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D2X-XL – an OpenGL modification of the classic video game Descent 2

descent2.de

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Re: D2X-XL – an OpenGL modification of the classic video game Descent 2

#42
post #31
post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

6DOF is hard to control for sure. A joystick with twist assigned to roll works well for heading, but I've never figured out how to best manage translation. Descent has some limits on how fast you can adjust pitch which can be odd for new players (some of the ports can turn those off, but purists may object)

The MS Sidewinder 3D Pro had twist to roll, throttle control for forward/backward, and a 4-way hat switch for translation (aka ‘strafing’, if we’re both taking about the same thing here). It was perfect for Descent. Edit: and Freespace!

The Space Orb was the most effective way to play D2 once you got used to it.

Re: D2X-XL – an OpenGL modification of the classic video game Descent 2

#43
post #38
post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

6DOF is hard to control for sure. A joystick with twist assigned to roll works well for heading, but I've never figured out how to best manage translation. Descent has some limits on how fast you can adjust pitch which can be odd for new players (some of the ports can turn those off, but purists may object)

One control scheme that's used nowadays is two joysticks, with one to control orientation (pitch/roll/yaw) and the other to control translation (up-down/left-right/forward-back). I usually map the left stick to translation, with twist working the up-down axis. Takes a little getting used to, but is pretty intuitive, and gives nice smooth analogue axis for all 6DOF.

Dual joystick was a setup I used with Descent but also experienced in Mechwarrior arcade. Allows for more precise control then a single joystick with hat switch. Feels weird at first though!! Controller prices were a premium back then so keeping two joysticks in good working order was uncommon if you played hard.

Re: D2X-XL – an OpenGL modification of the classic video game Descent 2

#44

On Linux, don't bother trying to compile it yourself (tons of compilation errors) [EDIT]: and wine won't run the windoze version either. ugh.

I have a version with working linux compilation and some other fixes here: https://github.com/arbruijn/d2x-xl/

Re: D2X-XL – an OpenGL modification of the classic video game Descent 2

#45
post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> And the only one where I almost always won when we did it over LAN! Me too! I'd say we should fight, but that game is to blame for my tendonitis and last time I played, I couldn't type for several days. My superpower was that I played without autoleveling and didn't get disoriented. Can't pull wacky 0g maneuvers if you've got artificial gravity weighing you down...

Yeah, I was the same way. I also used a non standard keybinding which might have a longshot at helping you. The idea was that halving strafe left and strafe right on separate fingers and similar things was wasteful. So instead I set up each of the 3 strafe dimensions on R/F, E/D, W/S, and roll on Q/A. Between that and using a joystick/trackball I could control all 6 dimensions simultaneously quite easily. So yeah no…

I use the same controls. I think they should be the standard for these games. I got my 3D sea legs in the evochron games. Once I figured out how to dogfight those games, going back to descent felt so much more natural.

Re: D2X-XL – an OpenGL modification of the classic video game Descent 2

#46
post #31
post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

6DOF is hard to control for sure. A joystick with twist assigned to roll works well for heading, but I've never figured out how to best manage translation. Descent has some limits on how fast you can adjust pitch which can be odd for new players (some of the ports can turn those off, but purists may object)

The MS Sidewinder 3D Pro had twist to roll, throttle control for forward/backward, and a 4-way hat switch for translation (aka ‘strafing’, if we’re both taking about the same thing here). It was perfect for Descent. Edit: and Freespace!

I played freespace long after its hayday. The mod loader was lovely and the mod community was still quite active. The most expansive overhaul mod had only one server that had many players. It was a full-on RP server. It wasn't for me, but it was fascinating nonetheless.

Re: D2X-XL – an OpenGL modification of the classic video game Descent 2

#48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hahahah, my brother and I used to play a lot of C&C growing up. C&C Red Alert as well. We would keep our bedroom doors open and yell at each other down the hallway. You’d always hear cursing when the dreaded “missile launch detected” sound effect was played. One of the first Zerg strats was to build pillboxes around tree areas and build multiple barracks and just pump out soldiers the whole time. Send in the red army…

Pardon me, but I seem to distinctly remember it as "a-bomb launch detected".

A-bomb prepping!

Re: D2X-XL – an OpenGL modification of the classic video game Descent 2

#49

On Linux, don't bother trying to compile it yourself (tons of compilation errors) [EDIT]: and wine won't run the windoze version either. ugh.

I have a version with working linux compilation and some other fixes here: https://github.com/arbruijn/d2x-xl/

Thank you. What is the intended build system? I see you've added empty NEWS etc files, but the configure script is still broken for me (config.log shows SDL test program fails with:

gcc: fatal error: cannot read spec file 'libgomp.spec': No such file or directory

I get further with cmake (which is not mentioned at all in the INSTALL file) but compilation still fails with:

/home/dtal/d2x-xl/audio/songs.cpp:48:29: error: narrowing conversion of '3759186702' from 'unsigned int' to 'int' [-Wnarrowing]

This a warning, not an error, so I assume the working system calls GCC with the correct flags. It would be great if you could update the documentation with working instructions.

Re: D2X-XL – an OpenGL modification of the classic video game Descent 2

#50

On Linux, don't bother trying to compile it yourself (tons of compilation errors) [EDIT]: and wine won't run the windoze version either. ugh.

You've been downvoted, but I do wonder what process leads to someone building an archive that flatly does not work. When not even the mandatory files have been created to make autogen.sh happy, you have to wonder if anyone has even actually tried to build it.
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