DescentBB

How come My Dell Pentium 4 made my Descent 2 way too fast?

Did I post this in the wrong section?

Descent2 is framerate-dependant. It was designed to run at 30-60 fps, and when you get outside that range, things get kinda weird.

Homers get harder to dodge as your framerate increases, and omega cannon is more powerful at higher framerate... but the big thing is once you pass about 120 fps, the game behavior changes drastically. Your ship starts moving faster, your guns fire faster, etc. Back in 1998, some pretty average pilots went to LANs and won tourneys over top pilots because they were running 500 FPS at low resolution/small screen on their amazing overclocked p2-450's, and they could outrun and outgun anybody, and this led to a big controversy.

Type "frametimer" and watch your framerate numbers. On a fairly new system, even at high resolution with a rearview window, you're probably running 500 fps.

There are 3 solutions:
1) run D2 on a slower computer
2) run D2_3dfx on a computer with a voodoo card and vsync
3) get D2x (being discussed in another thread here) and hope it runs right on your computer (it's still under development.)

If you try to install D1 you should see the same problems, and the solution there is to get D1x (and, again, hope it runs right on your computer.) Both D1x and D2x fix the problem by capping framerate.

Moved to Multiplayer.

HOLD IT!

This Was talking about the Whole Windows Version Of Descent 2! Not about Multiplayer!

you can play single player with D2x as well. he was just pointing out that it was made with multi in mind.

This is so not a Multiplayer topic. Why did it get pushed here?

Anyhow, it's mostly what Lothar said. Your best bet for slowing Descent 2 down is probably to use D2X. Although it has a few quirks, it will make Descent 2 payable again.

sounds like a tech forum post...

what about just turning on VSync, and forcing it to run at 60 FPS?

VSync is only possible (meaning, supported in D2) with a 3dfx (glide) card and d2_3dfx. Since Dell pentium 4's don't come with 3dfx cards (they quit making them before the era of the p4) I think it's safe to say VSync isn't a viable option.

I've been pretty happy with d2x, except for some minor problems with the sound. Get it from Diedel's site.

Lothar wrote:VSync is only possible (meaning, supported in D2) with a 3dfx (glide) card and d2_3dfx. Since Dell pentium 4's don't come with 3dfx cards (they quit making them before the era of the p4) I think it's safe to say VSync isn't a viable option.

okay, no need to be smartass about it, i know what all those features are. i was just asking. i know damn well they stopped making 3dfx before P-4's

I'm not being a smartaxx. I'm just being thorough in my response in case anyone else is wondering.

ahhhhhhhhh okie dokie

And besides, D2X, just like D1X, has a framerate cap in it. It's wired to not let the game run faster than 80 FPS, but it'll run as slow as you want (even 1 FPS should work, though I don't recommend it ). You can set it to 60 FPS if you want, but I don't think it'll sync to your monitor (which it can probably be forced to do in your video driver, now that I think about it). D2X and D2_3dfx are pretty much unrelated btw, except that they're both very pretty (compared to the original software renderer, that is). Only D2_3dfx was a lot faster and prettier, but hey, it's getting there

There's also a thread on Diedel's version of D2X in the Coder's Corner that should be used for reporting problems, feature requests, etc.

If you're really worried about it, there are Glide wrappers for OpenGL and Direct3D about... they're slow, but when reducing speed is actually the point of the exercise...

Okay, pay attention, this topic is related to the whole game.

Now look at my FPS number:

Yep, that's what my system does in D2.

There are 3 solutions:
1) run D2 on a slower computer
2) run D2_3dfx on a computer with a voodoo card and vsync
3) get D2x (being discussed in another thread here) and hope it runs right on your computer (it's still under development.)

I've been pretty pleased with D2x, except that I get fairly low quality sound.

Sirius wrote:If you're really worried about it, there are Glide wrappers for OpenGL and Direct3D about... they're slow, but when reducing speed is actually the point of the exercise...

GliDOS is the only one I know of that works with D2. Traditionally with Glide emulators, the glideX.dll file is emulated, which is a Windows file, so D2 doesn't use it. Also, GliDOS isn't free.

Unfortunately with the 3dfx route, you're still dealing with a DOS program, so, in NT/2K/XP, you'll be having to emulate joystick and sound too.

Should I earn my very own Laptop?

Did I move this to Multiplayer? Jeez... shoulda moved it to tech. Sorry bout that.