Rogue Squadron 3D — static recompilation

The 1998 PC release of Star Wars: Rogue Squadron 3D (Steam, version 1.3), recompiled from its x86 machine code to C with pcrecomp and run on a 32-bit host that keeps it in a window, never touches your display mode, and adds an F10 menu for the game's cheats.

It runs Factor 5's own code, recompiled; it is not a remake. Generated source is not distributed. You supply your own copy of the game (Steam), and the lifted C is generated on your machine.

This is part of the pcrecomp family and follows its shared house style (layout, CLI, harness, headless mode). Its sibling is shadows-recomp.

Want to play it? Download the installer from the latest release (Rogue-Squadron-Recomp-Installer-windows-x64.exe). It finds the game in your Steam library and does everything else. See The installer.

Status

v0.1.0-alpha.1. The whole game lifts (13,331 functions, 0 errors), boots through the intro and the front end, and flies its missions.

Part	State
SteamStub 3.x removed statically	works (pcrecomp steamstub.py)
Lift	13,331 functions, 0 errors, ~3.7 million lines of C
Host (rogue.exe, 32-bit, pcrecomp native32)	148 imports native, 15 shimmed
Display (DirectDraw/Direct3D 6)	never exclusive, never a mode change; the flip chain is emulated and drawn into the window
Intro: logos, the trench flyover	runs
Front end: pilot roster, settings, level and craft select	runs
Missions	The Search for the Nonnah flies: launch, briefing, flight, radar, TIEs
Headless (--headless --record)	works
F10 menu: cheats	Millennium Falcon, TIE Interceptor, bonus missions, infinite lives and completing a mission checked under --cmd; the popup itself not yet seen on a screen
Borderless window, F11	written; not yet seen on a screen
Gamepad	the game's own DirectInput joystick support; not tried with a real pad
Resolution, widescreen	not yet (640x480, the game's default)
Playing the later levels through, sound	not tried

What's added on top

The game runs as it shipped; everything here sits around it.

• It stays in a window. As shipped it takes the screen (exclusive DirectDraw, a mode change to 640x480x16). Here it runs borderless fullscreen or in a window (F11), scaled with its aspect kept, and your desktop is never switched (docs/bringup.md 2).
• An F10 menu (docs/menu.md) that holds the game's own passcodes on: the Millennium Falcon, the TIE Interceptor, all bonus missions, and ace mode. No typing codes into the settings screen.
• Settings without an administrator. The game's registry key lives under HKCU, so nothing needs elevation.

Screenshots

From headless runs of the recompiled game.

Getting Started

You need Star Wars: Rogue Squadron 3D from Steam, installed (Steam app 455910), about 4 GB free, and Windows 10 or 11.

The installer

Download Rogue-Squadron-Recomp-Installer-windows-x64.exe from the latest release and run it. (For a build newer than the release, the latest installer run has the same files as artifacts; you need to be signed in to GitHub to download them.) It finds the game in your Steam library, downloads this repo and pcrecomp, runs the setup below with a progress bar, and leaves a Play button. It is recomp-launcher with launcher/launcher.json. It isn't signed: Windows SmartScreen asks first (More info, Run anyway).

Quick start

1. Download this repo (Code > Download ZIP) and unpack it anywhere.
2. Double-click Setup.cmd. It checks for Python, the pcrecomp toolkit, Visual Studio's C++ tools, CMake and Ninja, and asks before installing anything. It finds your Steam install, copies the game into game\, removes SteamStub, writes the game's settings, and lifts and builds. The first time takes 30 to 90 minutes. Everything it does goes to setup.log.
3. Double-click Rogue Squadron (recomp).cmd.

If a step fails, it says what to do in one sentence; run Setup.cmd again and it carries on where it stopped.

Step by step

Prerequisites: Python 3.10+ (py -3), pip install pefile capstone cryptography, Visual Studio 2022 or its Build Tools with "Desktop development with C++", CMake 3.20+, Ninja, git.

git clone https://github.com/sp00nznet/pcrecomp ..\pcrecomp

1. Copy your Steam install (the folder with ROGUE\Rogue Squadron.EXE) to game\.
2. Remove SteamStub:

   py -3 ..\pcrecomp\tools\drm\steamstub.py "game\ROGUE\Rogue Squadron.EXE" game\ROGUE\Rogue.unwrapped.exe
   SteamStub 3.x: app 455910, header 0x007FF220
     .text 0x00401000+0x1BE000 decrypted (AES-256-CBC); OEP 0x005A2200
   

3. Write the game's settings to HKCU: the values are in tools\setup.ps1, step 4 (Steam writes them to HKLM, which needs an administrator; the host reads them from HKCU).
4. Catalog the functions (about 10 minutes):

   py -3 ..\pcrecomp\tools\disasm\disasm32.py game\ROGUE\Rogue.unwrapped.exe -o work\functions.json
   [*] Functions: 13327  (thunks=6, leaves=4726)
   [*] Byte coverage: 1,794,263 / 1,826,816 (98.2% of code range)
   

5. Lift (about 5 minutes):

   set PCRECOMP=..\pcrecomp
   py -3 run_lift.py --all
     lifted 13331   not-lifted stubs 0   errors 0   no terminator 285
   

6. Build: build.cmd (with set CMAKE_ARGS=-DPCRECOMP=..\pcrecomp).
7. Run: build\rogue.exe --run.

Usual trip-ups: python opening the Microsoft Store (use py -3); a new PATH not seen until you open a new window; a 64-bit compiler environment (build.cmd sets up the x86 one itself).

Usage

build\rogue.exe --run                      play
build\rogue.exe --run --headless --mute --record out.mp4 --watchdog 120
                                           no window, nothing on screen, a video of it
build\rogue.exe --run --headless --mouse 568,107@54 --click 0@56 --key 0x1C@66
                                           scripted input: click Start on the roster, Enter
build\rogue.exe --run --headless --cmd falcon@5
                                           an F10 menu command on a timeline

The whole command line and the debug switches: docs/host.md. In the game: F10 opens the menu, F11 (or Alt+Enter) switches between borderless fullscreen and a window.

Building from source

py -3 run_lift.py --all then build.cmd, or on the lab farm netlab build rogue (recipe local/projects/rogue.env in recomp-netlab). The generated C lands in src/recomp/gen/ and is never committed.

Documentation

• docs/RECON.md: what is in the Steam install, measured.
• docs/bringup.md: every wall so far and what got past it.
• docs/host.md: the host's parts and command line.
• docs/menu.md: the F10 menu, and the game's passcodes.

License

MIT for the code in this repository (LICENSE): the host, the display and input layers, the menu, the scripts and the documentation.

Star Wars: Rogue Squadron 3D is © Lucasfilm Ltd. / LucasArts, developed by Factor 5, and is not ours to license. Its executables, data, music and art are not in this repository and are excluded by .gitignore. You need your own copy of the game; setup copies your Steam install into game\.

The unwrapped executable and the lifted C (src/recomp/gen/) are made from the game's own code. They carry the game's terms, not the MIT licence, which is why they are generated on your machine and never committed.