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Hi everyone, it's been a while! We've been on a nice long break, but has returned with a small patch to add some QoL and improve the balance a little bit. Take a read below to check out what we've been up to! Update 0.9.0.13 The changelog for update 0.9.0.13 is below: That's all folks! Head over to the discord for all of out latest updates. Please leave your feedback on Discord and we'll look at a larger balance patch for next time! Stay tuned for that! - @ OWA, @ moonsense715 and the AR Dev Team

You can get the latest version of AR on the W3D Hub Launcher here:

Celebrating the life of Udo KierLast month we were saddened by the unfortunate news that Udo Kier, who played the psychic mastermind Yuri in Red Alert 2 and Yuri's Revenge, sadly passed away at the age of 81. Udo's performance as Yuri in RA2 became one of those rare moments where an actor doesn’t just play a character—they reshape an entire community’s culture. His eerie performance as Yuri transcended his role as a simple RTS villain, becoming a cult figure in the world of strategy games that players would rally around and quote for decades to come. In memory of the great theatrical performance that Udo gave us in his role as Yuri, we have released a new patch which aims to introduce some of the spirit and flavour of Yuri's forces into Apocalypse Rising in order to carry on the legacy of Udo's impact on the Command & Conquer Community. Credit to @ Battle Dreadnought for the image below. R.I.P Udo Kier - 1944 - 2025 Hail to the great Yuri. [blurb]The latest update for Apocalypse Rising is out, celebrating the life and influence of Udo Kier.[/blurb] Update 0.9.0.9 The changelog for update 0.9.0.9 is below: Yuri is Master! Head over to the discord for all of out latest updates. As ever, feel free to leave your feedback and we'll hopefully address the issues in the next update! We'll hopefully be focusing on performance moving forward whilst working on some new maps (as well as balance updates), so stay tuned in the new year for that! Have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! - @ OWA , @ moonsense715 and the AR Dev Team

A massive thank you to everyone who voted for us in the first round of the IndieDB Awards this year! We're proud to announce that we've made it into the top 100, which is incredible for a relatively small and obscure fan project like ours! There's now two days left to vote for us again to make it into the top 10, so we are calling upon your help again! Please help us put this ol' C&C fan game into the public eye! You can vote for us by clicking the image below! [blurb]Comrades! We need your help to get into IndieDB's top 10! Head to IndieDB and support C&C fan games like ours![/blurb]

Hi folks! We haven't been eligible in a while, but since we released this year, we're in the running for ModDB's Indie of the Year Awards 2025! There's only 2 days left to vote, but your vote could help us break into the top 100! Please consider supporting us by leaving a vote at the link below!: Link: → https://www.moddb.com/games/red-alert-2-apocalypse-rising [blurb]Nominate us for the Indie of the Year awards top 100![/blurb]

Red Alert 2 Turns 25! This weekend marks a monumental milestone: the 25th anniversary of Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2. A quarter of a century ago, this iconic RTS stormed onto the scene and captured our hearts and minds with it's bizarre and eccentric take on a cold war turned hot. To celebrate the game that inspired Red Alert 2: Apocalypse Rising, we’re thrilled to announce a brand-new patch that aims to address some of the most prominent community feedback! We've been quiet for a while, but the game hasn't been abandoned. we're still working on it when we find the time and hope to keep it maintained in the run up to our next big update. Here's what to expect in the meantime. [blurb]To celebrate the 2th anniversary of Red Alert 2, we’re thrilled to announce a brand-new patch for Apocalypse Rising that aims to address some of the most prominent community feedback![/blurb] Patch 0.9.0.7 Check out the changelog below: Keep Posted! Keep posted to the discord for all of the latest and greatest updates. As ever, feel free to leave your feedback and we'll hopefully address the issues in the next updates!

Hi folks! It's been great to see all of you playing and enjoying AR so far. It's been around 3 weeks since the release and the discussions, screenshots, videos and all of the other activity surrounding the game have been wonderful to say the least. But now is the time to start addressing the balance and making sure that your voices are being heard. Over the course of the past few weeks we've heard a consistent message, "Allies are overpowered". This first balance patch aims to provide some corrections so that Soviets have a bit more of a chance even when the Allied teamwork machine gets rolling. The notes for the patch (and the previous patches) are listed below, but first let's dive into another hotly requested item, Mod Tools! Modding SDK Over the course of the past few weeks we've heard requests from players to release the tools for the game so that they can make mods, peer into the unit statistics and translate the game into various languages. We're proud to announce that we've now made the modding SDK available here: https://gitlab.com/w3dhub/red-alert-2-apocalypse-rising/apocalypse-rising-sdk Whenever we release we will aim to update the tools to match the latest public version, much like we do with the server (also found here: https://gitlab.com/w3dhub/red-alert-2-apocalypse-rising/apocalypse-rising-server). If you're looking for tutorials and documentation, we have a wealth of info in our Tutorials forum but also on Tacitus, which is our documentation resource. Tacitus: https://w3dhub.com/forum/documentation/ Tutorials: https://w3dhub.com/forum/forum/171-w3d-tutorials/ Over time we will aim to add more to these tools, like pieces of example content and maps for you guy to dissect. In the meantime though, we can't wait to see what you'll all end up making and if you need any help creating things, please feel free to reach out to us over Discord. Patches 0.9.0.3 - 0.9.0.5Patches 0.9.0.3-0.9.0.5 are a series of updates that continue to fix more bugs, but represents our first major balance patch. From playing the game and listening to player feedback, we identified that the Allies were winning the majority of games, so this patch aims to bring the Soviets up to compensate whilst also nerfing some of the key Allied units. There's 3 patches here because we ran some internal testing before we settled on a final build (0.9.0.5). Changelog: Patch 0.9.0.2Continuing on with the them of fixing the game, Patch 0.9.0.2 introduced more fixes and altered the balance of some of the most egregious units. Changelog: Patch 0.9.0.1Released shortly after the game launched, patch 0.9.0.1 contained some key fixes to the game. Changelog: Keep 'Em Coming! That's all for now. Please feel free to leave your feedback and report bugs in the Discord and on the forums. We've got eyes on both platforms, so we'll make sure that every point gets a fair shake. Thanks again for supporting the game and our community! - The W3D Hub Team

That's right, it finally happened! The beta release of Red Alert 2: Apocalypse Rising is finally out there and is now in the hands of the players! If you haven't checked it out yet, get on over to this link, download the launcher, install it, and jump onto one of the servers. There's plenty of games going on right now! We've released two hotfixes currently with a third to land sometime soon. Stay tuned for more information on these updates moving forwards! The Long Road to Release It's been incredibly humbling to see the amount of people who have picked up the game and enjoyed it so far and it makes the past two decades of working on it in our spare time all the more worth it! When @ cfehunter and I first imagined this game in 2005, initially as a Renegade 2 revival project called C&C Untold, we never thought we would end up here with you all. This reply on Renegade Forums back in 2006 showed that our conviction really meant something. We've been through a lot in terms of development; different web hosts, different eras of the Renegade modding community, and different people have all come and gone. But the two constants throughout the main lifetime of the project have been myself and @ moonsense715 , who is now one of my dearest friends. I promised him years ago that we would finish Apocalypse Rising together, and now that we've unleashed it upon the world it feels amazing. So thank you @ moonsense715 , for sticking by me through the thick and thin and always working your hardest on everything, because in the end, we've produced a damn fine game. Our goal was always to make a game that showcased our passion for Red Alert 2 while celebrating the gameplay of C&C Renegade that brought us all together here at W3D Hub. It's really a special community with lots of wonderful people in it and over the years we've moved mountains in terms of the obstacles we've had to tackle. I want to take this opportunity to thank the wider team for always believing that this game could come out, never giving up on it and always pushing me to never give up. The Future As for what's next, we're currently focusing on stability and bug fixing. Once the game is in a more stable place, we will begin to cast our eyes upon balance and start taking into account all of the feedback you guys have been leaving in the Discord channels. We aim to be transparent and receptive with the changes we make to the game and will always be hanging around on Discord to ensure that players always have a voice reaching our ears. Once we get past the first few major balance updates, we will then turn our eyes to new content such as maps, missing units, tech buildings and quality of life features. Once we've added more content to the base game, we can then start to think about expanding the game further with new features and content (Naval gameplay, Yuri's Army etc.). We have a few initial ideas, but we would really appreciate your feedback on what you want to see added to the game in the future. As ever, thank you for supporting the game, and we hope you enjoy it as we continue to expand on it. - OWA and the Apocalypse Rising Team. P.S, if you haven't checked it out yet, here's the epic launch trailer for the game courtesy of Battle Dreadnought!

Thankyou for stopping by and leaving such kind words @ akhero47 . It's amazing to see how many people are enjoying the game at the moment! Definitely shades of 2008 all over again.

Hey everyone! We're super excited to share that the new and improved W3D Hub Launcher is finally here! @ moonsense715 has given it a fresh, modern look and packed it with features such as: Modernized User Interface Game Import functionality across all W3D Hub Games Custom Online Nicknames Easy Game Installation and Uninstallation Offline Mode for Accessing Games and Servers when our services are down Quick Access to Important Folders (Install, Documents, Screenshots) Basic Render Settings and ECW Rendering Distance Customization Server Browser with Filters [blurb]We're super excited to share that the new and improved W3D Hub Launcher is finally here![/blurb] Download the new launcher below and we'll see you on the battlefield! As an additional note, the old launcher is still available if you prefer it. It is now known as the "W3D hub Launcher Classic". It will no longer be receiving updates however.

Hi everyone and thank you for bearing with us as we continue to discuss. We never thought that the Renegade source code would ever see the light of day after all of these years, but the impossible is happening right now and it's our duty as the Renegade/W3D Engine modding community to provide clarity and direction. We've noticed your discussions, saw your questions, and had our own chats about going forward. Regarding the source code release, we have answers for you. Where does W3D Hub stand?The release of the Renegade GPL-licensed source code by EA has presented us with both opportunities and challenges, but before we get into unpacking that let's start with explaining what we have been working on already. We currently have two main development branches that are closed source: the Scripts 4.x branch and the Engine 5.x branch. Both of these closed source codebases are compliant with EA's modding guidelines for the Command & Conquer franchise: https://www.ea.com/games/command-and-conquer/modding-faq Scripts 4.x Branch Purpose: The 4.x branch is primarily focused on maintaining and improving Renegade while ensuring compatibility with older content and systems. Key Features: Compatibility: Ensures that existing Renegade maps, plugins, and other content remains functional on a variety of operating systems. Bug fixing: Fixes various bugs that were present in the released game. Anti-Cheat Measures: Includes various anti-cheat mechanisms to protect the integrity of the game. Engine 5.x BranchPurpose: The 5.x branch is a completely reverse engineered version of the W3D game engine, incorporating an expanded set of features and development improvements. 5.x no longer supports Renegade, as it's primary function is to advance and support games such as Red Alert: A Path Beyond, Tiberian Sun Reborn and Battle for Dune: War of Assassins. Key Features: Advanced Features: Introduces new functionalities and improvements over the 4.x branch, such as better graphics, physics, and tools. Future-Proofing: Designed to support future development and expansions, making it a more flexible game engine than 4.x. The Issues We FaceThe Renegade source code has been released under the GPL license, which means any code using that must also be open-sourced and available to the public. We are unable to open-source our current 4.x and 5.x branches because of the following: Releasing our code requires the explicit permission of everyone who was ever involved, and after 20+ years of code contributions and some of its developers having left us or otherwise, this is not possible. Third-party libraries, such as FMOD which we use for our audio system, are not compatible with the GPL license. Releasing 4.x and 5.x code opens the door to cheaters who can exploit our games, which cannot be done for the sake of fairness and enjoyment of our games as they are. Our Decisions The Future of 4.x and 5.x With both the 4.x and 5.x Branches, we will continue as we have always done. The Tiberian Technologies scripts patch will remain with 4.x and Red Alert: A Path Beyond, Tiberian Sun: Reborn, Battle for Dune: War of Assassins and other projects will remain on 5.x for the foreseeable future. The reality is that we still need these branches to fix Renegade in it's current form and also maintain our own game projects. This ensures that no development is halted and that our games remain available to you to play. To clarify our position, we will not be using the released GPL code in these branches as that would not be GPL-compatible. In layman's terms, 4.x and 5.x will have to pretend the code is not there, and continue that work without peeking or using any of it. A New Project Emerges: OpenW3D Using the released Renegade source code and complying with the GPL license, we are starting a new open source game engine project, simply named OpenW3D. We aim to bring the source code up to modern standards, get it building and usable, and then begin implementing the features and upgrades we developed across 4.x and 5.x and the rest of Renegade's modding history. We are not tossing away our 4.x and 5.x work, but rather we are looking to get back to that point - this time from the source code. With the benefit of hindsight taking away a lot of the guesswork, and renewed interest in coding and modding bringing activity, we hope to get this ball rolling! Here's an initial plan of action: Bring the codebase up to par with modern C++ standards (ideally 20) Put it into a modern build system (CMake, Sharpmake, etc.) Remove/replace 3rd party stuff that makes it incompatible with GPL (can be done simultaneously with above steps) As a baseline, just get Renegade working in it, and maybe build a single test map, just so we know that we can go from raw dev data to an exported and functioning game Start planning upgrades and porting over one of the W3D projects We are also mulling over the possibility of cross platform support as well, which should excite all of you Mac and Linux fans! We have hands already on this plan of action, with several of our experienced programmers tackling the codebase now. We aim to expand development shortly with some dedicated collaboration areas on our new Mattermost communication platform, so stay tuned for more info! Quickfire FAQ Here's a quick FAQ of what has been explained above! What's happening? Should I be concerned? - EA has released the Renegade source code under the GPL licence. This is great news for us as it will allow us to work on a new game engine. No need for concern! A new engine you say, what's that? - Yup, we're working on a new game engine called OpenW3D. This will be an open source version of the W3D engine that aims to be an accessible platform for developing Rene-like (Renegade-like) games. We're aiming for it to be a more robust platform than what we use currently. Sounds good, how can I get involved with OpenW3D? - Our infrastructure for supporting open development isn't quite ready yet, but in the meantime we'll be opening a public channel for OpenW3D in our Discord server. Eventually we will open a dedicated space for development on our Mattermost communication platform. Stay tuned for more info! How does OpenW3D affect the Tiberian Technologies scripts patch? - The short answer is, it doesn't. The team at TT will keep developing the TT scripts patch for Renegade on the W3D 4.x codebase as normal. The team won't be using at any of the Renegade source code that EA has just released though, as that would violate the GPL licence. So what codebase or game engine do your games, like APB, AR and TSR, use? - These games use the W3D Engine 5.x codebase described earlier in this post. Some other games use 4.x though, such as Interim Apex and ECW. Is W3D Hub using the Renegade source code in existing projects like APB and TSR? - No, we won't be, as including any of the release code would require us to release our code under GPL, which we cannot do. What about using the Renegade Source code in the TT scripts patch? - This is also not possible due to GPL. Will any of your games switch engine to OpenW3D? - Not in the short term, but in the long term when the engine has developed a lot more, we can evaluate whether we want to move our projects across. It's simply not realistic to switch engine at this stage, as it is way too early in development. Thanks for Reading Whew, that was a lot, but thanks for bearing with us! This is a really exciting movement for the community and couldn't have been possible without people at EA like CCHyper, Jim Vesella, Brian Barnes, as well as talented people in our own community here at W3D Hub such as @ jonwil , @ Unstoppable and @ Jerad2142 . It's down to the hard work of these people that we can even think about doing this today. To re-iterate, we will be opening a new channel on Discord to cover OpenW3D development and Interested people from all levels of experience are encouraged to come and engage with us in there. Once we have our infrastructure in order, we'll have more information on how to sign up soon too! Thank you for reading, and please let us know if you have any further questions, concerns, or feedback. - OWA and the W3D Hub Team

Hi everyone, In case you missed it, EA has just released the Renegade source code on their GitHub page, as well as enabling Mod Workshop support for several of the C&C titles on Steam! You can read more about this here: https://www.reddit.com/r/commandandconquer/comments/1izmpmb/cc_steam_workshop_support_source_code/ So what does this mean for W3D Hub, the Renegade Community and the Tiberian Technologies Scripts Project? These are questions that we're currently trying to answer ourselves, so as we look ahead we have some crucial decisions to make regarding the future of the W3D Engine. We know many of you are eager to dive into the code and start experimenting, so we are currently developing a plan for our long-term goals to enhance the W3D engine and improve all of the games we support here at W3D Hub. We have some initial ideas that we're not quite ready to share yet, but once we had some more solid plans we'll share them with you in full, as well as give you information on how to get involved if you're passionate about pushing Renegade and W3D to the next stage in it's history. Speaking of history: we've been reverse-engineering the Renegade source code for over 20 years now to the point where we've added many new features and functionality to our games. With the formation of W3D Hub over a decade ago our mission statement was to preserve C&C Renegade and develop our own unique experience on it's flexible game engine. With the official source code released, we are presented with the unique opportunity and the mandate to continue that work even more now than ever before. We hope you'll all join us on this journey in the months and years to come! We've achieved amazing things with the engine over the years, but we never imagined the source code would be released in such a significant way, so a massive thank you goes out to CCHyper, Jim Vessella, Brian Barnes, and everyone at Electronic Arts who made this possible. You've ensured that the C&C Renegade community can thrive for many more years to come. Also a special thanks to our very own @ jonwil @ Jerad2142 and @ Unstoppable who have worked tirelessly over the years to improve C&C Renegade with the TT Scripts Project. As we look to the future of the W3D Engine, we are all excited about the possibilities to come. Please stay tuned for the next update where we'll be sharing our plans for the future in full. - OWA & The W3D Hub Team

We did. At that stage it was just a worse version of the Titan.

It goes this fast for balance reasons. We had a slow Wolverine before and it wasn't a very good unit.