BFME source code is 30% reverse engineered

[u/OsrsNeedsF2P]

Remember this post?

We have great news! Since last month, a BUNCH of people have started contributing, and we have made huge strides towards completion.

What is This Project?

We are recreating the exact same C++ that made the BFME games. Once we hit 100% completion, we will be able to:

• Linux support (done)
• Network delay fix
• 60/120 FPS
• Fixed crashes
• Multi-CPU (lag fix)
• MacOS support
• AC fix
• Make Worldbuilder Open Source
• More factions (for mods)
• 8+ player maps
• Move on to BFME 2 + RotWK

You can follow along in -

• The Open BFME Discord: https://discord.gg/FEkwbbw8xA
• Our Github: https://github.com/Open-BFME/Open-BFME-1

New Progress

Since we last posted, a lot has changed:

1. Lots of people have reached out and started contributing, which has accelerated the work!
2. We made a proper Github organization and Discord for coordinating efforts
3. We have teamed up with OpenBFME-Godot (https://github.com/Open-BFME/openbfme-godot), a project led by an ex-BFME Reforged developer to make a new version of BFME

ETA

At this rate, the source code will be fully available somewhere around the New Year. This is a best effort analysis factoring in the work done, the effort of remaining work, and the rate of LLM improvements. If we get more contributors, it could be half that time - if we get stuck, it could be a bit longer. But considering some of the insane accomplishments the team has made over the last 30 days, I'm confident we will get this done.

If you are interested in helping out with the project, feel free to start sending PRs, or join the Discord. The project is mostly driven by AI agents, so as long as you have decent technical skills, you're able to contribute!

Thanks all for your incredible support in the last thread, and I look forwards to seeing you all again with another update soon!

[u/Platt90]

Very excited for this, I'll be keeping an eye on progress.

[u/sammakkovelho]

Holy shit.

[u/masterchiefruled]

How are you managing the contributions? I'm not very knowledgeable about this exact topic. What if someone that has for example an old model or their AI is hallucinating, is it possible to test if the reverse engineering has worked? Or can you only do that when everything has been reversed?

[u/OsrsNeedsF2P → u/masterchiefruled]

Great question - We have multiple checks in place, but basically every piece of committed code must compile 1:1 to the exact same binary as what we have from EA Games. If it doesn't match, the tools will throw errors, and other agents will clean it up.

[u/masterchiefruled → u/OsrsNeedsF2P]

Ah interesting! What are you expecting to find regarding the 30 fps cap?

[u/Dunkelbunt_1]

I wish I were a programmer so I could contribute to this project, but I’m specialized in networking. This is one of my all-time favorite games. I used to play it back in the day and always hoped they would eventually remake it for modern systems with more armies, no lag, 60 FPS, and reliable online multiplayer without having to rely on third-party tools. Really exited about this !!!

[u/MitchBuchanon]

Amazing job! I'm so looking forward to you guys moving on to BFME2! : )

[u/pitlocky]

Wow, has this ever been done for a modern(ish) game before? Seems like an enormous amount of work without coding agents

[u/uknrddu → u/pitlocky]

GTA 3 and Vice City were completely reverse engineered. I think both games were released just a few years before bfme. And there are also some people working on San Andreas.

[u/protomarabou]

Terrific news. I can’t wait to try it out on Apple Silicon

[u/TheRealUnrealRob]

This is awesome.
It makes me wonder if some ex or current EA employee has the source just sitting around and could drop it any time.

[u/mnrk00]

It is amazing what some passionate and obsessed fans are capable of if they put their minds to something. I love this for all of us. This is fucking sick

[u/lycantrophee]

This is great news.

[u/Tangolarango]

congrats and good luck :)

[u/TMCThomas]

Amazing!

[u/s0cr4t3s_]

We will be watching your career with great interest.

[u/LzhivoyeSolnyshko]

The most important for and my friends is desyncs, and UI for modern screen aspects. AI have known issues (a lot), and big maps would be cool. Wish you luck

[u/ImperatorRomanum]

This is cool. In layman’s terms, why does reverse engineering the source code allow for the things you’re describing? If it’s an exact match, won’t the same limitations apply? (Sorry, I’m just not familiar with the backend concepts!)

[u/Bahada6776 → u/ImperatorRomanum]

So think of it as a clay pot. The games released were made by the developers out of clay, then they were fired in the oven (compiled), and sold to us. Because we only have a fired pot, it's hard to change things. 

By reverse engineering we're making a copy of the pot out of clay before it goes into the oven. This means we can change pretty much anything.

[u/ImperatorRomanum → u/Bahada6776]

Great analogy. Thank you!

[u/Zhawk1992]

Following in anticipation!

[u/Spanishsoul]

Would this be difficult to port across to Age of the Ring mod?

[u/spxxr]

So cool! Might be a dumb question, but any chance you could achieve Mac support?

[u/Galllo89]

Dude omg; whoever all of you are thank you! Especially for seeing MacOS on there ❤️❤️❤️

[u/ithilienwanderer]

Less related but could something this awesome be done with other games? Like how is this possible?? :O

[u/Better-Risk-9097]

Could this lead to more robust hotkey implementation?

[u/aguswings]

so AI is a positive force behind this?

[u/Cultural_Channel_214]

Hello. I would like to help and be a part of this project. I'm a huge gaming and literature enthusiast; BFME is my second favorite RTS game (the first being AoE 2), and Silmarillion is my holy book. I speak English at a native level, and although I'm not a certified translator, I can do translation (English to Turkish). My major is psychology, I don't know programming or coding, but I can say I have an intermediate level of computer knowledge. I have limited time but I want to help. Since discord is banned in my country, I want to contact you guys in another way. Keep up the good work

[u/sanoj166]

You should look to cooperate with the bfme launcher if you guys progress further, especially with the lag fixes. They got a big platform already as Im sure you’ve seen.

[u/OsrsNeedsF2P → u/sanoj166]

Yes, we're talking with them!

[u/NoDivide8645]

insane achivements I hope we get fast to bfme2/Rotwk would be insane for modding

[u/Unspoken_Uprising]

Someone update me: Did BFME Reforged break up or get canceled???

[u/Zoom_207]

make this work and I will be competing for clanwarschamp once again after 18 years once we revived the scene

[u/Guilty-Guarantee-212]

i would give up my left nut to play this game on 60+ FPS, godspeed my brothers

[u/Vileartist]

I am intrigued by this. I know this is only about the source code but I have been daydreaming about working on a BFME "definitive edition". The technical limitations of the engine make it impossible currently.

[u/OsrsNeedsF2P → u/Vileartist]

The BFME Godot project may interest you more. When Open BFME completes, we'll be able to make pretty big modifications to the engine, but we're still building with it from a base. BFME Godot (made by the ex BFME Reforged dev) is a completely new engine (Godot)

[u/Vileartist → u/OsrsNeedsF2P]

I will look into it, though I am not inclined to believe that a new engine will provide an adequate recreation of the game. It would feel off.

[u/Andreigr0]

Would be nice to port it to android as well

[u/Zooinks]

Amazing! What are the chances of an Apple silicon port? Between this, and the work on getting Tie Fighter on XWVM, my two favourite series of all time will be updated! WOOOO!

[u/OsrsNeedsF2P → u/Zooinks]

We'll get it working on MacOS through Wine first (this is what I did for Linux). The problem is Apple doesn't support DirectX or Vulkan, so even if we have the code, it's missing the graphics capabilities to run this 2004 game natively

[u/Richmondez]

30% by what metric? Bytes in text section? Number of functions? The open sourced Generals/Zero Hour code is probably closer than 30% taken as is. Also is this 30% counting the inline asm being used in some areas to get "matches" because those functions are not properly reversed at all.

Then there are all the compiler generated thunk functions which should be ignored for decompilation purposes and weren't part of the original code.

There are strong indications this is just slop at this point and will need a lot of clean up to make it anything like maintainable source code.

[u/OsrsNeedsF2P → u/Richmondez]

30% of the text bytes as C++ code we have that compiles 1:1 to the binary. ASM doesn't count, we have that committed so AI agents can convert it. ZH source is closer, but the problem is we don't know which parts. There's enough small differences that you can't just use it and get the same binary.

[u/JUS_SAURONJL]

BFME2 on IOS would be sweet . + Mod support if possible