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Descent 3 FAQ
Last Updated on: 2000-09-16 01:42:21

This is where you will find useful information about Descent 3 The following are answers to some frequently asked questions about this game. Please read these before e-mailing Loki Technical Support - Chances are your question is answered here too!

1. Introduction

• 1.1 How to use this FAQ
• 1.2 Authors

2. Requirements

• 2.1 What are the system requirements for the game?
• 2.2 Does Descent3 use 3D acceleration?
• 2.3 Does Descent3 really require hardware acceleration?
• 2.4 What 3D accelerators are supported?
• 2.5 Can the game be played on all distributions of Linux?
• 2.6 Which hardware platforms are supported by Descent 3?
• 2.7 Does the game support Esound?
• 2.8 Does the game run from CD?

3. Interoperability

• 3.1 Is this game network-compatible with Windows?
• 3.2 Would it be technically possible to use the Windows Descent3 CD and then download the Linux binaries?
• 3.3 Can I use the Descent 3: Mercenary expansion pack with the Linux version of Descent 3?
• 3.4 Can I transfer my saved games and pilot files from the Windows version to the Linux version?

4. Demo

• 4.1 Where can I get the Descent 3 demo?
• 4.2 What are the system requirements? Any different from the requirements for the full commercial version?
• 4.3 Multiplayer doesn't work in the demo! I keep getting "This mission is not compatible with the selected multiplayer mode".
• 4.4 Why can't I get the Descent 3 demo to network with the Windows Descent 3 demo?
• 4.5 There's a room on the single-player level that's supposed to have fire, but it doesn't.

5. Installation

• 5.1 How do I install the game?
• 5.2 Can I load the movies on the hard drive, so that I don't need the CD mounted to see them?

6. Updates

• 6.1 Where can I download the update patches?
• 6.2 What issues are addressed by the update?
• 6.3 Are there any updates for the demo?

7. Display

• 7.1 How do I tell Descent 3 which libGL to use?
• 7.2 Why is the game running very, very slowly, and the mouse is very choppy?
• 7.3 The movies aren't playing! How can I fix this?
• 7.4 Everything is very dark! How can I fix this?
• 7.5 It just looks like random noise! How can I fix this?
• 7.6 After running the first movie, the game crashes with a "BadValue" error.
• 7.7 After the movie exits, I have sound, but the screen is blank. I'm running XFree86 4.0, is there anything I can do?

8. Sound

• 8.1 When the movies are playing, the sound skips a lot.
• 8.2 The sound stutters a lot on my Aureal sound card. Is there a fix?
• 8.3 I can't get the joystick connected to my sound card to work.

9. Networking

• 9.1 Can the Linux version connect to PXO?
• 9.2 Can you play from behind a firewall/IP masquerading/NAT?

10. Gameplay

• 10.1 Where can I get more game tips?

11. Contact

• 11.1 How do I report a bug?
• 11.2 How can I receive technical support?

1. Introduction

• 1.1 How to use this FAQ
  
  
  This FAQ allows you to navigate through the answers by category, or individually, or to view the entire FAQ at once. The full view is also suitable for printing.

  This FAQ is modelled on the Linux HOWTO documents for consistency and ease of navigation.

  
  
• 1.2 Authors
  
  
  The maintainers of the FAQ can be reached by e-mailing faqs@lokigames.com. Please send all correspondance directly related to the FAQlist tool to that address.
  
  

2. Requirements

• 2.1 What are the system requirements for the game?
  
  

  Minimum system requirements
  Linux kernel version 2.2.X Pentium 200 or faster with 3D accelerator card 32 mb RAM required (64 MB recommended) 8-speed CD-ROM drive glibc 2.1 Video card capable of 640x480 resolution		XFree86 version 3.3.5 or newer at 16bpp OSS compatible sound card Joystick is optional, but recommended Hard disk drive with at least 500 mb of space Direct TCP/IP and Parallax Online supported for network play

  A 3D accelerator is required.

  
  
• 2.2 Does Descent3 use 3D acceleration?
  
  
  Yes. In fact, the game is practically unplayable without hardware acceleration.
  
  
• 2.3 Does Descent3 really require hardware acceleration?
  
  
  Yes. There is no software renderer included, and MesaGL, while solid in software mode, simply cannot render the game fast enough. Think of it as "seconds per frame" instead of "frames per second".
  
  
• 2.4 What 3D accelerators are supported?
  
  
  The short answer is "anything that works under Linux." In other words, if you have a working 3D accelerator already, it will almost certainly work just fine with Descent3.

  That being said, in-house we have run Descent3 successfully on all the major board types, and almost every generation of chipset, and the beta-testers have covered an even wider range of hardware.

  
  
• 2.5 Can the game be played on all distributions of Linux?
  
  
  We spent a significant amount of development time ensuring that Descent 3 works properly with all major distributions.

  Because the game is designed for glibc 2.1, libc5 and glibc 2.0 users may need to upgrade.

  
  
• 2.6 Which hardware platforms are supported by Descent 3?
  
  
  Descent 3 is currently only available for X86 Linux. We are waiting on working 3D drivers under Linux for other hardware platforms (e.g. PPC) before investigating the patches to support those platforms.
  
  
• 2.7 Does the game support Esound?
  
  
  Descent3 has native support for esound.
  
  
• 2.8 Does the game run from CD?
  
  
  The game can be installed with only a base install, which requires that the CD is mounted for access to the mission data. Loading time is increased significantly, depending on which data is on the hard drive, and which data is on the CD. During the installation, you have the option of placing any (or all) of the game data on the hard drive for better performance.

  The movies, by default, are left on the second CD.

  
  

3. Interoperability

• 3.1 Is this game network-compatible with Windows?
  
  
  For Internet gaming, yes.
  
  
• 3.2 Would it be technically possible to use the Windows Descent3 CD and then download the Linux binaries?
  
  
  No, the games use slightly different data file layout, and there are some data file differences.
  
  
• 3.3 Can I use the Descent 3: Mercenary expansion pack with the Linux version of Descent 3?
  
  
  Yes. Instructions for loading the Mercenary expansion are included on the Descent 3 CD for Linux, in the file README.mercenary.
  
  
• 3.4 Can I transfer my saved games and pilot files from the Windows version to the Linux version?
  
  
  Windows Descent 3 saved game files can be transferred directly to Linux from Windows. All you need to do is copy the files from $D3HOME/savegame to ~/.loki/descent3/savegame.

  The pilot files will be recognized by the Linux version, but the control mappings do not transfer. You would be better off creating a new profile under Linux.

  
  

4. Demo

• 4.1 Where can I get the Descent 3 demo?
  
  
  The Descent 3 demo is available through our Demo Launcher (http://www.lokigames.com/products/demos.php3).
  
  
• 4.2 What are the system requirements? Any different from the requirements for the full commercial version?
  
  
  The requirements listed for the full commercial version of the game are the same as those for the demo, except that the demo requires only 75 MB of hard disk space, as opposed to 450+ for the full commercial version.

  Minimum system requirements
  Linux kernel version 2.2.X Pentium 200 or faster with 3D accelerator card 32 mb RAM required (64 MB recommended) glibc 2.1 Video card capable of 640x480 resolution		XFree86 version 3.3.5 or newer at 16bpp OSS compatible sound card Joystick is optional, but recommended Hard disk drive with at least 100 Mb of space Direct TCP/IP supported for network play

  A 3D accelerator is required.

  PXO (Parallax Online) support is not in the demo, only in the commercial release.

  
  
• 4.3 Multiplayer doesn't work in the demo! I keep getting "This mission is not compatible with the selected multiplayer mode".
  
  
  There is a small update to the original Descent3 demo, which fixes the netgame modules. It is available from ftp://ftp.lokigames.com/pub/demos/descent3/network-fix.tar.gz. To install this patch, cd into the descent3_demo directory, and un-tar the patch ('tar xvfz network-fix.tar.gz').
  
  
• 4.4 Why can't I get the Descent 3 demo to network with the Windows Descent 3 demo?
  
  
  The last Windows demo of Descent 3 used the 1.2 source, and it is incompatible with the 1.4 code base we used to build the Linux demo. Unfortunately, the Windows and Linux demos are not network compatible.

  The full Windows version (after being updated to 1.4) can be networked with the Linux demo. And, of course, the Linux demo works well with itself.

  The full versions on both platforms can play network games together.

  
  
• 4.5 There's a room on the single-player level that's supposed to have fire, but it doesn't.
  
  
  This is a known issue with the demo. It does not occur in the release version of the game.
  
  

5. Installation

• 5.1 How do I install the game?
  
  
  From the README file on the CD:

  Mount the Descent 3 CD and change the current directory to where
  it is mounted. Type 'sh setup.sh' to run the install script.
  
  e.g.  Log in as root:
    $ mount /mnt/cdrom
    $ cd /mnt/cdrom
    $ sh setup.sh
  
   YOU NEED AN OPENGL IMPLEMENTATION THAT IS AT LEAST v1.2 COMPLIANT OR A 3DFX
     VOODOO CARD. Nvidia's OpenGL implementation and Mesa are both acceptable.
  
    The list of known-to-work hardware includes (but is not limited to):
       3Dfx Voodoo, Voodoo2, Voodoo3 cards, and other variations like Banshee.
       NVidia GeForce and other TNT-based cards.
       Matrox G200/G400
       ATI Rage Pro
  
    The unwritten rule of thumb is that if your card works with Quake 3 or other
     3D hardware-accelerated games, it SHOULD work with Descent 3.
  
    You should mount the second CD-ROM to enjoy the movies in the game.
  

  
  
• 5.2 Can I load the movies on the hard drive, so that I don't need the CD mounted to see them?
  
  
  Yes. Copy the movies from the second CD's movies directory to /usr/local/games/Descent3/movies
  
  

6. Updates

• 6.1 Where can I download the update patches?
  
  
  The 1.4.0b patch is available through loki_update (http://updates.lokigames.com/).

  There is a patch for the first release of the demo. Information is available here.

  
  
• 6.2 What issues are addressed by the update?
  
  
  1.4.0a:

  • If the default libGL or user-specified libGL fails to load, 1.4.0a will try libGL.so.1 as a last resort...
  • Other minor GL tweaks.
  • The tech support number listed with --help has changed.
  • Added Jeff Slutter (Outrage) and Mark Bainter (beta tester) to the in-game credits.
  • Fix to allow Mercenary movies to play.
  • Multitexture fix: Whether the user requested multitexture extensions or not, and whether the game expected to find them or not, Descent 3 would try to load them, and would abort when it couldn't. Now Descent 3 only attempts to find the extension's symbols if needed.
  • Support for the COBRA chair. (--cobra on the command line).
  • Support for foreign keyboards. There are some 90+ keys (the SDL "world" keys) that are now available for use in Descent3.
  • The game now makes idle calls while waiting for a new CD to be inserted, so it won't eat up all available processor time.
  • Added "--timetest" and "--fastdemo" options for benchmarking.
  • Added "--tempdir" option for a few odd cases.
  • Newer SDL used, which fixes some various issues.
  • DRI-based systems no longer automatically crash.
  • Gamma support. Systems with xgamma support can change the game's brightness in the video options section off the main menu.
  • Added option to play at 1152x864 resolution. (You're welcome, Metz.)
  • Startup menu checks the rendering speed, and if it's too slow, the game aborts with a polite message explaining what's up.
  • Missions can now be placed in $HOME/.loki/descent3/missions/, and they will be detected with the other missions, and can be loaded.
  • Some people had problems with CD-ROM drives and strange directories being created. This is fixed.
  • Other minor fixes and tweaks.
  
  
• 6.3 Are there any updates for the demo?
  
  
  There is a small update to address the problem described here.
  
  

7. Display

• 7.1 How do I tell Descent 3 which libGL to use?
  
  
  If the default libGL.so is the correct library, you can launch the game with the simple:

      descent3 -G
  

  to force it into OpenGL mode using the default system library.

  If, however, that is not sufficient, or you want to try an alternate library, you will need to launch the game with:

      descent3 -g /path/to/your/preferred/libGL.so
  

  (specifying the correct path in place of the placeholder, of course)
  
  
• 7.2 Why is the game running very, very slowly, and the mouse is very choppy?
  
  
  You are probably running the game using software GL rendering. You must have your 3D card configured for hardware accelerated rendering. Updated information on supported 3D cards and drivers is available at: 3ddriverandopenglassistfaq.html
  
  
• 7.3 The movies aren't playing! How can I fix this?
  
  
  You need to mount the second CD-ROM in order to enjoy the in-game movies.

  If you have the disk space, you can load the movies onto the hard drive, as described in the question "Can I load the movies on the hard drive, so that I don't need the CD mounted to see them?".

  
  
• 7.4 Everything is very dark! How can I fix this?
  
  
  In some cases, the entire screen looks very dark, and lights shine through walls. This is known to occur with two configurations: DRI (G400, R128, and Radeon), and Utah-GLX (G400, direct mode).

  If updating your drivers to the latest version does not fix the problem, then you will need to tell Descent 3 to not use MultiTexturing. This is accomplished by running the game with --nomultitexture (e.g. "descent3 --nomultitexture").

  For the demo, you are able to set this configuration option through the demo launcher's configuration button for Descent 3.

  
  
• 7.5 It just looks like random noise! How can I fix this?
  
  
  You're probably running an older Utah-GLX snapshot in indirect mode. This was fixed in their CVS as of June 25, 2000.

  If you cannot compile this for some reason, you can work around the issue by adding --nopackedpixels to the command line (e.g. "descent3 --nopackedpixels")

  
  
• 7.6 After running the first movie, the game crashes with a "BadValue" error.
  
  
  If you are running XFree86 4.0.x (we've confirmed it on nVidia, and we've heard reports of other XFree86 4.0.x setups also having this problem), and the output looks something like:

      X Error of failed request:  BadValue (integer parameter out of range for operation)
        Major opcode of failed request:  144 (XFree86-DRI)
        Minor opcode of failed request:  9 ()
        Value in failed request:  0x35
        Serial number of failed request:  28
        Current serial number in output stream:  28
  

  then you will need to launch Descent 3 with the following command-line:

      descent3 --nocdrom
  

  This issue will be addressed in a future patch.

  
  
• 7.7 After the movie exits, I have sound, but the screen is blank. I'm running XFree86 4.0, is there anything I can do?
  
  
  We are aware of some issues with Descent 3 and XFree86 4.0.x/DRI, and we are working to address them. This will be fixed in the patch.

  In the meantime, some users have had success working around the issue by using either 'descent3 --nointro' or 'descent3 --nocdrom'.

  
  

8. Sound

• 8.1 When the movies are playing, the sound skips a lot.
  
  
  Unlike most of our other games (which typically use MPEG for the movies, a fast-to-decode algorithm), Descent 3 uses Interplay's custom movie player. Unlike some other decoders, this one drops audio frames in order to keep the audio and video in sync.

  The development team is porting the ASM decoder to Linux, which should significantly speed up the decoding. This will allow lower-powered processors to not have the sound stuttering. The new decoder will hopefully be included a future Descent 3 patch.

  In the meantime, some luck has been had by some people when they switched their X server to 16bpp mode. This decreases the amount of data being transferred for the movie's visuals, and lowers the processor level needed for full playback.

  Also, please make certain there aren't other processes consuming large amounts of CPU, as they would interfere with playback.

  
  
• 8.2 The sound stutters a lot on my Aureal sound card. Is there a fix?
  
  
  If you are running one of the Aureal cards, you will likely want to look at the Aureal Linux Hacking page (http://aureal.sourceforge.net/), which is an effort to extend the beta Aureal drivers for the various cards. These new changes improve the driver situation for those cards, and have been successful in curing sound problems for some users.

  Note: the 1.1.2 drivers have exhibited noticable problems. If you are experiencing problems with the new drivers, try 1.1.1 instead.

  
  
• 8.3 I can't get the joystick connected to my sound card to work.
  
  
  This is frequently a problem where the joystick port on the sound card has to be initialized when the driver is loaded. Please try experimentating with 'insmod device joy=port', e.g. 'insmod es1371 joy=200'. If you are experiencing this particular problem, you should consult both /usr/src/linux/Documentation/joystick.txt and the documentation for the sound card in question, as the format changes from card to card.
  
  

9. Networking

• 9.1 Can the Linux version connect to PXO?
  
  
  Yes.
  
  
• 9.2 Can you play from behind a firewall/IP masquerading/NAT?
  
  
  There should be no difficulties with this. In-house, we have successfully connected multiple people from behind a masquerading firewall to PXO at the same time, and then entered the same on-line game. However, you may need the following ports configured: UDP 2092, TCP 7170

  Of course, if you're masquerading a modem connection, you may experience severe lag due to bandwidth restrictions.

  
  

10. Gameplay

• 10.1 Where can I get more game tips?
  
  
  There are a variety of sources on the Internet. However, one place to start is the official Descent 3 FAQ (http://www.descent-3.com/faq/), which contains all sorts of useful information.
  
  

11. Contact

• 11.1 How do I report a bug?
  
  
  Please visit our publicly accessible bug database (http://fenris.lokigames.com/) and post a bug report. Be sure to first check the list of known bugs and fixes/patches.
  
  
• 11.2 How can I receive technical support?
  
  
  We support our products by e-mail (preferred) and phone. Phone support is available by calling (714) 508-2140 between the hours of 9:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. (Pacific Standard Time) Monday through Friday, except holidays.