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Descent 3 Source Code

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Re: Descent 3 Source Code

#211

Post by teppix »

dep_b wrote: post #89
kevin42 wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We originally used Microsoft Source Safe, which added the comments for us. I think Source Safe made us lock a file to make changes, which was a PITA. I think we made a lot of the decisions on where to break out code on a file by file basis because of that. Later, we moved to Perforce, which is good for larger binary files.

I would still like Git to have some kind of memory of a file being edited in some kind of branch. It would make it easier to communicate work done on the same file because you can discover what is being done to it.

I'm surely missing your point here, but isn't that exactly what git does?

`git log ` gives you the entire history of commits that touches that particular file.

edit: i suppose you mean the ability to keep track of what is being done in other unmerged branches perhaps?

Re: Descent 3 Source Code

#212

Post by rho4 »

nier wrote: post #70
tmikaeld wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of the most polished "flight" games in VR too, extremely immersive and perfect controls.

Did you have trouble with nausea?

Not even VR, I had to stop normal Descent 3 after about 1 hour of gameplay because I started getting sick. Infuriating

Re: Descent 3 Source Code

#213

Post by sooperserieous »

emorning3 wrote: post #196
jasonjamerson wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A mouse for Descent? We used to play with both hands on the keyboard- look, slide, and spin on the number pad, move, fire, etc. on the far left side. We're we alone?

You weren't alone, but we just used more hands. I usually did navigation, and my grade school aged son did the shooting while sitting on my lap. Now he's 33 and I'm 64, we'll have to switch places.

Hello old me! :) My 6 year old son broke two spacebars firing the Phoenix Cannon one summer...

Re: Descent 3 Source Code

#214

Post by atombender »

Analemma_ wrote: post #20
shermantanktop wrote: post #3

I loved loved loved this game. Never understood why this concept didn’t become a whole genre. No actual up, 360 degree freedom, enemies that were smart and could snipe you. Wasted many hours back then and very eager to try this out.

There's a weird effect where sometimes one game in a genre will become so iconic that nobody wants to try and make another one, possibly out of fear of seeming like they're ripping it off? It happened to Descent, and I feel like it happened to e.g. Myst as well - everyone was expecting the huge success of Myst to launch a whole genre, and then it just... didn't.

There were tons of Myst clones that came out after. The most prominent example was probably Rama, based on the Arthur C. Clarke novels. But lots of others like Shadow of the Obelisk, Obsidian, etc.

Re: Descent 3 Source Code

#215

Post by gattr »

Xiol32 wrote: post #143
rux wrote: post #142

Descent's control system is for me what cemented the "invert Y axis" on the mouse for controlling first person gaming forevermore. My brain absolutely clicked with the 6DoF mindset, but it has meant that all FPS games from that point on had to conform to it, even if the game wasn't in any way flying-based.

Inverted Y players unite! Descent also contributed to my ruined brain, along with Flight Simulator 95. Cannot play without inverted Y.

It was SO annoying when it turned out Crysis 3 does not respect this setting in the VTOL-flying sections.

Re: Descent 3 Source Code

#216

Post by dclowd9901 »

Cthulhu_ wrote: post #198
dclowd9901 wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Freespace was the (un?)official successor. Freespace 2 was incredible and I’d be willing to bet it holds up to this day. Nowadays we have the modern version of Elite Dangerous, but its flight mechanics are too close to aeronautic flight mechanics to compare to Descent.

Wasn't there a different control mode in ED that made it more realistic or more like Descent though? I believe the default is that, where inertia is cancelled out automatically for easier flight. Of course, to make the game playable and fair there's a maximum speed you can achieve while not in hyperspace.

If there is it’s completely a surprise to me and I’m now quite interested in using it. My biggest beef with the game is how slow the ship is to turn in combat and that I can’t do strafing.

Re: Descent 3 Source Code

#217

Post by [deleted] »

mvdtnz wrote: post #21
jaegrqualm wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not that you asked, but there's exactly one (popular) game that utilizes the same control scheme in modern times, Outer Wilds. Although it's not a shooter, it's quite a nice adventure game. https://store.steampowered.com/app/753640/Outer_Wilds/ There is, however, an outright continuation of the subgenre, in Overload. https://store.steampowered.com/app/448850/Overload/

Other than the control scheme Outer Wilds really could not be more different to Descent.

[deleted]

Re: Descent 3 Source Code

#218

Post by fasa99 »

ralphc wrote: post #202
nier wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s the way I started but eventually used two FlightSticks. Banking movement with one hand (forward, backward, sideways), rotating around two axis with the other (barrel roll, pitch), and the thumb sticks I used for up/down and left/right. Although I might misremember some details. There was a time when I really wanted to add a pair of pedals, too. Ah, to have that much time to spare again.

I play Descent I and II today, on period hardware. How do you hook up two joysticks and have them be used in the game?

look into "period hardware" which is itself a "dual joystick" (typically literally sold for use in descent). it's a gimmick that sold i.e. why have one joystick when you can have two. Then you should just have a single i/o interface to your MIDI game port.

Re: Descent 3 Source Code

#219

Post by hypercube33 »

jmorenoamor wrote: post #183
fileeditview wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I often think about what you could learn from trying to run games back in the old days. It was a huge motivation to fix some problem to get a game running. Optimizing the memory in ms-dos because the game needed more etc. Most often getting a game was a journey on its own. Today kids just have 1 gazillion games on their phone. There is no more connection to the system beneath. No work or effort needed. Just download…

Tinkering with Autoexec.bat and Config.sys to squeeze some more Kbs was a challenge, and you learnt a lot about the SO doing that. I still wonder how we managed to do that just by reading books or manuals and sharing info with friends.

All I can think about was trying to muck with IRQ conflicts or messed up awful windows 95 drivers later on to get my game working. I'm not sure I miss either of those much but I also switched to Windows NT early and kept an old decked out Pentium 1 for dos games that ntvdm wouldn't play nice with.

Nodding though, oh man that got me into developing things like you wouldn't believe.

Quake 1, 2 had a huge community around coding or map making. Tribes 2 was absolutely all about mods. Command and Conquer with it's rules.ini or StarCraft with its gui scripting stored in map files I spent so many hours messing with. It was all about making something crazy to show off when you went back to school or later to a lan party to wow everyone.

Re: Descent 3 Source Code

#220

Post by epcoa »

cubefox wrote: post #79
bostik wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Myst may not have launched a genre, but it did establish its own kind of game style. 3D world. Adventure game mechanics, with problems and puzzles - but where progress opens up more puzzles, and where instead of developing the character skills, you develop the story. Slow paced. There have been plenty of games to tap into that style, but not enough or frequently enough to warrant calling them part of a genre. Black D…

I think Myst's innovation was mainly using a first-person perspective with (pre-rendered) scenes of a continuous 3D world. Otherwise it was a point-and-click adventure that arguably didn't reach the heights of some earlier Lucas Arts games. Unfortunately these games went out of fashion because most people want some amount of real-time action in their games. But they still get made occasionally by smaller developers o…

> I think Myst's innovation was mainly using a first-person perspective with (pre-rendered) scenes of a continuous 3D world.

The 7th Guest was released months earlier. It’s the exact same genre and technically more ambitious. It uses FMV, but all the 3D worlds are pre-rendered.

I think it is should be obvious to most here why Myst was more generally successful. But outside of story and atmosphere (the former of which is porn plot in both) mechanically they’re the same game.

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