[ongoing] Descent DXX-Rebirth AGA (v0.57.3)

[NovaCoder]

Hi sorry mate, didn't even see these posts.

Glad someone is using my ports though

AGA version was always a bit buggy, newer RTG version should be better.

I've never tried it with the MAC data files but they are meant to be supported by DX Rebirth.

As for Descent 2, nope I never bothered because there wasn't much interest in my Descent 1 port.

Unfortunately DX Rebirth is extremely demanding and the original code is a horrible mess (like Duke Nukem 3D), a lot of these early DOS games are very poorly written (from a code maintenance perspective).

[Paulee_Bow]

Hi Nova

Was wondering whether you saw the news about Magic Carpet II being open sourced, and wanted to ask whether a port might be feasible?

[NovaCoder]

Originally Posted by xanderbeanz

Hi Nova

Was wondering whether you saw the news about Magic Carpet II being open sourced, and wanted to ask whether a port might be feasible?

No idea, I don't even remember Magic Carpet 2 getting released but I remember Magic Carpet 1. The first one would probably be okay (just).

[DamienD]

Originally Posted by NovaCoder

Hi sorry mate, didn't even see these posts.

No problem

Originally Posted by NovaCoder

Glad someone is using my ports though

AGA version was always a bit buggy, newer RTG version should be better.

Yup, using the RTG version.

Originally Posted by NovaCoder

I've never tried it with the MAC data files but they are meant to be supported by DX Rebirth.

There are those issues I reported; shame.

Didn't actually try in the Windows "DX Rebirth" though...

Originally Posted by NovaCoder

As for Descent 2, nope I never bothered because there wasn't much interest in my Descent 1 port.

Unfortunately DX Rebirth is extremely demanding and the original code is a horrible mess (like Duke Nukem 3D), a lot of these early DOS games are very poorly written (from a code maintenance perspective).

Alrighty

Originally Posted by xanderbeanz

Hi Nova

Was wondering whether you saw the news about Magic Carpet II being open sourced, and wanted to ask whether a port might be feasible?

We don't even have Magic Carpet on the Amiga; think it got cancelled late in the Amiga's lifespan.

[Paulee_Bow]

Originally Posted by DamienD

No problem


Yup, using the RTG version.


There are those issues I reported; shame.

Didn't actually try in the Windows "DX Rebirth" though...


Alrighty


We don't even have Magic Carpet on the Amiga; think it got cancelled late in the Amiga's lifespan.

I know, wouldn’t it be cool to have Magic Carpet II, the code has all been reverse engineered so it just needs a genius or two to make it work!

[NovaCoder]

Originally Posted by DamienD

Also read here:


Downloaded, added to the "D1X_Rebirth" folder but when starting the game I get the following after the 2 initial screens:

Doe this work with the full Mac version?

I just updated this old port to add support for MIDI playback, running from the Shell and also added a window mode.

I thought I'd try out your MAC data files and also followed your instructions to download the SFX archive and I'm happy to report that it all works fine for me with the updated version, not sure if you just had a setup issue or if it's just somehow working now in the new version

[Estrayk]

I don't really know how to say this without offending Novacoder because I admire and enjoy his ports.
I have several Amigas but I only have one with RTG, a vampire v1200. The truth is that this port never worked very well for me in fps in the vampire's RTG, I do not know if with another RTG alternative it will be better or is it some incompatibility with the vampire core but this port only works for me at 5fps/7fps. (for example the old Adescent goes to 60fps) https://aminet.net/package/game/shoot/ADescent

Is it possible that there is some incompatibility with the vampire?

Thanks Novacoder.

[NovaCoder]

Originally Posted by Estrayk

I don't really know how to say this without offending Novacoder because I admire and enjoy his ports.
I have several Amigas but I only have one with RTG, a vampire v1200. The truth is that this port never worked very well for me in fps in the vampire's RTG, I do not know if with another RTG alternative it will be better or is it some incompatibility with the vampire core but this port only works for me at 5fps/7fps. (for example the old Adescent goes to 60fps) https://aminet.net/package/game/shoot/ADescent

Is it possible that there is some incompatibility with the vampire?

Thanks Novacoder.

Hi mate, it's okay I won't be offended...this is not one of my favorite ports

I don't think it's a Vampire incompatibility problem, it's just that Descent Rebirth is very demanding.

I know this port is very slow but it's not my Amiga code that's the problem but the actual port itself. Descent Rebirth wasn't developed for such slow CPU's (it's designed for a modern x86). I could maybe try and optimize it a bit but I really don't have time these days for that kind of work.

What Descent Rebirth offers over the old ports like ADescent is support for high resolution textures, MAC data files, 16 bit SFX and OGG/WAV MIDI music

Maybe one day the Amiga FPGA computers will get fast enough to play this port

[jabybau]

I just tested / configured the new version of Descent that Novacoder uploaded to Aminet on the 9/6/2021.

All good except that you can't input text when trying to create a new player.

[NovaCoder]

Originally Posted by jabybau

I just tested / configured the new version of Descent that Novacoder uploaded to Aminet on the 9/6/2021.

All good except that you can't input text when trying to create a new player.

Yep I noticed that bug too

All good, thanks for letting me know (already fixed)

[Glen M]

Sorry to dig out an old thread but I'm having some difficulty getting this game to launch. its the RTG version I'm trying to use and I have the hog and pig files in the folder.

Running snoopdos I get the following:


Any advice as to why it stops?

[NovaCoder]

Originally Posted by Glen M

Sorry to dig out an old thread but I'm having some difficulty getting this game to launch. its the RTG version I'm trying to use and I have the hog and pig files in the folder.

Running snoopdos I get the following:


Any advice as to why it stops?

Where have you installed the game, which driver/folder?

What OS are you running?

It should work fine, do you have a WinUAE setup handy to test with?

This port is ridiculously demanding BTW, it will be dog slow on a real Amiga. If you are using a Vampire or piStorm you might get it to move

[Glen M]

Originally Posted by NovaCoder

Where have you installed the game, which driver/folder?

What OS are you running?

It should work fine, do you have a WinUAE setup handy to test with?

This port is ridiculously demanding BTW, it will be dog slow on a real Amiga. If you are using a Vampire or piStorm you might get it to move

The game is installed on the root of DH1 in its own folder D1X-Rebirth (or whatever the default is I just extracted the LHA to DH1). Drive DH1: is labelled Files:

OS is 3.9

I'm running it on my A500+ with pistorm/emu68 so I'm hoping that's enough grunt to push through it.

I do have WinUAE setup but I don't have an RTG WinUAE setup, I suppose I could sort that out for testing.

One thing that's come to my mind though is what screen mode is the game looking for? It took me a while to figure out that I must have the screen modes setup to get Duke3D to run. I appreciate thats maybe common knowledge to some but me never having used RTG before, its a bit of a learning curve.

[NovaCoder]

Yes that might be the problem, I don't remember what mode it tries to open by default... maybe 320*240 or something similar. There should be a configuration file which you can edit to change it. Come to think of it, just edit the configuration file and set it to run in a window on the desktop and it won't even need to open a screen.


Does it produce an error.txt file in the Descent folder?

Only other thing to check would be your AHI installation but it sounds like you already have that working for my other games.

This port does use an FPU so you will need to enable that on the pistorm.

[tomcat666]

D1x Rebirth is working really well. Only the DEMO files don't seem to work with it for some reason, if you might check it NovaCoder ? Also checked the latest version uploaded to the aminet

You can find them here and put them in demos dir:

http://pc.sux.org/tomcat/ADescentDemos.zip

Would be nice to be able to replay the demos, loads of them on the net too.

[NovaCoder]

Demos seem to be working here?

I've never tried them myself

[ Show youtube player ]

[tomcat666]

Originally Posted by NovaCoder

Demos seem to be working here?

I've never tried them myself

[ Show youtube player ]

Yeah, for some reason (found the reason - if you save the demo yourself in your version of Descent (with F5) then you can play it back OK, possibly some endian problem somewhere ?). I am using demos from the actual Game CD. They work in the other Descent port ok. Check the zip.

[NovaCoder]

Originally Posted by tomcat666

Yeah, for some reason (found the reason - if you save the demo yourself in your version of Descent (with F5) then you can play it back OK, possibly some endian problem somewhere ?). I am using demos from the actual Game CD. They work in the other Descent port ok. Check the zip.

Yep prob just and endian issue then...

Okay I've had a quick look, DXX-Rebirth does allow you to swap the endianess of the demo files from the main menu but it seems to be buggy in the 68k build, no idea why.

[derSammler]

Didn't know this exist until I found it by chance yesterday. Tried it out with the 1.5 PC data files and the ogg music archive (SC-55) from the official website. Runs perfectly smooth on the PiStorm. With music and all. How great.

[NovaCoder]

Cool, glad to hear you like it. It's one of my hidden ports

You'll discover Dune 2 RTG next, one of my favourite ports