DescentBB

A few issues with 1.6.7:



The first thing is the black outline around the powerups in this shot. This outline also appears on secret doors.

The second thing is that, if you look at the right cockpit window, the automap is not filling out as I explore the level, and the arrow on the dot representing my ship is gone.

The cloaking effect, however, looks very nice.

I too notice the bug in the 3D map mode: I see only the green dots for the prisoners!

I also notice some performance hits with this version - i.e more stutters when using hi-res textures. Some textures are missing or don't look right.

There is one level in D1 (I'm trying to remember which level) upon which I enter the very first door, the game becomes a slide show! But at the time I was using version 1.6.6 with hi- res textures on.

Yogi

Another bug. It appears the robots become distorted during their regeneration animation (when they \"grow\" arms, cannons, etc).

What the heck ??

Map not showing mine walls or enemy robots...

I move my Pyro no more than a couple inches and...

Presto! Lots of walls and bots.

But... When entering the Blue room... Map didn't show ANYTHING. No walls, no robots, no powerups, etc. Same effect while in the Red room. The portion shown in the second pic is all of the walls the Map ever showed for that level.

Also... while in the \"center\" (room where both Blue door and Red door can be seen)... robots emerging from generators would often have brief wall artifacts from some of their points. I tried to get screen shots of it but didn't succeed.

Otherwise... the entire Vertigo campaign was also problem free while using D2X-XL. Excellant work!

EDIT: Went back to ver 1.6.6 and it worked great! No artifacts, no missing walls, etc. I'd forgotten just how tough that level's Boss really is.

Listen guys, do you all want me to read your minds to find out in what mission/level/area exactly the problems appeared? Give me savegames!

Level 2, in the room with the Red Key.



In this, one newly-spawned PEST is \"clinging\" to the other.



Another newly-spawned PEST, this time going to a wall.

This apparently happens to PESTs, Diamond Claws, and ITD Droids (that I've seen so far).
Correction: I've experimented with this, it happens to all robots.

A savegame will be in your inbox shortly.

EDIT: Oh, yeah, and there's that weird black outline around the open secret door. This appears to only happen to 2D textures and objects (such as doors, grates, powerups, etc).

This looks like I have forgotten to disable some shadow rendering code in 1.6.7/8 ...

I don't have any of these effects in 1.6.8 and up though, including the inability to see parts of the mine below cube 901 when in a cube above 900 in the automap.

I'm seeing the kind of stuff RoBot is seeing.

I found I could easily duplicate it if I entered a saved game of \"Konflikt At Karon\" (by Kruel), exited that game and then entered my saved game at D2 Vertigo Level 20. The effect is most noticable when I'm at the Blue and Red doors.

Saved game at Karon

Saved game at Vertigo Level 20

But...
With version 1.6.9... I didn't have to start any other game first. The problem showed right away.

Also... lighting seems \"odd\". Some overlays and edges seem extra bright and not dimmed like the rest of the textures around them. Example: A bot generator in the \"inactive\" state. Note the bright edges normally match the rest of the generator when inactive.

Robot shape and brightness bugs fixed, but I still cannot reproduce the automap bugs.

Diedel wrote:Listen guys, do you all want me to read your minds to find out in what mission/level/area exactly the problems appeared? Give me savegames!

OK, I found the D1 level that becomes a slide show when entering the first door. Level 16 with hi-res. Using 1.6.9 and hi-res textures has the same effect.

The automap sometimes works but at certain points in the level, the map goes back to blank (except the prisoners are shown -nothing else). I also note 3 things when viewing the automap and using 1.6.9:
1) my ship, shown as a purple oval, used to have an orientation pointer attached to it. It now does not.
2) a thin, long purple line is shown in my automap. Not sure what it is (maybe that's my ship pointer?) This also occurred in 1.6.6.
3) zoom seems to have increased. Press the arrow key once and the map zooms rapidly with less precision.

Sorry I can't provide a savegame, but I can e-mail it - what's your address, Diedel?

EDIT: More details. My saved D1 level 16 will show the mine in automap except the mine beyond the red door. I was using an older version of D2XL before I entered the red door. I then saved level 16. Next, I upgraded to the latest D2XL and played level 16. This time, the automap works intermittently. Once I enter the red door, the automap goes blank as stated above!

Yogi

http://www.planetdescent.com/asp/profil ... 14&alpha=K

That's where I got it.

Hi, first post here. I thought I would mention a few bugs concerning the D1 level support.

A few gameplay mechanics with the bosses were changed from D1 to D2, but it looks like D2X-XL is going by the D2 boss behavior in the D1 levels. The most noticeable difference is that in D1 the bosses teleport around a lot more frequently. In D1, if you start firing on a boss (or sometimes even if he just sees you), he starts his teleport sequence after only one or two seconds at the most. In D2 the bosses stick around much longer, usually at least 8-10 seconds. Their exact behavior is somewhat hard to describe, but if you try fighting the bosses in both games, there are obvious differences. I recently played through all the D1 First Strike levels through D2X-XL and noticed that the bosses were much easier than what I remember, since they teleported very rarely.

The other thing is that in D1, the additional robots the level 27 boss spawns could appear anywhere in the boss room, while in D2 they can only come out of the boss directly (and I think only when the boss is taking fire, although I may be wrong about that).

Also, it seems the collision detection works a bit differently in D2X-XL, at least from what it was like in D1. There was a user-made level called Gamefreak's Realm that came with the \"Levels of the world\" addon for D1, which had a yellow key wedged into a small enclave between a couple of invisible walls. In D1 (and D1 3dfx), your ship could just barely fit through the walls far enough to pick up the key, but in D2X-XL it's impossible to get the key. I'm not sure if this level is still available anywhere, but can upload it somewhere if you want.

Hi CP5670,

so you got your registration here finally sorted out.

I am afraid I will not be able to do anything about Boss behaviour, because the AI stuff is a lot of code, and I cannot just put the D1 code into D2 - I might get tons of side effects, and I would have to synchronize with the D2 data, and there are a few differences in the data I'd need to figure how to take care of, and and and. Too much work.

It could be that the ship size (smallest enclosing sphere) is slightly bigger in D2 than in D1.

Send the level to karx11erx at hotmail dot com.

Yogi, save game to same address please.

I've been trying to remember to mention this and keep forgetting....

At the end of each and every individual mission the Descent 2: Counterstrike! ending video plays. If I'm playing a set of missions, it only plays when I finish the set. Haven't tried any Descent 1 missions except the First Strike! set and it didn't do it with that.

OK, so I'm a sucker for the videos. I like seeing them and I have them turned on.

Still... it seems really out of place for anything except the Counterstrike! set.

You know ... this is the end of the world as we know it.

D2X-XL isn't handling semi-transparent walls and objects anymore; now they're just straight black until they are either fully cloaked or visible. This is especially noticeable in Korporal, in the observation tunnels.

I'll try and get some screens.

1.6.11:
The base textures are lit only by dynamic lights, overlay (second) textures are lit normally.

The lights are pretty dark too - i had to use like 20 flares to actually see the base textures.



-Radeon 9700 pro,WinXp,official drivers(relatively new)
+all light related d2x options turned on

I've noticed the levels were a bit darker, too.

I have the same problem.

Also, enable the cambot in entropy (although seeing my cockpit on a wall is pretty cool )

And why is the virus blue?

The last secondary weapon box always has a yellow border and the one next to it can't, (see peterix's pic) but after I got 1.6.11, it crashes when I try to turn them on.

And how do you get the hires textures to work?

Afterburner won't work when assigned to left shift.

When on top, the black accessory boxes block the messages

I will upload v1.6.12 shortly, try that one. Btw, the mine looks much better so dark, imo.

Great, now when you try to set the brightness, the brightness bar moves one space, waits a second, then moves back.

I checked, the afterburner's second mapping doesn't do anything

Bugs in version 1.6.12:

Some lights in levels with colored lights are screwed up. Orange lights seems purplish, green ones looks cyan. The entrance in Glass House now is iluminated with blue and purple lights! Very strange.

Here, a screenshot of D2 Level 1 with colored lighting by D3Hack.



Where it should be orange light (by the lava), it is now purple.



Also, when moving the ship with thruster flames enabled, the light flickers. And specially when i'm going backwards, the level light darkens a bit, and when going forward, it's more lighted than it should, IMO. Don't know if it's intented to function
that way.

1.6.12
* static level lights and hires textures seem OK... i don't get any strange colors
* walls show almost no reaction to dynamic lights ( like flares, lasers and stuff ). I could only see the yellow flare flickering.
* i get a nasty crash 5 seconds after starting a new game...

Fatal signal: Segmentation Fault (SDL Parachute Deployed)

looks like you're changing a lot of things

Multiplayer doesn't even work.
How can I get 1.6.11 again?
(I bet you're feeling depressed now )

v1.6.12

Like Peterix, I also get:
* static level lights and hires textures seem OK... i don't get any strange colors
* walls show almost no reaction to dynamic lights ( like flares, lasers and stuff ). I could only see the yellow flare flickering.
* i get a nasty crash 5 seconds after starting a new game...

Also: when entering render menu in basic mode, the mine darkens, the slider cannot be adjusted as reported earlier and the automap shows no walls. Note that the auto map DID work before entering Render menu.

If expert mode is switched on, then any attempt to enter the render menu will cause a total crash to desktop.

Before entering render mode, the headlight has no effect and after entering render mode, the headlight actually darkens objects rather than illuminating them

Must be depressing and frustrating

Thankyou so much once again for all your work and effort. The addition of Hi-res (capability) and smoke, to me, has been an excellent addition to the game as well as the general upgrade to windows etc and I would not be disappointed at all if you hung up your hat and said \"enough\"

Three Cheers for Diedel!!!!!

Tim,

I can make 1.6.11 available for you to download.

Click here.

Diedel wrote:Hi CP5670,

so you got your registration here finally sorted out.

I am afraid I will not be able to do anything about Boss behaviour, because the AI stuff is a lot of code, and I cannot just put the D1 code into D2 - I might get tons of side effects, and I would have to synchronize with the D2 data, and there are a few differences in the data I'd need to figure how to take care of, and and and. Too much work.

It could be that the ship size (smallest enclosing sphere) is slightly bigger in D2 than in D1.

Send the level to karx11erx at hotmail dot com.

Yogi, save game to same address please.

That's fine, it isn't exactly a major issue anyway. Just thought it was worth bringing up in case you weren't aware of it.

Here is that level I referred to:
http:/home.comcast.net/~cp5670/gfrealm.zip

These are all minor issues. What really frustrated me is that I couldn't get shadowing to work.

Update: The lightmaps cause all kinds of problems. I recommend not to use them. The entire thing is a hack, and I don't like it. If you want to play D2:CS with colored lighting, use D3Hack's fabulous conversion.

Well, my internet connection is back in service. I have not updated to D2XL1.6.12 yet, but will give it a try soon. I am using 1.5.178 as it performs stable for me. I have been wondering about this for a while. When will D2XL become gold (i.e. locked features, all major bugs fixed, no new bugs introduced, etc)? Just curious.

BTW, Diedel, I recently sent you my D1 level 16 (I hope it was the correct file).

Cheers,
Yogi

D2X-XL is not in a beta status (or do you see a 0.x.y version number?). It's under constant development, I am trying to improve performance, fix bugs, add new features as I see fit, and always make all that available to the public as quickly as possible.

v1.6.13 will be available soon, btw.

You will probably need to adjust the contrast once in expert mode to resolve any lighting-related rendering issues.

1.6.13 still crashing...
reverting to 1.6.6 - that's the last version that worked for me without problems

Peterix,

does this happen with

• Lightmaps on or off?
• -gl_alttexmerge specified or not?
• Using hires textures or not?
• Using hires Pyro or not?
• Using SDL_mixer or not?
• Music turned on or off?

Please run D2X-XL using the -printlog switch and post the resulting d2x.log here (it should appear in the main Descent 2 folder).

I understand now, the new contrast option screws up colored lighting, it doesn't matter how much is set.

Here i have example screenshots of the bug in 1.6.14 (without lightmaps):

Here, level 1 with colored lights by D3Hack, contrast set to LOW, shooting a red laser (and it casts cyanish light):



And here, Glass House with contrast set to STANDARD:



LOW,STANDARD or HIGH contrast, it doesn't matter, it screws up levels with colored lighting.

Diedel,

I was working on my anarchy level (more info here), and I put in two doors. When I went to test them, after a couple times, the door clips stopped animating. I hear the sound of them opening, but the doors stayed closed. I tried this in other levels, but it appears to only happen in mine. If you want, I could send you my level, see what you think might be causing this.

And feel free to PM some feedback while you're at it.

1.6.14

Diedel,

Still getting bugs as listed for 1.6.12 as listed below:

when entering render menu in basic mode, the mine darkens to slider setting value. Both a new game and a savegame start and play much brighter until entering edit mode.

If expert mode is switched on, then any attempt to enter the render menu will cause a total crash to desktop.

Before entering render mode, the headlight has no effect and after entering render mode, the headlight actually darkens objects rather than illuminating them

Vertigo Level 1 first doors, doors open but show wall background in opening (can't post a pikki as screenshot doesn't seem to work either, but that may be me).

here is the beginning of my log file

Loading program arguments
E:\\GAMES\\Descent2\\d2x-xl.exe
-fullscreen
-grabmouse
-sound22k
-nocdrom
-render_quality 3
-gl_alttexmerge
-playermessages
-noredundancy
-nomovies 1
-gl_reticle 0
-shortpackets
-pps 10
-player albie
-1024x768
-fastmenus 1
-menustyle 1
-render2texture 1
-sdl_mixer 0
-use_d1sounds 1
-altbg_name menubg.tga
-altbg_brightness 0.75
-altbg_alpha -1.0
-altbg_grayscale 0
-hires_textures 1
-point_sprites
-vertex_arrays
-hires_models 1
-printlog
GetAppFolder ('E:\\GAMES\\Descent2', '', 'data', 'descent2.hog')
GetAppFolder (data) = 'E:\\GAMES\\Descent2/data' (0)
expected game app folder = 'E:\\GAMES\\Descent2'
expected game data folder = 'E:\\GAMES\\Descent2/data'
GetAppFolder ('E:\\GAMES\\Descent2', 'E:\\GAMES\\Descent2/models', 'models', '*.oof')
GetAppFolder (models) = 'E:\\GAMES\\Descent2/models' (0)
GetAppFolder ('E:\\GAMES\\Descent2', 'E:\\GAMES\\Descent2/textures', 'textures', '*.tga')
GetAppFolder (textures) = 'E:\\GAMES\\Descent2/textures' (0)
GetAppFolder ('E:\\GAMES\\Descent2', 'E:\\GAMES\\Descent2/profiles', 'profiles', '')
GetAppFolder (profiles) = 'E:\\GAMES\\Descent2/profiles' (0)
GetAppFolder ('E:\\GAMES\\Descent2', 'E:\\GAMES\\Descent2/movies', 'movies', '*.mvl')
GetAppFolder (movies) = 'E:\\GAMES\\Descent2/movies' (0)
GetAppFolder ('E:\\GAMES\\Descent2', 'E:\\GAMES\\Descent2/savegames', 'savegames', '')
GetAppFolder (savegames) = 'E:\\GAMES\\Descent2/savegames' (0)
GetAppFolder ('E:\\GAMES\\Descent2', 'E:\\GAMES\\Descent2/screenshots', 'screenshots', '')
GetAppFolder (screenshots) = 'E:\\GAMES\\Descent2/screenshots' (0)
GetAppFolder ('E:\\GAMES\\Descent2', 'E:\\GAMES\\Descent2/demos', 'demos', '')
GetAppFolder (demos) = 'E:\\GAMES\\Descent2/demos' (0)
GetAppFolder ('E:\\GAMES\\Descent2', 'E:\\GAMES\\Descent2', 'config', '*.cfg')
GetAppFolder (config) = 'E:\\GAMES\\Descent2' (1)
Creating default tracker list
Loading main hog file
Loading text resources
File 'descent.tex' not found
Loading hires models
Loading ban list
File 'banlist.txt' not found
Initializing i/o
Reading configuration file
File 'descentw.cfg' not found
Initializing control types
Initializing joystick
Initializing graphics
Shaders are available
Rendering to texture is available
building lightmap shader programs
building texturing shader programs
Initializing render buffers
Loading default palette
Initializing game fonts
Initializing movies
Initializing sound
Loading hoard data
File 'intro.tex' not found
Initializing texture merge buffer
Setting screen mode

A full log listing can be found here http://members.ozemail.com.au/~abelcher/d2x.log

Robot,

please send level.

Weyrman,

please send your pilot profile (xxx.plr).

Pumo,

the miscoloring has another reason.

I've got the same problem - you cannot see through opened doors and walls, because there is wall texture instead of transparent.

I've noticed that this problem occurs only when you use a player file (.plr) created with an older version of D2X-XL. When you use the default.plr player file, everything is OK.

This problem occurs in all versions from 1.6.7 to 1.6.14.

Ok,

with lightmaps:
dynamic lights have no visible effect
crash after 1-5 seconds ( may depend on number of dynamic lights - like when i shoot a flare and it crashes )

without lightmaps:
colored lights look funny ( like in Pumo's screenshots )

Log

I seem to be having some issues with accelerating, decelerating along with sliding. When ever press the button to go, the ship seems to take longer to speed up than normal. This is driving me nuts.

I looked around here in the forums only to find a thread about the orb 360 having slow response times, but nothing about just normal keyboard usage response. I am curious to know if maybe this is a bug. It has been present since the last version i have tried which was 1.6.7. Now I'm using 1.6.14.

Anyone else having this problem?

Thanks,

DW

Turn off keyboard ramping.