Q. What is SWGEmu?
A. SWGEmu is an acronym/abbreviation for Star Wars Galaxies Emulator.
Star Wars Galaxies is a massively multi-player online role playing game introduced by Sony Online Entertainment in the year 2003. It is the game this project focuses to recreate at a specific milestone referred to as Pre-CU, or Pre-Combat Upgrade. The Combat Upgrade was a set of game changes which radically changed the game-play, to the dislike of thousands of players. These changes led to the founding of this project, in an attempt to "recreate" the game as it was during the Pre-CU era.
Emulator can be defined as "to try to equal or excel; imitate with effort to equal or surpass" (Dictionary.com). At SWGEmu, Emulator refers to the software the SWGEmu team is building. This Emulator is meant to imitate Sony Online Entertainment's server-side software, which hosted the galaxies of Star Wars Galaxies during the Pre-CU era.
Q. Does SWGEmu use any of Sony Online Entertainment's code?
A. The absolute and short answer is no. Every bit of code developed at the SWGEmu project has been written from scratch by freelance developer's committing their time and effort to the SWGEmu project without the benefit of financial gain.
Q. Has SWGEmu ever seen Sony Online Entertainment's code?
A. Absolutely not. In fact, Sony Online Entertainment persists that they have lost the code entirely. Not only does this make it impossible for SWGEmu to utilize the code as reference if Sony Online Entertainment was kind enough to grant permission to do so, but it makes it impossible for Sony Online Entertainment to release classic Pre-CU servers to rival what SWGEmu aims to accomplish.
Q. How does SWGEmu develop the software without Sony Online Entertainment's code?
A. SWGEmu's software is written through a process known as Reverse Engineering. By applying the Scientific Method, SWGEmu's developers observe game-play, and then attempt to recreate it's experience through programming.
Q. What about the application I install from the discs I purchased from Sony Online Entertainment?
A. When you install and connect to a SWGEmu server with this application, you are doing so by your own accord. SWGEmu cannot condone the usage of the Sony Online Entertainment client application with it's server software, and users should be warned that they are in breach of the Sony Online Entertainment EULA when they do so.
Q. What is a client application?
A. In this case, the client application is the application you purchased from Sony Online Entertainment. It is basically an interface for you to interact with server software, like what SWGEmu is writing. Think of the client application like a web browser such as Internet Explorer or Firefox. While a web browser is capable of providing an interface to interact with web pages, it doesn't actually provide those web pages. Web servers provide the web pages with which the web browser then allows it's user to interact. Likewise, Sony Online Entertainment's client application provides an interface for user's to interact with a server.
Q. Does SWGEmu provide its own client application, so that I don't have to use Sony Online Entertainment's client to connect to the server?
A. Yes, actually, SWGEmu has a Core3Client, which is available on the open-source SVN repository. However, it should be noted that this client does not have a graphical interface, and can only be used via the command line. There are plans to eventually build a client application with a graphical interface, but such will probably not become a reality until after the release of version 1.0 of the SWGEmu server software.
Q. If SWGEmu writes all of it's own code, why does the game feel so much like Sony Online Entertainment's version?
A. This is the objective of the project - Imitating an exact replica of Star Wars Galaxies at the era of Pre-CU. This simply is testament to the fact that the SWGEmu developers are doing a fantastic job writing code which emulates the same game Sony Online Entertainment once provided. Furthermore, if you are using Sony Online Entertainment's client application to connect to an SWGEmu server, then this will only reinforce the nostalgic feel.
Q. Is SWGEmu legal?
A. This question pops up about once per month on our forums, but the never changing answer is simply, yes. Understand, there is a fine line which SWGEmu has yet to cross. Since SWGEmu doesn't distribute any of Sony Online Entertainment's copyrighted material, it does not break any copyright laws. SWGEmu works very hard to stay within it's legal right to produce it's software, and will do it's best to never include copyrighted materials, or infringe on any software patents