DescentBB

Hi guys

I never thought that there would be some people really playing DXX-R. But now I want to do something for you.
What do you wish to see in D1X-R and/or D2X-R?
Just tell me

In D1X-R, what about older resolution modes for mor nostalgic feel? like the olds 320x100 and 320x200 that Descent 1 supports.
Also, support for MP3 or OGG instead of HMP would be cool.
And for higher resolutions, high resolution pictures of the Menu and Credits, etc... would be nice also, not only the briefing ones.

Yeah, please make some custom hires images I can rip for D2X-XL ...

j/k

MP3/OGG/APE support seconded.

Resolutions:
D1X as D2X now have the possibility to use EVERY resolution you wish.

HiRes Images:
I have thought about these.
The briefing screens I currently use are ripped from D1_3DFX. Unfortunately the Menu screens would just not fit because they had that stupid 3DFX logo ... But if someone wants to make some cool Backgrounds I would never say no.

MP3/OGG, etc:
would be a very cool idea. i see what i can do. but currently i just need to get some things really working before i can think about these additions.
Remember, this is just a small hobby of mine.

Provide the option to blur textures on a higher resolution so they don't look so fakey

multiple usb joystick support(at the same time)


J1
J2
J3


any updates

Can you increase the detection range of the bots? If I park in front of a vulcan from 30 ships or thereabouts away, he doesn't 'see' me. Missle hulks don't recognise me until I'm pretty close. I'd like to have a bot (if facing me) see me right off and start it's offense, whether that means start shooting, or moving after me.

(I think I've noticed that the bots are a little more aggressive/defensive. Did you change their attack/fire avoidance behaviours?) Did you, or could you, make them more prone to come after me if they see or hear me?

I don't know what the pathing or AI restrictions are, so it might be a false hope.

Hi

Well I now hear this second time robots are more agressive than in other versions.

But that's not my fault

I know there were some AI changes in the D1 patch 1.5. And probably also the D1X coders did some other changes.

In general changing AI is a thing I'm very critical about.
If I'm going to change something there it will of course be an optional feature.
Ok on the other side, changing the range of bots would not be that difficult

I'd like to see the ability to change songs in game; midi and CD (in D2)

Just a toggle shortcut key would be cool. No fancy or unfancy gui.

There are times in some solo levels I just get tired of listening to the first midi song over and over.

With MP3 and OGG this feature will come however

D2 has always had this feature (Alt-- and Alt-=).

it has?!??

Did anyone else know this?

Probably, but perhaps not many.

It's hidden somewhere in D2's readme:

From Descent 2 v1.2's readme.txt

CD/MIDI Track Advancing
=======================
Also undocumented in the manual is the use of ALT -/+ keys (ALT-minus and
ALT-plus). Using these keys in the game will play the previous/next
redbook track on the CD. If you're listening to MIDI music, it will
advance to the next level song.

I say just continue to keep it as pure as possible, D2X-Rebirth is still a superior alternative to D2x_xl, and I swear by D1x_Rebirth for playing over the net. I wouldn't mind having a few of the suggested features, but in all honesty, I really like the interest in improving gameplay while maintaining the spirit of the game without going absolutely hogwild. Keep at it, we will keep on playing it.

Stop the runaway spew count! They did it in the \"original\" D1X. Versions 1.2 and version 1.4 had exceptional spew count control.

The Lion wrote:Probably, but perhaps not many.

It's hidden somewhere in D2's readme:

From Descent 2 v1.2's readme.txt

CD/MIDI Track Advancing
=======================
Also undocumented in the manual is the use of ALT -/+ keys (ALT-minus and
ALT-plus). Using these keys in the game will play the previous/next
redbook track on the CD. If you're listening to MIDI music, it will
advance to the next level song.

I never thanked you for this Lion so.... THANKS!

No problem.

@ Bakky: as one of the goals of DXX-Rebirth is \"Providing the classic feel
of the original commercial versions of the games\", we need not worry about
it \"going absolutely hogwild\".

I think a feature that will automatically start recording demos when you begin a game would be neat.

Star Man Aevum wrote:I think a feature that will automatically start recording demos when you begin a game would be neat.

There is. Hit F5.

I know. I keep forgetting to. Be nice if there was a toggle that would do it for me >_>

Star Man Aevum wrote:I know. I keep forgetting to. Be nice if there was a toggle that would do it for me >_>

You can always use Fraps then. Then all you have to do is just trim out the parts you don't want and you're golden.

Could you add the option for Primary and secondary weapons cycle on the \"Customize Above\" screen so the hat switch could be put to those tasks. I was playing through D1 on rebirth and everytime I went to swap weapons I had to take ym hands off the controler.... a pain when D1 is hard enough as is on Trainee....

The next version contains a new joystick mapping layout for both D1X and D2X-Rebirth.

http://www.dxx-rebirth.de/blog/zico/joylayout.jpg

Also the \"Weapon keys\" (which includes weapon cycling for D1X) can be mapped to joystick (buttons or hat) as well.

The ability to output a demo to a movie file

*cough*fraps*cough*

Star Man Aevum wrote:I think a feature that will automatically start recording demos when you begin a game would be neat.

I think a feature that will automatically stop recording a demo when you finish a level would be neat.

Theftbot wrote:The ability to output a demo to a movie file

I've done this a while ago, but there are some caveats and issues.

I wrote some code for D1x-rebirth adding an option to output a stream of
YV12 encoded images to a file (initially it pumped out tons of screenshots
like D3 can do, but it put too much strain on the old Maxtor... Now I can use
a named pipe to stream it directly to MEncoder to make a movie from it).

It was a while ago though and I've yet to patch these changes into the new
version of D1x-rebirth (0.51 - maybe it's better to wait for 0.52 now).

Also, the view jitters. This looks like some kind of timing/interpolation
issue as I hacked it to output a constant amount of frames per game
second and just play it (and output frames) as fast as possible.

I didn't try any of this with D2x-rebirth yet.

When I have time, and if it's okay with Zico, perhaps I could work with him
to polish this feature and build it into a future version of Rebirth.

Fraps sucks anyway.

d3jake wrote:[...] a pain when D1 is hard enough as is on Trainee....

WTF jake...

Fraps only sucks if your machine can't handle the load. Any modern machine should have more than enough umph to pump out a 30fps avi. Its easier if you set fraps to capture at half res.

the newer versions of Fraps are a lot better than it used to be.

Also, grab some Vid tools and have at it.

Thing is, fraps and dxx don't really get along. I can run fraps in Serious sam 2 and get a nice frame capture speed. but try with DXX and the performance just TANKS.

Testiculese wrote:

Star Man Aevum wrote:I think a feature that will automatically start recording demos when you begin a game would be neat.

I think a feature that will automatically *stop* recording a demo when you finish a level would be neat.

Hey Zico, how hard would this be to implement?

No it's not really hard...
I am however reworking the Demo system (upcoming version will have some fixes) and I will spend much more time for this code... let's see what will come out then.

Ah, great!

Well I just won't promise which features I will still add... currently for me there ar emore important questions... savon HDD usage for Demos, making Fast Forward/Backward suitable for all FPS settings and legth of demos so you can jump to all parts without searching for hours...

It's also easy to implement options to stat/end demos at certain events/positions... I just ask myself how important such things are... okay this is just my opinion. I just think it's not worth adding code (and optins that may even confuse new players (probably not in that specific case)) that just replaces a single push to a single key...

Ferno wrote:Thing is, fraps and dxx don't really get along. I can run fraps in Serious sam 2 and get a nice frame capture speed. but try with DXX and the performance just TANKS.

Honestly, I haven't had any issues with fraps and DXX. I guess it all really depends on what you have the resolution set to, and how fast your hard drive is. I usually play at 1280 and have fraps set to encode at half-res.

Fraps really slow down badly. Before about 2 years ago are good but now its unplayable while record.

I cant understand why ? I want buy fraps but not sure for now...I use Fraps demo.

it all depends on your system.

The problem I'm having with demos is that if you hit the exit tunnel, then the demo is still recording when you start the next level. Cutting the demo when you hit the exit tunnel could actually be considered a bugfix!

Good point.