D2X-XL: Help with setup - System Specs/Video card added

[MegaDescent]

I've been having a really hard time and getting constantly discouraged with setting up D2X-XL. Either it won't work, or it's not nearly to my liking. I thought I'd post a thread for it as a result, maybe someone can give me a bit of a tutorial as I feel that's what I need.

Basically my set up goal is to disable as many of the new features as possible to restore the experience as close as can be to vanilla Descent, or (if I'm playing a mission for XL) as close as possible for that mission. There is both in game config and config files outside of the game, but there are so many toggles and switches that I'm really confused, especially as some of them still have bugs apparently. So maybe someone has instructions on how to get it at least very close to what I desire? Or alternatively, if someone already has or can easily get their D2X-XL set up with minimal extra features, they could email me their files if they'd prefer to do that over writing out instructions. I will, if that is the case, give my email out to anyone who asks for it - just send me a personal message.

Any form of help would be appreciated here. Thanks!

EDIT: I added my system specs in a later post but I'll put them here as well:

OS: Win7 Professional 64-bit Service Pack 3 (6.1, Build 7601)
System Manufacturer: Dell Inc.
System Model: Vostro 460
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-2600 CPU @ 3.40 GHz (8 CPUs)
Memory: 8192mb RAM
DirectX Version 11

Additional specs:

Sound: RealTek (Integrated with computer)
Video: NVidia GEForce GT 440 with 4GB of video RAM
Monitor: Full HD / 1080p (1920x1080 widescreen

[Alter-Fox]

To be honest, setting up a tutorial would take a lot of my time and all the info you need is already on descent2.de -- heck, most of it is in the game itself if you press F1 with an item highlighted in the options menu. All the command-line parameters are very clearly documented on the website. If you take the time to play around with the game, you'll find what you need quickly enough and you'll have more fun doing it than waiting for me to write up a tutorial (which would honestly take longer, despite that poem I wrote in that thread I do have a life. Just a very odd one ). It's intimidating at first but just browsing through the options menu in an organized way and using the F1 key when you're not sure will make it much simpler. That's my advice.

That said I'm meaning to write a similar tutorial on Steam eventually, once I do get around to it I'll PM you a link to that. It could take months though, and it's only going to cover a basic setup.

[MegaDescent]

This is really frustrating. I've tried installing it, but no matter what I do I get one of two bugs that render it unplayable. Either the screen will not change at all when the level loads (it'll just still show the menu), or if I manage to get a level to load, the cockpit will be completely black and the sound garbled. This is even with many of the enhancements turned off. Even loading the game at 100% default settings gave me the bug with the black cockpit! Any help - this is very frustrating and it's the exact same results I'm getting every time?!

Sorry if I sound offensive, I'm just running really thin on patience here. And I don't even know where to start to look for these bugs. So I'd really like if I could get them identified, and fixed.

[MegaDescent]

Okay I got some venue of cockpit to show, and managed to get rid of the garbled sounds. But I'm still having all sorts of problems with where stuff shows on the screen, I have no music except in the menu, and the game has weird 'pauses' when loading things/switching screens. The screen also goes black when my ship is destroyed. It's darker than I want as well, even on full brightness. Some textures are messed up entirely also (they look like garbled images). So any help here? I might be closer but I'm nowhere near there yet.

(By the way, pured2 doesn't work, I get the screen still stuck on menu after a level loads bug.)

[Alter-Fox]

This is the reason I haven't posted my tutorial on Steam yet...
Occulus Rift support has been a major update in the past months, and whenever there's a major update there are major bugs (in D2X-XL or any other software). I could PM you a version from before Rift support was added...

The high-resolution sounds are actually required for D2X-XL to work properly. They're a separate download because of filesize.

[Pumo]

Just for the record, the latest XL version is a bit flawed and has the bugs you are describing Megadescent.
The author of D2X-XL is aware of those bugs, but he says they may be related to the Occulus Rift code and right now he doesn't has one to test and debug the issues, so we may have to wait. But no worries there is an easy solution:

Just try this older version instead: http://sourceforge.net/projects/d2x-xl/ ... e/download

It's the latest stable release (1.16.27), and it works pretty fine, at least on my side.

[MegaDescent]

I hope in this older version the hi-res stuff isn't required either. I don't recall it being, and there are options to turn in off, which would make no sense if you had to have the hi-res stuff turned on.

[Alter-Fox]

Only the hi-res sounds are required. None of the other stuff is... though most D2X-XL players have it all installed even if they've turned it off. The textures and powerup models don't exactly change the gameplay, they just look great .

[MegaDescent]

In 1.16.27, do the hires sounds actually have to be enabled? And if so how can I get rid of the garbled sound problem?

[MegaDescent]

@Pumo Well, that did some wonders! I still have a couple of problems, but at least I can count them on one hand now:

1) Energy and shields are starting at 90 instead of 100.
2) Every time I change from one midi music to another (load a level, change levels, etc.), the music stops until I reset the music volume by going to options, turning music volume to off, then increasing it again.
3) I was testing music in The Enemy Within and it only recognizes the first four of the six tracks (I prefer to play without the ogg soundtrack) and also it doesn't recognize the unique music for Levels 25 and 26 either.
4) While d2x-xl.exe works, if I try to use d2x-xl-omp.exe, it crashes when loading any level.

Still, this is a HUGE improvement from before, so maybe I'm not far off and additional help for my remaining kinks would be highly welcome!

[Alter-Fox]

Turning on the hires sounds should fix the garbled sound problem, if you've downloaded and installed the (separate from the main installer) hires sound package.

1) Change your ship to the Standard Ship in the new game menu. You're using the Light Interceptor (kind of like D3's Phoenix). If you don't have the ship models installed it won't look any different from the Pyro.

2) Odd, but I haven't played D2X-XL with midi music in a very long time (I hate microsoft's crappy GM sound and the midi drivers tend to crash no matter what program is using them). If this is just because you like the midi songs, download one of the addon soundtrack packs (which are the midi songs "recorded" into ogg format) from the Rebirth website, unzip it, and follow the instructions for setting up ogg music with D2X-XL. If you have some other reason you want the game to play the actual midi files, then I can't help you.

3) This isn't a D2X-XL bug. You need to put the Descent.sng file from that mission into your Data folder -- but this will screw up the midi music for every other mission that has a different number of songs. It has to do with the way Descent was coded originally, and the way modders got around that back in the day . To be honest, I don't really like most of the ogg songs from TEW any more either, it's a very monotonous soundtrack... but I don't like the choice of midi tracks very much either.

4) Don't use omp then. I'm not exactly sure what the reasons would be for a computer not supporting it but I know they exist.

[MegaDescent]

I sort of do want just the actual midi files, but it's not a huge thing, maybe someone else can help me with 2). Regarding 3), where is the descent.sng file for TEW? I don't recall one in the zip and Rebirth recognizes the 6 (instead of 4) midi soundtrack and the two unique end midis without any descent.sng file for TEW. And for 4), I am curious why the omp won't work, so if someone else has an idea, again it's appreciated.

On the other hand thanks for the help regarding my ship problem, and how to make XL recognize custom soundtracks in general.

[Alter-Fox]

For 3) that's because descent.sng is inside TEW.hog. Rebirth can read it from there, but XL only can if it's ogg music.

[MegaDescent]

Is there a tool I can use to extract it from the hog?

[Alter-Fox]

DLE (the D2X-XL level editor) should work.
It could be named either descent.sng or tew.sng. If it's the latter you'll have to rename it.

It will unavoidably screw up the midi music for every other mission. So remember to remove it when you're done. This is why I prefer ogg, even if it's just recordings of the midi music.

[MegaDescent]

Okay, will try that.

Now that I have XL working to at least a playable level, what XL specific missions would you recommend most? I promise this will be my last question of any kind on the 'recommendations' topic.

At this point I think I have resolved just about everything except the midi music constantly wanting to quit on me until I reset the volume. Would much appreciate if someone knows how to fix this.

[Pumo]

Well, if you ask for XL recommendations, would you be mad if I specially recommend my own mission, Pumo Mines Kartsal Motivation 3-level demo?

But seriously, there are some GREAT XL missions out there.
Of those I would specially recommend Boling Point, Dimensional Intersect and The Sphere.

I'm particulary fond of Dimensional Intersect because of its intelligent design and a great central hub idea, along with its heavy use of XL features and scripting capabilites, but if you like some difficulty, Boiling Point is also pretty good.

[MegaDescent]

My mistake was sdl_mixer being at 0. Music problem fixed.

Also any recommendation for Anthology or Belial System? Those happen to pop in my mind as well almost immediately.

[Alter-Fox]

Anthology is a good mission, although with a bit of an underwhelming ending. And don't let the number of levels fool you, it is enourmous. It took me months to finish it mostly because I kept getting lost.

Belial system is a great mission with some interesting design. I'd suggest actually playing both versions of it because even though the second version is billed as a remaster, most of the levels are so completely redesigned that they're completely unrecognizable. There isn't much of a difference in quality between the two versions either. I had a personal soundtrack I put together out of some music released by a few artists for it but I've lost it now. If I remembered which songs it was I'd recommend it though because I remember it fitting with the mission and story perfectly. All I remember was that I only chose artists who had a connection to Descent.

[MegaDescent]

One other tiny kink though: presumably because it's OpenGL, the brightness tends to be lower than in Dos or Rebirth. Any workaround for this?

[Pumo]

Yeah, I forgot to mention Anthology, and is a really great mission, but it requires some patience to finish it. It's the hugest level you will find up to this day.
It's a work from Sirius, so quality is asured.

I played a bit of Belial, but didn't manage to hook me to keep playing it, so I feel the other missions are a bit better.

EDIT: And you definitely should give Lunar Outpost Reloaded a try, it's the best renewed version of D1 Level 1 I've ever known.

Now, in the case of XL the brightness slider helps to increase overall level lighting, so give it a try.
And as a suggestion, the best Lighting method is Standard for general use, IMHO.
High/Highest Lighting methods are pretty good but for levels designed for that method in mind (like some of Karx11erx levels, like Lunar Outpost Reloaded, Boling Point), as on every other level it may give hard edges on some light emitting faces.

[MegaDescent]

When I start Black Prophecy XL the garbled sound problem makes a comeback. It's fine with any other mission. Any idea as to why this is happening, and a workaround?

[MegaDescent]

Also, I get the program terminating on occasion and I think it's because it is running out of memory (memory leaks?). What command parameters are recommended to maximize available memory/RAM?

[Sirius]

And for 4), I am curious why the omp won't work, so if someone else has an idea, again it's appreciated.

Probably some kind of bug. omp stands for OpenMP, which is basically just a way to add parallel execution (multithreading) to a program when it's compiled from source code. It's possible to get the thread handling wrong, though, which could potentially cause a crash.

On memory issues: if there is a 64-bit binary, I would recommend using that since it will allow D2X-XL to exceed 2 GB of memory. I think there were some .ini switches that would change XL's memory usage as well though - I don't remember what they are but they might be somewhere on descent2.de.

[MegaDescent]

How do I tell if there is a 64 bit, and what are the memory switches?

As for omp, some ideas as to the most common threading problems would be appreciated.

[MegaDescent]

Okay, omp actually does load a level for me now, but with a plethora of huge issues:

1) It's too dark (darker than d2x-xl.exe).
2) All energy-based shots are invisible on the screen.
3) Explosions (robots and missile explosions) are also invisible.
4) Some doors (example: yellow key door in Level 1 of TEW) are completely invisible, it looks like they aren't there.
5) When a visible door is opened, the opening animation isn't shown.

And probably more issues than that, this was just stuff I noticed quickly...

So help still appreciated regarding this and appropriate memory maximization parameters, and also how to recognize 64-bit.

[Pumo]

OK, lemme see...

The 64-bit version is located on the x64 subfolder of your D2X-XL installation.
To use it, just copy all data from that folder to your main XL folder, and run d2x-xl-x64.exe.
But, TBH, last time I used it it crashed on my side.

I always use the standard d2x-xl.exe, I find it to be more stable than any other executable (including omp, I never use it.)

I'm not too sure about the Black Prophecy XL issue, will check it out later.

[MegaDescent]

What do you have the memory related command parameters set to, and how long are you generally able to play before any crash?

I'd also like to know one miscellaneous thing. What AI aggressiveness level do you play with?

[MegaDescent]

In case it would help in suggesting setup/config options and the best XL exe to use here are my system specs. If you want an additional spec feel free to ask and I'll try to get it. Any further help is welcome.

OS: Win7 Professional 64-bit Service Pack 3 (6.1, Build 7601)
System Manufacturer: Dell Inc.
System Model: Vostro 460
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-2600 CPU @ 3.40 GHz (8 CPUs)
Memory: 8192mb RAM
DirectX Version 11

[MegaDescent]

Couple additional specific specs:

Sound: RealTek (Integrated with computer)
Video: NVidia GEForce GT 440 with 4GB of video RAM
Monitor: Full HD / 1080p (1920x1080 widescreen)

[Tunnelcat]

Mega, I'm using version 1.16.14 and haven't had any problems with the sound or crashing. But I did run into one high-res texture that kept crashing the game. It was specifically the hi-res switches pack I downloaded called D2-hires-switches7z file I got in 2012. I took that one out of the textures section in my build and haven't had any problems since. I haven't tried downloading the files again to see if they work though because I was happy with how things looked with the original wall switch textures in place anyway.

I'll have to run my game to see what settings I've chosen. Be sure all your hi-res sounds are located in Sounds2 and all your hi-res textures are in Textures.

I also set these switches inside the d2x.ini file back when I had a GTX 480 video card. I could probably set things a lot higher now with my newer GTX 680. I'm going to have to go back in there and set things way up.

D2X-XL switch recomendations

d2x.ini:

- disable multithreading
- disable shadows
- enable high-res textures

d2x.ini:

-hires_textures 1
-cache_textures 1
-hires_models 1
-model_quality 2

The D2X-XL site has much more information on setting switches in the d2x.ini file to get hi-res textures and hi-res sound to work.

My system:

Windows 7 Pro 64 Bit
Intel i7 960 3.2 GHz
Nvidia EVGA GTX 680 2GB VRAM
12 GB Ram
Realtek Integrated sound
1920X1200 monitor

=======

Here's the setup instructions from the D2X-XL site if you don't have them.

=======

D2X-XL quick installation guide (MS Windows) 10/20/12
In the following "Descent folder" is the folder where you plan D2X-XL to reside. If it doesn't exist, just enter the folder when running the D2X-XL installation executable.

Here are full Windows installation instructions for D2X-XL. It is assumed that you have already installed Descent 2 (and optionally Descent 1 in the same folder).

Download the D2X-XL installer and run it - it is a self-extracting archive - and specify your Descent folder as destination.

Run d2x-xl.exe now. It will create subfolders it needs for operation and copy the required Descent data from your harddisk there (it will leave the original files where they are, so your existing Descent installation will remain fully functional).

Download and install 7zip v9 if you haven't done so already (v4 won't do it).

All files need to be extracted to your Descent main folder, as they already contain the required subfolders.

Download and extract the (medium resolution) Descent 2 texture pack
[optional] Download the (medium resolution) Descent 1 texture pack
Download the hires models
[mandatory] Download the hires sounds
Download the Descent mission pack (this 7zip file contains a ton of missions which were all hand picked and tested by me, plus any mods they require)

If you have a multicore CPU, you can now launch d2x-xl-omp.exe, which is located in your Descent main folder. Otherwise please use d2x-xl.exe.

After the installation you will find a file named 'd2x-default.ini' in your Descent folder's config subfolder. If you want to change any of the values found in that file, copy it to d2x.ini and set your desired values there. When launching, D2X-XL will first look for d2x.ini and only fall back to d2x-default.ini if it cannot find d2x.ini. That way it is ensured that upgrading an existing D2X-XL installation will not destroy customized D2X-XL startup parameters.

The program will load a default player profile with reasonable settings. You can explore the various menus for adjusting the game to your computer and preferences (press F1 for a brief explanation of the highlighted menu option). The easiest way to create a player profile with your pilot name is to copy "profiles/default.plx" and "profiles/default.plr" to your desired profile (e.g. "profiles/mypilot.plx" and "profiles/mypilot.plr") using Windows Explorer or tools like Total Commander or Free Commander.

========

Here's another quickie but helpful guide from D2X-XL as well.

========

Post Tutorial: Working D2X-XL - installation Tutorial for Windows:
----------
NOTICE: This tutorial is only an extension for Diedels Installtion-Guide!
So you have to read the other first!

Requirements:

1. You will need the full Descent 2 game data and a 3d accelerator graphics card in order to run D2X-XL. It will work with the shareware data, but not too well.
2. latest patch(es) for Descent 2 and optional Descent 1
3. latest D2X-XL from the main-webpage

_______________________

How do I create a working D2X-XL installation?(beta)

1. Install new fresh copy of Descent2, optionally you can install descent 1 in OTHER folder as addition.

2. Patch the installation(s) to latest known version (Descent-2 to 1.2, Descent-1 to 1.5 or 1.4a)
You do not need to patch the EXE-File. So if you have problems during patching the exe, start the patcher with "-IGNOREMISSING" option to skip the exe file.

3. In your patched Descent2 folder make following subfolders:

config
data
demos
missions
models
movies
profiles
savegames
textures
temp

3. move the files in right folder(descent 2 and 1):

all ".CFG" and ".ini" files to "config" folder
all ".DEM" files to "demos folder"
all ".hog", ".msn", ".ham" , ".pig", "Sxx" files to "data" folder
all ".plr" ".plx" files to "profiles" folder
all ".mvl" to "movies" folder

Optional:
all high-res models+skintextures to "models" folder
all high-res textures to "textures" folder
all custom levels ".hog", ".mn2" to "missions" folder (or any subfolders thereof you find suitable)


in the main folder you should only have ".dll" and ".exe" files.
All other files are not needed! you can delete them. (I hope Very Happy)

Now install D2X-XL to Descent2 main folder.

Congratulations, you're done and should have a working D2X-XL Installation now.

[karx11erx]

Hi MegaDescent,

D2X-XL v1.17 had some long standing bugs after introduction of the Oculus Rift. These have all been fixed just recently after my picking up work on D2X-XL again.

The best thing to do if you have problems with D2X-XL is to register on the D2X-XL forum and ask there. You will have my attention there as well as that of a bunch of very capable D2X-XL experts. On the D2X-XL web site you will also find complete as well as compact installation and trouble shooting instructions for D2X-XL as well as a FAQ covering the most frequent problems people have had with the program.

karx11erx