SWG Evolve
SWG Evolve is a non-profit, community-driven project building the next generation of Star Wars Galaxies (SWG). The project's mission is to preserve the depth and freedom of the original MMO while rebuilding it on a modern technical foundation — one capable of supporting the game for years to come.
What is Evolve?
Evolve is an SWG Server Community that has pushed beyond the limits of the last live version of the game and has revitalized old skill trees. This is a modern take that combines the best of the NGE (New Game Enhancements) with the CU (Combat Upgrade), welcome to the age of CE (Combat Evolved) where we have even revamped the underlying Attributes, added new skills and new ability types that don't exist on any other SWG Server. This is an approach that was originally inspired by the previous project known as SWG: Redemption. We are committed to providing new and exciting content and quality of life improvements.
What is Star Wars Galaxies?
Star Wars Galaxies is a sci-fi MMORPG from Sony Online Entertainment and LucasArts initially released as Star Wars Galaxies: An Empire Divided. The game world consists of several different Planets from the Star Wars universe with a timeline set between the Episode IV: A New Hope and Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back. During character creation, players can choose from a vast number of species and can build out their unique character in-game by mixing and matching skills from over 20 different skill trees.
Players of Star Wars Galaxies can use their characters' skills and special abilities to attack targets, complete Quests/missions, craft useful Items, and/or entertain other players. The game offers the opportunity for players to meet famous Star Wars NPCs, travel in their own landspeeders, speeder bikes and swoops, control economies, earn fame and fortune (or infamy and notoriety), obtain rare Items, artifacts and trinkets, and build, own and decorate their own structures, including houses, cantinas and guild halls. These structures can even be organized into entire cities run by players. The game includes several expansions including Jump to Lightspeed, Rage of the Wookies, and Trials of Obi-Wan, all of which add additional features to the main game.
What Makes Evolve Unique?
Quality of Life
Looking for information on what makes Evolve unique and sets it apart from other SWG servers? Start here!
Classless skill System
While SWG Evolve is an NGE-based server, one of the many changes that has been made to it is its unique "classless" profession system. We have created a hybrid between NGE and CU while keeping the expertise systems and the content at level 90. Your character level is determined by how many expertise boxes you have trained and you "buy" expertise with earned xp.
Agility | 100 | 200 | 300 | 400 | 500 | 600 | 700 | 800 | 900 | 1000 |
| Dodge | 1.00% | 2.00% | 3.00% | 4.00% | 5.00% | 6.00% | 7.00% | 8.00% | 9.00% | 10.00% |
| Parry | 0.50% | 1.00% | 1.50% | 2.00% | 2.50% | 3.00% | 3.50% | 4.00% | 4.50% | 5.00% |
| Evasion chance | 1.33% | 2.66% | 4.00% | 5.33% | 6.66% | 8.00% | 9.33% | 10.66% | 12.00% | 13.33% |
| Evasion value | 10% | 20% | 30% | 40% | 50% | 60% | 70% | 80% | 90% | 100% |
Constitution | 100 | 200 | 300 | 400 | 500 | 600 | 700 | 800 | 900 | 1000 |
| Health | 800 | 1600 | 2400 | 3200 | 4000 | 4800 | 5600 | 6400 | 7200 | 8000 |
| Action | 200 | 400 | 600 | 800 | 1000 | 1200 | 1400 | 1600 | 1800 | 2000 |
Luck | 100 | 200 | 300 | 400 | 500 | 600 | 700 | 800 | 900 | 1000 |
| Guaranteed hit | 1.00% | 2.00% | 3.00% | 4.00% | 5.00% | 6.00% | 7.00% | 8.00% | 9.00% | 10.00% |
| Attack freeshot | 1.00% | 2.00% | 3.00% | 4.00% | 5.00% | 6.00% | 7.00% | 8.00% | 9.00% | 10.00% |
| Heal freeshot | 2.00% | 4.00% | 6.00% | 8.00% | 10.00% | 12.00% | 14.00% | 16.00% | 18.00% | 20.00% |
| Instant cooldown | 1.00% | 2.00% | 3.00% | 4.00% | 5.00% | 6.00% | 7.00% | 8.00% | 9.00% | 10.00% |
| Lucky dodge | 1.00% | 2.00% | 3.00% | 4.00% | 5.00% | 6.00% | 7.00% | 8.00% | 9.00% | 10.00% |
Precision | 100 | 200 | 300 | 400 | 500 | 600 | 700 | 800 | 900 | 1000 |
| Parry | 0.50% | 1.00% | 1.50% | 2.00% | 2.50% | 3.00% | 3.50% | 4.00% | 4.50% | 5.00% |
| Block chance | 0.50% | 1.00% | 1.50% | 2.00% | 2.50% | 3.00% | 3.50% | 4.00% | 4.50% | 5.00% |
| Crit chance | 1.50% | 3.00% | 4.50% | 6.00% | 7.50% | 9.00% | 10.50% | 12.00% | 13.50% | 15.00% |
| Hit chance | 1.00% | 2.00% | 3.00% | 4.00% | 5.00% | 6.00% | 7.00% | 8.00% | 9.00% | 10.00% |
| Dodge reduction | 1.00% | 2.00% | 3.00% | 4.00% | 5.00% | 6.00% | 7.00% | 8.00% | 9.00% | 10.00% |
Stamina | 100 | 200 | 300 | 400 | 500 | 600 | 700 | 800 | 900 | 1000 |
| Health | 200 | 400 | 600 | 800 | 1000 | 1200 | 11400 | 1600 | 1800 | 2000 |
| Action | 800 | 1600 | 2400 | 3200 | 4000 | 4800 | 5600 | 6400 | 7200 | 8000 |
| Damage to action | 1.00% | 2.00% | 3.00% | 4.00% | 5.00% | 6.00% | 7.00% | 8.00% | 9.00% | 10.00% |
| Critical hit reduction | 0.50% | 1.00% | 1.50% | 2.00% | 2.50% | 3.00% | 3.50% | 4.00% | 4.50% | 5.00% |
| Action cost reduction | 2.00% | 4.00% | 6.00% | 8.00% | 10.00% | 12.00% | 14.00% | 16.00% | 18.00% | 20.00% |
Strength | 100 | 200 | 300 | 400 | 500 | 600 | 700 | 800 | 900 | 1000 |
| Block chance | 1.00% | 2.00% | 3.00% | 4.00% | 5.00% | 6.00% | 7.00% | 8.00% | 9.00% | 10.00% |
| Block value | 25 | 50 | 75 | 100 | 125 | 150 | 175 | 200 | 225 | 250 |
| Melee Damage | 1.00% | 2.00% | 3.00% | 4.00% | 5.00% | 6.00% | 7.00% | 8.00% | 9.00% | 10.00% |
| Strikethrough chance | 1.00% | 2.00% | 3.00% | 4.00% | 5.00% | 6.00% | 7.00% | 8.00% | 9.00% | 10.00% |
| Strikethrough value | 10% | 20% | 30% | 40% | 50% | 60% | 70% | 80% | 90% | 100% |
| Parry reduction | 1.00% | 2.00% | 3.00% | 4.00% | 5.00% | 6.00% | 7.00% | 8.00% | 9.00% | 10.00% |
New Player Species
We offer additional player species that very few NGE/Source based SWG Servers offer and we are the first server that allow users to change both their species and gender, something that was requested by the playerbase back when the game was Live.
Great Community
We have one of the most helpful and friendly communities of any SWG Server. Likewise, the staff is very involved with the community and run frequent events with the playerbase.
You will find also detailed information about the last Patches and updates in Forums.
History & Background
Star Wars Galaxies originally launched in 2003, built on the technology standards of its era: a DirectX-based renderer and 32-bit client and server binaries. For nearly two decades, community-run emulation projects have kept the game alive largely by preserving that original architecture as closely as possible.
SWG Evolve takes a different approach. Rather than treating the original 32-bit, DirectX-era codebase as a fixed target, the project has invested in modernizing the platform itself — updating the rendering engine, moving to 64-bit client and server binaries, and rebuilding backend services on current infrastructure. The goal is not just to keep the game running, but to remove the technical ceiling that the 2003-era architecture placed on performance, stability, and future development.
That modernization effort has produced Evolve's current foundation:
- A fully 64-bit game client and server
- A Vulkan rendering backend, with in-engine, ReShade-style graphical tuning
- The first-ever native Linux client for Star Wars Galaxies
- Modern Java-based server services
- A modern database layer (Oracle Database)
Why Vulkan?
The original SWG client rendered through DirectX as it existed in the early 2000s — a fixed-pipeline, Windows-only API that was already dated by industry standards well before Evolve began its work. Continuing to build on that renderer meant inheriting its limitations indefinitely: driver support for legacy DirectX versions has been steadily shrinking, the API doesn't take advantage of modern multi-core CPUs or GPU scheduling, and any visual improvements (better lighting, post-processing, higher-resolution assets) had to be bolted on through third-party injectors like ReShade — tools that are fragile and break with every client update.
Vulkan, maintained by the Khronos Group, addresses those problems directly:
- Cross-platform by design. Vulkan runs natively on Windows and Linux (and, via translation layers, macOS), which is what made Evolve's native Linux client possible without maintaining a separate rendering backend per platform.
- Lower overhead, better performance. Vulkan gives the engine explicit, low-level control over the GPU, reducing CPU-side driver overhead and enabling much better use of modern multi-core processors than a 20-year-old DirectX renderer ever could.
- Long-term driver support. GPU vendors continue to actively develop and support Vulkan drivers, whereas support for legacy DirectX versions on modern hardware is increasingly an afterthought.
- Room to grow. A modern rendering backend lets Evolve build visual improvements — tuning sliders, post-processing, higher-fidelity assets — directly into the client, instead of relying on external injectors layered on top of an aging renderer.
Why Upgrade from 32-bit to 64-bit?
The original SWG client and server were compiled as 32-bit applications, which was the standard of the time but comes with a hard ceiling: a 32-bit process can typically address only about 2–4 GB of memory, regardless of how much RAM the underlying machine actually has. Two decades of community-added content, higher-resolution textures, larger player populations, and more complex server simulation have pushed steadily against that ceiling, and 32-bit processes were never able to take advantage of it.
Moving to 64-bit client and server binaries addresses that directly:
- Memory headroom. 64-bit processes can address far more memory, giving the client room for larger texture and asset budgets and giving the server room for larger world state, bigger caches, and more concurrent players without running into out-of-memory crashes.
- Modern platform support. Many current operating systems and Linux distributions in particular are dropping support for 32-bit runtimes and libraries entirely. A native Linux client wasn't realistically possible while staying on a 32-bit codebase.
- Toolchain and dependency alignment. Modern libraries, drivers, and database clients (including the Vulkan drivers and Oracle Database client libraries Evolve depends on) increasingly assume or require 64-bit builds. Staying on 32-bit meant fighting an ever-shrinking set of supported dependencies.
- Performance and stability. 64-bit builds benefit from modern compiler optimizations, more CPU registers, and stronger OS-level protections (such as more effective ASLR), which translate into a more stable and better-performing client and server overall.
In short, the 32-bit architecture wasn't just outdated — it was actively constraining what Evolve could build. The 64-bit upgrade was a prerequisite for the Vulkan renderer, the native Linux client, and the modernized server backend alike.
Current Technical Stack (Summary)
| Component | Technology |
|---|---|
| Rendering | Vulkan |
| Client/Server architecture | 64-bit |
| Supported platforms | Windows, native Linux |
| Server backend | Modern Java services |
| Database | Oracle Database |
Legal & Trademark Notice
SWG Evolve is a non-profit, fan-operated project run by and for the Star Wars Galaxies community. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Lucasfilm Ltd., The Walt Disney Company, Daybreak Game Company, or any of their affiliates.
Star Wars Galaxies, Star Wars, and all associated names, characters, and marks are trademarks and/or copyrights of Lucasfilm Ltd. and its licensors. All rights in the underlying game and its assets remain with their respective owners. SWG Evolve claims no ownership over this intellectual property.