the damage and broken bits properly responding to the light angle. Now here's the question - should I do this for the rest of the cockpits? Is this worth it? I like it, I just dunno if it's that cool. pic.twitter.com/rTM0vohZHU

— Howie Day (@howieeday) September 6, 2024

Okay, got the Wing Leader Hornet cockpit lit properly with all the damage and broken bits properly responding to the light angle.

Got the Wing Leader Dralthi cockpit lit and normal mapped! It's way more complex than the Hornet was, with

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Most of the kiddos are back in class, so it's time for GOG's Back to School Sale to wind down. Most WC games are 50% off with a few select titles discounted by 66-75%. You've got one final day to get your discounted Wing Commander!

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Earlier this year we posted an archive of Wing Commander IV saved games for pilots who want to quickly access any mission as easy as possible (either for research or fun). Part two is finally here! We've gone through and created characters for Wing Commander Prophecy and Wing Commander Secret Ops with full flight histories and player-created saved games. Have fun exploring some of the missions you may never have gotten to play before!

• Wing Commander Prophecy Saves (140kb .ZIP)
• Wing Commander Secret Ops Saves (135kb .ZIP)

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

*Pilots' Federation Alert*
Aden Tanner, special military advisor to the Aegis project, has warned of the potential for targeted Thargoid assaults on key military locations.
Speaking during a recent graduation ceremony for the latest batch of Federal AX recruits, Tanner warned against complacency following the destruction of Titan Thor last month.
"It may seem that we have the upper hand in this war. There's no shame in taking pride in our accomplishments, and we're certainly in a better place than when the Thargoid invasion started."
"But the Thargoids are just as dangerous as they've ever been. Entering a conflict zone with anything less than full focus would be a terrible mistake. Think of how hard you'd fight if you thought the Thargoids were driving our fleets back a little further each day. That's the situation our enemy finds themselves in."
"In fact, while our forces push towards the

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The good people at GOG include a download of the original DOS version of Wing Commander IV as a bonus feature when you purchase their digital release (which is based on the Windows 95 DVD release). That's great news for anyone who wants to play Wing Commander IV the same way they did back in February 1996... except that the copy on GOG is broken! Several of the MUSIC files are corrupt which results in an inevitable, game-breaking crash on loading a mission once you arrive at later CDs.

To correct the issue, we've put correct versions of the bad files online here. Simply use this archive to replace MUSIC1 through MUSIC4 in your /Wing Commander IV - DOS Version/CD1 folder and the game will work correctly going forward. If you've already experienced the crash be sure and first load a mission from CD1 in order to clear the corrupt MUSIC file from the game's cache.

(Very cool WC4 disc loading screens

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AD recently found something interesting while exploring Wing Commander III: a pair of unused, untextured models of mechs! They're labeled STMECH1 and STMECH2 and it's not at all clear what they were intended for. Could they have been additional targets for the ground battles? Or weapons loaders that could've appeared on human or Kilrathi capital ship interiors? We also checked Bioforge (1995) and Prowler (cancelled, 1996) and while the art style is understandably similar, they aren't the same mech designs from Origin's contemporary games.

The second Wing Commander novel, End Run, had already established that Confederation marines use 'walkers' during their planetary assaults, though this was almost certainly just a case of author William Forstchen referencing The Empire Strikes Back.

He pulled up to a hundred meters above the plateau and swept over it. Mongol and Chamberlain were lower down, weaving

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Ground missions! Is there any more thrilling expression in the English language? We don't think so. Unfortunately, they're a rare commodity: across Wing Commander III and IV there are a total of only nine ground missions... and they were cut out entirely from multiple console ports! We thought it would be fun to post a quick visual guide that walks through the six planets seen in these special missions.

Building on Strike Commander's terrain technology, Wing Commander III included four ground missions connected to the campaign to build the Temblor Bomb (and culminating in the game's firey finale at Kilrah). Unlike Strike Commander and Wing Commander IV, the WC3 planets were left untextured to improve performance... though they did have somewhat more detailed maps available in the game's nav screen (included below). The game has three distinct planet designs, although it's difficult to notice the

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We've got an amazing week on tap if you are someone who is fascinated with the ground textures of Wing Commander 4! Yesterday LOAF showed off the different landscapes featured in both WC3/4, including how WC4 differentiates itself by no longer just being a collection of monochrome planes. The WC4 Remastered team is now working to build on this in a major way with both geometry and texture getting an enormous boost. Read all about it in their new article here!

Wing Commander IV’s original terrain—there wasn’t much to work with. I won’t go into too much detail as wcnews has already covered it! Each “mountain” was just a single height value, and as you can see from the example image, sometimes lakes defied gravity, or terrain appeared under buildings. Modernizing this aspect of the game was a task.

The first step was to add tessellation support (scaling polygon density based on camera distance). Even

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It's been almost 30 years since actor Chris Mulkey filmed his role in Wing Commander 4, but he continues to maintain a very busy working schedule. His resume includes hundreds of roles, many of which are secondary characters or in short films. He seems to gravitate towards this type of professional work. And we might have just found one of his shortest jobs yet! Mr. Mulkey can be seen (and heard, in two words) in the new Mazda CX-30 ad below. "Mazda."

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Wing Commander IV shipped on an unprecedented six CD-ROMs... but there was a point in development where it seemed like it might take seven! To counter this possibility, the American CD case, a custom design, was made to include seven disc sleeves. As a result, shortly after the game was released the online community was full of players asking... am I missing a CD? On April 18, 1996, an alt.games.wing-commander user named Craig Lambert posted a reply to one of these questions with a tongue-in-cheek story about an incredible seventh disc that let you stay with the Confederation (joking about another frequent complaint about the game from online posters). We thought it would be good to archive the original post for posterity; it wouldn't do to let such a long-running joke slip into oblivion! (Though for future readers, we will note one more time that none of this was ever real; it all sprung from Mr.

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

President-elect Felicia Winters has discussed the growing discontent within Federal Congress over her delayed inauguration.
A series of devastating earthquakes struck Winters's home world of Rhea 3 in February this year. Millions were killed during the unprecedented disaster, including six members of Winter's family in the destruction of the capital New Greenacre.
Winters took an extended leave of absence to direct relief and recovery efforts on Rhea 3, which included a widespread appeal for resources from the independent pilot community. But recent articles in Sol Today have suggested the goodwill for Winter's situation may be wearing thin.
Political journalist Ewan Klein recently wrote:
"When Winters first announced the delay to her inauguration, there was obvious resistance from her Republican opponents – though perhaps less so from President Hudson, who has remained in office temporarily.

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Master O reports that a big new update to DOSBox Staging has been released. For anyone trying to get the classic WC games working on modern computers (without patches or setups like GOG incorporates), this is a next-generation evolution beyond the traditional DOSBox emulation environment. The new 0.82 update has a ton of enhancements, including better handling of Windows 3.1, bug fixes for the MT-32 sound system and a better performing IPX server implementation, among dozens and dozens of other updates. I wonder if the IPX improvements would mean more fluid games of Wing Commander Armada!? You can learn more and grab the program here.

Just six short months after our monstre 0.81.0 release, we’re back with another big one that adds Pentium MMX emulation, ESS Enhanced FM Audio, numerous audio related enhancements, a large number of game compatibility fixes, improved Windows 3.1x compatibility,

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Nokia CEO: "Our platform is burning."

Why worry so much when you know your company will be around for at least another 643 years?

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*Pilots' Federation Alert*
A Thargoid invasion fleet has emerged in the Shinrarta Dezhra system, catching AX forces behind front lines by surprise.
The massive alien force quickly struck ports in the system. Jameson Memorial remains online but damaged, with local AX forces rallying to protect the famous megamarket. An urgent call for aid by local governors has been made.
Aegis has agreed to remain focused on frontline against the final two Thargoid Titans, while Sirius Corporation establishes supply lines to Shinrarta Dezhra. Azimuth Corporation has offered to provide further incentives for pilots heading to the region. The Corporation's Megaships, Spirit of Laelaps and Musashi, have moved to a nearby system, V886 Centauri, to lend further support.
The Pilots' Federation has granted a temporary permit to all Commanders to access the system for two weeks. Early reports indicate that the Pilots'

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I needed a distraction tonight so I took apart the Wing Commander III scene where Thrakhath hacks the Victory's comms. WC3 is actually a lot more dynamic than just 'play good scene/play bad scene'. Here four different scenes come from one video...

Scenes 7, 12 and 15 are determined by whether or not Flash has joined the crew (and is still alive). Instead of closeups of Thrakhath you get funny reaction shots of Maniac and Flash goofing around, and then the last scenes are determined by whether or not you won the previous series (Ariel). If you didn't, the Kilrathi are approaching and Rollins gets in an I-told-you-so! So the Xanmovie file contains 41 shots but only 35 of them will play in any given game run. I decided to organize them into camera angles and found there are 14 distinct ones which means they did 14 different rendered background animation cycles for this scene!

Next I decided to track where

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There's a beautiful new sketch out by CountvonSchnaps, and this one has a cool origin story! Nightball06 was inspired by the count's previous work and collaborated with him to bring the Hellcat V to life. It's a pretty great rendition!

After seeing CountvonSchnaps' renditions of the Thunderbolt and the Longbow, I took the chance and had a chat with him.

I was especially impressed by his painting style and the way he interpreted or added new details to the existing ships.So I asked him if he - on commission - would do a take on my own Hellcat.And I have to say - I really do like the result:

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Evan Freyer has been an active CIC visitor for decades, but he's also a professional musician in Germany! He's got a new song release this week, and there's a few Wing Commander treats tossed into the associated visualization video. Give it a listen below and keep your eyes peeled for the WC easter eggs!

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Want to make the most out of your cargo runs in the Tri-System? Claude Tschepen has created the solution for you! He's built a very detailed, interactive Google Sheets project that helps you visualize your potential margins for any given cargo run. A great tool for checking between missions in case you just happen to be heading somewhere that especially wants human organs or furry rodents!He writes:

I've spent a few dozen hours making a profit calculator in Google Sheets for trading in Privateer 2 which I use myself and have found very useful and therefore felt like sharing it with others.

It works on mobile and on desktop. Usually I have it open on my phone while playing.

Here's the link to my github repo with the file and usage info.

And here's a pic of how it looks:

It's pretty awesome that folks are still developing tools like this (and sharing them with the rest of the community). It should be an

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Species didn’t seem to matter; wherever there were fliers, there seemed to be a bar. - Captain Ian "Hunter" St. John (Wing Commander Freedom Flight)

We recently received a nice note from a reader:

Howdy!

Just wondering if there has ever been a post that spotlights all the bartenders featured in Wing Commander games. Of course we have Shotglass, but there are other bartenders in WC3 and Privateer. I just think it would be a fun deep dive to take.

Also, a question about bartenders in WC. Are they civilians or are they enlisted personnel aboard ships? I know Shotglass was a pilot back in the day, but is he a civilian now or is he technically still enlisted but working as a bartender?

Cheers,
Sebastian

This was a nice surprise as it's rare to hear anyone is interested in this kind of content! We haven't done a post like that… until now. Join us below for an all-new roundup of the Wing Commander universe's many

Quote from Elite Dangerous Galnet News-Bot

The Thargoid invasion fleet that ambushed the Shinrarta Dezhra system last week has been successfully repelled.
Providing an update on behalf of the system was Florian Baljak, acting starport commander of Jameson Memorial:
"The Thargoids swept through Shinrarta Dezhra hard and fast, taking our defences offline before we were able to regroup. It's a miracle Jameson Memorial lasted until reinforcements could arrive."
"We lost a lot of good people driving the aliens back. But thanks to the efforts of thousands of Commanders, along with auxiliary support from Sirius Corporation and Azimuth Corporation, we can say victory in this particular battle."
Work has commenced on bringing all system ports back online as quickly as possible. Requests for assistance in delivering commodities to the system have been submitted.
Head of Aegis, Alba Tesreau, offered her gratitude to those involved in the fighting