STAR WARS: A NEW HOPE - DSG SPECIAL EDITION

(Name Tentative, please suggest below!)

(The “DSG” stands for Dat_SW_Guy)

This is essentially an envisioned “alternate Special Edition”, a more conservative, purist interpretation within the style of Adywan’s Revisited and @That Guy With No Name’s Devastator Edition in hopes of being a visually consistent and cohesive version of the film. This cut leans towards the theatrical version, whilst keeping some SE changes, or fixing dated shots, that will hopefully fit more in line with the aesthetic of the film, being non-intrusive both visually and narratively.

TLDR: It’s sort of a “What if the CGI and VFX in the 97 SE was more restrained to actually improving shots instead of adding unnecessary things?”

Overall, the goal is to create an immersive and seamless experience without being thrown off by a CGI Ronto walking into frame, while also enjoying the new changes that shaped some of the movie for the better.

The project’s main source is from @oohteedee’s D+77 2.4 project; however, certain SE changes are retained using his 2019 SE UHD Regrade throughout the edit. A full list of other sources are provided below:

• Adywan’s 2018 Regrade of ANH
• @That Guy With No Name’s ANH Devastator version for some shots.
• SkyMaster’s 4K77 Beta 2 for some OOT shots

Here are some other sources I used to create this edit:

• Elements from @Hal9000’s Custom Special Edition
• A matte painting from @Aggelw
• Certain shots of Adywan’s ANH:RHD he provided
• VFX work from Sky_ (138 speeder shot)

The changelog has been revamped to update the sources; however, these are subject to change as I might add more in the future.

Overall Changes (as of 7/10/2025)

• All spaceship shots now derive from the Special Edition, as the shots are more dynamic, yet the CGI still looks “appropriate” (somewhat like 90’s movies and their CGI, which is basically the SE).

• Most of the theatrical matte paintings (Starry Sandcrawler sky, Falcon in the Death Star Hangar, Rebel Base Hangar, Award Ceremony audience, etc.) are replaced with their SE versions, save for a few mentioned which were redone.

• Alderaan has a new explosion that matches what a 1997 version of the shot would look like; however, all other planet explosions in the film have been recolored to a modern yellowish hue or redone for visual consistency.

• Careful yet extensive compositing and visual effects were used to remove and revise excess SE elements, such as extra buildings in the Mos Eisley sequences, the 138-speeder-shot, and outdated texturing of CGI and miniature elements (the entry shot into Mos Eisley, Ben’s Hut).

• Other quality-of-life and continuity-oriented visual effects are added, mimicking the Revisited and Devastator changes, such as removing the bushes at the Homestead and removing the Jawa crew-member.

• The main audio mix of the edit derives from D+77, which itself derives from @hairy_hen’s theatrical reconstruction mix (if I’m not mistaken); however, some aspects of the audio are lifted from the SE mix (such as the Dewback sound effects and 1997 edits), which are integrated into the main mix.

Cut List (as of 7/10/2025)

This is not a “locked” and final cut list, as this is subject to change to add more changes.

• The opening titles are from the Special Edition, although the LFL logo is retimed to match the theatrical version.

• The “a long time ago” text is from the theatrical version.

• The crawl is the Special Edition.

• The gaffer tape holding the trooper’s armor in the scene of Leia and Vader has been removed.

• R2 now retracts his arm before they both enter into the escape pod.

• The escape pod has been recolored blue to match the earlier shots.

• The escape pod will now appear to go into the planet and burn into the atmosphere. (Inspired by ANH Revisited)

• The canyon matte from R2-D2 is from the Special Edition.

• The wide shot of R2 being loaded in the Sandcrawler is a modified version of the Special Edition to have extra planets.

• The next shot of the Sandcrawler driving at night and the wipe to the “Look sir, Droids!” scene will retain their SE elements but has been edited to sync with the theatrical version. (From Hal9000’s Custom Special Edition)

• The establishing wide shot of the homestead is from the Special Edition.

• No bushes during the shot of Luke talking to Aunt Beru.

• Added vaporators in the distance to match the SE establishing shot.

• Fixed continuity error of R5-D4 showing up behind R2-D2 immediately after he explodes.

• The Binary Sunset scene is from the Special Edition.

• Artoo isn’t hiding behind CGI rocks.

• Ben’s Hut SE matte painting has been updated to look less painterly and more realistic looking.

• That matte painting shot of Mos Eisley and the establishing shot of the Speeder entering Mos Eisley is from the Special Edition, although the latter is sourced from the 2011 BD as the 2019 DNR’ed away the details. Also, I removed some womprats in that shot and improved the texture of the buildings.

• The Mos Eisley sequences have now been re-cut in the style of Hal9000’s version for better pacing.

• The CGI buildings in the SE Mos Eisley scenes have been greatly reduced using VFX to match the original on-set shoot in Tunisia, allowing for better continuity throughout the whole sequence.

• The 138-frame landspeeder shot has been redone to remove the Ronto and the hand-drawn shadow underneath while retaining the SE level of quality.

• The wide shot of the cantina has now been replaced with an updated matte, with the correct time of day.

• The “I don’t like the look of this” shot removes the Dewback to the left of the frame, while keeping the Dewback next to the Cantina (thanks to TGWNN for this!).

• Greedo has a new flash frame before he is shot that has accurate lighting consistent with Han’s flash frame.

• The Jabba scenes are removed using an iris wipe transition instead of the fade used in the theatrical cut to maintain consistent quality within the shots.

• The Millennium Falcon escape is from the Special Edition.

• Alderaan has a new explosion shot that somewhat makes it better than the 1997 version but without the praxis ring, composited by yours truly.

• All shots of the Millennium Falcon in the Death Star are from the Special Edition.

• The censored scenes of the Imperial officers getting shot are reverted.

• Vader walking through the hallway has been reverted to the theatrical version to remove the weird tracking and power-windows.

• The prison block set corridor extension is from the Special Edition.

• The Dianoga is reverted back to its theatrical version.

• The Aurebesh text on the tractor beam is from the Special Edition.

• All shots of the Millennium Falcon flying and heading to Yavin are from the Special Edition.

• The one shot of 3PO in the Falcon hallway before it explodes during the TIE Battle is replaced with the 2011 BD as the 2019 UHD BD is heavily DNR’ed.

• The Yavin Rebel Base exterior matte is from the Special Edition.

• There is one shot of the X-Wings headed to the Death Star where Yavin is clearly within the line of fire to the Death Star; this has been removed, thanks to Adywan for the files!

• Everything from the Battle of Yavin is from the Special Edition.

• The Death Star explosion is from the Special Edition but has been modified to match the new Alderaan explosion.

• The matte painting during the Award Ceremony is from the Special Edition.

Audio Changes (as of 7/10/2025)

• The 1997 mix of the Mos Eisley soundtrack has been reinstated, yet shortened to match the cuts.

• Reinstated the CGI Dewback sound effect outside the cantina, but added one sound effect that prompts Luke to look over to the cantina.

• “Blast it Biggs” will now be “Blast it Wedge” (Lifted from Hal9000’s Custom Special Edition).

• Luke will be heard saying “Biggs, Biggs!” in the radio (Lifted from Hal9000’s Custom Special Edition).

Future Changes (as of 7/10/2025)

• Smoothening out the jumpcuts and transitions, especially the lightsaber transitions.

• Extra VFX shots, flipped shots for continuity and quality-of-life purposes (like spinning escape pod, fixing stormtrooper stance, etc.).

• Better Tatooine matte paintings.

• More dynamic Falcon scenes, such as the Falcon escape from Tatooine, and a better Falcon v. TIE fighter chase sequence, ala Revisited.

• A more lively Battle of Yavin sequence with some shots of the red planet in the background.

• Having all the blasters recomposited to be more lively.

• Add lighting to the blaster fire to make it composite with the rest of the shot around it.

• Making R2-D2’s lights flicker red and blue.

Do you plan on using Adywan’s version of the Alderaan explosion, as well as some shots from the Obi-Wan vs. Darth Vader remaster (SC 38 Reimagined)?

Firstly, I wont be using the Alderaan explosion from Adywan’s due to its dated effects.
Same goes for the Darth Vader and Obi Wan sequence, the effects and CGIness of that scene sticks out like a sore thumb in comparison to the rest of the shots

Sounds like a great cultist. I’m especially interested in your ideas for Mos Eisley.
Just a tip: if you want to use the original Death Star explosion, you may want to do a little effects work on the first few frames of the shot. They redid the model with the same CGI used for the Death Star a couple shots prior, so replacing it manually with the SE model and blending the transition into the original explosion would help it fit in seamlessly.

UPDATE: This project isn’t dead, however things are going by very slowly as of the moment due to personal matters.

However, I have been slowly developing this and so far have created a very, very rough rough-cut of the final film, using Neverar’s Technicolor Recreation as a base.

I am also doing preliminary VFX work for the infamous “139 frames” scene of the speeder going to the cantina, I might post a snippet of that soon.

Ok, so heres a small snippet of the new “enhanced” scene of the speeder traveling towards the cantina (directly after the mind-trick scene in the OUT), with a new SE-ish shadow underneath the speeder while retaining the bottom half of the speeder seen in the theatrical.

This scene is still W.I.P. (moreso a proof of concept), and there are tons of things that need fixing (trying to clean up and stabilize the 4k77 source, color-correction) and I am not particularly good in doing such thing (I’m a first-timer) so any VFX help with this scene is greatly appreciated!

https://streamable.com/br7au

Here’s a look at the new Alderaan Destruction scene, without a praxis ring! I tried to keep it somewhat faithful to the SE version of the scene, since the theatrical had two seperate explosions that looked really jarring.

LINK:
https://streamable.com/3m8fb

RogueLeader said:

I Ike it! I think it works better as an almost blinding light rather a very clear, properly exposed explosion. I did notice some flickering on the bottom a little.

The flickering is from an encoding issue, otherwise, the only thing left is the debris of what remains of Alderaan.

I like it, but I agree that there’s no visible debris, which would make it better. The fire seems to look like a miniature has been blown up.

Could you break down what elements (original and new) you used? I’m interested in this shot and would like to just see if it could be improved further.

Dat_SW_Guy said:

RogueLeader said:

I Ike it! I think it works better as an almost blinding light rather a very clear, properly exposed explosion. I did notice some flickering on the bottom a little.

The flickering is from an encoding issue, otherwise, the only thing left is the debris of what remains of Alderaan.

I would try some rubble over laying some of the blast, with a glow coming from behind it that will do a light wrap. So we get the effect of rubble coming toward us. If you check out my Prequels Revised Trailer 1 or 2 there is a shot im creating where a building blows up. Its still in production and not done but something akin to that.

Hal 9000 said:

I like it, but I agree that there’s no visible debris, which would make it better. The fire seems to look like a miniature has been blown up.

Could you break down what elements (original and new) you used? I’m interested in this shot and would like to just see if it could be improved further.

Well the only thing original is the starfield. I added the glow and then the explosion after it. I might have to use Despecialized since the SE has that added glow I couldn’t remove.

Updated first post.

Hello, it has been a year and I finally found time to work on this project again. I thought it would be a good opportunity to do it now as my computer has been upgraded and I can work on VFX on this movie. First and foremost, I plan to re-do the Alderaan explosion scene to add in an extra shot, in which you can see the planet in an orbital view exploding whilst ships try and flee away from the impending doom that is behind them.

I wanted this shot to somewhat look like it was done using optical bluescreen, with the hand-drawn laser beam and the planet being a matte painting, which would fit the aesthetic of the film nicely.

So I made a quick photo on Photoshop and sort-of made it look like it was shot in 77, albeit a very rough concept although I might’ve added too much grain for the record lol.

I used an unused matte painting of Tatooine that Ralph McQuarrie made for ANH, some ships I found online, and an intentionally janky looking explosion that resemble those 70% opacity explosions literred around the ships during the Battle of Endor in ROTJ.

In other news, since SkyDude over in the Star Wars Trilogy Forums has done a very good cleanup up of the Mos Eisley drive-by shot by merging in different sources including 4k77, I’ll probably use that and slightly enhance it to make the transition alot more seamless.

That’s a cool concept! I’d definitely like to see what can be done while keeping in the style of the original effects.

Dat_SW_Guy said:

Hello, it has been a year and I finally found time to work on this project again. I thought it would be a good opportunity to do it now as my computer has been upgraded and I can work on VFX on this movie. First and foremost, I plan to re-do the Alderaan explosion scene to add in an extra shot, in which you can see the planet in an orbital view exploding whilst ships try and flee away from the impending doom that is behind them.

I wanted this shot to somewhat look like it was done using optical bluescreen, with the hand-drawn laser beam and the planet being a matte painting, which would fit the aesthetic of the film nicely.

So I made a quick photo on Photoshop and sort-of made it look like it was shot in 77, albeit a very rough concept although I might’ve added too much grain for the record lol.

I used an unused matte painting of Tatooine that Ralph McQuarrie made for ANH, some ships I found online, and an intentionally janky looking explosion that resemble those 70% opacity explosions literred around the ships during the Battle of Endor in ROTJ.

In other news, since SkyDude over in the Star Wars Trilogy Forums has done a very good cleanup up of the Mos Eisley drive-by shot by merging in different sources including 4k77, I’ll probably use that and slightly enhance it to make the transition alot more seamless.

That looks amazing!

Hello there, I am looking to find a Darth Vader line from any video game, deleted scene, etc. that can be suitable to replace the dialogue that he and Tarkin have after the TIE Fighter attack on their way to the rebel base.

Governor Tarkin:
Are they away?

Darth Vader:
They just made the jump into hyperspace.

Governor Tarkin:
And you’re sure the homing beacon is secure onboard their ship? I’m taking an awful risk, Vader. This had better work.

I am removing the “hyperspace” line as it is evident that in the next shot, they can be seen flying in space and not on hyperspace.

Feel free to use what Sir Ridley did for my project if you’d like to depict them in hyperspace for that scene.

https://vimeo.com/356790113

PM me for files.

Hmm, that is interesting. However I feel like it would be a better solution overdubbing Vader’s vocals to not anymore imply that they had just made the jump into hyper-space however I am not sure where to find a library of Vader’s lines from different games, TV series, etc. that can help with this, or even straight from ESB, ROTJ, ROTS or RO.

ThisIsCreation said:

Wow. I am blown away with this. Is there edit of the movie with this in it?

Yeah, man: mine!

And fair enough, just wanted to make sure you had the option.

Updated first post as the changelog has been completely updated to fit the sources and to add some new art into the mix 😉

I will make a poster to later submit to Fanedit.org (if they approve of it, anyway)

Also, I just might have an idea to fix the Darth Vader hyper-space continuity error in the film, but I wont reveal it until later, so its more of a suprise!

JEDIT: A pending change I’d like to add is the adition of the re-done shots Adywan did for the TIE Fighter attack on the Falcon, but that would require some upscaling to 1080p (though I’m not sure it would look very good). So if anyone out there can lend a hand and upscale that scene for me, then it would be very appreciated!