DescentBB

KD,

• I have the impression you haven't really taken your time to fully understand my post to you on the PD forum.
  
  There is also a dedicated page about D2X trackers on my Descent site.
  
  D2X-W32 has a built-in tracker address. Provided the guy who has set up that tracker is still running it, everybody using UDP/IP via tracker with D2X-W32 should be fine.
  
  If that guy doesn't, you need another tracker (probably your own). That tracker is a server in the sense that it runs the tracker program (think of it as a phone book) and must be available via UDP/IP on the inet.
  
  If you don't have a tracker available, you need to find some ppl to play with you via UDP/IP (e.g. via a chatroom/IRQ/AIM/etc.) The guy who will be the game host has to tell the other guys (the clients) his IP address. The clients will have to enter that IP address in the UDP/IP options dialog displayed when they try to join a UDP/IP game.
  
  So basically the tracker automates the task of offering and finding a UDP/IP game.
  
  If port 28342 doesn't work for you (10048 means its not available for some reason), try port 0 (that will cause Windows to chose an arbitrary available one, which is fine again).
  
  In order to play via IPX, you need to install IPX drivers (by default they are not installed under Windows, as this is an obsolete networking protocol).

Valyn,

• something is bogus about the screen resolution stuff in D2X-W32, but I couldn't find out what it is. It seems to have something to do with how D2X handles its graphical data (bitmaps and stuff), and it is a little sensitive towards using other resolutions than 640x480 in menu mode. I managed to get it to work acceptably, but I am not totally satisfied. Just look e.g. at the menu background missing when having switched screen resolutions while in the menu (not in the game).
  
  Did you try to switch to windowed mode before changing screen res, and switching back afterwards?

I got the same effect in windowed mode. Switching while in windowed mode has no effect.

I did read your posts and your page I just didn't quite understand it. So my current understanding now is that I don't need to mess with d2x.ini file at all. right? I just click join "UDP/IP net game via tracker" and tell it port zero. now do I need the IPX protocol installed to use this feature? My attempt at hosting a game causes that IPX error. Then, how do you install IPX?

srry about so many questions.

KD,

you don't need IPX for UDP/IP.

You can do exactly as you wrote when using the tracker, and if somebody is offering a game via the tracker, you should see that game pop up in the game browser a few seconds after you have entered it.

/me thinks I should put up a "how to" page about UDP/UP w/ D2X-W32 ...

The thing is I got that error when I clicked UDP/IP. but thanks for the help.

Which error - invalid port or IPX not available? The latter can hardly be, and I have explained the former one, and given a workaround: Use port # 0.

Played a bit w/ D1 SP yesterday (loaded d2x-w32 .67 or .68 (the d/l link on the new webpage is broken BTW). W/ D1 SP the weapons damage values seem to be way of. Eg. a short blast w/ the vauss will blow up any robot. If a robot hits you the shield value goes wild (11343 shields ) and the next hit will blow you up. Was too late to test D2, sorry.

Also the midi music volume slider doesn't work except that the leftmost position turns the music off. Any position right of that will play midi at 100% volume.

Grendel,

you need to install D2 v1.5 and copy the D1 data there to have D2 behave properly with D1 levels.

Exactly what I did..

BUG - Bei Uns Geht's ...

No problems here. And the other guy above with the same problem solved it by installing v1.5 ...

Dang, I had fixed the links already, but must have overwritten the file with an older one later on. Fixed again.

in the current version .70 when i select start ipx game then the join screen comes up and vice versa...

keep up the fabulous work!!!

thanx

Diedel, I just DL'ed .70 and when i select start an ipx game, it brings up the join screen, and I can't see any of the games. Same way with Joining and IPX game, it brings up the screen to start one.

novacron,

don't play the game, make the textures for it!

I can't help myself, games are a lot more active now! HEHE

Don't worry

I just got .71 a couple of minutes ago, and everything is peachy except none of the textures in the game have working transparencies.

I have fixed the texture merging shader I had messed up again.

whenever I try to start a multiplayer game or a singleplayer game I can only choose between missions "Descent: First Strike" and "Descent 2: Counterstrike" although I do have a lot more single-/ multiplayer-missions installed. when I select "New Game" all missions are shown, though. This seems to be a problem of recent versions only, but I don't have an older version to check. BTW: I just installed the latest version of D2X-W32 (1.4.75).

I can start all missions I have (single and multi), and I have a lot in various subfolders of my missions dir. Please be more precise.

I have all my missions in the MISSIONS folder - no subfolders. When I select "New Game" from the main menu I can select every mission, but when I select "New Single Player Game" or try to start a new Multiplayer Game I can only choose between "Descent: First Strike" and "Descent 2: Counterstrike" although I have a lot more missions installed. The problem is, that it is not possible for me to start a Multiplayer Game with a level other than the original D1/2 Levels. It is not so much of a problem for me, since I rarely play multiplayer because I have a modem connection only and no friends that would like to play Descent in a LAN party. But I think if other people have the same problem, they could be annoyed.
Maybe I can take some screenshots of the menu when I'm home again after work, to show you what I mean.

This is strange because I can chose an arbitrary level for multiplayer games - I just tried it again to make sure it works before posting here.

But ... try to scroll the main menu down (it has grown, and some new entries are hidden below the screen). You can now check whether you want to have D1 or D2 or both types of missions displayed. If only D1 is checked, you might get the effect you experience. Just check D2 levels too then.

I DID check both options, otherwise it wouldn't display "Descent: First Strike" AND "Descent 2: Counterstrike", right? Don't get me wrong, I'm neither dumb nor pissed off and I understand that it's annoying for you to hear about a bug that you can't reproduce, but please understand that it's annoying for me, too, that I can't play Multiplayer Games. I changed absolutely nothing but the D2X-W32 version and it worked before. I've double-checked everything. The weird thing is that I can select all missions (about 20) when I choose "New Game" from the main menu. Only when I try to start a Multiplayer Game or select "New Single Player Game" my choice is limited to "Descent: First Strike" and "Descent 2: Counterstrike" I can't even select Vertigo or Warp Shockwave or KoolKave or Glasshouse.

Listen, I am simply trying to cover all possible reasons that come to my mind. You shouldn't start this "don't think I am stupid stuff" only because ppl want to help you. I am not annoyed btw - I don't suffer from the problem.

"New single player mission" only displays missions from a folder named "missions/single" - you should read the update notes. So no missions for you if you don't have such a folder.

Please post a screenshot of your mission list box when trying to chose a level for multiplayer.

I cannot help you further this way. All I can say is that it works for me.

Edit: I think I might know what has happened. You have first tried "New single player mission", and then tried to start a new multiplayer game. That doesn't work for me either (looks like the singleplayer only flag doesn't get reset).

Talk about being precise. (I hope you know what I am trying to say ).

OK, I just installed version 1.4.76 and while making screenshots I found out how to reproduce the bug, which is not so much of a problem anymore, now that I found out how it is produced.

When you select "New Single Player Game" it only displays the 2 original levelsets, which is ok now since you explained to me how this option is meant to be used (I have no subfolder called "single").
But when you try to start a multiplayer game right after you selected "New Single Player Game" (and pressed ESC to get out of the menu again, not starting a mission) the mission list is not updated and only shows your single player missions.
When I try to start a multiplayer game right after launching the program all missions are shown.

So everything should be fine now: you know how to reproduce the "bug" now and I know that it's not as severe as I thought it was and I can start multiplayer games.

Thanks for your patience with me and thanks for the great program you made. I hope that you understand what I experienced a little better now and reproduce it.

noticed the problem at the same time gg

I'm glad our misunderstanding is out of the world now

This bug will be fixed in the next few hours, ofc.

can you make it happen that D2:Vertigo will show up in the Single Player Games list or do I have to put it into the Single Player Games Folder? Do missions from the Single Player Games Folder show up in the Multiplayer Menu? (coz there are missions which are suitable for SP and MP)

I tried to download the file (d2x-w32.zip), but when I opened it I got an error message saying "missing 11 bytes in Zip file" and won't load.

same problem here

It could be that I uploaded the file as ASCII file which would have led to certain values being interpreted as cr/lf and being converted during transmission. In case of a binary file that will lead to file corruption. I have re-uploaded the zip file and made sure I chose 'binary'.

Cool, it's working for me now. Thanks!

Nice work! I can finally play D1/D2 on my newer computer...

I'm having some trouble with the controls though, but perhaps it might just be unique to my computer.

I use the right shift key for firing the primary weapon, and if I'm holding down the key for rapid firing of a weapon and using a directional key (the 4 rotation directions, 4 strafing directions), then release the directional key while holding down shift, Descent doesn't register that I've released it and will continue to move me in that direction. This is quite irksome as my ship is frequently getting locked into weird spins. Pressing and releasing the key that is locked will fix it, but it happens so frequently that it really is inhibiting the gameplay.


Here's another related issue: I use 4,8,6, and 2 on the number pad for strafing. If I'm holding down the shift key before I press the button, instead of acting like the number pad arrow, it will act as the other arrow keys on the keyboard. To compound this, like before, if I let up on the key before I finish firing, the direction will get stuck, only now I have to tap a different key than I was using to release it.

That is related to keyboard handling by the SDL (that's a free 3rd party code library doing all the hardware interface stuff), and I am afraid there is nothing I could do about it.

Yes, it's me again and I'm afraid in one of the recent versions of D2X-W32 the save system got screwed up. I just loaded a D1 L16 savegame, played through the level and when I wanted to save at the beginning of level 17, it said "unable to save, maybe your disk is full" and the savegame was DELETED! I'm sure my disk is not full (several GB free) and even if it was - that would be no reason to delete the file! I'm glad I have a backup of the savegame, so I only lost a level, but as we Germans say: Das hätte echt in's Auge gehn können. I hope I was precise enough this time and if you need any further information, I'd be glad to give them so you'll be able to fix the problem ASAP. I really hope you can get this working again soon and I really appreciate your excellent and hard work.
EDIT: I just tried it again to get the error message right and it worked!?! Could it be that it was just bad luck? If it's not asked to much, I would thank you if you'd investigate the issue nevertheless, just to be sur everything is alright. Thank you

I have changed the save game format - backwards compatibility should've been preserved, but you never know ... ... I'll look into this.

It happened again and the error message is

Error writing savegame.
Possibly out of disk space.

it seems like restarting D2X-W32 helps, though.
When it first happened I restarted the program and I could play normally; now after rebooting the PC the problem shows again.
EDIT: Nope, restarting D2X-W32 doesn't help. I think it's because I saved in a new slot. So overwriting old savegames doesn't work, but loading old savegames works. Loading new savegames works, too.

Another issue, this time it's the Automap:

See all these fragments? I just started the level and discovered nothing but the room you start in.
But this only happens with old savegames.

Fixed.

Zip file has an "unexpected end of archive."

Just uploaded it again.

Diedel, I have come to a conclusion. Once I finish the textures, you need to ditch the sprites and put in a particle system. Period. Ok? hehe jk

But seriously, you should... some day.

Nova,

seriously: I had thinking about that. I'd just need somebody who'd put my behind in the know about this a little ... and maybe tell me something more about shader programs, or gimme a few good links.