DescentBB

Googling tells me it was once possible. Is it still? How?

-Joker

I'm experimenting with making Descent 3 work on wine. I'm using linux. I don't own a Mac and I'm doing this for a friend.

It actually seems like it wants to work on wine for Xubuntu 14.04. If I set video to OpenGL, I get "Generic renderer error." If I set video to Direct3D, I can load into a game but most of the textures are not rendered--but some of them are.

There must be hope for this. I'm hoping that if I can get it working on wine for linux, then I can get I can get it working on wine for a Mac.

Suggestions?

-Joker

There was a Linux version of Descent 3 - I'm not sure whether it's still around or how to get it, but I'm wondering if that's your best bet at this point.

Again, the only reason I'm experimenting with Descent 3 on wine for Linux is because I think it will inform my experimenting with Descent 3 on OSX. I'm hoping that somebody can save me alot of time by just telling me if there are any conclusions about OSX already.

-Joker

I had been hoping someone who actually has a clue about it would respond instead of me

What I know is this: the original version of D3 for Mac would have been written for the PowerPC processor it used to use at the time. Somewhere around 10 years ago, Apple switched to x86-based processors for all new Macs; old software was still supported using something called Rosetta, although I'm not sure it would have worked for D3 (these sorts of compatibility/virtualization tools are typically designed for business applications, not games which are much more demanding).
Regardless, even if it did, in recent releases of OS X, Rosetta has been removed. Since no new updates have been made to Descent 3 in that time, there would no longer be a completely compatible release - not without using the likes of Parallels or VMware Fusion... or WINE. But the Windows version of Descent 3 also has the unfortunate distinction of being something of a glitchy, temperamental mess even on NT 6.x - it wouldn't surprise me if you can't get it to work properly.

If Linux is close enough to OS X in the right ways (admittedly, that's a stretch), that version might be more stable. Maybe. I'm not really sure.

I wonder if the GOG.com release of D3 might have better luck on WINE than the original retail version. At least it was (presumably) tweaked a bit for running on newer Windows versions.