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Descent 3 Source Code

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261–270 of 347 posts

Re: Descent 3 Source Code

#261

Some friends of mine played Descent competitively, and I was amazed to learn about so-called trichording: to maximize your speed, you need to press multiple keys at the same time to travel along all 3 axes at once, e.g. forward/right/up. The best players zip around the map diagonally. I always assumed this was a bug-turned-feature, like skiing in Tribes. When I saw the repo just now, I looked for clues, but didn't sp…

Yeah looks like the calculation doesn't renormalize the final thrust vector after adding together the component inputs. A simplified example for a 2d game would be like this:

    var playerX_input = Input.GetHorizontal(); // float in range -1 to 1
    var playerY_input = Input.GetVertical(); // float in range -1 to 1

    var playerVelocity = new Vector2(playerX_input, playerY_input);
    // The player can now move 1 unit/frame in X and 1 unit/frame in Y, which means that if they're moving diagonally, the length of their velocity vector is the length of the vector (1,1) which is sqrt(2) (~1.41)

    // This can be corrected by doing something like
    if(playerVelocity.length > 1)
    {
         playerVelocity = playerVelocity.normalized();
    }

Re: Descent 3 Source Code

#262
post #242
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.

Yeah flightstick was the way to play Descent, I used a Logitech Wingman Light. Never tried two sticks, always controlled strafing with keyboard

The wingman was amazing. Lot's of leeway and light and smooth. It seemed to have been built for environments like descent, where your fighter swooshed gracefully through space under any 3d angle.

Re: Descent 3 Source Code

#263

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.

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/

Adding my vote for Overload. I'm not sure if it is the same team that built Descent(s) but some of them were involved in level design of the originals. I believe music composers were the same.

I really enjoyed the story too, that was probably the first game I played through to the end, just to find out how the story ends.

I believe the team has long disbanded which is a shame, it is a very _decent_ product (ha!)

Re: Descent 3 Source Code

#264

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I got so used to the inverted-y that it's the first thing I change in the game setting as I just can't play on normal settings on any FPS. I wish that inverted-y was the default for all games. I don't know when I got used to the inverted y, perhaps while playing X-wing or maybe Quake.

I genuinely have no idea how people can stand inverted Y in an FPS. It makes no sense! You're controlling the way you look, not nudging the nose of a spacecraft. I'm very thankful that it's not the default.

If i remember correctly, inverted y used to be the default even for early FPS games. The option to turn it off (opt-out) was added later. The default was inverted (opt-in) even later.

Re: Descent 3 Source Code

#265
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.

Trackpad scroll direction is the new inverted y axis.

Re: Descent 3 Source Code

#266

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/

Adding my vote for Overload. I'm not sure if it is the same team that built Descent(s) but some of them were involved in level design of the originals. I believe music composers were the same. I really enjoyed the story too, that was probably the first game I played through to the end, just to find out how the story ends. I believe the team has long disbanded which is a shame, it is a very _decent_ product (ha!)

> I'm not sure if it is the same team that built Descent(s) but some of them were involved in level design of the originals

Not the same exact team head-for-head but pretty close. Matt Toschlog and Mike Kula were both game directors on the original (and founded Parallax Software). They were the game directors of Overload as well and they're the founders of Revival, the studio that made the game.

Re: Descent 3 Source Code

#267

My wife and I met on a Descent forum, our 3 sons are named for Descent friends (KoolBear, Jediluke, and Mark392), and we've attended weddings (and sadly one funeral, RIP JinX) for Descent friends. Even though I considered D3 the weakest of the Descent games, this news makes me happy. Thank you, Kevin!

Im loving the idea that one of your kids is literally named "koolbear"

Actually, “KoolBear”.

Re: Descent 3 Source Code

#268

Some friends of mine played Descent competitively, and I was amazed to learn about so-called trichording: to maximize your speed, you need to press multiple keys at the same time to travel along all 3 axes at once, e.g. forward/right/up. The best players zip around the map diagonally. I always assumed this was a bug-turned-feature, like skiing in Tribes. When I saw the repo just now, I looked for clues, but didn't sp…

AFAIK a similar thing worked in in lots of shooters: running diagonally by strafing and going forward gave you sqrt(x^2 + y^2) speed probably because of a design oversight (and because running in each direction was equally fast). In Descent you just added up/down for another axis, which gave you a speed of about 1.7x compared to forward only.

In Descent 2 and 3 you also had the "afterburner" which gave a speed boost forward, but it had limited (albeit quickly recharging) energy, and the speed boost it gave you was greatest at 100% energy and effectiveness dropped as remaining energy dropped towards 0%. So people learned to pulsate it multiple times per second so that it would recharge between the fraction-of-a-second uses and keep at ~95% all the time instead of quickly dropping to low figures.

So if you wanted to go really fast you'd both run diagonally in three dimensions and keep pulsating the afterburner multiple times per second.

Re: Descent 3 Source Code

#269

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.

The reason is because 6dof games tend to have really difficult skill expression around movement and positioning.

With any 3d game it becomes a bit of a circle-strafe fight. With space and 6dof games, it becomes a flight simulator fight, which is an intense genre.

Additionally it removes some verticality from levels. IF EVERYTHING is accessible, it removes choices around taking the high ground / sneaking through the low ground.

I agree they are cool games, but they have some quirks that are not everyone's cup of tea.

Re: Descent 3 Source Code

#270

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Adding my vote for Overload. I'm not sure if it is the same team that built Descent(s) but some of them were involved in level design of the originals. I believe music composers were the same. I really enjoyed the story too, that was probably the first game I played through to the end, just to find out how the story ends. I believe the team has long disbanded which is a shame, it is a very _decent_ product (ha!)

> I'm not sure if it is the same team that built Descent(s) but some of them were involved in level design of the originals Not the same exact team head-for-head but pretty close. Matt Toschlog and Mike Kula were both game directors on the original (and founded Parallax Software). They were the game directors of Overload as well and they're the founders of Revival, the studio that made the game.

Great to know!

The game is very well made, and as far as I know they delivered everything they promised to their backers (it was on Kickstarter). I bought the game (on PC AND on XBox) and left positive review on Steam. Hopefully they're working on something else that's just as awesome!

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