7.9, new world viewer and more
Since our last news post, we have been very busy understanding the game and improving our tools, all to support the players. Here's an overview of what we have been up to recently.
7.9 loaded into database
The newest Game Update 7.9 is loaded into the site, so as long as you do not mind spoilers, you can explore the new additions here. We hope y'all have LOTS of fun playing Legacy Reborn and ensuring the game's longevity!
Keep in mind that the database site still looks the same and remains in maintenance mode, with all of our efforts being directed towards file reader & world viewer.
New world viewer
We are proud to announce that the world viewer has been rebuilt from scratch and now supports the same lighting model as the game client. This is a huge step towards preserving the DirectX 9 renderer as SWTOR migrates to DirectX 12. We are grateful for an outside developer who contributed to this undertaking.
As always, our tools support all patches, not just 7.9. Therefore, you can open any patch in world viewer: 32-bit assets with SpeedTree, pre-3.3.2 areas in text format, and beta assets using the original Granny 3D format.
HSL & DOM improvements for file reader
File reader has received some much-needed TLC to support HeroScripts. It now shows assembly language and coming soon, we will add decompilation so you can read something resembling the original HSL source code.
Previously, file reader placed a strong focus on supporting the various file formats (3D geometry, audio files, textures, animations), and had little GOM support. But as we complete our understanding of HeroEngine's core concepts like the Data Object Model and Game Object Model, and related concepts like GLOMming and replication, we improve the UI for prototype nodes and the client.gom file. We already have powerful APIs in place to track file & prototype node changes. Next up, we will be tracking DOM changes over time.
Patch downloads enabled again
A somewhat hidden but very popular feature is available once again: You can download previous patches to check out an older state of the game.
Sadly, we had to remove access last October after too many LLM bots were downloading every single patch and overloading our server. We did not make this decision lightly: As other sites restrict access behind a captcha, login wall or paywall, we strive to keep our site accessible and do not expose user data to third parties; in fact, we do not collect it in the first place. But as the database site lends itself well to scraping, over 99% of our traffic consists of bots.
In order to restore patch downloads without bringing down the server again, a token is now required for downloading. You can copy this token from the top of the detailed patch view and then paste it in the prompt when downloading a patch file. We reserve the right to restrict access at any time to ensure the core parts of the site remain online.
Closing remarks
It is ironic that as SWTOR's content releases slow, our development pace accelerates. During previous expansions, we could barely keep up with the changes. But at this point in time, we have a core group of very competent and knowledgeable persons, all of them interested in preserving the game long-term and exchanging their research.
Coding agents have been a boon to our work. A small feature that previously took a few hours is now built in five minutes. A larger item that required freeing up an entire weekend can now be completed in a single evening. With full control of the stack, little communications overhead and 90% solutions often sufficing, we have been seeing huge productivity increases for the past six months. Even players with no coding experience are contributing. (For your courtesy, this news post was written without AI support.)
We look forward to incorporating all of our discoveries into the database site soon™, which has remained stale for far too long. Whether we will have time for that depends primarily on how many format changes 8.0 and DirectX 12 will bring. Until next time!