This project is dedicated to two of the most impressive First-Person Shooters of the nineties:DXX-Rebirth is a Source Port of the Descent and Descent 2 Engines for Windows, Mac OS, Linux (most *NIX systems), offering OpenGL graphics and effects, advanced Multiplayer, many improvements and new features.
Descent and Descent 2 are pretty old games so you usually run into problems running it on more recent Hardware and Operating Systems. DXX-Rebirth will also take care about this for you.
It’s Open Source, it’s Multiplatform!
Still DXX-Rebirth is no clone. Our Philosophy is to bring these games to the new millenium, keep ‘em alive – reborn. It’s our desire to maintain the original Feeling and Gameplay we all love so much.In short: If you love these games and if you want to play them, you came to the right place.If you want to know more, read about the Project Details and its Features or start right away and Download now!
Features:
- Plays Descent and Descent 2 and all their AddOns and third-party levels.
- DXX-Rebirth runs on your favourite Operating System. We officially support Linux (and other *NIX), Mac OS (9/X) and Windows (2000, XP, Vista, 7). Still the code can be compiled on many other systems as well.
- OpenGL provides a fast and smooth rendering – even on low-end systems. Optionally you can toggle several effects like Transparency, Texture Filtering, FSAA, etc.
- Thanks to SDL, a wide palette of Joysticks are supported. Also you can use more Joysticks, buttons and axes than you can ever operate in your state of evolution.
- If you prefer steering your Pyro with a mouse, you will not have the problem that the movement becomes slow in high game speed.
- Joystick, Keyboard and Mouse can be used simultaneously.
- The games can display all resolutions and aspects supported by your Monitor, including an option for VSync.
- Besides MIDI and CD-Audio (Redbook), you can play your own custom Music from your Harddrive or a separate AddOns.
- Both games can utilize special AddOn packs to replace or expand the original game content.
- Multiplayer via UDP protocol provides a fast and easy-to-use LAN and Online action. This includes reliable communication causing less glitches due to lost packages.
- Multiplayer via IPX protocol lets you play against players still using the MS-DOS version of the game.
- The ingame Demo-recording system has been improved. Demos are less glitchy and smaller while still still being backwards-compatible to earlier versions of the games.
- Higher game speed will not cause glitches such as unacceptable fast homing projectiles, incredible high damage caused by several collisions or Fusion cannon, etc.
- Player files, Savegames, Demos and Missions from DOS-Versions of the games can freely be used in DXX-Rebirth and vice versa.
- Even more …
Descent is a 3D first person shooter that takes place in the distant future. The PTMC (Post Terran Mining Corporation) owns a lot of mines, spread all over planets in our solar system. Somehow all the mining robots become infected with a computer virus and took the human workers hostage. Your job is to infiltrate the mines, clean out the robots, rescue any hostages you find, and lastly destroy the infected mines by destroying its reactor. You control a small anti-grav vessel called a Pyro-GX, your only hope in this metallic nightmare.
Descent was developed back in 1995 by Parallax Software and published by Interplay. It was a milestone in computer-gaming because it was the first game to truly take advantage of all three dimensions in the virtual space and had enemies that were not simple 2D sprites, as in Doom, but real 3D polygon models.
The sequel.
In 1996 Interplay released the second part of the successful saga. Developed by Parallax again, Descent 2 was one of best games in that year.
This time, your job is it to clean up the PTMC deep space mines outside the solar system. There the player encountered over 30 new, deadly robots in 30 new mines with new textures. The Gameplay was the same as known from Descent because it uses the same engine.
As the game is already a real old-timer, it has – like Descent, too – a huge and strong community full of fans who love the saga and still play it as on the first day.
The Source.
1997 and 1998 the Source code of Descent and Descent 2 was released by PARALLAX under the flag of a non-commercial Open Source license. As a result, LDescent, D1X (Descent 1 eXtended) and D2X (Descent 2 eXtended) were developed. These initially introduced sound output via SDL, OpenGL rendering, UDP for Multiplayer and many overall improvements to the original games.
However the development of LDescent stopped when D1X came out and D1X itself fell asleep some day and D2X followed later on.
But it’s the nature of Open Source that the torch will be passed and never be extinguished…
The Rebirth.
In September 2005 I started the write some small installer scripts for some older Linux binaries of the latest versions of D1X and D2X. Pretty fast I noticed that with the Source I had more possibilities I could ever imagined.
As Linux-user and enthusiast of the Open Source-movement it was only a logical step the provide my work to everyone loving Descent and Descent 2 as much as I do.
I had no experience about programming but I had the “my way or the highway”-attitude. So I learned and in January 2006 I provided my very own binaries of D1X and D2X for Linux and Windows.
While not having it’s own features or improvements, I now had my own ports of the games:
D1X-Rebirth – for Descent
D2X-Rebirth – for Descent 2
Together they form the DXX-Rebirth project.
The Evolution.
As time went by, I worked a lot on DXX-Rebirth and a lot changed. While still maintaining my own Philosophy about the original Feeling of the games, I introduced new features, fixed old glitches and little annoyances and as well cleaned up a lot of the old code. Some helping hands joined the team and enrich DXX-Rebirth with their own skills and ideas.
And this process still goes on – it always will – since finished Software is dead Software. The world of IT is a fast-paced and we keep the project on track.
The Technology.
To support a lot of Hardware and maintaining a portable code base, a lot needs to be done.
Therefor, we use the the full potential of Open Source to provide a reliable and stable piece of Software.
Screenshots.
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