Serious D2 play issues

Master Xan · Post by **Master Xan** » Fri May 12, 2006 12:37 pm

Yep, another noobie to the forums with a problem he wants help with... (we noobs are evil people). Anyway, here's my problem, and hopefully one of you guys know how to fix it and are willing to help me out.

I've played Descent since it first came out, and bought Descent 2 when it came out as well. Using D1X, I can still play Descent 1 just fine. But when I recently reinstalled Descent 2 and tried to play it, I ran into problems.

When I run the DOS version, it doesn't work. No surprise. Using DOSBox, I can get it to load but with serious performance hits (including complete loss of sound). Using the Windows version, the game loads and appears to work great; that is, until I start a game. While the movies load wonderfully and the sound is good, the game hangs just before I enter the first level (after both movies and the info on the robots but before being spawned in the level).

Alright, no problem, right? I'll just use the D2X project and everything will be great. The original D2X worked, but like the DOS version had serious performance issues rendering it unplayable. Using the DXX Rebirth version was no better. D2X-XL seemed to work at first; the game loaded up, and the plethora of new options immediatly caught my interest.

While D2X-XL does allow me to play the game, it too has serious performance issues. The music in the movies is choppy at best; I turned my speakers off because it was too annoying to listen to. The asteroids during the beginning cinematic appear blurry around the edges, yet this effect mysteriously disappears later in the very same cinematic. I can't get the game to load the advanced music (keeps telling me to insert the CD, when its already in). When I try and reset the resolution, the game hangs. Every time, no matter what resolution I attempt to change it to. When I start a game using the default 800 x 600 resolution, the window immediatly shrinks to such a tiny thing I can barely see enemy 'bots, and their weapon fire is microscopic. Changing the resolution from this point also causes the game to hang. And finally, when I open a door I get another texture over it; rather than being able to see through the doorway, all I see is what appears to be part of the wall (except with a moving door panel). I can move through this, but because I can't see through it, its impossible to avoid enemy fire, plan a strategy before entering the room, or hit anything with my own weapons.

I'm using Windows 2000Pro, 2.4GHz Intel processor, Asus chipset and 768 MB DDR memory. I'm using the original D2 CD, not a copy, and have updated the game to v1.2 before attempting to use any D2X versions with it AND alternatively tried a re-install and didn't install the update, but went straight to trying D2X-XL (with the same results). I've messed with the in-game settings, including wall transparency, forcing the game to render the entire mine, tried various quality settings for the graphics, and basically everything else I could think of. I'm not running anything in the background.

Anybody have any suggestions? I'm assuming there's something wrong with my computer or my settings in-game, as I can't seem to find a FAQ with similar problems adressed anywhere.

Neumaennl · Post by **Neumaennl** » Fri May 12, 2006 12:54 pm

Alright, your system should be more than adequate to play Descent with D2X-XL

Be sure to check if there is an updated version of D2X-XL available, because Diedel is VERY fast with bugfixes

You can also play Descent 1 with D2X-XL

I have a Pentium 4 with 2.66GHz, 768MB RAM, a GeForce4 Ti 4200 and Windows XP Professional and it runs like a charm on the best quality settings

D2X-XL will recognize the D2 CD if you put it into the first CD/DVD drive, but if you want to put it into another drive, you can specify the drive letter in d2x.ini

Be sure to have Descent and Descent 2 patched to the most recent version and check out the installation instructions for D2X-XL at http://www.descent2.de

have fun!

Master Xan · Post by **Master Xan** » Fri May 12, 2006 1:10 pm

I downloaded D2X-XL yesterday, so it should be the most recent version. (v1.6.52) Also, Descent 2 has been fully updaded to v1.2 prior to the installation of D2X-XL. And since I forgot to mention it earlier, I also updated all my drivers in my attempts to get it working.

I didn't know that about the CD being in the first drive (I only have one drive, but an emulation has another drive going and may be interfering). I'll check the .ini file to see if I can get that problem solved at least, though the graphic issues are more important.

EDIT: Alright, got Redbook working using the <-cdrom f:\\> in the .ini file. Somewhere along the way this morning I managed to fix the choppy sound in movies, and also the blurring asteriods. Now I just need a fix for my resolution woes, the ability to see through doorways, and a new problem I've created; for some reason I'm now unable to start a new game. When you select 'new game' from the menu, nothing happens at all. No crash, nothing. Needless to say, I'm confused.

EDIT 2: Ok, more confused then before. If I change the default player profile that is loaded at startup (in the .ini file), I can't start a new game no matter what profile is loaded once the game starts. If I leave it at the default value (<-player default>) then I can play a game, again no matter what profile I subsequently load, but the sound in movies becomes choppy and the asteroid blurring is back.
Oh, and here's a screencap of my annoying door problem:

EDIT 3: I'm done for the day; my head is hurting too much. The game is randomly spitting out errors; sometimes when I play movies the sound is choppy, other times it's fine. I can play games using the default profile, but not using any that I've created. I can't change the resolution, can't see through doorways, and can't seem to figure out any ryhm or reason to why not. When I change a setting and something happens, I can change it back and it still happens, so I'm having difficulty figuring out what is working and what isn't.

Its like entire segments of the game's code is on the blitz, randomly messing up or working with no apparent interferance from me. Unless somebody can give me a suggestion, I'm going to assume that somehow my game CD was damaged/corrupted, as that's the only logical reasoning I can come up with right now.

Neumaennl · Post by **Neumaennl** » Fri May 12, 2006 1:47 pm

download 1.6.53 please, 1.6.52 corrupts the *.plr file

all other issues belong into the Bug reports thread in the D2X-XL forum

Master Xan · Post by **Master Xan** » Fri May 12, 2006 2:19 pm

So there is a new version since yesterday? Cool. Thanks for the heads up, and I'll post other problems in the bug forum.