D1 Ray Tracing

[Warlock]

So this is happening.

[CDN_Merlin]

I had a demo of this, haven't tried it yet

[Tunnelcat]

Wow!. They're still working on improving a video game from 1995! Can't wait! I'll keep checking on GitHub.

[vision]

Oh man I want this. How do I get on the mailing list?

[Warlock]

i like to know to.

[Top Gun]

Is this anyone associated with the community or someone else? Crazy to think that someone from the outside would randomly decide to do that sort of work on a relatively-niche game.

[TigerRaptor]

His name is Wessel Frijters. A young guy who has a love for Descent.

https://twitter.com/robic_wessel

Other links I found.

https://bredauniversitygames.github.io/DXX-Raytracer/
https://www.reddit.com/user/DXX-Raytracer/
https://wesselfrijters.com/projects/dxx-raytracer/

Link to their Discord server.
https://bredauniversitygames.github.io/ ... index.html

[Jeff250]

It looks like their GitHub link is broken. https://github.com/BredaUniversityGames/DXX-Raytracer

[Isaac]

It looks like their GitHub link is broken. https://github.com/BredaUniversityGames/DXX-Raytracer

https://bredauniversitygames.github.io/DXX-Raytracer/

edit never mind. It's the same broken link

[Arne]

There is now an early release version available: https://github.com/BredaUniversityGames ... /releases/
See also their announcement on reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/descent/commen ... 9_release/

[vision]

Cool, saw this yesterday. Haven't looked closely to see if I can run it on LInux easily. Hopefully I'll have time next week to check it out, maybe just use my Windows machine.

[TigerRaptor]

Cool, saw this yesterday. Haven't looked closely to see if I can run it on LInux easily. Hopefully I'll have time next week to check it out, maybe just use my Windows machine.

I couldn't get it to run in Bottles.

[Jeff250]

No linux support.

[Tunnelcat]

Anyone try it yet in Windows?

Here's someone's attempt with D1 Rebirth using Reshade and some other tweaks on an RTX 4090 at 4K. Cool.

[CDN_Merlin]

I've tried it. Joystick doesn't work.

[TigerRaptor]

It's a damn shame the Descent 3 score code was never released like it was with its predecessor and Freespace.

[CDN_Merlin]

It's a damn shame the Descent 3 score code was never released like it was with its predecessor and Freespace.

I agree. Would be nice. Can we not ask for it? Or does Interplay still hold he rights?

[TigerRaptor]

It's a damn shame the Descent 3 score code was never released like it was with its predecessor and Freespace.

I agree. Would be nice. Can we not ask for it? Or does Interplay still hold he rights?

It's been so long I don't remember anymore.

[akula65]

Source: https://github.com/BredaUniversityGames ... /releases/
Version 1.2.0 has been released:

Version 1.2.0 Latest
@SamBoots SamBoots released this 08 Jun 20:16
v1.2.0

Fixed texture mod loading

The previous build required you to write the texture path without the extension for material (.mat) files. In the new build it is now accounted for and will correctly load the texture files regardless of the .png or .dds file description.
In addition, even if a material file has marked a texture as texture.png, it is still able to load the .dds version of that texture if it can find one. So modifications on material files to support .dds is not required.

Dynamic texture loading

The big new feature of this build, you load in textures dynamically when you need them in a level. This reduces the overall VRAM usage which helps a wider selection of graphic cards with lower VRAM while also enabling them to use high-resolution texture packs. Load times between levels have slightly increased since the game will now load the required textures for each level instead of loading all of them on startup.

Full changelist

Added dynamic texture loading
Added more light on textures meant to be lights
Fix texture mod loading
Fix issue related to cloaked ships showing up as green instead of black
Fix issue with compressed texture with less then 8 bits per pixel
Fix automap aspect ratio

Contributors

Thank you @Lehm2000 for:

Adding dynamic texture loading #24
Adding more light on textures meant to be lights #25
Fix texture mod loading #23
Fix issue related to cloaked ships showing up as green instead of black #19
Fix issue with compressed texture with less then 8 bits per pixel #18

Thank you @jstanley0 for:

Fix automap aspect ratio #17

[Tunnelcat]

Thanks for the update. I want to download this one. I haven't played D1 or D2 for awhile and want to try it on my RTX 3080Ti.

[woodchip]

I donated to overload back when they were going to be the next Descent thing. Even got the T-shirt. Got the CD, still got it in cellophane. So where is it today? How many of you play the Overload game. So forgive me if I don't get excited about this.

[vision]

How many of you play the Overload game.

Me. Overload has basically replaced all the time I played Descent. The Overload Discord is still pretty active, there are twitch streams active in the last week, and this awesome play-through on YouTube of the first Descent game converted to Overload levels posted two weeks ago.

[Tunnelcat]

Me as well. I play it when I want to go robot hunting through the mines. I still want to see what D2 and D2 look like raytraced, so I'll set both of those up and play. Those are my 2 favorite Descent games, even more than Overload.

[TigerRaptor]

Me as well. I play it when I want to go robot hunting through the mines. I still want to see what D2 and D2 look like raytraced, so I'll set both of those up and play. Those are my 2 favorite Descent games, even more than Overload.

IIf you haven't before, check out C.O.D (Circle of Death) and Death Star. Two massive levels from Descent 1. There is also a Descent 3 version of C.O.D made by Duper; I am not sure if he ever completed it.

[Tunnelcat]

Wow, thanks. I'll have to check those out.

[Tunnelcat]

I just fired up the ray traced version of D1. It looks cool and I'd like to see a D2 version in the future. However, can someone tell me how to get it to run full screen? I'm a little rusty on my DXX builds.

[akula65]

Looks like you need to remove the -window option from the command line: viewtopic.php?t=24654

[Tunnelcat]

Thanks. Now I remember. I must be slipping. I haven't messed with command line options for awhile, so I'll change it.

[Tunnelcat]

I played it for a bit on my RTX 3080Ti. Wow, the game looks and plays spectacular. I'm going to add all the files to play the entire game all over again. I'd like to thank all those who worked on this project. It's a job well done for such an old game.

Is Descent II in the works? That would be fantastic!

[Krom]

Loaded this up today and played through a few levels, apparently I can still play D1 single player, though my aim sucks now. Really neat stuff, works great, holding around 190 fps average (200 cap). Even simple graphics like these look a lot more impressive when you catch a robot casting a realistic shadow and stuff like that, and the game play is still just as good as it was in the old days.

[akula65]

Source: https://github.com/BredaUniversityGames ... tag/v1.3.0

Version 1.3.0 Latest
@SamBoots released this 11 Nov 22:27
v1.3.0

Parallax Mapping Support

The great new feature of this release. Parallax mapping support make 2d textures look like a 3d surface.
Height textures are represented as _height.png/dds. files.
Checkout the pull request to see examples on how this may look.

SGV Archive Support

SGV (Seekable Game Vault) Adds support for a purpose built archive format SGV (Seekable Game Vault) to collect game assets into a single archive file to allow easier deployment of texture sets.
This will give a performance boost to loading textures that use this archive, it is recommended to use this for large texture mod packs.

This release has all textures inside a sgv vault for this performance boost and the sgv executable to create your own vaults for your own packs.

Misc changes

Fix for issue with tangents rotating the wrong direction with mirrored uv coordinates.
Improved texture sampling to allow for soft/dithered texture edges

Contributor

Thank you @Lehm2000 for all these features and bug fixes. Your work is very appreciated by the developers and the community!