openReliant - The open source Starlancer reimplementation.

[u/Koncypt_Fysh]

For anyone that was a fan of the early Chris and Erin Roberts space sim Starlancer (the Freelancer prequel), I'd highly suggest checking out openReliant, a open source re-implementation in Zig/SDL3. It's been coming together quickly over the last month or so, the full campaign is near fully playable, with mod support already working at v0.7.

https://openreliant.github.io/openreliant/

I know for a lot of folk this game was pretty well loved, and has had a difficult life for post Windows XP compatibility; openReliant solves these problems as well as brings it into 16:9 widescreen and native 1080p resolutions; on top of that it's supported on Windows, Linux and Mac.

I've been working on art packs for the original assets, though it's a while from completion, you can have a look at the new textures and shaders here:

https://koncyptfysh.github.io/OpenReliant-Art-Packs/

Check out r/Starlancer if you want to browse some of the development history for all of this, there's been a lot of regular posting about it.

Just a quick note, openReliant isn't my project, though I've flared for promotional anyway after my initial post was removed by mods.

[u/cinaed666]

OR Dev here! Just want to nit, It also does 21:9 ultrawide, and 4K+ resolutions ;)

Thanks for sharing!

[u/SiderealBright]

Holy hell, thank you for posting this.

[u/kalnaren]

Neat. Starlancer is unfortunately a bitch to get running natively on modern hardware.

[u/Koncypt_Fysh → u/kalnaren]

Was a bitch now! Please have a crack at openReliant if your a fan, if you do run into issues drop a big report to the author, he's pretty crack hot at getting the fixes out quickly.

[u/kalnaren → u/Koncypt_Fysh]

Like I said, natively ;) I wouldn't consider using a new engine as native.

I'll definitely give this a try at some point. Has joystick/HOTAS support been improved? Starlancer had some serious issues when multiple devices were detected and also had issues if there were more than 24 buttons on the stick.

[u/Koncypt_Fysh → u/kalnaren]

As far as I'm aware the controller issues have been well and truly solved, but as with all these things, your mileage my vary, and if you have an edge-case in which it doesn't work, a bug report goes a long way to fixing it for everyone else.

[u/cinaed666 → u/kalnaren]

OR Dev here! It's native in the sense that "It's a binary that runs on Linux and uses SDL3/Vulkan natively", no emulation going on.

About the joysticks: YES! It has pretty universal support thanks to SDL. I've been playing with a Switch pro controller, it support all kinds of joysticks,hotas, new and old. Multiple controller support for simpits are on the roadmap.

[u/kalnaren → u/cinaed666]

Multiple controller support for simpits are on the roadmap.

I assume that means I'd have to use Vjoy to combine a throttle and stick into a single device?

Not a big deal, a ton of old games require that.

[u/cinaed666 → u/kalnaren]

If they are 2 devices instead of a single combined unit, yes at this point. However, the input backend is really modern, and I just need to sit down and think about how I would implement the multi-controller scheme. I also want to support MFDs and button boxes etc.

[u/kalnaren → u/cinaed666]

Sounds good! My throttle, pedals, and stick are all separate units with 11 combined axis so they tend to confuse the shit out of older programs. I tried playing Starlancer a while ago on my old Win98 rig but the lack of twist on my old joystick (CH F16 Combat Stick) made that annoying.

I'm glad you're working on this project. Starlancer is a pretty unique game in the space sim realm.

[u/cinaed666 → u/kalnaren]

It really never got the love it deserved! I'm proud to preserve, restore and improve it.

[u/Oregooner21]

Thanks for sharing! Stoked to try this out.

[u/dgeurkov]

actually it's one of the games that I have loved back in 2000, and to experience it again I specialy got pentium 2 computer with a3d sound and period correct joystick couple of months ago, and I completely forgot how hard this game is, or maybe I just got older :(

[u/RangerKarl]

man I hope someone tweaks that final mission. Why was it even like that?

[u/cinaed666 → u/RangerKarl]

Dev here. OpenReliant has extensive modding support (and I'm adding more features to it as I realise gaps), so it's trivial to change the ending now ;)

[u/CleavingStriker]

This is awesome! I'm that guy who actually prefers Star Lancer to Freelancer so this is welcome news!

[u/No_Charity8332]

One of my favourite games of all time! Thanks!

[u/German_Bob]

Very Cool! I grew up with this game. Was hard as fuck back then, especially the last mission.

I will check this out soon :)

[u/XhymStudio]

Good vibes and great memories like Freelancer also!