Freelancer Decomp

A reverse-engineered reimplementation of the Freelancer (2003) game client and its engine DLLs, built from source with a modern Visual Studio. Every module the game loads is built from src/; no retail binary of the game is loaded except the two third-party DLLs listed below.

You need your own copy of Freelancer: the game data (DATA) is not part of this repository.

Russian: README.ru.md. Documentation: docs/README.md.

1. Clone this repository.

2. Add the game data: copy the DATA folder of an installed Freelancer (or of a mod) into the repository root, next to src, so that DATA\ and DATA_EXTRA\ sit side by side.

3. Add the DirectX 8.1 SDK: download the DirectX 8.1 SDK (Final), install or extract it, and copy its include and lib folders into a dx8 folder at the repository root (so that dx8\include\d3d8.h and dx8\lib\d3d8.lib exist). Only the headers and libraries are used; another location can be given with /p:Dx8SdkDir=<path>.

4. Build the Release configuration of src\Freelancer.sln (Release|Win32) in Visual Studio, or from a Developer Command Prompt:

   msbuild src\Freelancer.sln -t:Build -p:Configuration=Release -p:Platform=Win32
   

The output goes to bin\, which already holds the runtime configuration (DACOM.INI, freelancer.ini, FLConfigDatabase.txt, NewPlayer.fl, MPNewCharacter.fl). Run bin\freelancer.exe from the bin directory (the library and data paths are relative to it).

• Visual Studio 2022 (platform toolset v143) with the Desktop development with C++ workload, the C++ MFC for latest v143 build tools (x86 & x64) component (used by FLServer) and a Windows 10/11 SDK. Everything builds as 32-bit (Win32).
• Debug builds (bin_debug\) also need Python 3 on PATH: a post-build step copies the runtime configuration from bin\.

Port-only features are build switches in src/Freelancer.Diagnostics.props (also on the VS property page Freelancer diagnostics), or /p:<Name>=0|1 on the MSBuild command line:

src\          Visual Studio solution (Freelancer.sln) — all source code
bin\          Release output + the runtime configuration files
DATA_EXTRA\   the port's own data (RP9 shaders, volumetric.ini), next to the game's DATA
EBUEula.dll   retail EULA dialog, loaded as ..\EBUEula.dll with ..\EULA.rtf (as the retail game)
EXE\          gundll.dll — the retail GUN client (multiplayer server list), loaded as ..\exe\gundll.dll
docs\         documentation (English; Russian translation in docs\ru)

EBUEula.dll and gundll.dll are the only retail binaries the port uses unchanged: they are third-party components of the original game and have not been reimplemented.

The source code of Freelancer Decomp is released into the public domain under The Unlicense. This does not cover third-party code and files in the repository: the vendored libraries under src\ (src\zlib\vendor, src\qhull\vendor) keep their own licenses, and the retail files (EBUEula.dll, EULA.RTF, EXE\gundll.dll) and the game data remain the property of their respective owners.

If you would like to support the work on Freelancer Decomp, donations are welcome:

Send only the currency listed on a line, over the network listed next to it.

• Discord: @Giperion
• Email: gipdereline@gmail.com