XWAU 2025 is here!

[Forceflow]

XWAU_2025_v3.jpg

The XWAU Team is proud to present the next version of the X-Wing Alliance Upgrade.
This one spiraled a bit out of control, it was originally only meant to fix the installer bug with 2024 and add and opt or two, but things got a lot more complicated.

A new way to install the XWAU
With 2025 we are introducing a different way to download the XWAU compared to our old method. This is for multiple reasons, some technical issues, and also trying to make everyone's life easier. The initial process is quite different, we highly suggest to read through this guide to understand what is going on.

Some quick and simple information:
The download is no longer a self-installing executable. You need the X-Wing Alliance Installer Manager to install this and future mods, tools and updates.
It will no longer overwrite your base X-Wing Alliance installation. Instead it makes a copy of your vanilla XWA, and then install the mods into that copy.
This will not only prevent many of the issues we have seen before, like Steam 'repairing' an XWAU installation, breaking everything in the process, but also make it easier to have multiple mods installed.

You no longer need to download the installer packages from the site, the Installer Manager will handle this for you. Plus it's faster and can check for new Updates too!
We hope it won't be too hard to grasp but again, again for a more in-depth instructions read our guide. The packages will still be available for download on the page as well in case you want to use download managers or want to transfer the files to a different computer.

A change to how you start the XWAU
We realized 2024 had problems due to the amount of memory that the XWAU could use. Since the game is still a 32Bit application it can only really use 2 - 3GB of memory.
XWAU 2024 was already filling this up, which is why you'd often see crashes on loading new missions.
Without boring you with too much technical details here, the brilliant @JeremyaFr found a way to side-load both the new concourse animations and some in flight textures. This frees up a lot of memory and should make the XWAU 2025 a much more stable experience.

This does mean that during game-play two additional processes are running:
Xwa32bppPlayer.exe
XwaConcoursePlayer.exe
Those should start and end automatically when running the game from the Launcher, but also can be started manually in case it is needed. (We have seen rare instances where you need to manually start them)
This means that shortcuts directly to your XWINGALLIANCE.EXE will not work properly! You need to start the game through the ALLIANCE.EXE Launcher, or start the above processes manually.

The shiny new things
While 2025 does not add many new models this time, there are some long overdue new additions.

The big one, literally, being the new Golan I Platform from @Vince T. It comes with it's own hangar bay and Skins which feature in the campaign.
Also the great Asteroid Mining Unit from @Talaris and @Vince T with added laser drills. Check them out as they are absolutely gorgeous!

2025-06-20_1.jpg

Bulk Freighter: This classic ship has it's original look back and has been updated with the Cargo Pods from JC's newest Container Brick model.
Modified Corvette: The model is updated using some improved components from the newer Corvette CR90. Plus it now comes with a red Skin.
Otana: Ace Antilles updated the cockpit with some new animations for the console screens. Also the control yoke will now move with your joystick.
The Quasar Fire-class Carrier has had various fixes as well as many other Flightmodels. View the Changelog for more information.

BulkCorv.jpg

The Dynamic Cockpits also received some updates and tuning thanks to @blue_max. They should now be easier to read and work across all resolutions and generally look better.

Another big change is the new Enhanced HUD by @blue_max. This add bars around the bracket of your selected target, it displays ship name, cargo, distance, sub components, shields, hull and system status. This makes it easier to keep your eyes on the target in those heated battles. If you prefer to use the original behaviour the Enhanced HUD feature can be disabled via Babu Frik's Configurator.

In the Skirmish selection screen @JeremyaFr added a function so that the ship images are now directly rendered from the selected model. This makes it's easier when swapping out models or changing their default profiles to see the correct ship.

Squadron Briefing Emblems: @ual002 has created animated spinning logos for Squadron 5 and 6. These are referred to as Phantom and Vector Squadron in mission editors and show during Briefings. Squadron 5 is a Rebel logo, and Squadron 6 is a custom campaign New Republic logo. They look amazing in game.

Pilots get to your Fighters
Many missions have been bug fixed, tweaked, balanced or generally improved upon to make your flying experience more enjoyable.
@Forceflow has spent hours flying and testing, adding new Backdrops in places and others adjusted. Various ship Object Profiles are also used more often.
We couldn't have done it without our newest member and super tester @nicklg24. As well as existing testers like @Blazingfirestorm.

There are also several new skins appearing in missions, including new ones from @Will T and @nicklg24.
@Ace Antilles has converted Spyder's A-wing, X-wing, Y-wing and others to use the Skins feature for the standard FG colouring.
There are now different pilot faces and Droid colours for each primary Flightgroup or wingman. Ace and Olin have been given unique Astromechs colours and these feature in his missions.
Thanks to @Will T, X-Wings in missions now show their proper flight-number on the wings. This means you see the correct FG number on the wing of the ship you fly. Red 3, Green 2 etc.

It's not an XWAU Reimagined like the TFTC, but a good reason to give the Azzameen campaign a 2025 revisit.

And one more thing...

Well, there is one more big change to the game. @MechDonald has started to make new videos for all the video-sequences in the game. They all look absolutely stunning and we highly recommend to not skip the intro, prologue of battle 1 video. The detail and quality of the videos are just incredible, and we hope you enjoy them as much as we do.

The new videos are also all available in the different language options via our newest configuration tool, the C-3PO's Language Configurator.
This new tool will also be able to switch your in-game language to the language of your choice and is available as a separate download in the Installer Manager.
We will be expanding on the use of this and more fixes to mission language options over time.

@MechDonald also worked his magic and created dedicated HD medal Ceremony videos for each medal. Plus new HD pics of them as you are awarded your medal box.

There is more, a lot more that has been done, too much to list here. What started as a rather small update now almost rivals 2024 in it's complexity.
For a more complete list of changes refer to the XWAU 2025 Changelog.pdf in the Readme\Updates\ folder of your installation.

We really hope that we can move to smaller patches again, but for now we need a breather first. But don't worry, more is yet to come and some really exiting things are being worked on!

Please be aware that the XWAU 2025 is not compatible with the current release of the TFTC, an upcoming v1.4 of the Reimagined campaign will be.

Some final notes
We would like to dedicate this release to @DTM. His work on so many Backdrops, Cockpits, Fighters and Ships etc make up a large part of the updated models in XWAU.
Without his dedication over the years, flying into battle would be a much duller experience.
Thank you for all your efforts.
He’s taking time away currently, but we hope he can return in the future to dazzle us with his next project!

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In case of problems
In case you are encountering any issues with the XWAU 2025, please check the 2025 Known Issues Thread on the forum!

[batuta]

UAUUUUU IMPRESIVE THANK YOU VERY MUCH.

[Muahaha]

The new cutscenes are so much nicer and modernized. Love some of the fixes done to the missions like battle 1 mission 7 which was enhanced to it which meant to be. Awesome and good job overall.

[Red_3]

Thanks so much to the team for all their hard work! With your help, X-Wing Alliance is still the best SW game after 27 years!


If I understand correctly, the AddOn-C3PO is ONLY for non-english language additions, but please correct me if I am wrong.

[Eh Wing]

What a pleasant surprise! Thanks again to all you hard working folks for keeping this game fresh and new.

I really love the new heads up data at the target box. I do find the shield and hull bars to be a bit to thick for my liking though. Maybe they could be narrowed a bit?

Love the new opening cutscenes! Can't wait to get off work and dig into this some more.

EW

[Ace Antilles]

What a pleasant surprise! Thanks again to all you hard working folks for keeping this game fresh and new.

I really love the new heads up data at the target box. I do find the shield and hull bars to be a bit to thick for my liking though. Maybe they could be narrowed a bit?

Love the new opening cutscenes! Can't wait to get off work and dig into this some more.

EW

There are settings that can be configured but we've tried to use an overall user friendly one.
I'm not sure how small they can get, maybe no smaller.
@blue_max knows more but also see the Special Effects readme in the readme folders for more information on it

[Ace Antilles]

Thanks so much to the team for all their hard work! With your help, X-Wing Alliance is still the best SW game after 27 years!


If I understand correctly, the AddOn-C3PO is ONLY for non-english language additions, but please correct me if I am wrong.

Yes that is only to download videos and language options for non English versions.
Because the videos are large in size we didn't want to add them all to everyone's game. So people can choose

[Vince T]

The HUD dimensions are defined in pixels. You find these settings near the end of the SSAO.cfg file in your X-Wing Alliance Directory.

These are the default values

Code: Select all

;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
; Enhanced HUD
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
enable_enhanced_hud = 1

enhanced_hud_display_bars = 1
enhanced_hud_vertical_bars = 1
enhanced_hud_min_bracket_size = 20
enhanced_hud_max_bracket_size = 150

; Font size: 1 = small, 2 = medium, 3 = large
enhanced_hud_font_size = 2

; Colors are in R,G,B format
enhanced_hud_shields_col = 0.12, 0.5, 1
enhanced_hud_overshds_col = 0.49, 0.97, 1
enhanced_hud_hull_col_full = 0, 1, 0
enhanced_hud_hull_col_mid = 1, 1, 0
enhanced_hud_hull_col_low = 1, 0, 0
enhanced_hud_sys_col = 0.8, 0.5, 1

; Bar sizes, in pixels
enhanced_hud_min_bar_length = 16
enhanced_hud_max_bar_length = 140
enhanced_hud_bar_thickness = 9
enhanced_hud_bar_gap = 7
enhanced_hud_bar_frame_width = 0

enhanced_hud_vr_text_scale = 1.0

[Ace Antilles]

The new cutscenes are so much nicer and modernized. Love some of the fixes done to the missions like battle 1 mission 7 which was enhanced to it which meant to be. Awesome and good job overall.

Do you mean with the Interdictor not showing up?
It was very hit and miss but Forceflow fixed it to work properly.
That's what a lot of missions have had this release. A little improvement where necessary

[Michal]

Great work. The upgraded cutscenes are very impressive.
All the best to DTM. We hope he will be back soon!

[charben01]

I've been waiting for this! What would you consider a "high end gaming" system for Ultra graphics settings? Currently I have a Nvidia TRX 3080 10 gb and an intel i9 11900k processor, 32mb of onboard memory. Thank you for all the wonderful work on this game!

[Eh Wing]

The HUD dimensions are defined in pixels. You find these settings near the end of the SSAO.cfg file in your X-Wing Alliance Directory.

Thanks! I'm not seeing a systems bar at all. Am I missing something? I'm also wondering what these values do:

enhanced_hud_display_bars = 1
enhanced_hud_vertical_bars = 1
enhanced_hud_min_bracket_size = 20
enhanced_hud_max_bracket_size = 150

enhanced_hud_bar_gap = 7
enhanced_hud_bar_frame_width = 0

enhanced_hud_vr_text_scale = 1.0 ;this one especially since we already defined text size

Thanks.

[Ace Antilles]

I've been waiting for this! What would you consider a "high end gaming" system for Ultra graphics settings? Currently I have a Nvidia TRX 3080 10 gb and an intel i9 11900k processor, 32mb of onboard memory. Thank you for all the wonderful work on this game!

Yes on the high end. Slightly better than my own pc.
It's sometimes not if the computer can handle it, more if it impacts the gameplay.

Try whatever you want and you can change settings via Babu Friks Configurator

[Vince T]

@Eh Wing the system bar only shows when the target is hit with ions.

It was permanently showing in its first iteration but we thought it better not to clutter up the HUD that are only of situational relevance.

[Eh Wing]

@Eh Wing the system bar only shows when the target is hit with ions.

It was permanently showing in its first iteration but we thought it better not to clutter up the HUD that are only of situational relevance.

That explains it. I was firing my ions at tie fighters to see if it would show up and it was fully disabling them before I could see it.

I was thinking though it would be nice to have the option to enable it to permanently show, but I can see your reasonings for not making that the default.
My other thought too is that there is no way to distinguish between 100% and 0% systems by looking at the HUD unless you define a hud bar frame width. But I can live with that as I think the frame looks good anyway.

I also noticed that while the target box shows through all of the opaque cockpit parts, the enhanced HUD does not. Was this intentional? While close in on capital ships I cannot see the systems bar and the lower 2/3 of the shield and hull bars. And with the B-Wing's ion cannons mounted below the cockpit, most of the enhanced HUD is hidden by the opaque cockpit when trying to pull lead on a smaller craft.

My impression of the target HUD is that it is displayed in the pilot's visor, like modern 5th Gen fighters. So it makes sense that the full target HUD should always be visible when the target is in the FOV.

One more thing, I find that every turn fight very quickly becomes a simple pitch up maneuver to establish a lead shot. It would make sense to me for the target ID and details text to be on either side of the target box, not above and below where a target may be moving in and out of lead.

I hope you don't mind the critique. I really love this feature and will be happy to use it as is. I just want to share my insight into what could make it even better, IMHO.

EW

[Eh Wing]

Just a couple minor issues I'm having that I wanted to bring up:

In the quick skirmish flight group configuration screen, the craft model seems to be crowding the flight group options to the left of it. I think you guys updated how those models are generated, which is a big improvement. But it seems that clicking square on the craft image to open the craft selection dialogue tends to adjust the flight group options instead. I think the model needs to be moved to the right far enough that this doesn't conflict.

Another minor issue; I use Joystick Gremlin for mapping keybinds to all of my controllers. I've noticed a new behavior that when I load the game without activating the profile in JG, my pilot's head goes into a continuous front roll. It takes a couple of instances restarting the game after activating the JG profile to fix. I've never had this issue before with 2024 or 2020.

Altogether just minor stuff that I can work around if it doesn't get addressed.

Thanks!
EW

[Eh Wing]

@Eh Wing the system bar only shows when the target is hit with ions.

It was permanently showing in its first iteration but we thought it better not to clutter up the HUD that are only of situational relevance.

I just had a thought to this; I wonder if the target bracket itself could be used to indicate the hull, shield, and system values by a transition in color? Basically overlay the colored bars right over the yellow brackets, revealing the yellow as the value diminished?

But you probably already thought of this...

EW

[charben01]

Thanks Ace! I forgot to mention I'm running a 2K not 4K monitor. Any my fumble fingers meant to type RTX, not TRX...sigh.

[lotech]

The installer fails installing on Crossover -

Unhandled Exception:
System.Windows.Markup.XamlParseException: Initialization of 'iNKORE.UI.WPF.Modern.ThemeResources' threw an exception. ---> System.TypeInitializationException: The type initializer for 'iNKORE.UI.WPF.Modern.ThemeManager' threw an exception. ---> System.TypeLoadException: Could not load type of field 'iNKORE.UI.WPF.Modern.Helpers.ColorsHelper:_uiSettings' (9) due to: Could not load file or assembly 'Windows.Foundation.UniversalApiContract, Version=15.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=null' or one of its dependencies.

[Dylan35794]

Wow!! This mod just keeps getting better and better every year!

Edit: Is that EC Henry's Imperial Nebulon B I see in the background?!

[Bman]

Wow!! This mod just keeps getting better and better every year!

Edit: Is that EC Henry's Imperial Nebulon B I see in the background?!

Yes it is. But DTM made it from scratch and is less detailed.

[m0rgg]

The installer fails installing on Crossover -

Unhandled Exception:
System.Windows.Markup.XamlParseException: Initialization of 'iNKORE.UI.WPF.Modern.ThemeResources' threw an exception. ---> System.TypeInitializationException: The type initializer for 'iNKORE.UI.WPF.Modern.ThemeManager' threw an exception. ---> System.TypeLoadException: Could not load type of field 'iNKORE.UI.WPF.Modern.Helpers.ColorsHelper:_uiSettings' (9) due to: Could not load file or assembly 'Windows.Foundation.UniversalApiContract, Version=15.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=null' or one of its dependencies.

The new installer has not been tested in Wine or similar compatibility layers like Crossover.

Some ideas: make sure you have .NET 4.8 or something compatible in your prefix.

[m0rgg]

enhanced_hud_vr_text_scale = 1.0 ;this one especially since we already defined text size

This scale will only be applied to the enhanced HUD text labels.

The in-game resolution will affect all the text rendered in-flight, and other 2D overlay elements, including the classic HUD, the radio and mission related messages.

[Vince T]

@Eh Wing the system bar only shows when the target is hit with ions.

It was permanently showing in its first iteration but we thought it better not to clutter up the HUD that are only of situational relevance.

That explains it. I was firing my ions at tie fighters to see if it would show up and it was fully disabling them before I could see it.

I was thinking though it would be nice to have the option to enable it to permanently show, but I can see your reasonings for not making that the default.
My other thought too is that there is no way to distinguish between 100% and 0% systems by looking at the HUD unless you define a hud bar frame width. But I can live with that as I think the frame looks good anyway.

I also noticed that while the target box shows through all of the opaque cockpit parts, the enhanced HUD does not. Was this intentional? While close in on capital ships I cannot see the systems bar and the lower 2/3 of the shield and hull bars. And with the B-Wing's ion cannons mounted below the cockpit, most of the enhanced HUD is hidden by the opaque cockpit when trying to pull lead on a smaller craft.

My impression of the target HUD is that it is displayed in the pilot's visor, like modern 5th Gen fighters. So it makes sense that the full target HUD should always be visible when the target is in the FOV.

One more thing, I find that every turn fight very quickly becomes a simple pitch up maneuver to establish a lead shot. It would make sense to me for the target ID and details text to be on either side of the target box, not above and below where a target may be moving in and out of lead.

I hope you don't mind the critique. I really love this feature and will be happy to use it as is. I just want to share my insight into what could make it even better, IMHO.

EW

We did have a bunch of additional info showing in the HUD bracket but in the end all it did was clutter the screen.

Ultimately we decided to stay true to the original look and feel.

[Charger116]

Super effort as always - looks absolutely fantastic. I can't wait to start my 244th playthrough of this game