Descentforum.DE

Thenior · Forum-Nutzer Joined: 05 Oct 2004 Posts: 5

Hi,

Several freinds and I have loved Descent 3 for a while. We used to play Parallax on Saturdays. But now that Parallax is down, we are limited to occasional LAN parties. So I went to look for a Descent 4. Orbital-inc started it, and was a few months from release, when Volition stopped them. Now Orbital-inc considers that a very touchy subject (you cannot even talk to them without them closing the topic). Now orbital's site is down. Interplay, Parallax, Outrage, and Volition have 2 year old sites. It is dying. I cannot find any modern game like Descent anymore. This is where Open Source comes in handy.

Me and a freind would like to start a Open Source Descent 4 project. I have 3D skills, and he has some programming skills. Descent used to be a huge community. We are trying to get peoples attention. We would try to get permission to use the old names (Black Shark, Dravis, Material Defender, etc.), but if not we would call it Open Descent 4, Open Pyro, Open D4, etc. We want to get a huge community helping. Can you a) Contribute to this project or b) tell me how to get the d3 Communities attention.

We currently have no web site, and the project wil not start for a while, becasue we are figuring out what engine we will use (http://www.radonlabs.de/ is the current one we like). We need a lot of awsome programmers, 3D artists and such. Begginers would be good too. We want at least 300 Devs, that way it could get done in a couple of years or so. First a Single player Campaign will be made, then Multiplayer stuff. Then a Massive Multiplayer server would be added. That way we could all play in a huge community!
Think about it, 200 pyros vs. 200 Magnums. That would be awsome!

Send your emails and replies to (of course) this Forum, and mayawerks@hotmail.com

Do_Checkor · Posted: 05.10.2004, 20:28 Post subject:

Welcome to Descentforum.DE and good luck!

I have no clue on programming stuff but if you really start making a serious project I will support you as good as I can. At the moment there is a project in progress by a company called "High Octane":

http://www.descentbb.net/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=2677

maybe you might want to check that...

Thenior · Forum-Nutzer Joined: 05 Oct 2004 Posts: 5

Thanks for the reply.

Appears High octane is making a descent like 360 degree game. we are trying to relive decent series

Do_Checkor · Posted: 06.10.2004, 12:41 Post subject:

exi · Posted: 06.10.2004, 13:32 Post subject:

Hi Thenior,
will you tell me, why you want to reinvent the wheel? We are allowed to use the D3-engine. We can build mods and levels. OK, we haven't PXO anymore, but so what? We have Vortex! What else do we want? I mean it's a high aim to make the best game even better.

Thieyoshin · Posted: 06.10.2004, 13:42 Post subject:

exi · Posted: 06.10.2004, 14:53 Post subject:

And who will pinch your balls, if you'll break the statute? One of the three companys, who haven't refreshed there web pages since 2 years?

Thenior · Forum-Nutzer Joined: 05 Oct 2004 Posts: 5

That was a rather strange reply. I am not reinventing the wheel. The fusion engine was good in it's day, but all things pass. The graphics are good, but I notice that in descent 3, I see a lot of flat faces, not modern smooth stuff. Look at this screen shot

This is the fusion engine.
Now look at the engine we will use:

That whips the Descent 3 Fusion engine. Anybody want to help? We have a first page on a webstie now: www.freewebs.com/opend4

Floyd · Posted: 06.10.2004, 18:14 Post subject:

looks good. welcome to the forum. good luck with your quest. you may want to know that descenterace from the planetdescent forums is also attempting this stunt. you should talk to him before starting something new there.
please shrink your pictures to 800x600 and about 100k each at max. thank you.

~F

Thieyoshin · Posted: 06.10.2004, 18:14 Post subject:

problem is: D3 fusion engine is Direct X 6(!!). (as far as i know)

so bump mapping,... is certainly not supported.

Thenior · Forum-Nutzer Joined: 05 Oct 2004 Posts: 5

I am not using the Fusion engine

VEX-Eagle · Posted: 06.10.2004, 20:03 Post subject:

remember... d3 is now 5 years old
the graphic is very good for that time

I think bump-mapping is supported (command line -bumped)

Zorc · Posted: 06.10.2004, 23:09 Post subject:

eagle, whats the point in still discussing the d3 engine?
it´s not going to be used. period.

Duper · Posted: 20.10.2004, 07:25 Post subject:

Yes .. Bumpmapping is supported, but only in D3D and only with certain textures. Still for it's day it rocked.

by the way, there is another company presently making a Descent type game although not titling it as a Descent. You guys do know that an attempt was made to build a D4. But it was shut down by Parallax and Interplay. Technically Parallax still exists but not as a real entity. There is a VERY nasty blood fued between the two companies and there is very little to absolutely NO chance of that changing.

Interplay still owns a large chunk of the Descent franchise and still exists in and of itself. they did NOT go out of business.

Now, don't get me wrong. I would love a descent 4. but there is a legal monolith that looms precariously over any attempt at furthering the idea. ...btw.. Red Faction was to be Descent 4. :\ oh well .. kinda glad really. RF was "just OK".

And just for the record. The Fusion engine for its day was cutting edge. No other game at that time had an outside and an inside environment. It was used as a benchmarking tool for some time along side the Q3 engine which came out about 8 months after D3 ... perhaps a bit later.