Circa

It's been 20 years since Jedi Outcast launched in 2002, if you can believe that. This masterpiece of a game truly defined what it means to be Jedi in a video game, even to this day, with its intricate lightsaber combat and Force powers. Continuing the Dark Forces story, Outcast follows the mercenary turned Jedi, Kyle Katarn, after he shuts himself off from the Force and returns to being an agent of the New Republic.
With such a milestone anniversary, I really wanted to do something special here, and unfortunately I did not get this published in time for the actual day, yesterday. I'm hoping I will be forgiven for being late with how great this project turned out.
I got a chance to sit down with 5 of the developers of Jedi Outcast over a Zoom call and not only did they take time to talk with me about this wonderful game, but they talked to me for nearly 3 hours. I cut it down to just 2 hours. It's clear from the very beginning that they were truly passionate about this game and consider it their proudest achievement. Take a look at the video below and listen as they reminisce and chat about development and that era of their careers!
Reddit post

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A couple months ago, Imgur, the most popular anonymous image upload service, announced that all anonymously posted images would be deleted, and all uploads going forward would require an account. As many of you know, thousands of images posted on these forums were hosted on Imgur anonymously. It has been the standard for posting images for years. Hearing that news had us concerned, not that losing all of those images in the forum was a dire situation, but that it would leave many of the threads that show progress of mods from the last decade completely useless.
All Imgur images previously posted are now locally hosted
Thanks to @AshuraDX going above and beyond, he did his database voodoo and retrieved every single Imgur link on the forum, including tutorials and news articles, and re-hosted them on our server, keeping the original file names in tact. For example if you posted a link like this:
https://i.imgur.com/n9YsBml.jpg It is now this:
https://jkhub.org/images/n9YsBml.jpg We also came up with a quick solution for albums. A simple page showing the images, while keeping the individual links in tact.
https://jkhub.org/albums/VRFiDx2 Keep in mind, they didn't give much of an advanced warning before they began deleting anonymous images, so there may be a small number out there that weren't saved.
Also, this is mostly a one time thing that we will do. We may look again in the future, but going forward, we recommend not using Imgur at all to host your images here, or really anywhere even if you have an account. They have shown they are not profitable enough to be sustainable, so it is most likely a matter of time before they go full paid subscription to host images, like ImageShack or Photobucket did.
So how do I post images then?
Local image hosting is now enabled for all users. You should now see an option to drag and drop or choose an image to upload at the bottom of your text box as shown below. We have a generous max upload size in place for now, but ask to not abuse that. Most images shared are an average of 1MB. If yours is a lot bigger than that, run it through ImageOptim or something if you want.

 
Why didn't you allow image uploads in the forum before?
In short, server storage is expensive. We tried to keep the size of JKHub as small as possible. We host all mod files in a separate CDN which keeps costs lower, and we could in theory do the same for locally hosted images, but our CDN service is not supported natively by the forum software. When forum activity was booming, it made the most sense. Now that activity is much lower these days, having it enabled should be okay.
What about the Files section images?
We already host all images in the Files section, and we have gone out of our way to save and manually upload any images submitted via Imgur or other hosts, to avoid this very problem from ever happening. Though, it was always more likely for the author to delete the images before an entire service was shut down, after seeing what happened to ImageShack and Photobucket, we didn't want to risk a key part of hosting mods to ever get lost, and now we were proven to be right about that. So those have always been hosted locally on our server since day one.
Bot attacks
In other news, we got hit with a significant bot attack a couple weeks ago. If you had email notifications for forums on, your inbox probably shed a tear. We have upped registration security a bit, and have set all new account posts to be manually approved by staff. 100% of the bot posts were new accounts that posted instantly. We can at the very least save you guys from seeing them when they happen now.
We appreciate you
That's all for now, though we do have some things planned for later this year and beyond that you'll hear about when it is time. Thanks for sticking with us, and remember we provide all of this for free and ad-free for you. Money is tight for a lot of people right now, including us, but if you do have the ability to donate even a small amount to help keep us around, it is greatly appreciated.
UPDATE 2024-Mar-29
Discord has started blocking externally linked images now too. Please avoid using Discord image links. Just upload directly like explained above.

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Two factor authentication on JKHub 🔒
Just a quick little update here for you guys. Due to a lot of security breaches and hacks that have been going on around the internet over the last year or so, and an uptick in spam posts recently, we've enabled two-factor authentication as an option for all accounts, and a requirement for all staff accounts. This won't necessarily fix the spam problem, but hopefully it allows users a little more security if they desire it.
If you aren't familiar with two factor authentication (also known as 2FA), or multi-factor authentication, it basically enables you to use a second method for confirming that it is you that signs in, by using another device or account that you have approved to use as an authentication method. Typically this is through an SMS or an authenticator app. The method we have enabled is the latter, authentication apps such as Google Authenticator (Android | iOS)and Authy (Android | iOS). Chances are you're using one of those apps already, so this should be easy for you. If you haven't and want to learn, check out this link for a quick explainer on that.
Visit the link below to enable 2FA on your JKHub account.
Account Security Settings
Jedi Outcast turns 21! 🎂
In other news, this month marked the 21st birthday of Jedi Outcast, which isn't as exciting as the 20th, but in the States JK2 is old enough to legally drink, so raise a pint! 🍻 If you weren't around for the 20th anniversary last March, or you haven't gotten around to watching it yet or just live under a rock, last year I had the privilege of talking with a handful of the developers that were at Raven Software at the time and helped make Jedi Outcast.
The full interview was about 2 hours long, but if you want just a little taste of it, I do have a short little clip on my main YouTube channel below that's about 15 minutes if you want to just hear a bit to decide if you want to hear the full thing. It was really cool getting to hear them just reminisce about that time and see their passion for making that game. I plan on doing it again later this year for Jedi Academy too, fingers crossed, so subscribe to the channel or keep an eye here around August/September as we get closer to the actual 20th anniversary for Jedi Academy.
Full Interview Video Here
Ideas for Jedi Academy Anniversary💡
Speaking of Jedi Academy, if you guys have any ideas for ways to celebrate the 20th anniversary that are feasible to do, let me know. Is there a specific kind of contest you want to see? Is there any interest in some kind of server meet up or event someone has in mind to help with? There's only so much I can do on my own, so any help or ideas would be welcome. Leave in the comments below or contact me directly.

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Over the last year, I've been working on building a podcast talking about gaming, movies, tv, etc. It has been a slow process getting a backlog started, while also planning ahead for super cool stuff. Though the podcast and YouTube channel isn't Jedi Academy-specific, since this game is such a big part of my life I can't help but talk about it when I can, especially during it's 20th anniversary year.
This episode I had the privilege of having @Link join me as a guest, and we basically just talk about Jedi Academy, our first memories, jk3files, JKHub, running clans, and how it effected their lives in general. It was a lot of fun, and we'd really appreciate you talking a look.
If you like what you see/hear then consider subscribing to us on YouTube, or on Spotify, or anywhere else that has podcasts, as we do have more Jedi Academy related things planned as this 20th anniversary continues on! Stay tuned!
If you aren't a fan of podcasts or just don't have time, you can also check out the short clip on Reddit to give you a little taste.
amongthenoise.com
Subscribe on YouTube
Follow on Spotify
Also, if you haven't checked out @Link's video "A love letter to Jedi Academy" - you definitely should!
Thanks to any support and time given, we greatly appreciate it and hope you enjoy. 🙂

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Today Nightdive Studios in collaboration with Lucasfilm Games officially announced they are remastering the original game from 1995 that began Kyle Katarn's journey, Dark Forces. No strangers to remastering classic 90's shooter games, Nightdive has System Shock and Quake II under their belt showing they know what they're doing when it comes to modernizing these games, while keeping their identity and charm in tact.
This is a remaster, rather than a remake, using original assets and code where possible while implementing modern controls, upscaling textures and sprites, 4k resolution, and widescreen support. Nightdive prides themselves on what they call their "KEX Engine" for these projects.
Dark Forces Remastered will be released on PC, Xbox One & Series X|S, PlayStation 4 & 5, and Nintendo Switch. According what Nightdive's Larry Kuperman told IGN, the game will be competitively priced around the $20-$30 USD range and a release date is expected for 2024. An official release date will be announced later this year.
The first question many people will ask, especially in this community, is how likely are we to see the rest of the series get remastered, especially Dark Forces II, and the answer is: very unlikely. The sequel uses a completely different engine which may mean Nightdive's KEX engine wouldn't support it easily, etc. It is not impossible, but I don't think one remaster automatically confirms the whole series will get touched, especially since Outcast and Academy got console releases so recently.
The game is looking great, and I'm looking forward to playing it again, as someone who has tried to play the original many times but gets frustrated with the controls, this remaster is a much welcome release and is another example of Lucasfilm not completely letting their legacy content completely be forgotten.
Star Wars: Dark Forces has a release date: February 28, 2024. That’s for PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X and S, and Nintendo Switch.
UPDATE: The game is out and can be purchased on Steam, Xbox Store, PlayStation Store, or Nintendo eShop.
Source: IGN

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Not sure if any of the rest of you got in on the Limited Run editions of KOTOR but the Master Editions finally got sent out this week. If you didn't, I made a simple unboxing video to show what is inside! Definitely check it out. The master edition is full of cool stuff, and I'm super happy with it.
Best parts of it are the hard cover strategy guide, full of tons of info about nearly every aspect of the game (I'm curious if anyone here knows if any strategy guide from the past was used for it?), the security spike USB drive, the saber replicas, and the Ebon Hawk pin.
Check it out!
 

Here's a quick short video showing some key parts of the stream!
 

That is my personal model I made for myself. I hadn’t planned on releasing it but I won’t say I never will I suppose. 

After a lot of requests from the community since v1.1 came out last year, I went through and did my best to make more things optional, so if you want a more vanilla experience with some of the core improvements JAEnhanced has like widescreen, RGB SFX sabers, bug fixes, etc., you can now do that. All optional PK3's have been moved to an "Optional" folder which you can pick and choose which ones you want or don't want. By default they are all in that folder so they are disabled.
List of optional features:
New force powers • Force Insanity, Destruction, Repulse and Stasis have been added. Force Repulse is gained automatically during the SP campaign. Bind the keys in the Controls menu. NPCs can use Destruction and Stasis. For faster force regeneration, g_forceRegenTime has been brought over from MP. Improved jedi_hm • DT's very nice improved Human Male jedi is included with Jedi Robe options with RGB tinting features. Build Your Own Lightsaber • Now lightsabers can be customized like the player species. Example customizable hilts are included thanks to AshuraDX and Plasma.’ New lightsaber hilts from around the Star Wars universe, even the Expanded Universe and new canon, all thanks to Plasma’s lightsaber pack. Improved effects • also known as "UltimateWeapons", this is a must-have to create a more authentic Star Wars atmosphere Included HapSlash’s improved stormtrooper model • because the default one is atrocious. Included Toshi’s Luke model • because of same reason as above Included AshuraDX’s high quality DL-44 model • because it is beautiful A small change was also made to the Minimal dismemberment setting to be g_dismemberment 0 rather than 2.
Keep in mind you MUST have zZZ_jaenhanced.pk3, that one is not optional.
1.2 is a small update but hopefully this makes some players happy that didn't want too much of the bloat that we added as part of this project but like the core features. 🙂 Please let me know if you run into any issues after this update. I tested some key things but not everything.
Download Jedi Academy: Enhanced

It was fun to spectate. Less fun to jump in with all you experienced players, but I enjoyed the experience overall since I hadn't played before. I really like the direction JKG is heading, and looking forward to more updates!

Thank you! I'll definitely poke around in these. I'd like to keep pushing it and see how far the entire UI experience can be pushed to just feel better and not like something out of a time capsule despite finding it endearing at this point. It was always 1 of the largest detractors for me when it came to large scale mods for the game; the UI never changed outside of some color shifting for the most part so things never felt quite their own to me.

I don't have much advise on menu editing, as any time I've done it has been a huge pain, but I always wanted someone to help with revamping it for JAEnhanced. I did some minor additions to the menu before and it made me want to pull my hair out, I can't imagine doing something like this. Nice job so far!
Some other menu mods you may be interested in poking around with to see what and how they did things:
https://jkhub.org/files/file/1264-skyline-menu/
https://jkhub.org/files/file/1466-skyline-menus-gfx-package/
https://jkhub.org/files/file/3597-jedi-outcast-expanded-menu/
 

Appreciate the clarity, and yes you're right about using the .menu to handle the squishing vs doing it in the texture, I ended up realizing that last night. I wasn't sure where the ceiling exists for texture resolution so arbitrarily chose 4096x4096 for the background and 4096x2048 for the games logo lockup which hasn't given me any issues. It seems like there me be some rudimentary ways of providing motion to some texture elements as well based on what I see in the .menu of the original menu for the scrolling Aurebesh text? An editor would be great but it does feel like once you get a grip on the .menu files things start to come together fairly quickly.

Anyway this is where I ended up after messing around. I'll keep toying with this as I have time, was fun to figure out.
 

UPDATE: The winner is @SomaZ!
The work on rend2 is coming along really nicely, and it is amazing to see the progress on a familiar map. Can't wait to see more rend2 projects in the future. Well done!
And thanks to all the other contestants, all the entries were awesome and you should be proud of what you did and the celebration you contributed to! Happy 20th anniversary to JKA. 🙂

Original post:
This is a couple days late. I take full responsibility for getting lost in the beauty and majesty of Starfield all weekend and completely forgetting to post the poll. So sorry!
We had more entries in this contest than we've had in years, so thank you so much to all the people that created something, even if its something you already planned on making, that's what makes these contests more fun.
Remember, this "anniversary" contest is to celebrate the 20th Anniversary of Jedi Academy, and the critieria is that is must be related to the Jedi Knight series in some way. We decided not to be too strict about it, just to encourage more submissions, but all of the rules still applied.

Contestants (click here to see all)
Bespin Duel Reborn by @SomaZ
CJP Dark Lord Customisation I by @Omega1
Female Rodian by @WizardMKBK
Imperial Hallway by @Chansta
Jaden as Twi'lek Male by @Noodle
Kyle Katarn with Jacket by @Joshua
Trip Mine by @Kitsu-NeshKaa

The winner is @SomaZ!
The work on rend2 is coming along really nicely, and it is amazing to see the progress on a familiar map. Can't wait to see more rend2 projects in the future. Well done!
And thanks to all the other contestants, all the entries were awesome and you should be proud of what you did and the celebration you contributed to! Happy 20th anniversary to JKA. 🙂

The winner is @SomaZ!
The work on rend2 is coming along really nicely, and it is amazing to see the progress on a familiar map. Can't wait to see more rend2 projects in the future. Well done!
And thanks to all the other contestants, all the entries were awesome and you should be proud of what you did and the celebration you contributed to! Happy 20th anniversary to JKA. 🙂

The winner is @SomaZ!
The work on rend2 is coming along really nicely, and it is amazing to see the progress on a familiar map. Can't wait to see more rend2 projects in the future. Well done!
And thanks to all the other contestants, all the entries were awesome and you should be proud of what you did and the celebration you contributed to! Happy 20th anniversary to JKA. 🙂

It's been about 15-16 years since I have done any sort of modding on this game/engine but I've been hopping back onto the game more and more over the last year or 2 and last night my masochism got the better of me. I'm a visual and UX designer these days and I guess I decided now would be a good time to give myself a headache while I mess around with seeing how far I could push the idea of making the UI in this game feel more modern. So I have a few questions for anyone here that has knowledge on the q3 menu tech.
It seems like the engine wants you to design for the minimum viable resolution and work out from there? At least that was the case with Doom and it seems to be 640x480? At least when it comes to utilizing "fonts". However if I use images instead it seems to position them relative to the resolution so I can get around that issue. The problem using images creates seems to be despite OpenJK having widescreen support any images used in menus will still be stretched so my solution there has just been to preemptively squish the images beforehand so when the menu is rendered they appear correct, does this feel accurate? Is there a better way to do this? I'm assuming not but you never know lol.

This is mostly just me giving myself a fun exercise to see what I can or can't do but who knows, maybe I'd end up finishing something and releasing it to share. Mostly just wanting to see if there is anything I am overlooking or if I should continue approaching this the way I am currently.

The winner is @SomaZ!
The work on rend2 is coming along really nicely, and it is amazing to see the progress on a familiar map. Can't wait to see more rend2 projects in the future. Well done!
And thanks to all the other contestants, all the entries were awesome and you should be proud of what you did and the celebration you contributed to! Happy 20th anniversary to JKA. 🙂

E5-s Sniper Rifle
Thanks to our amazing Coder and lead dev @Linken for coding the new sniper to the mod

UPDATE: The winner is @SomaZ!
The work on rend2 is coming along really nicely, and it is amazing to see the progress on a familiar map. Can't wait to see more rend2 projects in the future. Well done!
And thanks to all the other contestants, all the entries were awesome and you should be proud of what you did and the celebration you contributed to! Happy 20th anniversary to JKA. 🙂

Original post:
This is a couple days late. I take full responsibility for getting lost in the beauty and majesty of Starfield all weekend and completely forgetting to post the poll. So sorry!
We had more entries in this contest than we've had in years, so thank you so much to all the people that created something, even if its something you already planned on making, that's what makes these contests more fun.
Remember, this "anniversary" contest is to celebrate the 20th Anniversary of Jedi Academy, and the critieria is that is must be related to the Jedi Knight series in some way. We decided not to be too strict about it, just to encourage more submissions, but all of the rules still applied.

Contestants (click here to see all)
Bespin Duel Reborn by @SomaZ
CJP Dark Lord Customisation I by @Omega1
Female Rodian by @WizardMKBK
Imperial Hallway by @Chansta
Jaden as Twi'lek Male by @Noodle
Kyle Katarn with Jacket by @Joshua
Trip Mine by @Kitsu-NeshKaa

UPDATE: The winner is @SomaZ!
The work on rend2 is coming along really nicely, and it is amazing to see the progress on a familiar map. Can't wait to see more rend2 projects in the future. Well done!
And thanks to all the other contestants, all the entries were awesome and you should be proud of what you did and the celebration you contributed to! Happy 20th anniversary to JKA. 🙂

Original post:
This is a couple days late. I take full responsibility for getting lost in the beauty and majesty of Starfield all weekend and completely forgetting to post the poll. So sorry!
We had more entries in this contest than we've had in years, so thank you so much to all the people that created something, even if its something you already planned on making, that's what makes these contests more fun.
Remember, this "anniversary" contest is to celebrate the 20th Anniversary of Jedi Academy, and the critieria is that is must be related to the Jedi Knight series in some way. We decided not to be too strict about it, just to encourage more submissions, but all of the rules still applied.

Contestants (click here to see all)
Bespin Duel Reborn by @SomaZ
CJP Dark Lord Customisation I by @Omega1
Female Rodian by @WizardMKBK
Imperial Hallway by @Chansta
Jaden as Twi'lek Male by @Noodle
Kyle Katarn with Jacket by @Joshua
Trip Mine by @Kitsu-NeshKaa

Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy 20th Anniversary Event
This weekend of 9/16/23 roughly marks the 20th anniversary of this incredible and unique game. One that has been a gem to so many of us. Whether through SP, MP, or any type of modding, JKA has provided many years of history to its players.  Spanning From the days of Xfire, kill trackers, and ventrilo/teamspeak; to the current age of discord and OJK/EJK. Experiences such as clan/community involvement, celebrations, duels, friendships, tournaments, training, and many other moments have had true impact on our lives.  

Please join us in celebrating this milestone!
 
Date: 9/16/23
Times: 
- The server doors/open house will start tentatively around 12p CST for people who won't be free later in the evening.
- Events/Modes will change or occur when we have enough people and periodically throughout the day.
- The main events will start tentatively around 8p-9p CST based on activity.
 
Tentative Flow of Main Events:
- Gathering/Headcount/Social 
- Talking about JKAs History/Future
- Group/Event screenshots (we will hopefully have someone recording video as well)
- Map reveal with a demo/tour
- Event from pool
- Break/Social
- Event from pool
- Break/Social
- Gauge time/attendance with more possible events or hanging out
- Thank you/closing
Event pool: (Can vary between NF and FF)
- FFA
- TFFA
- CTF
- Predator
- Bo3 1v1 Tournament (single or double elimination based on headcount)
- Melee NF last man standing
 
JA Server: Server will be named "JKA 20th Anniversary Server" (we will have a backup server ready just in case)
IP:  event.jk3.in or 74.91.122.113:29070
Map: Default maps to gather activity & a surprise reveal once we're gathered (download will be shared at that time)
Discord Server: JKcommunity - https://discord.gg/gFKwH85 or https://discord.me/jediknight
THANKS TO ALL WHO CAME!
 

Hello everyone, to celebrate JKA turning 20, and JKG turning 10, we'll be hosting a few scrimmage matches over the weekend.  You can check our homepage Discord announcement feed for updates for this announcement. 

Matches will be held at the following times:
Scrimmage #1  -  Saturday, September 16, 2023 1:30:00 PM UTC Scrimmage #2  -  Sunday, September 17, 2023 2:30:00 AM UTC Scrimmage #3  -  Sunday, September 17, 2023 3:30:00 PM UTC Scrimmage #4  -  Sunday, September 17, 2023 11:00:00 PM UTC You can get the latest version of the mod (v1.3.23) at the download page here or here on JKHub.  You'll want to get both the assets, binaries, and map packs.  We will be playing on the "JKGDev Server US" server.  We hope to see you in game.  May the force be with you!
 
 
EDIT:
Thanks everyone for joining us for a very fun weekend to celebrate JKA's 20th birthday, and JKG's release anniversary as well.  It was a blast!  We hope to have a new patch out soon, with a small number of bug fixes and a much bigger patch in a few months time with some larger features.  I will also probably try and get some of the video footage recorded of the map put into a compilation video sometime.  Feel free to send me footage/demos.

All of you guys do wonderful work 😉