D2X-XL Q&A

[Modak]

Hi everyone, my first post here.

Its been few years now that I was sad because I and my friends could no longer play Descent 1 and 2 on our XP computers; but last friday, I was searching the web for a way to play the best game ever(Descent 1 and 2), and I found this site www.descent2.de ...
Wow, what a wonderful job you have done Diedel; thanks a lot from me and all my friends here in Montreal.

Right now I only have one ploblem; I dont know if I am doing something rong but I cant make my twist work (for banking).
My stick is a Saitek Cyborg evo.

What should I try?
Is there any .plr files that I could use to ease the proccess?

Thanks in advance!

[Diedel]

It could be that the stick sensitivity in the config menu is simply too low. I think I will add a control somewhere to increase it. Personally, I could set twist with both a Saitek Cyborg 3D (Force Feedback) and a MS Sidewinder Pro.

[Modak]

Thanks Diedel for your help; my Saitek is still not working(cant configure no axe x y or z even if I change the sensitivity) but I took my SideWinder 3d pro, and it worked perfectly.

[Diedel]

Strange. I am using my Saitek Cyborg 3D Force to test the Linux version. But the SW pro is by far the better stick anyways.

[ducon]

Hi,

Can someone tell me where and what must I copy to play Descent 2 with Linux?
I copied some files in /usr/local/games/d2x-xl/, some found in the CD, some others from the archive, lowercased their names but no way.
Can someone show his ls -lR exactly?

Thanks.

[Diedel]

Read www.descent2.de/d2x-install.html and regard that all filenames must be in lowercase. I recommend using the data subdirectories D2X-XL is capable of detecting and using.

[ducon]

Yes, I read this file but I can’t make Descent 2 work.

[Diedel]

ducon,

try to create all the subfolders the install page mentions (i.e. /usr/local/share/d2x-xl/data, /usr/local/share/d2x-xl/config, etc.) and put the files there.

Alternatively, you can put all data files (including config files, player files, etc.) in /usr/local/share/d2x-xl.

I tried both configs on my Linux box, and both worked.

If that still doesn't help, please post a directory listing of your D2X-XL install here.

[ducon]

Note that my Debian Etch has libSDL version 1.2.9-0.0.

[ducon]

OK, edit:

> ls -RX1
.:
controls
d2data
d2x-xl
alien1.256
alien2.256
credits.256
fire.256
groupa.256
ice.256
palette.256
water.256
hmidet.386
hmidrv.386
hmimdrv.386
d2.bat
descent2.dem
d2icons.dll
ereglib.dll
eregreg2.dll
iforce.dll
sos32s03.dll
sos9503.dll
soslibs3.dll
readmew.doc
descentw.exe
setup.exe
descent2.ham
d2-2plyr.hog
d2chaos.hog
descent2.hog
cambot.hxm
cd.ico
descentw.ico
disk1.id
d2x.ini
descentg.ini
eregcard.ini
modem.lst
d2-2plyr.mn2
d2chaos.mn2
ben-h.mve
intro-h.mvl
intro-l.mvl
other-h.mvl
other-l.mvl
robots-h.mvl
robots-l.mvl
alien1.pig
alien2.pig
fire.pig
groupa.pig
ice.pig
water.pig
default.plr
descent2.s11
descent2.s22
descent2.sow
endnote.txt
orderfrm.txt
readme.txt

./controls:
descent2.adv
d2flcs.b50
d2tqs.b50
d2wcs.b50
avgrd2.exe
descent2.key
d2tqs.m50
d2wcs.m50
descent2.phx

./d2data:
zero
hmidet.386
hmidrv.386
hmimdrv.386
ereglib.dll
eregreg2.dll
regcard.exe
setup.exe
wmvetest.exe
disk1.id
ben-h.mve
intro-h.mvl
intro-l.mvl
other-h.mvl
other-l.mvl
robots-h.mvl
robots-l.mvl
descent2.sow
readme.txt

./d2data/zero:
hmidet.386
hmidrv.386
hmimdrv.386
d2.bat
descent2.dem
d2icons.dll
iforce.dll
sos32s03.dll
sos9503.dll
soslibs3.dll
readmew.doc
descent2.exe
descentw.exe
eregcard.exe
pcxview.exe
setup.exe
descent2.ham
d2-2plyr.hog
d2chaos.hog
descent2.hog
descentw.ico
descentg.ini
eregcard.ini
modem.lst
d2-2plyr.mn2
d2chaos.mn2
ben-h.mve
intro-h.mvl
intro-l.mvl
other-h.mvl
other-l.mvl
robots-h.mvl
robots-l.mvl
alien1.pig
alien2.pig
fire.pig
groupa.pig
ice.pig
water.pig
descent2.s11
descent2.s22
endnote.txt
orderfrm.txt
readme.txt

[Diedel]

Please one file per line, sorted by extension.

[Nikolai]

From D2X - Manual:

New Game Start a new single player game.
New Single Player Game Start a new single player game using only missions explicitly marked as single player.

Can you explain the difference? Maybe on examples...
Because I don't see it.

[Diedel]

The first option refers to the game mode: Single player here just means that you don't start a multiplayer game.

The second option refers to the mission design: You can put those missions that have explicity designed as singleplayer in missions/single. The second option will then only offer missions from that folder to start a new game with.

This helps you in keeping these missions apart. With D2X-XL, you can create arbitrary subfolders and sub-subfolders etc. in missions.

ducon,

your application folder contains all necessary data. The subfolders you are listing here are all ignored by D2X-XL.

[Redeye]

Thanks Diedel for your help; my Saitek is still not working(cant configure no axe x y or z even if I change the sensitivity) but I took my SideWinder 3d pro, and it worked perfectly.

I was wondering about the sensitivity and if it could be changed. I have Windows XP and a Sidewinder 3D Pro, my problem is that turning left, right, up or down is very slow. The game runs fine and I am tickled to death to have D2 once again but am wanting some way to adjust the sensitivity in game instead of taking the reading from Windows. If I run the sensitivity tab way over to the right it get jumpy not faster. In the 3DFX vers of D2, you could do calibrate the stick to where you didnt have to move it hardly at all and it would turn faster the more you moved the stick. Is there anyway you could implement this as I LOVE a good gauss dogfight in Kegparty Thx for the excellent update to one of the best game I have played. REDEYE

[ducon]

ducon,

your application folder contains all necessary data. The subfolders you are listing here are all ignored by D2X-XL.

OK, so what’s the problem?
> ./d2x-xl
Fatal signal: Segmentation Fault (SDL Parachute Deployed)
Should I try to strace it?

[Diedel]

Redeye,

I will check this today.

Ducon,

I have no clue. Did you try my binary, or compile the app yourself?

[Nikolai]

I have some questions about the directory structure in D2X-XL.

D2X-XL supports organizing the Descent 2 data in subdirectories of the main Descent 2 folder. Use of these folders is optional; if d2x-xl finds one of them, it will however only look there for the related data.

• data: put all game data here (*.pig, *.hog, *.256, etc.)
• config: put all config files here (*.cfg, *.ini)
• movies: put all movie files here (*.mvl)
• profiles: put all player profiles here (*.plr)
• savegames: put all save games here (*.sg?)
• screenshots: screenshots will be saved here if this folder is present(*.tga)

The mission folder can have subdirectories as well. You can place all pure singleplayer missions in 'missions/single'; if you select 'Play Single Player Mission' in D2X-XL's main menu, it will only display those missions in the mission selection dialog.

If I want to organize d2 data in subdirectories, where should I put the following?
1) game's executables (d2x-xl.exe, sdl.dll). I suppose that they should be left in the main d2 folder, but it is not obvious.
2) *.ham files
3) *.mn2 files
4) descent2.s11 and descent2.s22
5) cambot.hxm
6) d2xtracker.pl

How to differ mission files from game data?

[Diedel]

Game data consists of textures, sounds, polygon models, game messages.

Mission files are the level geometry, information on where to put which textures in the level, etc.

See the installation manual for what goes where, and come back if you don't get any further.

d2xtracker.pl isn't used by D2X-XL; it is the perl tracker code you can deploy on a server to offer a D2X-XL tracker.

[Nikolai]

Thanks for help with directories and file types.

One more question: why don't you include in the d2x-xl package the latest SDL library (1.2.9)? Is it worse than 1.2.8?

[Diedel]

No, but it doesn't contain any changes significant for D2X-XL. I have 1.2.9 on my work machine though, and have prepared it for D2X-XL (that means, I had to change some of the code to allow for silent keys (Caps Lock, Num Lock) to be passed to D2X-XL. This only works for the Win32 version though, as on Linux I am using the pre-installed lib.

[ducon]

Ducon,

I have no clue. Did you try my binary, or compile the app yourself?

Your binary.

[Diedel]

Can you grab the source code and compile it on your machine? It's fairly simple.

[Duper]

didn't know where to post this so I thought here would be good.

When using the generic .ini file, I noticed that the texures are pixelated. Hi-res yes, but I can see the little squares the texture is made up as. I used the old line commmand \"gl_mipmap\" and walla! (i don't know French ) texture smoothing. For us old sk00l3rz, it's voodoo 3 goodness!

So, I guess the \"question\" would be: Are the textures supposed to look rather pixelated or is something set wrong on my rig? or in the .ini?

[Diedel]

Check the texture quality setting in the render options menu. You can have pixelated or filtered, whatever you prefer.

[ducon]

Can you grab the source code and compile it on your machine? It's fairly simple.

I tried ./configure, it worked but make complained that:

fbuffer.c: In function ‘ogl_fbuffer_avail’:
fbuffer.c:69: warning: implicit declaration of function ‘glCheckFramebufferStatusEXT’
fbuffer.c:69: error: ‘GL_FRAMEBUFFER_EXT’ undeclared (first use in this function)
fbuffer.c:69: error: (Each undeclared identifier is reported only once
fbuffer.c:69: error: for each function it appears in.)

and so on. Which library is missing?

[Modak]

Diedel, I wanted to thank you on the patch v1.5.94
Improved: Joystick axis configuration sensitivity

It solved the problem I had with my Saitek Cyborg evo and configuring the axes x y and z.

Everything in that department is working now!

[Diedel]

This belongs in the appropriate bug report thread. I don't even know your OS.

[simX]

Hmm. Here's another question about D2X-XL:

The d2x project allowed you to use the shareware data files for Descent and Descent 2 to try out the first four levels. I attempted to try this with D2X-XL, but failed -- I even tried renaming the data files to fool D2X-XL into thinking that the level files were the full ones.

I did a search through the forum and it seems that this feature was removed. Did it cause that many problems? Given that there's no link on the descent2.de website linking to any sort of data files, it might be good to reimplement the support of the shareware data files, as long as it doesn't take too much work (I do recall d2x having this support). That way people can at least try out Descent before taking the time to search the internet/eBay the data files from the full version.

Just a thought.

(Does Interplay/whoever bought them out actively discourage the posting of the game files from the full version? Just wondering, in case someone hosts the files somewhere.)

[Diedel]

simX,

I cannot remember having intentionally removed shareware data usage. Afaik the full data is not legally available on the internet, and the game is still available e.g. on ebay for very little money. Enabling shareware data usage has the lowest possible priority for me.

Diedel

[Nikolai]

Question about CD music (Redbook). I don't have the original game CD. But I've downloaded this archive (with 16 tracks), burned it as an audio CD and D2X-XL says: \"Sorry. Cannot start CD music. Insert your Descent II CD and try again.\" What am I doing wrong? How does D2X-XL verify the correct CD?

[Diedel]

I'll check, but that might take some days.

[Aus-RED-5]

ummm... Why are we doing version number 1.5.102 insted of 1.6.02?
Only seems right since I remember the days of version 1.0.
Hell I'm the one who asked for a version number in the first place for the main menu! heh

[Diedel]

Because the rule is not \"X.Y.99\" + 1 = \"X.Y+1.0\".

The rule is that Y only grows if I do some bigger changes, like implementing a new game mode or so.

And since the new name string \"D2X-XL\" leaves room for bigger version numbers, this can go as far as \"X.Y.999\".

[Aus-RED-5]

Because the rule is not "X.Y.99" + 1 = "X.Y+1.0".

The rule is that Y only grows if do some bigger changes, like implementing a new game mode or so.

And since the new name string "D2X-XL" leaves room for bigger version numbers, this can go as far as "X.Y.999".

LOL - Ok
You the man!

[Diedel]

Weapon reordering still worked, but the menu wasn't changed accordingly with -fastmenus enabled. Fixed.

Any progress on the wallpaper?

[ducon]

This belongs in the appropriate bug report thread. I don't even know your OS.

Er… you’re talking to me? I already told I run Debian Etch.

[Diedel]

Ummm ... dunno any more, but I don't think so, because I know you're a Linux user.

Re the missing symbols see www.descent2.de/d2x-install.html.

[Diedel]

When using the generic .ini file, I noticed that the texures are pixelated. Hi-res yes, but I can see the little squares the texture is made up as. I used the old line commmand "gl_mipmap" and walla! (i don't know French ) texture smoothing. For us old sk00l3rz, it's voodoo 3 goodness!

-gl_mipmap is not recognized by D2X-XL any more. It has been replaced by -render_quality.

It's spelled 'voilà'. Literally it means "look there", and you could translate it e.g. "there you go" or "bingo!".

[ducon]

Re the missing symbols see www.descent2.de/d2x-install.html.

It doesn’t help… I still have the error.

[Diedel]

Did you set #define RENDER2TEXTURE to 0 in include/ogl_init.h?