Tips to get D3 working on modern systems

[Sal]

1. When starting the game and going through the initial setup, click on the Video tab to bring up a device selection. Check OpenGL and uncheck Direct3D and 3Dfx Glide, then click the Scan for the Selected Video Devices button. Performing this step will allow the settings from your video card's control panel to be applied in-game.

2. Click on the Speed tab. Click on the drop down tab and select Very High. Auto-detect doesn't work right on modern systems.

3. If you plan on playing multiplayer games, make sure to update your network settings on the Network tab.

4. When you are done click OK and then you can launch the game with the Play button.

NOTE: If you get an OpenGL warning, ignore it. Modern video cards are much more compatible with OpenGL than when D3 originally came out.

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Addendum:

By default, resolution options will be limited. There's also a very restrictive FPS cap. You can fix these issues with command line switches.

-framecap <fps> Caps the framerate to the FPS specified. The default, oddly, is 50 FPS! Go ahead and set this to 999 if you don't want a cap.

-width <width> Sets the screen resolution to the specified width, if possible.

-height <height> Sets the screen resolution to the specified height, if possible.

-aspect <value> Specifies the screen aspect ratio for widescreen displays. 16:9 displays, such as 1920x1080, should use a value of 1.78.

-vsync Turns on vertical sync to prevent screen tearing.

[Wezilla]

THANK YOU

What I did under misc command ( -width 1920 -height 1080 ) and in gameplay press + till full screen and OpenGL

WARNING D3D IS TERRIBLE MESS WITH BROKEN TEXTURES.

So please use OpenGL

Everything look good in gameplay...

I even try use -aspect 1.78 for my 16:9 but that cut line on the bottom...so I don't use...with this

[Wezilla]

Now now I need xbox config I will try later :)

[Boogie]

For those who get game crashes: Try switching your graphics from D3D to OpenGL or otherwise. Sometimes it is just that (especially D3D is pretty much flawed)

[Dragon God]

Originally posted by VEX-Boogie:

For those who get game crashes: Try switching your graphics from D3D to OpenGL or otherwise. Sometimes it is just that (especially D3D is pretty much flawed)

dude ive tried everything and i still get the same error no matter what i try. this game wont work on windows 8.1 pro. i wasted money on this game and cant get any support for it

[Boogie]

Try to change the compability settings of main.exe . It is set up to Windows 95, but you may try to switch that off or to Windows XP maybe

[lostcraft]

Useful thread, thanks a bunch- interestingly I had no problem to get this running with OpenGL AND the "old voodoo settings". I have to agree that te 3DFX version looks a good bit better. Then again, I cut my shooter teeth on Descent1, so EVERY game in the series has to be considered a step up :D

[fickó]

Originally posted by lostcraft:

Useful thread, thanks a bunch- interestingly I had no problem to get this running with OpenGL AND the "old voodoo settings". I have to agree that te 3DFX version looks a good bit better. Then again, I cut my shooter teeth on Descent1, so EVERY game in the series has to be considered a step up :D

I don't know, I vastly prefer the look of software rendered Descent 1 over the look of Descent 3, especially the cockpit - the 2D view in Descent 1 and 2 looks great, whereas the polygon mess we get in Descent 3 just looks blocky and weird.

[Madd the Sane]

This was at the time where 3D acceleration was fairly new, so hi-poly models would choke even the most powerful cards.

[fickó]

Originally posted by Madd the Sane:

This was at the time where 3D acceleration was fairly new, so hi-poly models would choke even the most powerful cards.

Yeah, that's the issue though, they should've stuck with sprites until computers and GPU's were powerful enough to do a better job with polygons. As it was, they (along with most other developers) switched to something that looked inferior, only because it was the hot new thing. Descent 1 and 2 used polygons in a more thoughtful manner, for the robots and other items that made sense that they were blocky, while using 2D sprites for the items were polygons just couldn't provide as much detail.

[Dreamer]

Maybe some help you can find here.

http://www.descentforum.de/commandline.htm

Simply let it translate to your native language. A lot of useable startswitches are described there.

C U in da mines :)

[DataSchmuck]

I downloaded the nglide wrapper, selected the 3dfx glide video rendered in the launcher, and set the misc launch options to -height 1440 -width 2560 -aspect 1.78
When I load up a savegame, the game goes back to 640x480, 4:3, filling the vertical of my monitor but not the horizontal, but the aspect is correct (everything is squished.) I can raise the res to 1600x1200 in the in game menu, but its still 4x3 and squished, unless I get rid of the aspect commandline then its just 4x3.

If I use openGL with the commandlines, it all works perfectly (after hitting the plus key a few times to zoom it in), but I really like the look of the 3dfx glide better. has anyone had success getting high res 16x9 correct aspect using the wrapper?

I have an EVGA GTX780

Heres what it looks like[imgur.com]

[fickó]

I haven't really played around with nglide much, but doesn't it set the resolution on it's own, ignoring whatever resolution the game says it uses? At least I know that the Tomb Raider games on GOG that use nglide through DosBox are set to use 640x480 according to the game, but actually render at the screen's native resolution.
If you own any of those games on GOG (I think Carmageddon 1 and 2 on GOG also use nglide) you could try looking through their settings and see if they do something differently?

[DataSchmuck]

Well I just found out there is an nglide configurator that lets you specify the resolution and aspect ratio. That fixed my problem.

Unfortunatley when using glide on surafce areas of the game I get lower FPS and horrible audio stuttering. it goes away if I go back inside. I do not have this problem when using openGL or Direct3d. But OpenGL looks like poop (compared to glide) and Direct3d has all kinds of graphical glitches.

[Madd the Sane]

I wouldn't be surprised if you could only pass so much to Glide before it started misbehaving, and the slowdown is needed so the graphics don't break.

They are working on updating Descent 3, so hopefully a future update will use better graphics on OpenGL and/or Direct3D. As well as adding OpenAL/surround-sound audio support.

[Glenacius K]

Why can't I seem to be able to map the triggers and stick movement on the 360 controller?