gkaragioul/openjkdf2-modern

OpenJKDF2 Modern is a fork of an existing open source engine recreation that lets you play the 1997 game Star Wars: Jedi Knight, Dark Forces II on a modern Windows 11 computer with more comfortable defaults. It does not include any of the original game's files. You still need your own legally owned copy of the game from Steam or GOG, and the engine simply reads that existing installation without copying or changing any of its files. The main improvements are aimed at making an old game feel normal on a current PC. New player profiles get modern first person shooter controls by default, using mouse and keyboard the way most current games do, while existing customized profiles keep their old settings so nothing is overwritten without asking. The game runs in borderless fullscreen at your monitor's native resolution by default, and there are working options for monitor selection, resolution, and refresh behavior, with safeguards that restore your previous display settings if something goes wrong. Rendering is updated to a standards based OpenGL 3.3 path with diagnostics and fallbacks, along with settings for frame rate caps, sync, field of view, HUD scale, and several visual quality options. Although the tested hardware evidence comes from an AMD graphics card, the project states plainly that AMD hardware is not required, since the rendering approach relies on standard capability checks rather than anything vendor specific, so NVIDIA and Intel graphics cards meeting the OpenGL requirement should also work. Installation is a three step process: download and extract the release into its own new folder without merging it into the original game folder, run an included PowerShell install script, then launch the game from the new desktop shortcut, which will search common Steam and GOG install locations automatically or let you point it to the right folder. A portable mode is available that keeps saves and settings inside the extracted folder instead of the normal system location, and an uninstall script removes the added files without touching the original game or your existing saves. The project also warns that its current release binaries are not code signed, so Windows 11's Smart App Control feature may block the file even though its checksum is correct, and it points to a separate troubleshooting guide for that situation.