DescentBB

Redboy, MD,

It will cost Fraps still quite some computing power to scale the grabbed frames down. You may want to run Descent in 640x480 while frame grabbing with Fraps.

Testi,

actually it can make sense if the demo recording continues. You can terminate it manually, can't you?

It doesn't for me. I've had no trouble capturing videos of Flatout and Flatout 2 (both of which have system requirements FAR higher than any of the descent games put together) with my resolution set to 1280x1024. Maybe its something on your system you haven't set up right. I don't loose a single frame while recording fraps (I record to a different hard drive, which is on my SATA2 bus). I've had no trouble at all running fraps with Rebirth or d2x-w32 (no, I haven't touched XL).

MD-2389 wrote:(no, I haven't touched XL)

What do you think XL is? It's just the continuation of W32. You know, I started it as D2X-W32, and renamed it to D2X-XL later. And know what else? Mouselook was already present in D2X-W32.

That makes you look real smart now, doesn't it?

Diedel wrote:What do you think XL is? It's just the continuation of W32. You know, I started it as D2X-W32, and renamed it to D2X-XL later. And know what else? Mouselook was already present in D2X-W32.

That makes you look real smart now, doesn't it?

Actually, the build I had (note: had) was prior to that little addition. It was a really old version that Vinyl modified specifically for kali. That particilar version was released a good six months prior to a certain mouselook thread. How does the egg taste now?

Do you think I added mouselook only at the time of that thread?

Mouselook had been in D2X-W32 almost from my beginning its development.

/me walks off, shaking my head at the sight of someone trying to explain D2X-W32/XL to me ...

Why is XL and its glorious mouselook being discussed in this thread?



And to not derail the thread, I'll save it...

Zico: My wish is for you to keep working on DXX. You've contributed so much time and effort into this thing it's outstanding. Keep going!

Diedel wrote:Testi,

actually it can make sense if the demo recording continues. You can terminate it manually, can't you?

With 20 shields, 3 seconds to evacuate and 5 bots up my arse? No..not really!

I definetly consider now to add some other recording options in the DEMO system... That's really not ugly nor much useless stuff... however this code needs a lot of real work however.

@Sniper
Thank you for this words. At least I can say, I won't stop to work on it
Makes as much fun as playing it.

hey Zico Man DXX-Rebirth is so addictive man I'm hooked to it allready

it really has more feel for freedom as it runs great on my 8 year old Dual P3 1Ghz system hehe, I can help you with 3dfx support since I have many friends from my 3dfx sectors which are willing to run it as well

D1X-REBIRTH:


D2X-REBIRTH:


to support the DXX-Rebirth project is my main objective.

I'm pretty sure none of the D*x projects support Glide. Chiefly because there's no reason to any more...

Sirius wrote:I'm pretty sure none of the D*x projects support Glide. Chiefly because there's no reason to any more...

heh well our 3dfx cards do have OpenGL as MesaFX support as the FSAA on 3dfx cards is godlike for retro based games, I am very sure that it will be possible as I'll be testing it just in a few minutes from now and I will be gladly to post results, the 3dfx community exceeds past the 12000 users, so for my part 3dfx support is important

At the moment it's no big deal to provide Support for at least OpenGL 1.1. However I am not sure how long I can keep this since OpenGL 3.0 will also introduce some API changes. I always try to keep the game compatible and also those API changes are not too serious but I can't tell for any time of the future here.

Zico, just wanted to say thanks for D2x. I'm loving playing D2 single again.

DXX is nothing without the ppl playing it. You're welcome.

zico wrote:At the moment it's no big deal to provide Support for at least OpenGL 1.1. However I am not sure how long I can keep this since OpenGL 3.0 will also introduce some API changes. I always try to keep the game compatible and also those API changes are not too serious but I can't tell for any time of the future here.

hmm OpenGL 2.1 is the latest build for ai know of, will OpenGL 3.0 be backwards complaint with 2.xx as 1.xx?

for the Voodoo5 , heh it didn't run yet though I'll see what I can tinker around with

OpenGL 3.0 is still a bit ahead but I read about some API changes - but I do not know about compability issues. I think the time will reveal what may happen then.

hmm maybe an easter super level or an easter pack DXX Rebirth with easter decorated robots or so just a funny idea I had in mind

the desktop MetalBeast made has a nice example hehe.

well for the game it's self maybe some more reflections on water & lava surfaces, so you'd see a soft reflection of the Pyro-GX as the robots or is this too hard to implent?

descent does not support shaders, to my knowledge.

I wouldn't thing so as it was developed long before genuine 3D was any kinda standard. Most games were still using sprites.

No, definitely not. The fanciest stuff in the Descent engine is the dynamic cube lighting seen from weapon shots.

Using shader programs in Descent 1/2 is possible, but not with the Rebirth code base.

A better approach would be to add an entirely new renderer as well as a modern physics and networking library. Again, you'd need a better code base than Rebirth though.

Sure - you can also implement a whole 3D engine into a text-processing program. The question is if it's the right approach - like Diedel said a new engine would probably be a better choice for that fancy effects.

On the other side I still think effects like reflections look totally out of place in an old game like Descent.

zico wrote:Sure - you can also implement a whole 3D engine into a text-processing program. The question is if it's the right approach - like Diedel said a new engine would probably be a better choice for that fancy effects.

On the other side I still think effects like reflections look totally out of place in an old game like Descent.

yeaps I totally agree btw Zico your slogan @ DXX-REBIRTH in your sig says exactly the right thing

"You can take that game engine out of 1994, but you can't take the 1994 out of the engine."

adding reflections as other new gen based effects would make Descent 1 & 2 alot less original, that we have OpenGL rendering does clean up the pixels alot, though still has the good old feel.

Mouse support for single player is very smooth, though mouse player for multiplayer should be implented also but that's just my opinion there bud

Diedel wrote:Using shader programs in Descent 1/2 is possible, but not with the Rebirth code base.

A better approach would be to add an entirely new renderer as well as a modern physics and networking library. Again, you'd need a better code base than Rebirth though.

Well, that is something that would be cool to see. @Diedel-Would you be able to implement that in D2X-XL then? Maybe even customizable shaders? that would be the next step towards realistic-ness. I don't need an old time gameplay type thing, even though it can be quite a blast at times.

uhh?

Floyd wrote:
uhh?

maybe that would've been better...

zico wrote:Sure - you can also implement a whole 3D engine into a text-processing program. The question is if it's the right approach - like Diedel said a new engine would probably be a better choice for that fancy effects.

On the other side I still think effects like reflections look totally out of place in an old game like Descent.

I think that depends on what makes Descent being Descent for you.

For some it's the looks - those will prefer Rebirth, for some it's rather the gameplay - those will probably be happy with XL. Personally I'd love to see Descent 2 with modern gfx, like parallax mapping, per pixel lighting, proper shadow casting, environment mapping, and I believe if applied properly and decently that would still convey D2's atmosphere very well.

D2X-XL is ready for addition of a modern renderer, physics engine and networking code, and that's what I will try during the next months. It will be done in a way that you can still play every legacy Descent 1/2 level, or create new levels with state of the art level editors.

Well, I hope I am not straying too far from this thread's topic - maybe a mod wants to split it?

Unnerf the level 7 boss. He's beyond easy now. Put it back to the definitive edition boss. That was actually difficult. Or at least fun.

I don't think D1X-Rebirth would actually have changed the level 7 boss. Perhaps you're just a better pilot than you used to be?

Lvl 7 Boss was never really that hard as long as you had all the other bots destroyed. *shrug* Like I posted, head on over to the Dxx site and ask Zico.

Sirius wrote:I don't think D1X-Rebirth would actually have changed the level 7 boss. Perhaps you're just a better pilot than you used to be?

I'm running D1X on an xp machine, and the original game on a '98 machine. I tested both within a few days-I didn't get THAT much better THAT fast.

Maybe add the robot counter and the powerup counter like they are in DXX-XL? On the other hand, no. Those give essential information for completionists. And they should acquire that information by themselves

Sorry for the bump, but...

Interplay turned the difficulty of the level 7 boss down in the first patch, I've heard. This is because players kept complaining it was too hard. I believe you could download a save game at the beginning of level 8 from their website as well.

The relevant page to use in the Wayback Machine is:

http://www.interplay.com/descent/descent.html

There is a section toward the bottom titled \"Having trouble with Level 7?\". The savegame is still downloadable.

hmm. link didn't work for me. iirc, that boss was Bugged and couldn't be taken down. ... or was that the demo...

I managed to kill it in the demo... using the invulnerability cheat. It took about 20 minutes of shooting to bring him down (on Trainee!)

Hey, that sounds like it'd be fun to try killing without cheats now.

I have a proposal for a tweak in D2X-Rebirth. If you can, please add a command line called -d1fusion. If typed in an .ini file, it would double the power of the fusion cannon in Descent 2 (bringing it to its power from Descent 1).

This way it would be possible to arbitrarily switch the Fusion power to its D1 value. I suggested a command instead of a slider, as using a slider would just be too tempting (playing regular D2 with stronger Fusion CAN be considered cheating). The reason I'm asking is that I started a new mission set for Descent 2, where you are stuck with only D1 weapons for quite a few levels, having Fusion at its rightful power is therefore a necessity. I hope this issue gets addressed in the next release

lol!

The Fusion damage in D2 is not set by anything in the game source code, it is part of the game data files. DXX can't change them without using a horrible hard coded override hack.