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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.
