D2X-XL 1.9.19 review

D2X-XL is a Descent 2 OpenGL port to Linux. It is an open source project and has undergone a lot of enhancements compared to Desce

License: GPL (GNU General Public License) File size: 0K Developer: Dietfrid Mali

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D2X-XL is a Descent 2 OpenGL port to Linux.

It is an open source project and has undergone a lot of enhancements compared to Descent 2.

Yet, as Descent 2 is a pretty old game, further development has slowed down, and there are a few issues - some still stemming from the original Descent 2 - that have never been adressed or solved in D2X.

As I still like Descent 2 pretty much, I was always looking for a way to get rid of the things that plagued me most in Descent 2. Getting hold of the D2X source files and being able to create a MS Visual C++ 6 project for D2X finally enabled me to fix these annoyances.

Although D2X-XL contains a lot of enhancements and new features, it is still fully backwards compatible to every other Descent 2 version and particularly to D2_Win98 and d2_3dfx (which constitute the reference for every other D2 version).

As many fixes simply restore features of the original Descent 2 that were missing in D2X (like availability of all cockpit views, or working mouse steering), it is even closer to them than D2X itself.

Keeping full backwards compatibility is my concern, and where I break it, it happens accidentally and will be fixed as soon as I notice it, or get notified of it.

Here are some key features of "D2X XL":
Colored lighting and lightmap support
Full CTF mode
Entropy multiplayer game mode
UDP/IP multiplayer code and tracker support
Automatic mission download
In-level teleports
Cameras and monitors
Speed boosts ("wind tunnels")
Screen resolution up to 1600x1200
All cockpit views available in all resolutions
Mission folder with sub directories to allow for improved mission file management
Support for playing D1 missions

Requirements:
Graphics accelerator
original game data.

What's New in This Release:
Fixed: D2X-XL levels had no colored light any more
New: Added shadow proof models for all Descent 1 levels up to and including level 7 to d2x-xl.hog