Starlancer Studio v1.2

Starlancer Studio — the all-in-one modding cockpit for Starlancer (2000).

One Windows app (and one .exe) that fronts the whole toolchain. Static throughout: it reads and patches LOCAL COPIES only and never launches the game. You apply changes to your own legally-owned install and test in-game yourself.

Fixed in v1.2

• Restoring a backup no longer leaves a false alarm. Restoring Lancer.exe from Lancer.exe.bak left the patch manifest behind, so the next refresh showed every fix as STOCK next to an amber "sha differs" — a warning with nothing actually wrong behind it. The manifest is now retired (renamed, never deleted, so the record of what had been applied survives), and a stale sidecar is told apart from a genuinely altered exe.
• Permission errors now say what to do. If your install sits under Program Files, Windows refuses the write. The helpful "run as administrator, or use a writable copy" message existed but could never appear, because it was waiting on a call that returns before the work starts. It now fires, for every section that writes files rather than just one.
• The Patcher fills itself in. It seeds from the install you already picked on another tab, and shows that exe's patch state as soon as you open it, instead of making you browse for a file you had already chosen. Only empty fields are filled, so anything you typed wins.

Changed

• The fix list comes from the patch engine itself. The three fixes used to be written out by hand in six separate places in the interface. They are now generated from sl_patch's registry, so a future fix appears in the Patcher, the Dashboard and the wizard at once, and the resolution picker follows whichever fix actually needs it.
• A SafeDisc disc loader is now named as one. The Dashboard used to call it "loader or modified build". It is now identified positively by its marker sections, and every verdict about your exe comes with the evidence that decided it.

New in the repo (not part of the app)

• tools/sl_emu.py — a function-level emulator. It maps a local copy of the image into a sandboxed CPU emulator and executes one function, with no process, no window, no audio and the game never launched. Used here to verify the widescreen fix by measurement rather than by reading disassembly: stock output is square only at 4:3 and stretched by exactly the aspect error elsewhere (x/y = 1.33339 at 1920×1080), while patched output is square everywhere (1.00004) and bit-identical to stock at 4:3.
  • Practical finding: the projection fix is resolution-independent. A build patched for 1920×1080 produces identical projection scales at 3440×1440, because the patch divides by the live device dimensions. The WxH you choose only decides which display mode the flight code asks for.
  • Method, measurements and honest limits: docs/emulation-harness.md.
• tools/slstudio_core.py — Studio's logic with no GUI toolkit, so it can be tested on any platform. The test suite now covers the app's logic for the first time.

Included tools

• Patcher — widescreen Hor+ and the reverse-engineered crash fixes (medal-case, multi-core), applied to a copy; per-fix verify / revert.
• Ship Switcher — fly an enemy Coalition ship.
• Stats Editor — edit ship / gun / missile .BIN stat tables.
• HOG Tools — list / extract / pack / replace / rename .HOG archives.
• Controller Shim — install the XInput → DirectInput proxy for modern pads.
• Boot Videos — blank the startup branding logos.
• Ready-to-Play wizard — assemble a complete, patched copy in an output folder. It stages the folder only; dgVoodooCpl.exe is copied, never run.

Run

• Download StarlancerStudio.exe and run it — no install, no extra dependencies (everything is bundled).
• Heads-up: as a one-file PyInstaller build, some antivirus heuristics may flag it. That's a common false positive for packed Python exes; the source is in this repo, and SHA256SUMS.txt is published beside the download.

Safety

This tool never launches the game. It only edits and patches copies you point it at, and it makes backups before changing anything.

Starlancer Studio v1.1

Starlancer Studio — the all-in-one modding cockpit for Starlancer (2000).

One Windows app (and one .exe) that fronts the whole toolchain. Static throughout: it reads and patches LOCAL COPIES only and never launches the game. You apply changes to your own legally-owned install and test in-game yourself.

New in v1.1

• Dashboard — at-a-glance status of your install (the three EXE fixes, controller shim, boot logos), a one-click Apply Recommended Fixes, and a backup/restore manager.
• Ready-to-Play wizard — assemble a complete, patched, ready-to-run copy in an output folder (copy → patch → shim → blank logos → dgVoodoo2 / mss32 drop-ins → setup notes). It stages the folder only; dgVoodooCpl.exe is copied, never run.
• Custom app icon (original artwork).

Included tools

• Patcher — widescreen Hor+ and the reverse-engineered crash fixes (medal-case, multi-core), applied to a copy; per-fix verify / revert.
• Ship Switcher — fly an enemy Coalition ship.
• Stats Editor — edit ship / gun / missile .BIN stat tables.
• HOG Tools — list / extract / pack / replace / rename .HOG archives.
• Controller Shim — install the XInput → DirectInput proxy for modern pads.
• Boot Videos — blank the startup branding logos.

Run

• Download StarlancerStudio.exe and run it — no install, no extra dependencies (everything is bundled).
• Heads-up: as a one-file PyInstaller build, some antivirus heuristics may flag it. That's a common false positive for packed Python exes; the source is in this repo.

Safety

This tool never launches the game. It only edits / patches copies you point it at, and it makes backups before changing anything.