Ex Trench Run: What It Actually Is and How to Get It Running
You've probably seen the old Star Wars trench run footage in everything from retrospectives to speedrun communities, and someone somewhere has built a standalone recreation around it. Ex Trench Run is one of those projects — a fan-built flight simulation experience that takes the concept of the Rebel strike on the Death Star and expands it into something you can actually sit in and fly. It's not an official Lucasfilm product. It's built on modified source code and community assets, and it runs on PC. The distribution happens primarily through the project's GitHub repository and the associated Discord server. Here is what the process looks like if you are doing it clean: Go to the official Ex Trench Run GitHub page. Clone or download the latest release build. You will need a 64-bit Windows system with at least DirectX 12 support. The minimum RAM requirement listed is 8GB, but I would recommend 16GB if you are running it alongside any overlay software, because this build tends to leak memory during extended sessions.
Extract the archive to a folder that does not have spaces in the path. I learned that the hard way. The launcher reads relative paths for the asset bundles, and any space character breaks the file resolution. Put it in something like C:\Games\ExTrenchRun and move on. Run the executable as administrator at least once during initial setup. The installer writes configuration data to your AppData folder and sometimes gets blocked by standard user permissions. After that first run, you do not need to keep doing it.
Setting It Up Without Breaking Things
The configuration file is straightforward. It lives in the config directory inside the installation folder. You will see settings for resolution, sensitivity, control scheme, and audio. The default control scheme maps to keyboard and mouse, which works fine for casual play. If you have a Thrustmaster or Logitech flight stick, plug it in before launching. The game auto-detects most DirectInput devices on startup. Here is where people usually trip up. The audio subsystem defaults to the wrong output device on some systems, especially if you have a USB sound card or an HDMI display with speakers attached. If you launch and hear nothing, open the in-game audio menu and manually select your output device. Do not rely on the auto-detect. It picks the first available endpoint in the Windows sound list, which is rarely the one you actually want. There is also a graphics settings file you should touch before your first session. The default preset is set to "Low" on detection, which means textures load at half resolution and shadow mapping is disabled. This makes the trench walls look washed out and cuts visibility significantly during the darker sections of the map. Set the preset to "Medium" at minimum. If your GPU is anything released after 2018, "High" is safe. Frame rates settle around 60 to 90 fps on High with V-Sync off.
Get the Full Details
How the Gameplay Actually Works
Ex Trench Run gives you a few mission profiles. The core one is the classic trench run with turbolaser towers, barrier gates, and proton torpedo targeting. There are also extended variants that add TIE fighter interceptors, longer trench segments, and randomized obstacle placement. The physics model is arcade-leaning. It is not a full flight simulator. Yaw, pitch, and roll respond to your input with a slight damping factor that makes the ship feel heavy at low speeds and twitchy at high speeds. That is intentional, and it is what makes the later sections feel genuinely difficult. The torpedo locking mechanic is the main challenge. You have to align your crosshair with the thermal exhaust port indicator and hold a trigger while the locking reticle closes. The lock window is narrow. It shrinks further as TIE fighters spawn and start firing. Most beginners try to lock too early and break the lock when they maneuver to dodge. Wait until you are within the final third of the trench. That is the reliable window.
Ex Trench Run Edge Cases and Workarounds
I ran into a specific issue on my second week of testing. The game would freeze at the 40-second mark during any mission that had TIE fighters active. Not a crash to desktop. Just a complete hang. The audio would loop. The frame would lock. Nothing responded to input. I spent about three days troubleshooting it because the first assumption was always a driver problem or a corrupted install. The fix turned out to be related to background process priority. The game's AI thread for TIE fighter behavior was being throttled by Windows power management when the system was on battery or under any CPU load from other applications. I added an exception for the Ex Trench Run executable in the Windows power plan settings, set the process affinity to all cores, and ran the game with the High Performance power mode selected. The freezes stopped. This only happens when you have more than two TIE fighters on screen simultaneously. Single-engine missions run fine without any of this. Another thing nobody mentions in the readme. If you are using a ultrawide monitor, the aspect ratio handling in the current build is incomplete. The tunnel geometry renders correctly, but the HUD elements stretch horizontally and the torpedo targeting reticle becomes misaligned with the actual port position. You have two options: play in borderless windowed mode at a 16:9 resolution, or accept the misalignment and compensate by eye. The first option is cleaner. The second option works if you are playing blind anyway.
What This Build Does Not Do
It is worth being clear about the limitations. Ex Trench Run is a single-player experience. There is no multiplayer, no co-op, and no mod support beyond what the core team has shipped. The mission count is small — roughly eight distinct scenarios across the available difficulty tiers. If you complete all of them on the hardest setting, there is not much left to do. The replay value is limited by design. This is not a sandbox. It is a focused simulation of a specific sequence of events with incremental difficulty increases. You will beat it in a weekend if you are serious about it. The community has discussed extending content through unofficial patches, but nothing has materialized past the initial release cycle. There is also no controller racing support. The game does not send telemetry to platforms like SimHub or Dashware. If you want replay analysis or split timing, you need to use a separate screen recording tool and mark the timestamps manually. It is tedious, but it is the only way to get consistent lap data.
Should You Download It
If you are curious about the trench run concept and want something you can fly without buying a full flight simulator suite, Ex Trench Run does the job. It is free, it is relatively lightweight, and the core loop is tight. If you are looking for a deep simulation with realistic aerodynamics or multiplayer, this is not it. There are better options for those goals, like DCS World for dedicated combat flight simulation or existing Star Wars arcade titles that have larger libraries and active communities. Install it in a clean folder. Adjust the graphics preset before you launch. Fix the audio output if it is wrong. And if you hit the freeze bug with multiple TIE fighters, adjust your power settings rather than reinstalling. The project is stable enough for what it is, but it was clearly built by a small team working in their spare time. Expect rough edges and move past them quickly.
