DescentBB

DROOOOOL!

Having replacement textures in a D2 sub folder and being accessed by their names would be very easy to be done. So if you're willing to create high res textures for D2X-W32, I'd gladly add that.

It would be really nice if you wouldn't just make high res, high color 1:1 replacements of the original textures, but probably provide equivalent, but better ones (many of the rock textures e.g. aren't that great imho).

Those high res textures are somethin else. Diedel, you have it right with that DROOOOOL! comment. Seeing those reminded me somewhat about another project for upgrading the graphics and whatnot in D2 that I've been following for a good long time. Its at http://www.planetdescent.com/descent32/ and most of you are probably aware of it. The main page has not been updated in ages, but the guy who was going to do the textures, DMEnduro, is still active it seems - his last post in the forums there was during this month. Doesn't appear to be an email for him. I'd hate to pull him away from that project if its still alive but perhaps he'd be willing to help out with making a high res texture pack for d2x-w32. The samples of his work on the site seem to be pretty sweet to me.

Arayenya / Matrix

Aight here's a little something I've noticed with certain doors when playing descent 1 levels. Before they are oppened they don't seem to have the right texture graphics at all. Once they have been oppened then they show up just fine. Here's a couple links to screenshots I took of the same door. One before oppening it, and one after. The level is level 10 of the descent 1 single player missions, though this problem is not exclusive to that level by any means.

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y111/a ... Before.jpg
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y111/a ... /After.jpg

I'm guessing it has something to do with the texture replacement that d2x-w32 uses? It doesn't affect the playability at all, but visually it is a teensy bit annoying. Anyways... that's my 2 cents for today. Keep up the awesome work

Arayena / Matrix

Diedel wrote:So if you're willing to create high res textures for D2X-W32, I'd gladly add that.

There's no way in hell I'll be able to do them all by myself - but as I said, as a community effort, it's far from impossible. I wouldn't have much of a problem redoing textures either way

It would be really nice if you wouldn't just make high res, high color 1:1 replacements of the original textures, but probably provide equivalent, but better ones (many of the rock textures e.g. aren't that great imho).

Yeah, there's some artistic freedom involved 'fcourse, as with the System Shock 2 stuff for example (the slot machine). Keep the vibe, but try to improve on things where possible.

Another time-saving fact is that many textures are the same just with different colours or slight changes - take a look at the metl0* wall textures, for example. They're mostly the same base texture (metl016) with different depressions and signs etc.

Imo Descent32 is as dead as nails - but as I wrote before, you can use true color TGA images up to 1024x1024 pixels in size as custom textures when building D2X-W32 levels with DLE-XP. I have already added two to my latest level Glass House.

Diedel wrote:Imo Descent32 is as dead as nails - but as I wrote before, you can use true color TGA images up to 1024x1024 pixels in size as custom textures when building D2X-W32 levels with DLE-XP. I have already added two to my latest level Glass House.

I have to agree. I've watched that site for over 2 years and they haven't updated in over a year now. :\ Too bad too. It sounded like they had some good stuff.

Other then a complete engine/graphics overhaul, Diedel has done much more in just months then they've done in several years. That says a lot IMO.

jehu wrote:Diedel, something broke/changed between 1.4.6 and 1.4.9 with keyboard control ... now, all keyboard axis controls act like cruise is on (which isn't btw) - a tap on left sets continuous left motion until countered with a tap on right = much harder to keep baddies in cross-hairs!

Ditto -- makes it impossible to play for me

Tyranny wrote:Other then a complete engine/graphics overhaul, Diedel has done much more in just months then they've done in several years. That says a lot IMO.

X2 100% dude! No complaints here. It just seems to be something that pleagues Descent. folks have some great ideas and high asperations but it seldom goes beyond that.

Grendel, jehu,

I'll check that tonight.

A little off the current topic, but the latest version(s) (canâ??t exactly say when it started) crash on my Windows ME system when any screen resolution in the â??modes w/o cockpitâ?

Dennis,

Try to select 640x480 screen res and turn off the cockpit view. Then try to switch to another res and let me know whether that helped.

Grendel, jehu,

no such problem here - which means that even if they exist and (sometimes) surface, I cannot fix them. Sorry. Maybe it will occur on one of my systems, in which case I will be able to track it down.

Arayenya,

omg. I hate bugs like that one. Actually this looks like the wall the door sits in has a texture that is different from the door texture. This is feasible and means that the door will only get visible when first activated (because then the textures from the door opening clip will replace the walls basic texture). Can you find out which side of which cube in that level this doors sits in and let me know?

Major control bug in multiplayer 1.4.9- all the contols are opposite in multiplayer on Kali when someone else hosts- single player is fine. I did not get a chance to host a game myself. Both keyboard and joystick are affected. I went in to the controls menu and everything was set correctly, but I reset all the controls anyway, and did not fix. I have a Sidewinder 3d pro and PS/2 keyboard

Well ... have created new players, and fiddled with in-game options and .ini settings all to no avail. Turned off all XP "Accessibility Options" (anybody have this icon as a startup splash screen?) - no diff.

A directory listing (with file md5's) of functional minimal installation (including original game files) would be a good touchstone for tracking down gremlins like this ...

Anybody have an archive copy of 1.4.6, 1.4.7, and 1.4.8? If so, I could report exactly which version caused the change ...

Diedel wrote:Grendel, jehu,
no such problem here - which means that even if they exist and (sometimes) surface, I cannot fix them. Sorry. Maybe it will occur on one of my systems, in which case I will be able to track it down.

Diedel... I'm having same prob. MP or SP, I only have to just touch the keyboard once (slide L,R,U,D move forward or back) and ship just glides a fair distance. More then normal. Its kinda like skating in a way. So something has changed since v1.4.6. I have demo to show you if it will help?

Diedel wrote:Arayenya,

omg. I hate bugs like that one. Actually this looks like the wall the door sits in has a texture that is different from the door texture. This is feasible and means that the door will only get visible when first activated (because then the textures from the door opening clip will replace the walls basic texture). Can you find out which side of which cube in that level this doors sits in and let me know?

I ran into the same thing Aray was talking about a while ago when I was building levels. I replaced a door texture with something else, and in the level it looked like it was supposed to. I opened the door by shooting it and the normal door texture overrode the custom one. IIRC It was stated in DMB2's manual that this behavour was normal for D2. Great trick to hide a door in a level until someone figured out where it was.

Diedel

In regards to that bug with the doors - well I have no idea how to check which side of which cube persay, maybe give me an idea what to do?

Here is a bit more information from what I've noticed so far.

1) I'm pretty sure this is not supposed to be happening since I don't ever recall this happening with the doors in the descent 1 single player missions. Of course it -has- been a long time since I played them.

2) From what I have seen so far this only happens to the round iris style doors and not to any other sort of door.

3) This is by no means restricted to just level 10 of the descent 1 single player missions. I've seen it a number of times on subsequent missions.

Hope this helps out a little bit. I'll try and confirm point number 2 in my list a little later on tonight if I can find the time.

Arayenya

Aus-RED-5 wrote:

Diedel wrote:Grendel, jehu,
no such problem here - which means that even if they exist and (sometimes) surface, I cannot fix them. Sorry. Maybe it will occur on one of my systems, in which case I will be able to track it down.

Diedel... I'm having same prob. MP or SP, I only have to just touch the keyboard once (slide L,R,U,D move forward or back) and ship just glides a fair distance. More then normal. Its kinda like skating in a way. So something has changed since v1.4.6. I have demo to show you if it will help?

Im getting the same thing but I use a single axis pedals to go forward and back. All I have to do is tap the pedal and I drift clear across the room.

Since upgrading to 1.4.9, I'm experiencing the same issue as Grendel, jehu, and Nosferatu... single taps of movement keys causes a drift in that direction, until I tap in the opposite direction. Pausing the game also seems to stop the drift.

Motorman,

your description has set me on the right track now.

Ara,

I will check what D2X-W32 does with these doors in D1 levels.

Diedel, movement damping is restored with 1.4.11 - thanks!

Unfortunately, it looks like something broke with walls and doors. First noticed it when the guide bot was free at start of Vertigo level (also confirmed in regular D2 levels), but even D1 levels allow bots to come (and shoot!) right through unopened doors (much harder for ship to open doors though).

Also, the ship appears to be able to slip partially into surrounding walls ... this yields interesting results when firing laser canon = canon "in" wall doesn't shoot (only exposed canon), and shooting sound is suppressed.

Thanks for your working through the nits that follow the features!

jehu wrote:Diedel, movement damping is restored with 1.4.11 - thanks!
Unfortunately, it looks like something broke with walls and doors. The ship appears to be able to slip partially into surrounding walls ...

Yes.. same.
This happens in ANY lvl.

In this pic I'm half way into the wall.

Fixed.

BAM! Don't know how you do it, but you're sure fast! 1.4.12 looks and feels great on a rather modest machine (even with a bloated OS).

Following nits don't interfere with any of the joy of old-skool gaming for me, but noticed:

1) credits page = disco strobe blink (my machine?)

2) screen resolution 320x200 w/cockpit = indicators out of position on full cockpit and console cockpit

3) screen resolution 640x480 w/cockpit = Golden!, but perhaps on off-by-one in _console_ cockpit right column of energy and afterburner displays have a single column of pixels that don't diminish with usage (originally that way?)

4) dialog boxes = single grey block in upper left corner (I may have an old/unpatched texture file?)

5) play songs = .hmp files don't play (my machine?)

super sonic coding ...

Credits ... oh well ...
320x200 - are you seriously using that screen res?
Gauge offsets: I will look into this.
A small block was always in the upper left dialog corners.
No prob playing songs here. Did you try to increase midi volume sound?

Did some more testing on the inverted control bug- If I host the game, no problem. If someone else hosts, the controls are inverted. Only on kali- my home LAN works fine either way.
Why do you keep messing w/ the controls? They were perfect quite a while ago...
If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

zapp,

I am not "messing with the controls". Everything works fine here in my LAN for IPX mp games. If it works on a LAN but not in KALI, why do you blame me? Blame KALI! IPX is IPX, and D2X-W32 knows nothing about KALI.

I am doing all this stuff for free, and generally D2X-W32 is getting better, so keep it polite. If you don't like it, stick with another D2 version, it's that easy.

didn't mean to be unpolite.. sorry, I do appreciate the work.
Just wanted to point out that Kali IPX games are now unplayable for my configuration (anyone else notice this?) and since Kali is a big part of the current D2 players, might be something you should check.

Just tried it in UDP via tracker, and it works fine that way. BTW, that setup gave us great connections w/ low pings- maybe that is the new way to play?

More info on the control bug- After looking at the display closer, it appears the rear view is being shown in the main window! It is not a control issue after all- Very sorry for accusing you of messing w/ them.... That is why everything is backwards.. I'm looking out the back!!

The display is also distorted- squashed vertically, but no much. Outrider got a screenshot he should be posting here.

zapp,

I haven't been working on controls stuff for weeks now.

I simply cannot tell why this happens. If it does not happen with IPX games in LANs, it must have something do to with KALI somehow - just: What?

Diedel, glad I could somehow be of some kind of help!

1.4.12 seems to work brilliantly... I just finished playing some coop with Outrider and zapp via UDP tracker. Gotta get used to F8 stopping my Pyro in its tracks, though!

However, zapp and Outrider report issues with inverted controls when playing over IPX (via Kali). No biggie for me since UDP works perfectly; so far at least *knock-on-wood-laminate*.

Thanks a million, Diedel!! I owe you big time for this...

I just ran into zapp on Kali, so we decided to try things out. Here's what we found:

• IPX games on Kali have some of the controls reversed for the clients (namely, left/right sliding, forward/backward, and up/down turning - up/down sliding works normally; can't quite remember if left/right turning was inverted or not)
• The host has normal controls though
• UDP games on Kali work just fine

It seems to me that for some reason, d2x-w32 renders with a turned-around camera in the main view area.
I noticed this mainly because my rear view mirror and normal view were the same, and the normal view was strangely squashed (see screenshot).
This would probably also explain why forward/backward and left/right sliding are inverted.



Other than that, it works like a charm. <3

In case it's any help, Kali's default launch options for D2 are:
-shortpackets -packets 10
[x] Needs Winsock support


If this is not a bug in d2x-w32, let us know so we can go whine at Jay about it. (although I don't quite see how Kali could screw things up like this)

Diedel wrote:320x200 - are you seriously using that screen res?

nope - but it does remind me of the 486/33 8MB machine it was first played on (without the lag, of course)

Diedel wrote:No prob playing songs here. Did you try to increase midi volume sound?

my bad - had turned midi sound off, but could still hear movies (getting forgetful in my old age)

outrider,

go get zapp and try this: Go to the render options menu and uncheck "Use Cameras". Maybe that helps. If it does, please let me know.

jehu,

lol. I don't think I'm gonna fix cockpit views in 320x200 all too soon - I cannot see anything at that game res in windowed mode (which is more convenient for debugging).

Diedel wrote:go get zapp and try this: Go to the render options menu and uncheck "Use Cameras". Maybe that helps. If it does, please let me know.

He's not there right now, but I'll give him a poke when I run into him the next time.

Enhancement request:

As a vulcan/gauss junkie, Zoom is a great new feature! However, with it hard-coded to the "right-shift" key, it is too far from my custom keyboard layout to be used except as a sniper in a secure perch. If it could be added to the "Customize Keyboard" dialog box (most entuitive, but code / player file may dictate elsewhere), it would be used far more often!

If this is impractical, "unzoom" on damage, or "rear view" would permit quick return to dogfighting (or flight, if so inclined).

I had thought of that myself already. Someone also wanted to make the weapon shortcuts configurable. Well ... the pain never stops ...

You guys have to playtest my new level "Speed!" in return and tell me where and how it should be improved.

Okay, zapp and me just met up and did some experimenting again. In the first round, I hosted with only "Use Cameras" disabled, everything else camera-related enabled; zapp had all camera stuff enabled - and when he connected, his controls were normal. We were unable to replicate this later on.

We tried switching hosts and turning various camera-related options on and off, but didn't manage to get normal view and controls again.
The options we tinkered with were: Render Options -> Use Cameras, Render Options -> Full-Screen Cameras, and Allow Cameras from Markers in the multiplayer game setup options.

We did manage to verify that it seems to be stuck in perpetual full-screen rearview though; when I aligned myself to have zapp's Pyro dead smack in the middle of my screen, my Pyro was showing him its tailpipes.

Basically, we got it to work normally once, but only once, by turning off Use Cameras on the host but not on the client, but failed to reproduce the situation in further attempts.

This gives new meaning to "are you aiming with your ass?" though

If the game host unchecks "Use Cameras", all other camera related stuff gets disabled as well. The game host camera usage setting is applied on all connected D2X-W32 clients. Additionally, in multiplayer games, clients can turn off cameras on their local machines by unchecking "use cameras", so if the game host turns them own and they cause bad frame rates for a client, the client has a cure.

Actually your screenshot looks like the cockpit window rear view was projected to the main view - hence the distorted main view. I wonder how this can happen.

Make sure to uncheck "Render Entire Mine" in the render options menu.

Just to let you know, 1.4.12 seems pretty clean and stable.

Played SP for a while and made it all the way to Brimspark.