SWG: Evolve - Next Gen Client

[Evolve Staff]

New Client Experimental Preview

We have been hard at work modernizing the Evolve client, and the first experimental version of that work is now taking shape.

This new client represents a major step away from the old 32-bit DirectX 9 era and toward a modern 64-bit foundation. The default renderer is now Vulkan, with DirectX 11 available as a Windows fallback for older hardware or driver setups that may not support Vulkan well.

This is still experimental. Players who try it right now should expect rough edges, bugs, visual differences, and possible crashes while we continue testing and polishing. Initial QA will decide when it is ready for wider use.

Download: https://www.swgevolve.com/installers/SWGEvolveInstallx64.exe

Numbers

of Commits: 414

of New Files: 1,557

of Modified Files: 984

of Deleted Files: 3

of New Lines of Code: 428,335

of Modified Lines of Code: 7,536

of Removed Lines of Code: 3,521

**Evolve Client Modernization Patch Notes

Major Systems**

• The client has moved from the old 32-bit/DX9 era into a 64-bit modern renderer branch
• DX9 has been retired from the active client renderer path
• DirectX 11 became the first modern renderer bridge, then Vulkan was brought up as the new default backend
• Renderer selection is now config-driven: renderBackend=vulkan by default, with dx11 available as the Windows fallback

Graphics

• Vulkan is now the default renderer and the active forward path
• DX11 remains available for Windows users whose hardware or drivers cannot run Vulkan reliably
• Added Vulkan world rendering, textured geometry, skinned characters, GPU skinning, terrain, sky, water, clouds, particles, item icons, UI 3D views, post-processing, FSR-style render scale, bloom, SSAO, SSR, depth of field, shadows, and parallel command submission work - Reshade Style Effects directly in engine
• DX11 received major visual parity work: water, sky, bloom, lights, holograms, emissive surfaces, fur fixes, object lights, UI scaling, GPU skinning, instancing, and post-processing

Performance

• Added large crowd-performance work:

• GPU skinning

• instancing

• draw command recording/replay

• off-screen alter reductions

• UI batching

• render-to-texture icon caches

• reduced redundant state changes

• worker/alter pipeline improvements

Stability

• Fixed numerous render-thread, asset lifetime, particle, terrain, appearance, deferred delete, UI text/cache, and worker-overlap crashes
• Hardened client networking/message edge cases and several 64-bit bounds/count issues

Tools

• Added SwgSettings, an SDL3/ImGui settings tool for modern renderer options and profiles.
• Added .evo encrypted tree archive files

Cross-Platform Foundations

• SDL3 now owns the modern window/input path
• OpenAL replaces the old Miles Sound System dependency path
• Bink video loading was removed
• PCRE was replaced with std::regex
• Vulkan surface creation now goes through SDL callbacks, which is a key Linux renderer prerequisite
• Some MSVC-only seams have been reduced, including portable SEH wrappers and alignas cleanup

Hardware Note

Vulkan is the default because it is the cross-platform renderer and the path we are actively improving. DX11 is there for older Windows machines or driver stacks that cannot run Vulkan.

Examples of Vulkan-capable GPU families include NVIDIA GTX 900-class Maxwell cards such as GTX 950/960/970/980 or newer, AMD RX 400/500 Polaris cards such as RX 460/470/480/580 or newer., and Intel HD 510/520/530 or newer integrated graphics.