Below you will find detailed step by step instructions on how to install TFTC. You may also find an installation tutorial video posted on YouTube as well as any other common installation issues that you may face along the way.
This video will guide you through the installation process and also address common issues as well as some other tips and tricks. However below you will also find step by step detailed instructions if you don't want to watch the video.
Before starting the installation, you will need the following:
A copy of the game X-Wing Alliance (XWA)
XWA on GOG (We recommend GoG as the best option for any potential compatibility issues)
Original CD Version - Extra installation step required, see Step 1.
Download the X-Wing Alliance Installer Manager available from the XWAU website and extract the folder to a location of your choosing.
Your system must be running Windows 10 or higher. Windows 7 and 8 are not supported anymore.
An Nvidia or AMD based GPU is required. Intel GPUs are not supported.
At least 50GB of free space on your C: Drive if you are installing the game and mod to this location. If you intend to install to a separate storage drive, you will still need at least 20GB of free space on your C: Drive. This is because the installer uses the Windows Temp folder to extract the contents which by default is located on the C: Drive. As it is common practice nowadays for small SSDs to be used as C: Drives. You can check out this guide on how to move the Windows Temp folder if you are short on space still.
Install or make a clean, unaltered copy of the Star Wars - X-Wing Alliance folder. As XWA does not have any form of DRM protection or Windows dependencies, you can install in the default locations and move the folder to anywhere you like and it will still run just fine. This is recommended as the usual default locations can be in protected folders such as Program Files which may have permission issues. The default locations for XWA are as follows:
GOG Install: C:\GOG Games\Star Wars – X-Wing Alliance
Steam Install: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Star Wars – X-Wing Alliance
Origin Install: C:\Program Files (x86)\Origin Games\Star Wars - X-Wing Alliance
If you are installing from Steam or Origin, make sure to run the game at least once after installing so any first-time installation files are processed before proceeding further. Also note that running the game from Steam or Origin directly is NOT recommended as the game will likely crash. This is because X-Wing Alliance and the XWAU/TFTC mods do not like their in-game overlays. Always run the game directly from the game's own launcher program (Alliance.exe).
The original 2-disc CD installation of XWA will also work but requires an additional installation step in order to allow the installation of XWAU and TFTC. First install the game as normal from the CD. After you have completed this, you will need to manually open the CD drive and copy all the contents of the WAVE folder to the root directory of your new XWA installation. This process must be done on BOTH discs.
Download and extract the X-Wing Alliance Installer Manager to a folder of your choice then run the file “XwaInstallerManager.exe” and allow Windows to run the program when asked.
You will then be presented with the following window:
You will need to select the directory via the folder buttons, where your clean, vanilla installation of X-Wing Alliance is located. After that, you need to select a directory where the installer will place all your modded installations upon use. After that, click on ‘Save settings’ you’re all set and good to go!
Now the manager should populate with all available downloads.
1: Mod Name
2: Install Button
3: Download Button
Click on the Download button (3) for XWAU 2025. You will see on the right hand side a progress bar of the download. DO NOT download and install XWAU 2020, this is no longer compatible with TFTC. Once it’s completed, you can click the install button (2). The game will now create a copy of your clean XWA installation you did in Step 1 and will make a copy for you to a location of your choice. This should be a clean, brand new empty folder.
After this, the manager will proceed to copy the contents of your clean XWA install from Step 1, after which, it will open up the installation program for XWAU 2025:
Simply follow the installer’s instructions to install XWAU 2025 to your system. You will then need to do the same for any subsequent patches post v1.0.0. As of the writing of this readme, XWAU 2025 is on version v1.1.0 as shown below.
With the first major part is completed. Now to install TFTC! You follow the same steps for TFTC Classic or Reimagined v1.4.
To understand the differences between TFTC Classic and Reimagined, click on the buttons for more details.
Make sure you choose the right installation, assuming you have XWAU 2025 v1.1.0 installed, the Manager should automatically pick it up and then ask to which folder you want to install this to and if you want to make a new copy of the game folder. The installer will NOT let you install TFTC without the proper version of XWAU 2025 installed.
It will again ask if you want to install the mod to the default directory or you can to choose an empty folder so that the copy process can proceed. Either way, this will allow you to continue having multiple installations of the game with different mods.
Once the installation window pops up, you will have some additional options here. For TFTC Reimagined this is just limited to soundtrack choices but for TFTC Classic, you have a number of options which will affect gameplay such as laser speed and projectile limits. Make your choices, then simply proceed as you did with installing XWAU. You can always change these choices after installation via the TFTC Configurator tool.
If you are having difficulties downloading anything from the installer manager for any reason, you can download the installer packages manually.
Download TFTC Classic v1.4 Installer Package
Download TFTC Reimagined v1.4 Installer Package
If you also require them, the XWAU 2025 v1.0.0 and v1.1.0 install packages are available for manual download from the XWAU Website.
Once downloaded, you will still need the Installer Manager to use them. Locate the folder you extracted the Installer Manager to, navigate to the folder InstallerPackages and copy the package zip files to this location:
If you want to change any further options for the game, you can access the TFTC and Babu Frik configurator tools from the 'Configurators Menu' from the launcher menu. The TFTC Configurator allows you to change anything you selected durin the initial install plus a couple of other options. The Babu Frik Configurator allows you to change a number of gameplay and graphical options the XWAU mod offers, including the activation of VR support (read further below for this).
Once you have completed this transition, you can run the launcher again and you should be presented with either a TFTC Classic or Reimagined logo in the launcher.
That's it! You are now ready to play the game. There are some other options and things to consider before playing, but otherwise this is all the basics needed for installing TFTC.
Thanks to the wizards of XWAU, both it and TFTC are VR compatible. TFTC does not have any specific requirements for VR and if other SteamVR games run fine in VR, you should have no problem in running TFTC . The process to configure SteamVR properly for each head mounted display (HMD) is slightly different depending on the vendor/model. However you always need to make sure you have SteamVR installed in your Steam library.
Remember though, you must run SteamVR without running Steam as running the game through Steam will cause it to immediately crash. You just need to create a shortcut to the app in your Desktop or Task Bar, or launch it from your Start menu, never through the Steam interface. For an indepth guide on setting up and configuring VR, please take a look at this page.
There are 2 ways to enable VR in XWAU/TFTC.
Run Babu Frik Configurator from the X-Wing Alliance Launcher, select Customize the VR Options in the VR / Head Tracking Choices section, choose Use Steam VR option. The new effects this introduces also has an inertia effect for the cockpit cockpit that makes the cockpit "lag" relative to your ships movement. This can be unpleasant to some people, and can even induce nausea. You can disable this inertia effect in the "Customize Dynamic Cockpits" section of the configurator.
You can also enable/disable VR quickly by modifying some configuration files, found in the root folder of your XWA installation. These can be opened with any text editor of your choice.
VRParams.cfg
VR_Mode = SteamVR
CockpitLook.cfg
tracker_type = SteamVR
cockpit_inertia_enabled = 1
Additionally in CockpitLook.cfg you can configure another parameter to make sure the camera stays in the cockpit as much as possible in the hangar, to increase immersion.
disable_hangar_random_camera = 1
If you still find yourself facing issues, please join our Discord server and head over to the #vr-help section for assistance, the community will be happy to help try and resolve your problems!
XWAU and TFTC are large mods and once they are both installed will take up to 20GB of space. If you have insufficient disk space when installing the mod, the installer will simply close without warning and the mod will not be installed properly. As covered in the Prerequisites section above, you will need at least 50GB of free space on your C: Drive if you are installing the game and mod to this location. If you intend to install to a separate storage drive, you will still need at least 20GB of free space on your C: Drive. This is because the installer uses the Windows Temp folder to extract the contents which by default is located on the C: Drive. As it is common practice nowadays for small SSDs to be used as C: Drives. You can check out this guide on how to move the Windows Temp folder if you are short on space still.
When installing XWAU, the installer may stop and generate a large error message but will mention it cannot find certain files. This is usually happens if you are installing from a CD version of XWA or if your XWA installation is corrupt. If you are using the CD version of XWA, make sure once you've installed the game, that you manually open the CD drive and copy all the contents of the WAVE folder to the root directory of your new XWA installation. This process must be done on BOTH discs. You can then attempt to install XWAU again.
Another possibility is either a corrupted install of XWA, XWAU or you have not actually installed XWAU before installing TFTC. Make sure that you follow the installation process correctly as described above and if you are getting errors about missing files, then start from scratch with a new clean installation of XWA.
When installing XWAU or TFTC, the installer may stop and generate a large error message stating that permission has been denied. This is usually a result of insufficient read/write permissions to the files or folders that you are attempting to install to. This is why we recommend that you install or move your copy of XWA outside of any typically Windows protected folders such as Program Files.
This typically happens if you are attempting to load the game directly from Steam or Origin. Both platforms use ingame overlays that XWA doesn't like very much with XWAU and TFTC installed so the game simply crashes straight away. Always run the game from the provided installation shortcuts or select Alliance.exe from the root installation folder.
