Expack3 wrote:

You may have already done this, but have you tried running Descent 3 via its DirectX renderer?

Yup! That DID stop those changes from happening, but the framerate was terrible. x_x;

Gemini000 wrote:

Expack3 wrote:

You may have already done this, but have you tried running Descent 3 via its DirectX renderer?

Yup! That DID stop those changes from happening, but the framerate was terrible. x_x;

Two things I can recommend for that: first, try checking the checkbox for "Fast video memory access" under the DirectX tab. This option, when checked, allows faster access to locked surfaces (I only know the layman's explanation, sorry); however, the reason this isn't checked by default is the feature isn't 100% reliable. Thus, it's one of those "compatibility unknown until tried" settings.

Second, try using the latest WIP version. In my experience, the unstable builds sometimes really are the best in dgVoodoo2's case.

If all else fails, try asking around in the VOGONS dgVoodoo subform (ignore the name, it does cover dgVoodoo2). Someone might know how to get the framerate up to reasonable levels, or Dege, dgVoodoo2's creator, might need to make some tweaks and include them in a new WIP version.

Expack3 wrote:

Two things I can recommend for that: first, try checking the checkbox for "Fast video memory access" under the DirectX tab. This option, when checked, allows faster access to locked surfaces (I only know the layman's explanation, sorry); however, the reason this isn't checked by default is the feature isn't 100% reliable. Thus, it's one of those "compatibility unknown until tried" settings.

I did indeed try that with no success. I'm pretty sure the problems I'm encountering with Direct3D support is because of Windows 10, not because of dgVoodoo2. :P

Expack3 wrote:

Second, try using the latest WIP version. In my experience, the unstable builds sometimes really are the best in dgVoodoo2's case.

That, I will admit, I didn't try, but I spent nearly 10 hours trying to come up with a viable recording solution and now that I have, I'm not really wanting to go back and test MORE things, especially since if I don't want to record OpenGL through DXWnd just plain ol' works better.

OH, not to mention, Descent 3 has a bug which prevents 1280x960 from working right in Glide mode, and wouldn't you know it, that's EXACTLY the resolution I want to run the game at! (I was running 1600x1200 for the video capture, squished into a 1280x960 window.)

Gemini000 wrote:

[snip] but I spent nearly 10 hours trying to come up with a viable recording solution and now that I have, I'm not really wanting to go back and test MORE things, especially since if I don't want to record OpenGL through DXWnd just plain ol' works better.

Fair enough. Hopefully I was of some help nonetheless. 😀

Gemini000 wrote:

Ancient DOS Games Filler #65 - Descent 3 is online!

My memory of this game is that the controls were way too slippery. The level design wasn't nearly as interesting as the previous games. The train level was a nightmare. The combat felt messy in the new environments. And while I could still enjoy the first 2, this one seems more like work to play through now.

Another 6DOF game in development that wasn't mentioned is Geocore.

SKARDAVNELNATE wrote:

My memory of this game is that the controls were way too slippery. The level design wasn't nearly as interesting as the previous games. The train level was a nightmare. The combat felt messy in the new environments. And while I could still enjoy the first 2, this one seems more like work to play through now.

You can actually adjust several sensitivity and ramping values so it's possible to get rid of that "slipperiness" in the controls, although I never really had an issue with it. And yeah, with the levels being so big sometimes it does make you just wish the level would finally be over.

...and I will agree on the subway section. That was by far the worst idea they had. :P

That's funny, because I actually liked Descent 3 over Descent 2 because the outdoor\indoor environments and the music really sold it. The AI also is actually challenging for once... albeit a bit too challenging.

Ancient DOS Games Filler #66 - EarthSiege 2 is online!

TBH... I almost didn't want to stop playing this game once I had it working again. XD

EarthSiege 2 is the definitive example of how to make a good sequel. It took everything the first game had and made all of it BETTER. The graphics are better, the music is better, the sound effects are better, the controls are better, there's more missions, more stuff to use, and the underlying gameplay is otherwise unchanged so that everyone who played the first game can quickly just jump right in and feel right at home! :)

...although I could've done without the Razor... :P

Have you seen Starsiege? It's a tad dumbed down but still excruciatingly hard sometimes.

There's still servers up last I checked, but the game is a ghost town obviously.

Gemini000 wrote:

Ancient DOS Games Filler #66 - EarthSiege 2 is online! […]
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Ancient DOS Games Filler #66 - EarthSiege 2 is online!

TBH... I almost didn't want to stop playing this game once I had it working again. 🤣

EarthSiege 2 is the definitive example of how to make a good sequel. It took everything the first game had and made all of it BETTER. The graphics are better, the music is better, the sound effects are better, the controls are better, there's more missions, more stuff to use, and the underlying gameplay is otherwise unchanged so that everyone who played the first game can quickly just jump right in and feel right at home! 😀

...although I could've done without the Razor... 😜

Cool to see the game works using DxWND! In the past, compatibility flags were all which were needed - and are what the Sierra Help Pages (SHP) uses for its modern Windows installer. Unfortunately, Windows 10 has obsoleted those flags - meaning the game won't normally run properly. Of course, DgVoodoo2 works well...but, as was pointed out to me by the developer of the SHP ES2 installer, having people use a DirectX 10.1-based wrapper is far from a desirable solution when, in the past, they could use far less powerful hardware to achieve a similar effect. (Not to mention at the time the dev and I were talking, DgVoodoo2 had a number of major incompatibility issues with ATI/AMD cards.)

DracoNihil wrote:

Have you seen Starsiege? It's a tad dumbed down but still excruciatingly hard sometimes.

There's still servers up last I checked, but the game is a ghost town obviously.

A friend of mine had StarSiege back when the game was still new and I played it ONCE.

...it felt nothing like EarthSiege and in fact felt very awkward, similar to how Star Trek: Starfleet Academy felt on the Windows side of things, so I never cared to pick up a copy of my own. :P

It's honestly not that bad of a game and I never found it awkward playing it after playing the first two games.

But the single player campaigns are really, really unforgiving at times. They're also actually story based and heavily scripted compared to the previous two games. A much better single player experience IMHO.

Ancient DOS Games Filler #67 - One Must Fall: Battlegrounds is online!

So... how many people remember THIS one? :o

...yeah, that's what I thought. XD

OMF:BG was billed as the most innovative fighting game ever, but the trouble with being innovative is that just because you did something radically different doesn't mean it's going to work out for the best. The funny thing is, most of what's wrong with this game comes down to poor design decisions rather than actual bugs or gameplay issues. Even the art and music is extremely well done, especially when you understand what's going on under the hood. (Such as how the music strings together in different ways and adapts to the situation you're in.)

Normally I'd be even harder on this thing but when you realize that pretty much only two people did 90% of the work on it... :o

didn't knew this one existed, thanks for that

nice review of the convenient directx 9.0c install cd

leileilol wrote:

nice review of the convenient directx 9.0c install cd

9.0b actually. :P

Ancient DOS Games Filler #68 - Duke Nukem: Manhattan Project is online!

This one's been a long time coming because I've really wanted to talk about this game as I feel it flies under a lot of people's radars and gets way more bashing than it deserves simply because it's not as good as Duke Nukem 3D... even though it's not even in the same genre. The fact that the original Duke Nukem platformers tend to get more praise than this one, even though this one is by far the better game, is a testament to that reasoning. :(

But yeah, Manhattan Project is my second-favourite Duke game because despite having only average art, music and sound, it has extraordinarily well tuned gameplay; even the pipebombs are easy to use! I mean, if the devs could nail that one down, how bad could the rest of the game really be? Plenty of new one-liners to go around too! ;)

Also way easier to get working on modern Windows machines than the prior three games I looked at! :B

(Also also: I noticed that editing of old posts is disabled now, so... I need to come up with a more generic front page for this thread for the mods to edit in...)

Gemini000 wrote:

Ancient DOS Games Filler #68 - Duke Nukem: Manhattan Project is online!

Can't watch it without a youtube account.

If you make use of third party programs to either download the video stream or pipe it to a media player, you can bypass content restrictions.

DracoNihil wrote:

If you make use of third party programs to either download the video stream or pipe it to a media player, you can bypass content restrictions.

Even some of the programs that download from youtube cannot get it. Needs to be logged in for age verification, because... violence 🤣