Topic: Descent I and II multi-player

[Jayman]

I'm playing Descent I (levels of the would) and II (vertigo) on dos box 0.74 (installed on 0.73) and I'm looking for some one to play with on a multi-player server.

hopefully, people will see this and we'll have a bunch of servers to play on

[SaladBadger]

You'll have a better chance of finding players if you use dxx-rebirth instead of the original games in Dosbox.

[Kaiaatzl]

Or you could use D2X-XL (www.descent2.de).
It depends whether you want a totally classic Descent II experience or something more like a D4.

[Matthew]

Does anyone know if D1/2 (or 3) support joining servers via domain name? IE redirecting a subdomain to the IP:port of the server?

[Jayman]

Or you could use D2X-XL (www.descent2.de).
It depends whether you want a totally classic Descent II experience or something more like a D4.

that's why I use dos box + the installer crashed on my win xp so d2x-xl never fully functioned. I stuck with dos box after that experience.


P.S due to the way dos box emulates ipx (witch can be read about at http://www.dosbox.com/wiki/Connectivity) I want to connect to a server i have at my house how would i get the ip of that (I have a win 7 pc).

[SaladBadger]

If D2X-XL crashes on you, try using dxx-rebirth instead.

[Scyphi]

Yeah, D2X-XL, while great in it's own right, can be very hard on the CPU, and some computers simply do not have the computing power to run it.

Rebirth is better, as it is more or less original Descent tweaked to run on an XP (and up) operating system.

[karx-elf-erx]

Jayman,

the D2X-XL is a self extracting rar file, so if it crashed for you, the problem is most likely your computer (unless you want to blame WinRAR for a broken self extractor).
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Scyphi,

it is true: D2X-XL can be very hard on your CPU system - if you chose settings your system cannot handle, like per pixel lighting, coronas or smoke. Actually it runs just as well as D2X-Rebirth when properly setup while looking better (imo). There are tweak guides and skilled D2X-XL users on my forum who can help people experiencing performance problems with D2X-XL.

I am not gonna comment a lot on your remark that "Rebirth is better", just so much: You can install two separate programs for playing D1 and D2, or you can install a single one that you can make Descent look just as retro with if you wish and that offers too many improvements over Rebirth (not just in the graphics department) to list them here, is updated regularly, is well documented and has solid support by expert users.

Actually the question whether to use XL or Rebirth rather seems to be a question of "who do I want to follow" or "what do my peers use" than of "which is the technically most convincing solution". I am not looking for followers though and you will find a very active and enthusiast D2X-XL community that is constantly breathing new input into the game on my forum. Just look at blarget's and firebingo's current efforts in producing new high quality robot models for the game, Yokelassence's stunning new levels, or DarkFlameWolf and Ben K who are currently building missions particularly for D2X-XL.

Let me conclude with stating that if it hadn't been deliberately torpedoed, XL and Rebirth could communicate using a common networking protocol which would at least diminish the problem of finding enough participants for D1 or D2 multiplayer games.
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InsanityBringer,

(humor warning) I doubt any computer program ever crashed on anybody unless a CD it was stored on dropped on someone. Or is that one of your sinister plots to bring insanity to this place?

[Matthew]

Or do what I do and install all 3

[Scyphi]

Karx, you misunderstand, if I were to choose which I would prefer to use, it would be D2X-XL all the way. When I said Rebirth was better, I meant for lower end systems that struggle to run D2X-XL. For instance, my laptop won't even run D2X-XL (and I blame the laptop's not-so-great video card for that and not the program), so I'm more or less forced to use Rebirth on it, which is good for emulating the classic Descent style and for the computers that would typically struggle to run D2X-XL.

I will not argue the fact that D2X-XL cannot also run "classically" so to speak, as I'm sure it can (just turn off all the extras) but in my mind's eye, if you can't run D2X-XL any other way, with at least some of the extras turned on, then there isn't much point, as that's mostly what D2X-XL is all about.

And anyway, since I know you're likely to bring it up, I can't even get D2X-XL to boot up on my laptop, so adjusting it to preform nicely isn't too easy. True, it could probably be fixed, but I did not get the laptop to be a gaming machine, and rarely do any kind of gaming on it anyway. Therefore, it's just easier to run Rebirth.

But if I had a choice in the matter...

Also, if I ever need technical support for D2X-XL, I know exactly where to go looking for it.

[karx-elf-erx]

Well, it might have helped if you had been a bit more precise in the beginning ...

Actually D2X-XL should run on low end hardware; at least in pureD2 mode. The problem is that I don't have such hardware so I cannot find out what OpenGL functions it requests that may not be present on such computers (e.g. with Intel IGP chipsets).

You may want to try "-use_shaders 0" in d2x.ini.

And what was the last D2X-XL version you tried on your laptop?

Care to give me as exact specs as possible of your notebook?

[Scyphi]

Uh, only that it is a less than spectacular laptop, and that, like I said, I'm not too worried about (Like I said, it's not a gaming machine, nor did I ever intend it to be one).

Now, as for the copy of D2X-XL on the family computer (which hasn't worked in some months), that's a different story, but you'd have to talk to Techpro about that one.