Posted this on the main X-wing and TIE fighter series forum, but it's a lot more applicable here...

With all the excitement over the Star Wars: Squadrons trailers, there's also been some talk about how great TIE Fighter and X-Wing were... and how hard they are to get working on modern systems.

In the case of the Collector's CD is sadly quite true... but as for the Special Editions, all you really need to get going is a joystick (or Xbox controller if you're in a pinch).

so I made a short(?) video guide of what mods you need, and what settings you can tweak:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0yJQUHJVRM

Hope you enjoy.

Here are the mods I'm using, sorted in the order you should install them.
XWA_DDRAW_d3d11 - Enables Hardware acceleration, AA and shading on new computers:
https://github.com/rdoeffinger/xwa_ddraw_d3d11/releases

Justagai's X-Wing series 60 FPS - enables 60 FPS:
https://community.pcgamingwiki.com/files/file/1853-justagais-x-wing-series-60-fps-fix/

TIE Fighter Reconstructed - rearranged and enhanced DOS-CD music for TIE Win95 version:
https://www.savingcontent.com/2014/08/09/guide-play-xwingseries-on-modern-pc/7/

X-wing & TIE Music Fix - enables music in missions again:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/wjj50h7v1cin6vz/X-Wing_TieMusicFix.zip?dl=0

WARNING

One big problem with this guide, the 60 FPS patch. Yes, it makes the game sssssoooo much smoother but one also runs into the turret bug.

Basically, captial ships and stations will not behave correctly once you install it. A good spot to demonstrate this is to use the Tie Bomber Historical Mission 2 (in the Combat Chamber).
Fly towards the first platform.If turrets do not fire at 1+ km range, the game is bugged! Which happens once you install the patch...

Have not tested it but this will very likely affect X-Wing in exactly the same way :-(

You know.. I was about to say that this bug thankfully only appears in the Collector's CD version of the game, and not in the Special Edition version...

but then I thought I should check it out. and the platform in Bomber Historical Mission 2 does indeed not fire with the 60fps patch, but does without it.

I just finished a playthrough of the entire game -including expansions- and capital ships or platforms seemed to all be protecting themselves properly (at least definitely against me!)...

I would still recommend the Special Edition over the Collector's CD... with or without the 60fps patch. When I tried playing the Collector's CD... I had to get down to around 15-20fps to get all of the platforms to fire correctly... and dogfights were more like slideshows... with Special Edition I could play at a breezy 35fps even in the most furry of furballs.. and still get shot at by the platforms.

The soundtrack is just so essential for the experience, at least in my opinion. The DOS version remains very playable at a cycle speed compatible with correct turret behavior. Although I agree that the 60fps is just glorious.

It is just a shame.

Another favorite of mine, Terra Nova, suffers from similar problems. If you choose a cycle speed with a butter-smooth framerate, a few of the weapons stop working correctly (due to collision detection issues). That the programmers of old never bothered to factor in PC speed into their game logic calculations is a shame.