Descent 1 and/or 2 online anyone?

Constitutional Defender · Sat Jun 12, 2004 4:11 am

I am looking to get some online action going and if anyone wants to game please let me know. I would like to try it through kahn but I have not tested it yet. I have been scouring the net for people to play with but it is difficult to find games. I would buy a subscription to kali but I need money first, so until then I will try out kahn. I prefer co-op but will play other types too.

CDN_Merlin · Post by **CDN_Merlin** » Sat Jun 12, 2004 5:13 am

The only ppl I know that play D1 or D2 are using Kali. It's only 20$ for life. Not that hard to get.

Constitutional Defender · Sat Jun 12, 2004 5:30 am

CDN_Merlin wrote:It's only 20$ for life. Not that hard to get.

Like I said, I need money first. Not that hard to understand. Job=money, I don't have a job.
Simple as that.

kurupt · Post by **kurupt** » Sat Jun 12, 2004 11:49 am

kahn died years ago, or did it come back recently under the radar? i'd love to play some d1 or d2, but i cant get them to work in xp and i refuse to revert to 98. sorry.

Constitutional Defender · Sat Jun 12, 2004 1:50 pm

kurupt wrote:kahn died years ago, or did it come back recently under the radar? i'd love to play some d1 or d2, but i cant get them to work in xp and i refuse to revert to 98. sorry.

Try http://www.kahncentral.net to get kahn. Free now too. I got d2 running in xp just fine. Try setting the compatibility to win95 and see what that does for you.
Worked for me so maybe it just might work for you.

kurupt · Post by **kurupt** » Sat Jun 12, 2004 2:03 pm

wow, when did kahn come back? and no, 99% of the time its not as simple as compatibility mode, but thanks for trying to help. been down this road many times when xp came out, and i've exhausted every newb method and plenty of the more technical ones. closest i ever came was getting it to work in single player and having the multiplayer report a million+ ping, and everyone warping around (due to the million+ ping).

if someone were to solve it completely and write a tutorial, that would be what it takes to get myself and many others back into the game - at least a little bit back into it.

Tigeron · Post by **Tigeron** » Sat Jun 12, 2004 6:49 pm

Kurupt:

Don't give up yet. D2 runs in xp just fine, just not the retail version. Go to this link for D2X, by Bradley Bell (and others).

http://www.icculus.org/d2x/

Install Win 95 Descent2 as normal, then install the D2x. Don't forget to also download the library files that are needed.

I run this official version of D2x in multiplayer through Kali and play single palyer all the time. with a joystick I am at 60 fps in game with a great ping. With my Nvidia 3D video stereo drivers my frame rate increases to 76 fps.

kurupt · Post by **kurupt** » Sat Jun 12, 2004 7:31 pm

I never liked d2, my fault for not being specific. write a tutorial for d1x and i'll play.

Dedman · Post by **Dedman** » Sat Jun 12, 2004 9:29 pm

Is there a D1x or something like it so I can play D1 with XP? I would love to start playing that again. I forget, does D1 support a joystick or is it kb only?

Top Gun · Post by **Top Gun** » Sat Jun 12, 2004 10:07 pm

Yes, D1 does support a joystick, and yes, there is a D1X. The latest version is 1.43, and it can be found here. Just unzip the files into your main D1 directory and run one of the two .exes. It may take some tweaking or require using one .exe file over the other, but it works quite well and provides quite a graphics boost to D1, as well as getting rid of that infamous super-framerate bug.

Lothar · Post by **Lothar** » Sat Jun 12, 2004 11:49 pm

d1x is also sometimes flaky on XP. I went through 5-6 versions on my first XP system without ever getting one that was really stable. Then I got a new XP system and the first one I tried worked perfectly. Go figure...

kurupt · Post by **kurupt** » Sun Jun 13, 2004 2:25 pm

no luck for me on 2 seperate machines. ive used that 1.43 on a 98 machine and found it to be garbage. its just for people who value graphics over the game itself. i've been a 1.30 user since it came out. although i would bite the bullet and use 1.43 if i could actually get it working.

Constitutional Defender · Sun Jun 13, 2004 3:07 pm

kurupt wrote:no luck for me on 2 seperate machines. ive used that 1.43 on a 98 machine and found it to be garbage. its just for people who value graphics over the game itself. i've been a 1.30 user since it came out. although i would bite the bullet and use 1.43 if i could actually get it working.

If you want I can send you a compressed file with d1. Thats also depends on your connection speed. The version I have is retail 1.4a Works fine in win98 se for me.

Lothar · Post by **Lothar** » Sun Jun 13, 2004 3:33 pm

Descent 1.4a doesn't work properly on faster machines. You have to be running d1x, which unfortunately doesn't always work right in XP.

pipsqueak10 · Post by **pipsqueak10** » Sun Jun 13, 2004 7:17 pm

I run d1x version 1.43 with no problem with my XP machine (not in win 98 compatability mode. Also D2x version version 2.0 works fine. I use a MS pre 2 while they are still around.

Put this in your D1X ini file:
-pps 6
-shortpackets
-noredundancy
-playermessages
-maxfps 80
-msgcolorlevel 3
-nicefps
-fullscreen
-joypolled
-notitles
-missiondir D:/Games/Descent Series/Descent/levels
-dynamicsockets
-gl_mipmap
-cockpit 2
-gl_reticle 1

I can't run them on Kahn. Last I heard Kahn was incompatable with XP. I use Kali. The problem, however, is finding people to play D1 or D2 with.

Suncho · Post by **Suncho** » Sun Jun 13, 2004 8:36 pm

What joystick do you use, pipsqueak? I can't get my joystick to work.

pipsqueak10 · Post by **pipsqueak10** » Sun Jun 13, 2004 8:48 pm

Microsoft Precision 2 Joystick

Suncho · Post by **Suncho** » Sun Jun 13, 2004 8:55 pm

Really? I use the Microsoft Force Feedback 2 and I can get D1x to work great except the game seems to be missing beats when polling my joystick. For example, if I push it all the way to the left, it just stutters rather than turning at full speed. Any idea what could be causing that? Have you run into that problem?

TigerRaptor · Post by **TigerRaptor** » Mon Jun 14, 2004 1:14 pm

I'll play but no mineriva or how ever you spell it. I can not stand that level.

pipsqueak10 · Post by **pipsqueak10** » Mon Jun 14, 2004 5:53 pm

I've also had that problem. I find going into D1 options and adjusting the joystick sensitivity settings corrects that. Any my joy is configured through the Sidewinder options screen. Its not perfect but it really gives you that D1 nauseating feeling when playing.

Sirius · Post by **Sirius** » Tue Jun 15, 2004 7:19 pm

Last time I tried, I have had no trouble running Descent 1.4a in Windows XP through VDMSound... unfortunately D1x doesn't work because of the way it accesses the video card...

The D1x Windows ports do though.

Descent 2 is also fine through VDMSound. Of course for that one you have the option of the Win95 version, although I commonly hear about people not liking it much.

Lothar · Post by **Lothar** » Tue Jun 15, 2004 11:47 pm

Sirius, if you're running D1 or D2 directly (not d1x or d2x) on a fast machine, your ship moves significantly faster than it should. Type "frametimer" in D2 to see your framerate -- if it's over about 120, you'll have problems playing.

Sirius · Post by **Sirius** » Thu Jun 17, 2004 7:54 pm

The reason, I suppose, is that my machine isn't fast. Or at least not fast enough to cause problems.

(I guess a P3 667 with a Voodoo 3 only has so much power.)

Lothar · Post by **Lothar** » Thu Jun 17, 2004 8:51 pm

That should be fast enough to get some odd behavior (homers should be really tough to dodge) but if you run in high enough resolution you can probably keep your D2 framerate under 120 on that system for the most part.

But it changes very quickly. Shrink your screen down a bit with "frametimer" running, and watch your framerate go up. In particular, try flying at ~100 fps, and then try flying the same stretch at ~200 fps (small screen, no rearview, low resolution), if you can get it that fast. You'll be really surprised...

Jeff250 · Post by **Jeff250** » Sat Jun 19, 2004 12:22 am

Just a nitpick, it's frametime, not frametimer. I wouldn't say anything except this is like the third time you've said it.

Lothar · Post by **Lothar** » Sat Jun 19, 2004 12:49 am

The code is officially frametime, but the extra "r" switches you back from rearview. May as well just tell people to type frametimer.

Sage · Post by **Sage** » Sun Jun 20, 2004 7:53 am

Yeh I get that joystick stutter in D1X too.

Jeff250 · Post by **Jeff250** » Sun Jun 20, 2004 4:03 pm

I don't know how bad your guys' is, but I can't even play D1x it's so bad. In fact, I can't even turn upward or rightward. D2x is perfect, though.

kurupt · Post by **kurupt** » Sun Jun 20, 2004 6:45 pm

anyone figure out how to make the twist on a 3dpro work in d1x on windows xp? everything but that works, but i cant play d1 without a twist

Top Gun · Post by **Top Gun** » Sun Jun 20, 2004 7:25 pm

The twist on my 3DPro works fine. Make sure that your throttle is in the absolute middle position; D1X often auto-detects that axis when you're trying to register another.

Sirius · Post by **Sirius** » Mon Jun 21, 2004 5:50 am

When I tried running it a little while back neither D1 nor D2 would even start up, so it's not a big deal. I was only getting 30-40 fps in the SDL version of D2X though. (0.12 I think)