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Posted: Tue Jun 05, 2007 9:15 am
by Diedel
Redboy, MD,

It will cost Fraps still quite some computing power to scale the grabbed frames down. You may want to run Descent in 640x480 while frame grabbing with Fraps.

Testi,

actually it can make sense if the demo recording continues. You can terminate it manually, can't you?

Posted: Tue Jun 05, 2007 3:26 pm
by MD-2389
It doesn't for me. I've had no trouble capturing videos of Flatout and Flatout 2 (both of which have system requirements FAR higher than any of the descent games put together) with my resolution set to 1280x1024. Maybe its something on your system you haven't set up right. I don't loose a single frame while recording fraps (I record to a different hard drive, which is on my SATA2 bus). I've had no trouble at all running fraps with Rebirth or d2x-w32 (no, I haven't touched XL).

Posted: Wed Jun 06, 2007 6:26 am
by Diedel
MD-2389 wrote:(no, I haven't touched XL)
What do you think XL is? It's just the continuation of W32. You know, I started it as D2X-W32, and renamed it to D2X-XL later. And know what else? Mouselook was already present in D2X-W32.

That makes you look real smart now, doesn't it?

:lol:

Re:

Posted: Wed Jun 06, 2007 8:43 am
by MD-2389
Diedel wrote:What do you think XL is? It's just the continuation of W32. You know, I started it as D2X-W32, and renamed it to D2X-XL later. And know what else? Mouselook was already present in D2X-W32.

That makes you look real smart now, doesn't it?

:lol:
Actually, the build I had (note: had) was prior to that little addition. It was a really old version that Vinyl modified specifically for kali. That particilar version was released a good six months prior to a certain mouselook thread. How does the egg taste now? ;)

Posted: Wed Jun 06, 2007 9:08 am
by Diedel
Do you think I added mouselook only at the time of that thread?

Mouselook had been in D2X-W32 almost from my beginning its development.

/me walks off, shaking my head at the sight of someone trying to explain D2X-W32/XL to me ...

Posted: Tue Jun 12, 2007 5:13 pm
by Sniper
Why is XL and its glorious mouselook being discussed in this thread?

Image

And to not derail the thread, I'll save it...

Zico: My wish is for you to keep working on DXX. You've contributed so much time and effort into this thing it's outstanding. Keep going! :)

Re:

Posted: Tue Jun 12, 2007 9:11 pm
by Testiculese
Diedel wrote:Testi,

actually it can make sense if the demo recording continues. You can terminate it manually, can't you?
With 20 shields, 3 seconds to evacuate and 5 bots up my arse? No..not really! :D

Posted: Wed Jun 13, 2007 4:32 am
by zico
I definetly consider now to add some other recording options in the DEMO system... That's really not ugly nor much useless stuff... however this code needs a lot of real work however.

@Sniper
Thank you for this words. At least I can say, I won't stop to work on it :)
Makes as much fun as playing it.

Posted: Mon Mar 17, 2008 7:00 pm
by Gold Leader
hey Zico Man DXX-Rebirth is so addictive man I'm hooked to it allready :D

it really has more feel for freedom as it runs great on my 8 year old Dual P3 1Ghz system hehe, I can help you with 3dfx support since I have many friends from my 3dfx sectors which are willing to run it as well :)

D1X-REBIRTH:
Image

D2X-REBIRTH:
Image

to support the DXX-Rebirth project is my main objective.

Posted: Tue Mar 18, 2008 3:01 am
by Sirius
I'm pretty sure none of the D*x projects support Glide. Chiefly because there's no reason to any more...

Re:

Posted: Tue Mar 18, 2008 5:53 am
by Gold Leader
Sirius wrote:I'm pretty sure none of the D*x projects support Glide. Chiefly because there's no reason to any more...
heh well our 3dfx cards do have OpenGL as MesaFX support as the FSAA on 3dfx cards is godlike for retro based games, I am very sure that it will be possible as I'll be testing it just in a few minutes from now and I will be gladly to post results, the 3dfx community exceeds past the 12000 users, so for my part 3dfx support is important ;)

Posted: Tue Mar 18, 2008 5:55 am
by zico
At the moment it's no big deal to provide Support for at least OpenGL 1.1. However I am not sure how long I can keep this since OpenGL 3.0 will also introduce some API changes. I always try to keep the game compatible and also those API changes are not too serious but I can't tell for any time of the future here.

Posted: Tue Mar 18, 2008 6:03 am
by CDN_Merlin
Zico, just wanted to say thanks for D2x. I'm loving playing D2 single again.

Posted: Tue Mar 18, 2008 7:38 am
by zico
DXX is nothing without the ppl playing it. You're welcome. :)

Re:

Posted: Tue Mar 18, 2008 8:14 am
by Gold Leader
zico wrote:At the moment it's no big deal to provide Support for at least OpenGL 1.1. However I am not sure how long I can keep this since OpenGL 3.0 will also introduce some API changes. I always try to keep the game compatible and also those API changes are not too serious but I can't tell for any time of the future here.
hmm OpenGL 2.1 is the latest build for ai know of, will OpenGL 3.0 be backwards complaint with 2.xx as 1.xx?

for the Voodoo5 , heh it didn't run yet though I'll see what I can tinker around with :)

Posted: Tue Mar 18, 2008 12:05 pm
by zico
OpenGL 3.0 is still a bit ahead but I read about some API changes - but I do not know about compability issues. I think the time will reveal what may happen then.

Posted: Thu Mar 20, 2008 8:22 pm
by Gold Leader
hmm maybe an easter super level or an easter pack DXX Rebirth with easter decorated robots or so :D just a funny idea I had in mind :D

the desktop MetalBeast made has a nice example hehe.

well for the game it's self maybe some more reflections on water & lava surfaces, so you'd see a soft reflection of the Pyro-GX as the robots or is this too hard to implent?

Posted: Fri Mar 21, 2008 4:37 pm
by jshaner
descent does not support shaders, to my knowledge.

Posted: Fri Mar 21, 2008 4:40 pm
by Duper
I wouldn't thing so as it was developed long before genuine 3D was any kinda standard. Most games were still using sprites.

Posted: Sat Mar 22, 2008 12:19 am
by Sirius
No, definitely not. The fanciest stuff in the Descent engine is the dynamic cube lighting seen from weapon shots.

Posted: Sat Mar 22, 2008 4:02 am
by Diedel
Using shader programs in Descent 1/2 is possible, but not with the Rebirth code base.

A better approach would be to add an entirely new renderer as well as a modern physics and networking library. Again, you'd need a better code base than Rebirth though.

Posted: Sat Mar 22, 2008 4:58 am
by zico
Sure - you can also implement a whole 3D engine into a text-processing program. The question is if it's the right approach - like Diedel said a new engine would probably be a better choice for that fancy effects.

On the other side I still think effects like reflections look totally out of place in an old game like Descent.

Re:

Posted: Sat Mar 22, 2008 8:17 am
by Gold Leader
zico wrote:Sure - you can also implement a whole 3D engine into a text-processing program. The question is if it's the right approach - like Diedel said a new engine would probably be a better choice for that fancy effects.

On the other side I still think effects like reflections look totally out of place in an old game like Descent.
yeaps I totally agree btw Zico your slogan @ DXX-REBIRTH in your sig says exactly the right thing :)

"You can take that game engine out of 1994, but you can't take the 1994 out of the engine."

adding reflections as other new gen based effects would make Descent 1 & 2 alot less original, that we have OpenGL rendering does clean up the pixels alot, though still has the good old feel.

Mouse support for single player is very smooth, though mouse player for multiplayer should be implented also but that's just my opinion there bud :)

Re:

Posted: Sat Mar 22, 2008 8:42 am
by jshaner
Diedel wrote:Using shader programs in Descent 1/2 is possible, but not with the Rebirth code base.

A better approach would be to add an entirely new renderer as well as a modern physics and networking library. Again, you'd need a better code base than Rebirth though.
Well, that is something that would be cool to see. @Diedel-Would you be able to implement that in D2X-XL then? Maybe even customizable shaders? that would be the next step towards realistic-ness. I don't need an old time gameplay type thing, even though it can be quite a blast at times. :D

Posted: Sat Mar 22, 2008 9:06 am
by Floyd
Image
uhh?

Re:

Posted: Sat Mar 22, 2008 7:23 pm
by jshaner
Floyd wrote:Image
uhh?
maybe that would've been better...

Re:

Posted: Tue Mar 25, 2008 9:32 am
by karx11erx
zico wrote:Sure - you can also implement a whole 3D engine into a text-processing program. The question is if it's the right approach - like Diedel said a new engine would probably be a better choice for that fancy effects.

On the other side I still think effects like reflections look totally out of place in an old game like Descent.
I think that depends on what makes Descent being Descent for you.

For some it's the looks - those will prefer Rebirth, for some it's rather the gameplay - those will probably be happy with XL. Personally I'd love to see Descent 2 with modern gfx, like parallax mapping, per pixel lighting, proper shadow casting, environment mapping, and I believe if applied properly and decently that would still convey D2's atmosphere very well.

D2X-XL is ready for addition of a modern renderer, physics engine and networking code, and that's what I will try during the next months. It will be done in a way that you can still play every legacy Descent 1/2 level, or create new levels with state of the art level editors.

Well, I hope I am not straying too far from this thread's topic - maybe a mod wants to split it?

Posted: Tue Jul 07, 2009 9:42 am
by Stroodles
Unnerf the level 7 boss. He's beyond easy now. Put it back to the definitive edition boss. That was actually difficult. Or at least fun.

Posted: Tue Jul 07, 2009 10:05 am
by Sirius
I don't think D1X-Rebirth would actually have changed the level 7 boss. Perhaps you're just a better pilot than you used to be?

Posted: Tue Jul 07, 2009 10:21 am
by Duper
Lvl 7 Boss was never really that hard as long as you had all the other bots destroyed. *shrug* Like I posted, head on over to the Dxx site and ask Zico.

Re:

Posted: Tue Jul 07, 2009 11:18 am
by Stroodles
Sirius wrote:I don't think D1X-Rebirth would actually have changed the level 7 boss. Perhaps you're just a better pilot than you used to be?
I'm running D1X on an xp machine, and the original game on a '98 machine. I tested both within a few days-I didn't get THAT much better THAT fast.

Posted: Sun Apr 25, 2010 6:56 pm
by Xfing
Maybe add the robot counter and the powerup counter like they are in DXX-XL? On the other hand, no. Those give essential information for completionists. And they should acquire that information by themselves :)

Posted: Thu Jun 03, 2010 8:02 pm
by Alter-Fox
Sorry for the bump, but...

Interplay turned the difficulty of the level 7 boss down in the first patch, I've heard. This is because players kept complaining it was too hard. I believe you could download a save game at the beginning of level 8 from their website as well.

Posted: Thu Jun 03, 2010 8:50 pm
by akula65
The relevant page to use in the Wayback Machine is:

http://www.interplay.com/descent/descent.html

There is a section toward the bottom titled \"Having trouble with Level 7?\". The savegame is still downloadable.

Posted: Fri Jun 04, 2010 1:32 am
by Duper
hmm. link didn't work for me. iirc, that boss was Bugged and couldn't be taken down. ... or was that the demo... :?

Posted: Fri Jun 04, 2010 8:10 am
by Alter-Fox
I managed to kill it in the demo... using the invulnerability cheat. It took about 20 minutes of shooting to bring him down (on Trainee!)

Posted: Fri Jun 04, 2010 9:51 am
by Sirius
Hey, that sounds like it'd be fun to try killing without cheats now.

Posted: Sun Jun 06, 2010 3:39 pm
by Xfing
I have a proposal for a tweak in D2X-Rebirth. If you can, please add a command line called -d1fusion. If typed in an .ini file, it would double the power of the fusion cannon in Descent 2 (bringing it to its power from Descent 1).

This way it would be possible to arbitrarily switch the Fusion power to its D1 value. I suggested a command instead of a slider, as using a slider would just be too tempting (playing regular D2 with stronger Fusion CAN be considered cheating). The reason I'm asking is that I started a new mission set for Descent 2, where you are stuck with only D1 weapons for quite a few levels, having Fusion at its rightful power is therefore a necessity. I hope this issue gets addressed in the next release :)

Posted: Tue Jun 08, 2010 5:18 pm
by Duper
lol!

Posted: Tue Jun 08, 2010 6:37 pm
by Krom
The Fusion damage in D2 is not set by anything in the game source code, it is part of the game data files. DXX can't change them without using a horrible hard coded override hack.