Planet Descent

Community => Mess Hall => Topic started by: karx-elf-erx on July 28, 2011, 04:03:53 AM

Title: [NEWS] D2X-XL v1.15 Retrospect
Post by: karx-elf-erx on July 28, 2011, 04:03:53 AM

D2X-XL v1.15 is around for quite a while now, having gathered over 200 entries in its changelog, and so I thought I write a little retrospect, bringing its main features back into memory. So here's the major additions and improvements v1.15 has brought:

• Anaglyph stereoscopic rendering
• Support for three different player ship types
• Vastly improved lightmaps
• Realtime glow
• Rain and snow particle fx
• External tracker support via XML queries
• Improved level building and modding support (directed exits, mission configs)
• Shockwave effect w/ frame postprocessing
• Much improved explosions with a gorgeous shrapnel effect
• Improved RADAR
• Particles are handled more efficiently
• The game runs much better on low end machines
• Improved shadow rendering creating soft shadows
• Better collision handling

Besides these improvements, roughly 300 bug fixes have contributed to making D2X-XL a lot more stable and offer a smooth gaming experience.

I can seeeee you!
(http://www.descent2.de/images/screenshots/d2x-xl-screens12_1.jpg)

The first pico second of a thermonuclear explosion:
(http://www.descent2.de/images/screenshots/d2x-xl-screens15_2.jpg)

No, this isn't Descent 3!
(http://www.descent2.de/images/screenshots/d2x-xl-screens16_2.jpg)

The firy blossom of destruction:
(http://www.descent2.de/images/screenshots/d2x-xl-screens19_4.jpg)

Title: Re: [NEWS] D2X-XL v1.15 Retrospect
Post by: Crash on July 28, 2011, 04:37:22 AM

It looks lovely. Can I ask, how did you make the cockpit and all the weapon icons high-resolution when, presumably, they were pretty blocky (640x480 or whatever) bitmaps originally.

Title: Re: [NEWS] D2X-XL v1.15 Retrospect
Post by: Kaiaatzl on July 28, 2011, 04:38:29 AM

I love D2X-XL.
But I hate fusion hulks.

Title: Re: [NEWS] D2X-XL v1.15 Retrospect
Post by: karx-elf-erx on July 28, 2011, 05:02:04 AM

Crash,

I just loaded the standard cockpit bitmap into Paintshop Pro, resized it to a good, big size, and smoothed it. That makes it look better even at high resolutions. The other two cockpits are custom cockpits from Pumo Mines and The Enemy Within.

The weapon icons are just resized and smoothed by OpenGL.

Title: Re: [NEWS] D2X-XL v1.15 Retrospect
Post by: Crash on July 28, 2011, 05:21:41 AM

In realtime (for the weapons)? - Comes out bloody well that way.

Title: Re: [NEWS] D2X-XL v1.15 Retrospect
Post by: karx-elf-erx on July 28, 2011, 05:44:39 AM

Of course in realtime. OpenGL does all texture filtering stuff in realtime.

Title: Re: [NEWS] D2X-XL v1.15 Retrospect
Post by: Crash on July 28, 2011, 06:27:43 AM

No, I appreciate that, I just wasn't sure if maybe you had some image editor that used OpenGL somehow rather than making the game do it.
Was just a bit surprised that realtime upscaling would do such a nice job.