DescentBB

Monsterball game mode in D2X-XL

D2X-XL v1.7 (coming soon) will offer a Monsterball game mode similar to the one found in Descent 3.

The level used must be flag enabled (i.e. contain team goals for both teams).

If the level initially contains a monsterball, it will respawn in the center of its original cube when a team has scored. Otherwise it will be spawned randomly in the level when the game starts, and will spawn randomly after scoring. First method is preferrable, imho, for game balance reasons (can theoretically random spawn close to a team goal, which would give the other team an unfair advantage. In the long run, this would be statistically evenly distributed, but it would still cause people to complain and take some of the fun out of the game).

There is a small limitation insofar as hitting the ball at any angle will always push it straight away from the player pushing or firing at it. This is rooted deep, deep in the D2 engine and very hard to change.

Weapon and ship impact forces can be modified in a new dialog accessible via the multiplayer options dialog.

DLE-XP allowing to place monsterball objects will be available soon.

OpenGL style real time lighting added

D2X-XL v1.8 now offers improved real time lighting using the same algorithms OpenGL uses. The lighting is entirely software driven. This was forced by the great number of static lights that are typically around in Descent levels, not to speak of dynamic lights (weapons etc.).

Other benefits of the new lighting method are improved object lighting and a decent headlight that now acts like a spotlight. It has a pretty wide cone, but still only lights the area ahead of the ship.

This lighting method will also give you full colored lighting in every Descent level (also the legacy ones). Descent 1 levels haven't been tested yet, so if you find flaws please report them in the D2X-XL bug tracker on SourceForge.net.

Since the lighting is entirely computed by the CPU, it can cause quite a performance hit; particulary with hires models due to their great number of visible faces. The code is heavily optimized to minimize computing overhead though. If that is not enough, you can turn off real-time hires model lighting. If you chose to do so, D2X-XL will apply simplified lighting to hires objects based on the average light at the objects' location.

During level load, for each segment (cube) of the mine D2X-XL determines the lights closest to that segment. To further improve performance, you can decrease the number of lights D2X-XL takes into account for each segment of the level. With 8 lights or less, you may notice lighting flaws. With 12 lights or up everything should look alright.

You can enable and adjust improved real-time lighting in the render options menu. Ambient and weapon light options there will work with the new lighting method.

Ooooo... pretty...

Seriously, the new feature is freakin' sweet!

WOW!!! Man Im with Chaos
Looks Great!!! Diedel

Thx.

'Darkness' Multiplayer Mod

D2X-XL v1.8.3 adds a 'darkness' modifier to multiplayer games. If enabled, all static lights (lamps etc.) in a level are turned off, and the players have to rely on headlights, flares, weapon light, markers and their hearing.

Please note that this only works with the new real-time lighting enabled.

Should give a new twist to the old game modes.

Target and damage indicators

D2X-XL v1.8.13 and up now offers target and damage indicators in various flavors. As a picture says more than a thousand words, I let these speak for themselves (click on images for bigger versions):

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Target and damage indicators can be enabled separately. The triangular target indicator has the damage indicator integrated.

Ofc this is all server controlled in multiplayer games and not available if the server does not use D2X-XL.

Like it?

LOVE IT!

Nice work Diedel.

Thanks.

Just adding a few more options.

Flag towing and more

D2X-XL now offers flag towing for CTF games: A player who has captured a flag tows it behind his/her ship:



(This is a shot from the working code, the finalized version looks a bit better).


There is now a wider range of target/damage indicator options, allowing you to turn off indicators for cloaked objects or players of the other team in team games.


For darkmatch games, you can now turn off light emission of powerups and adjust the headlight cone.

'Darkness' expanded

Darkness games can now be played with standard lighting enabled.

Worklog And Mega Update

I have fixed a plethora of bugs in the newest D2X-XL update (v1.8.16).

Check out my new worklog (access via link in news column or D2X-XL area's sidemenu).

Thanks, Diedel. I'd give you a mess of thumbs-ups, but that emoticon isn't avaliable.

Looks good Diedel!

Nice work.

Awesome! The smoke actually looks like smoke.

Chaos Death Saurer wrote:Awesome! The smoke actually looks like smoke.

Are you talking about v1.8.16 or v1.8.17/18?

Because 1.8.17 improves smoke appearance again ...



I am pretty satisfied with it now.

1.8.17/8

WOW!

Way to cool!

Good to see the animated smoke I made look its best!
Wouldn't have happend without you Diedel.

You rock.

It wouldn't look 1/10 as good w/o your smoke cloud animation.