Star Wars: Force Commander

Star Wars: Force Commander

Developers
	LucasArts
	Ronin Entertainment
Publishers
	LucasArts
Release dates
Windows	March 21, 2000
Taxonomy
Monetization	One-time game purchase
Modes	Singleplayer, Multiplayer
Pacing	Real-time
Perspectives	Bird's-eye view
Controls	Point and select
Genres	RTS
Themes	Sci-fi
Series	Star Wars

Star Wars: Force Commander is a singleplayer and multiplayer bird's-eye view RTS game in the Star Wars series.

Availability

Source	DRM	Notes	Keys	OS
Retail		Simple disc check.

Essential improvements

Patches

Patch 1.1 is the latest patch available for the game. It adds stability and bug fixes for multiplayer.

Saved games from the 1.0 version are not compatible with 1.1, but player files (including campaign progress) are.

Install dgVoodoo 2
Download dgVoodoo 2. Extract to <path-to-game> dgVoodooCpl.exe and the following files from the MS\x86 subfolder: D3DImm.dll and DDraw.dll. In the dgVoodoo Control Panel, set the following: in General → Scaling mode: Stretched, Keep aspect ratio; in DirectX → set Fast video memory access.

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System	Location
Windows	<path-to-game>\Resource\Options\FoCom.opt HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\LucasArts Entertainment Company LLC\Force Commander\v1.0\Settings

Save game data location

System	Location
Windows	<path-to-game>\Resource\Players\FoCom<user-id>.sfe <path-to-game>\Resource\GameFiles\save<user-id>.sav

Video

Terrain artifacting on modern AMD GPUs.

Graphics feature	State	WSGF	Notes
Widescreen resolution			1280x1024 maximum
Multi-monitor
Ultra-widescreen
4K Ultra HD
Field of view (FOV)
Windowed		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Borderless fullscreen windowed		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Anisotropic filtering (AF)		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Anti-aliasing (AA)		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
High-fidelity upscaling		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Vertical sync (Vsync)
60 FPS
120+ FPS		Capped at 60 FPS.
High dynamic range display (HDR)
Color blind mode		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.

The game does not work properly with modern AMD GPUs. If the game runs, there is significant terrain artifacting that, though it does not affect gameplay, can not be fixed.

Setting resolution and quality

The resolution and quality settings are managed by the launcher, but not being able to recognize the video card does not allow all changes. These can be edited through the Windows Registry Editor (regedit) in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\LucasArts Entertainment Company LLC\Force Commander\v1.0\Settings\Screen: Allow32bpp: 1 (sets resolution at 32 bit per pixel) Size: 3 (sets resolution at 1280x1024) Use32BitTextures: 1 (uses high quality 32-bit texture) UseLowQualityTextures: 0 (disables low quality texture) UseSoftwareCursor: 1 (disables hardware cursor) If the launcher is not started as administrator, the key path changes[citation needed]

Input

Keyboard and mouse	State	Notes
Remapping		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Mouse sensitivity
Mouse acceleration
Mouse input in menus
Keyboard and mouse prompts
Mouse Y-axis inversion
Controller
Controller support

Audio

Audio feature	State	Notes
Separate volume controls
Surround sound
Subtitles
Closed captions		A complete cutscene script is available on Disk 1 (go to Install\CINEMATICDOC.txt).
Mute on focus lost
Royalty free audio

Localizations

Language	UI	Audio	Sub	Notes
English
Czech				Fan - 1
French
German
Italian				Only in the game, not in video
Spanish

Network

Multiplayer types

Type	Native	Players	Notes
LAN play		4
Online play		4	The official multiplayer service was shut down.

Connection types

Type	Native	Notes
Matchmaking
Peer-to-peer
Dedicated
Self-hosting
Direct IP

Issues fixed

Installing on Windows 10 64-bit

Use alternative installer

Installing the game using a 16-bit emulator
Download and install winevdm Start otvdmw.exe and look for the game installer path on the disc. Proceed with the normal installation of the game. Right-click on the Desktop shortcut of the game and edit Target by adding quotation marks at the beginning and end of the path (e.g. "C:\Program Files (x86)\LucasArts\Force Commander\Force.exe").

Creating a Windows compatibility database entry

Use Compatibility Administrator to set compatibility

Download Windows ADK and install only "Compatibility Administrator". In Custom Database, right-click on New_database(1) [Untitled_1] → Create New → Application Fix. Set the name of the program to fix "focom" and the path to focom.exe. Do not set anything in Compatibility mode. Under Compatibility fixes, set: RunAsAdmin and SingleProcAffinity. Save the entry Set the name of the program to fix "Force" and the path to Force.exe. Do not set anything in Compatibility mode. Under Compatibility fixes, set: RunAsAdmin. Save the entry Once the database is created, go to File → Save, under Database Name set "Force Commander" and save the file ForceCommander.sdb to <path-to-game>. Right-click on the Database named "Force Commander" and Install.

Other information

API

Technical specs	Supported	Notes
Direct3D	7

Executable	32-bit	64-bit	Notes
Windows

Middleware

	Middleware	Notes
Multiplayer	MSN Gaming Zone

System requirements

Windows
	Minimum		Recommended
Operating system (OS)	95		98
Processor (CPU)	Intel Pentium II 266 MHz
System memory (RAM)	64 MB		128 MB
Storage drive (HDD/SSD)	650 MB
Video card (GPU)	8 MB of VRAM DirectX 7.0a compatible