DescentBB

Back in the States for about 6 weeks with my laptop and want to play some online D3 (It's been a long time). I'm looking at the Logitech Extreme 3D. I like the idea of the 8 way hat since I used to use the good ol' sidewinder 3D Pro. Any comments advice?
Any tricks for setting it up in D3?

At least from the look of things, it's a fine stick; I seem to remember Mobius giving it pretty high praise a while back. As far as setting it up in D3, you should be able to map all of those buttons to something or other, so just fiddle around with your config until you get something that works right for you.

Yep - the Logitech 3D Pro is a good stick. However, it suffers the same issues with the HAT switch as the 2.4 Freedom stick: The plus-shaped (+) actuator which connects to each ceramic-topped OMRON microswitch eventually wears out as a direct result of plastic against ceramic.

This results in an inability to activate the switches, and you'll overpower the thing, breaking something most likely. If you are very handy, you can file down the portions which touch against the micorswitches, and use super-strength araldite (or similar two-pot epoxy glue) to glue tiny pieces of Stainless Steel wire into the place where the plastic was.

If you get it right, you fixed your stick for a LONG time to come. If not - you don't have a HAT switch any more...

Thanks for the advice and info folks, guess I'll give it a try.

When I set up my pilot in D3 what joystick do I choose for the Logitech 3D Extreme?

The options inside D3 are just preset button layouts, you don't have to use one at all, manually configure the joystick the way you prefer.

Ah hah! Thanks Krom

OK, got the stick and installed the software. Initially software recognized the stick and all was well. But when I reboot, the software no longer see the joystick as connected. Went to System/Hardware and the stick was disabled. Reenabled it and it seems to work fine in the game although I haven't rebooted again.

Any way to decrease the deadzone. I remember there was a command -deadzone 0.0 Will this work?

Also do I install merc and then the 1.4 patch or visa versa.

Can't wait to play online, it's been a long time. I'll be using the pilot name Nemesis.

The -deadzone 0.0 command line should work just fine, as far as I can remember. As far as Mercenary goes, you should definitely install it before using the 1.4 patch, since it automatically updates D3 to 1.3.

Basic commandline params:

-nointro -nooutragelogo -z32bit -framecap 0 -deadzone0 0.0 -deadzone1 0.0

Keep in mind the -deadzone command lets you do more then 10% at a time, I use -deadzone 0.06 on my system, it is just big enough that I don't drift most of the time, but small enough that you never notice it.

-z32bit only works when you use the Direct3D renderer.

Thanks guys, seems functional now. Although the graphics seem to deteriorate a litle with time. Problem now is when I exit Descent I end up with a nonfuntional desktop. Some odd resolution that is tiled. I'm using a Toshiba M45-s2692 laptop. The video is onboard Intel 915GM/GMS chip which I'm sure shares memory. 500Mb memory. Desktop is set at 1280 x 800, (it's widescreen) using 1024 x 768 resolution in game. In the game the 1024 x 768 is centered with black borders. Should I change the resolution to 1024/768 before I start the game. Anything in video I should have enabled/disabled in the game? I'm actually surpised that it is all working as well as it is.

1280 x 800 is your default resolution

-nointro -playermessages -framecap 0 -nosparkles -nooutragelogo -usesmoothing -directinput -nomultitexture -z32bit -width 1280 -height 800

Add \"-aspect 1.6\" to above line (no quotes)

Anyone ever see the message \"you may not have enough memory to run Descent properly...\" I get that every time I start D3 now yet my hard drives have tons of space and I have 1.5 Gigs RAM and 1.5 gigs swap file.

Any ideas?

try reducing the amount of swap.

-aspect x.xx

CRT is 1.33 = 4:3 (default for D3)

LCD's is 1.25 = 5:4 (ie- 19\" 1280x1024)

Widscreen 1.78 = 16:9

for you buck it actually would be 2.00

apsect is width of resolution divided by height of resolution

1280x800 is 16:10 ratio, hence 1.6

why did I have it in my head 1600 x 800 Doh

Thanks folks, got to play some Skybox, Pyroglyphic and Fury today. Too much fun, I've missed playing this game Looks like the only way I can get back to a functional dsktop after quitting D3 is setting the desktop to the same resolution as I play in the game and choosing the option of maintaining aspect ratio. So I end up with 2 vertical black bars on the left and right. But hey, it works!

I personally recommend using the Saitek Cyborg Evo. I fly with two of them, and they're the best I've used.