0 ABOUT THE PROGRAM AND THE MANUAL
Devil
is a program with which you can modify or create levels for the game DESCENT 1
and 2 from Parallax (marketed by Interplay). You can create new levels with it
and change the original levels. Devil only works with the commercial Descent
versions and not with the shareware versions.
Because the whole program is absolutely free, I naturally undertake no
guarantees whatsoever. You should save your level more than just every now and
then, since Devil sometimes crashes (I hope by now not too often). Whenever
this happens, and it is possible to somehow reach the mailing list by e-mail,
please do so. Send an e-mail to the mailing list describing how the error can
be reproduced, in order that Devil can become fault-free(r) over time.
This manual should help with the not-so-simple task of using Devil. The program
is already rather complex and has many more or less easily understandable
functions. I would advise those of you who really want to build Descent levels,
to scan through the manual at least once. It is certainly recommended that you
read the manual itself in parallel with program familiarization. (Otherwise the
whole thing is - I believe - somewhat dry ;-). The chapters "Basics for
Level-Builders", "The Window system" and "Basic functions" provide the basic
instructions which are required for Devil operation - the rest of the manual
can rather be used for later reference.
During the writing of this manual I assumed that the reader has already played
Descent more than once and is familiar with the game.
When Devil is started the first time, a small menu appears, with which you can
configure Devil. Here you must specify the graphics driver and the directories
for Devil and Descent 1 and 2 (if applicable) and you can specify whether Devil
should be configured for Descent 1 or Descent 2. The difference between the two
configurations is as follows: In Descent 1 mode only Descent 1 levels can be
loaded and saved. In Descent 2 mode both Descent 1 and 2 levels can be loaded,
but only Descent 2 levels can be saved (i.e. Descent 1 levels are automatically
converted). Seeing that the conversion of Descent 1 levels is only partially
possible because Descent 2 does not contain all the Descent 1 textures, the
non-existent textures are replaced by similar ones. For Descent 2 mode, Devil
requires a minimum of the `Medium' installation of Descent 2.
The menu also has the option to change the resolution and to test the specified
graphics driver. You can invoke this menu at any time by starting Devil with
the /CONFIG parameter.
With Devil - as with most GNU-C programs which are compiled with DJGPP - a
warning is issued by heuristic virus-scanners. Devil (D.EXE) is not infected
with a virus. Normal virus scanning (which does not attempt to detect unknown
viruses) should not report a virus in Devil.